Preflop Help (99 on the button)

[hydroseeds]

PokerStars Game #3153018503: Tournament #15600128, Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2005/11/25 - 10:01:17 (ET)
Table '15600128 1' Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: K-12 (1360 in chips)
Seat 2: Hydroseeds (1010 in chips)
Seat 3: pooze8 (1360 in chips)
Seat 4: pokerdaygo (2500 in chips)
Seat 5: LITO44 (1270 in chips)
Seat 6: k3e4a (1920 in chips)
Seat 7: eikenes (1430 in chips)
Seat 8: RBPUTD (1000 in chips)
Seat 9: RICHEB (1650 in chips)
pooze8: posts small blind 10
pokerdaygo: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hydroseeds [9d 9h]
LITO44: calls 20
k3e4a: folds
eikenes: folds
RBPUTD: calls 20
RICHEB: folds
K-12: calls 20
Hydroseeds: ...?

A raise just means they'll call.
Limping on the button with 99 seems nono-ish to me.

What's a good play here?

[gabe]

i always always always limp. win a big pot or only lose 20 chips, thats the idea.

[arkana]

Limping on the button with 99 seems nono-ish to me.

Not when there is 3 limpers before you...

[silverfist]

Or you could try it this way:

Raise to 120.

This is a goodly sized bet to drive out your opponents. The flop will come down, and you'll be in great shape in two circumstances:

21% chance of no overcards
12% chance of a set/full house/quads

In these cases, put in a nice sized bet and drive out anyone who follows you.

If you get overcards, you're still in position. You can often steal the pot on the flop if it's checked to you, especially if there's only one overcard and two opponents or less. In fact, with one overcard and two or less opponents, you probably have the best hand.

It's a more aggressive way to play it, but there's nothing wrong with winning a nice, medium-sized pot here, either.

[Fortune 500]

I limp and see the flop. If I hit the 9, jackpot. If it's unders, I get a little crazy... and you can still outplay your opponents on occasion if you miss.

I'll raise nines if I'm first in. I'll reraise a Lagg with them... but 4 handed, I like to just flop and proceed from there.

[aislephive]

I play TT and under for set value this early on. If you raise you win like 30 chips or maybe 100 if somebody calls and folds the flop. Call and see a flop and if you nail your nine then hope to get paid off.

[silverfist]

Here's an example of the aggro version I was talking about (for TT I admit)

PokerStars Game #3162446931: Tournament #15370082, Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2005/11/26 - 09:20:18 (ET)
Table '15370082 102' Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: rizzo6211 (3620 in chips)
Seat 2: TABLE_PREZ (1210 in chips)
Seat 3: Silverfist (1440 in chips)
Seat 4: CDubb (1420 in chips)
Seat 5: CliftonHK (2320 in chips)
Seat 6: Eye_On_UR_$$ (1930 in chips)
Seat 7: AlFishCreek (1010 in chips)
Seat 8: MAYOR 333 (3130 in chips)
Seat 9: guyamex (1240 in chips)
TABLE_PREZ: posts small blind 15
Silverfist: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Silverfist [Th Td]
CDubb: raises 60 to 90
CliftonHK: folds
Eye_On_UR_$$: folds
AlFishCreek: folds
MAYOR 333: folds
guyamex: folds
rizzo6211: folds
TABLE_PREZ: folds
Silverfist: raises 180 to 270
CDubb: calls 180
*** FLOP *** [9c 9h 3d]
Silverfist: bets 1170 and is all-in
CDubb: calls 1150 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [9c 9h 3d] [6h]
*** RIVER *** [9c 9h 3d 6h] [2s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***

[Fortune 500]

I don't think anyone is arguing that Raising these mid pairs is an inherently bad, but there's a difference in your hand... No Limpers. That's a HUGE strategical difference. The problem with more limpers is it's hard to control pot odds beyond that first limper. If he sets off a call fest, then this mid pair goes down in value, as everyone behind him gets better odds to keep calling.

You had a raise and a reraise.... big difference.

Do you smack the pot just as hard if your flop comes K96? What if you got the same flop four handed? Do you want to let A9s that got the odds to call in the cutoff own you?

No one's arguing that raising a small pair is a bad idea... in the right circumstance. In your hand, I consider the reraise too. In the original hand, I limp.