Daily Hand Quiz

The SB’s stack size makes this awkward, as it’s hard to re-raise without committing yourself to the pot, and you’re never all that happy when you do get the money in preflop.

That said, you can expect a bad, loose player to be opening and folding a lot of the time here with this stack size, and you have the chips to gamble. Picking up a 10% boost to your stack is a nice upside, and forcing him to play more straightforwardly in future bvb confrontations helps as well. It’s high-variance, but I think you can ship here.

What actually happened: You called and the flop came 2J2 rainbow. The SB bet about half the pot and you folded.

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I like the call preflop but I don’t like the fold postflop on a board like 2J2 rainbow. Let’s call and see if he fires again on the turn. If he checks, the pot is out there to be stealed.

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A player with a very high average buy in?!

I call here and shove over his c’bet whatever the flop, kind of like an OOP stop&go. Our hand is most probably good before and on the flop but this way we get to fold out some hands that would race (small pairs) and pick up another bet.

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Fold it. ace 9 is awful. Richard you would shove whatever the flop? Do you win often?

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@ Razer, do you think A9 is behind here preflop? Folding is weak, shoving is better but then we may end up racing against a stubborn small pair. We have to at least call and opp will miss flop 2/3 times – if opp has a better naked ace then we fold out a better hand; if opp has an underpair then he will likely fold but even if calls we would have decent equity with two cards to come. If we are crushed then we still have an M of 9. This is a play with a lot of FE and a fair amount of equity if called.

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I went for the call over the shove though not by much. I don’t like the fold. Why do that when A9 is probably better than his hand and you have him out chipped 2:1?

I’d reraise his bet on this kind of flop as he shouldn’t be able to continue vs a raise given his stack size unless he actually has a hand (well that’s my theory!)

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I’m with the staff, a raise is awkward, the call is not that good either, so, IMO, it is an all-in/fold situation.

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foldinf to a loose player whos raised you from sb is utter madness. Easy all in imo. don like calling either unless you are willing to make a move after you miss

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The problem with this quiz is that “loose” doesnt really give us the type of information we need. Is he the loose call station type? The kind that will call a reraise with moderate holdings, but is not so likely to be raising often? Is he the loose aggressive type? Raising with anything? Loose only tells us he plays many hands, but not how he plays them. I base my decision on that part of his image.

Without that critical part of he equation, given the stacks, I just call preflop for a discount, hope for a favorable flop and evaluate from there. If he fires at a j/2/2 flop and I have air, I make note of the play, add it to my knowledge of his tendencies, fold and wait for a better spot. I just think without any real reason to believe he has nothing, this is the kind of situation where you could lose half your stack and cry about how “it looked like a steal”. No need to risk that many chips on a pure guess that hes got nothing.

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Can’t believe we have several answers wanting to call. With stacks these sizes against a bad player, we have his range crushed. Why in the world are we hoping to get lucky by calling? This is not poker, well at least not winning poker. It’s a pretty easy shove or fold situation and given the nature of the villain it seems like a pretty clear shove. I’d even expect to get called by a good # of worse hands and if he’s folding, that’s a great result too.

When he folds, this also helps to add future +EV spots where the other players will be less likely to steal our blinds and more likely to call a 3bet shove light, when we have a premium next time.

Call and fold on the flop, and you increase the chances that they steal our blinds. I don’t see how calling is even a choice given the situation.

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Voted raise 2x simply because the hero is ahead (likely). The v is opening, therefore their range is wide. Hero’s raise may take-down the pot and add ~10% to stack. You also send a message to the v. If the v shoves, you are done. I don’t see the v shoving after a 2x raise unless they are holding something. They take the 600 hit and move-on. If the v calls, you play the flop.

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Couldn’t the loose SB with an M of 10 decide to put in the other 90% of his stack with 88? If we raise we have to commit IMO.

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That’s an easy call pre-flop. I don’t know if shipping is the correct play, because it is a high-variance maneuver. You have a solid stack, so rather than play high-risk poker against a player who is playing very loose, I’d be straight-forward and see what the board brings. A post-flop ship could be the correct play, depending on the SB’s action. He’s got a smaller stack size, and if he’s called OOP pre-flop and hits air on the flop, he may end up being more careful. However, if he C-bets the flop and you have a good read, a ship might be in order.

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@Richard P – yes, SB would shove with 88. Hero is behind, loses another 1200 (2x raise) and folds, still with M=16. I believe the v range to be so wide in this sitch, that a small raise would thwart a steal attempt. IMO if the v had 88 they would shove rather than raise 600.

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The blinds are 120/240……he has almost 6k to start the hand and we have 11k as second biggest stack at the table. He would open shove with 88? Is he a donkey? We want to shove over a standard open raise with a/9 off? Are we the donkey? What kind of mtt’s are you guys playing?

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@City – the 88 shove is heads-up, one player to call … 88 beats all hands except 6.

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Depending on who he plays I might raise for two reasons. He might fold preflop and if the flop is something he didn’t connect to he’d much more likely fold to me bet/all-in raise.
If he’s loose in the calling station way I’d call. Above some one says A-9 is awefull. A-9 is a pretty good hand heads-up so folding is just silly.

A third reason for raising would be to have a lot of walks later. Why not build an image of a crazy blind defender, If well timed it’s EV positive.

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I don’t have enough info here. If he were a bad player who would call with any A or K I obviously shove. I only make this play in extremely low limit games with very bad players.

If not, I like a call and lead on that flop. That would put pressure on him to fold without risking much of my stack and if he raised I can put him on a pair or, say, AJ-AK (all of which have me beat).

This is very much a feel situation, not a clear cut decision. That’s why I like to play live 20 times more than online.

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