99 in the bb

[ed cooper]

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 6.5 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 (t1665)
MP2 (t1765)
MP3 (t1515)
CO (t1425)
Button (t1335)
SB (t1575)
Hero (BB) (t1470)
UTG (t1345)
UTG+1 (t1405)

Hero's M: 32.67

Preflop: Hero is BB with ,
1 fold, UTG+1 bets t60, 5 folds, SB calls t45, Hero...

just call or raise to isolate? think this was the first hand utg had raised, while the sb wasnt good - he was playing a lot of hands, raising, flatting oop... one of note was when he flat called a raise in bb then called flop bet with 3rd pair - he had q2.

[Yabasa]

I'd probably just call and keep the pot small for now. You're not likely to isolate either one without a big raise and it won't be fun playing OOP with a juiced up pot if some over cards hit (which happens 80% of the time with 99).

[taipan168]

Just call and see if you can flop something nice. If you flop a set, go berserk; if you flop an overpair, play carefully; if the flop comes T, J or Q high then play really carefully.

[mobaka]

I h8 calling oop this early in a tourne with 99 cause if UTG has a hand like a-j+ were gonna play the hand passive on a q-10-7 or j-6-5 there are so many boards were gonna h8 and leak chips when he has an overpair. I tend to fold in this spot, i think calling is the 2nd best option since its only 60 but still we don't flop big often and we never know where were at cause UTG range should be tight this early in the sng .

[Fielmann]

The raiser having a tight range is a good thing as it increases our implied odds for when we hit the set, making calling easily better than folding.

On flop we'll probably check-fold the best hand quite often, but that's no catastrophe. The times we hit make up for it.

[mobaka]

Saying the times we hit make up for it is ridiculous.. cause he might b/f to a c/r or he might call flop and fold turn if we take the line bet bet bet, and thats if we flop a set, if we flop an over pair we might not even be good. My thing is were not in POSI with this hand and i like being in posi because when were oop we wont have enough information to make the correct play. Im just making an arguement for folding obv a call is the line most will take in this spot inlcuding myself, Im just saying your not losing a ton if u fold and your def not winning a ton when u call and miss.

[taipan168]

Particularly at a $6.50, you will often get paid off big time if you hit a set because the donks just can't let go of their draw, middle pair or top pair no kicker, which is why I would call here. I don't think that being OOP is as bad in this situation as it normally is as we're only really committing a lot of chips with this hand if we hit a set (in which case we try to get as many chips in the pot as we can).

Agree that we don't win a lot of chips when we call and miss (and if we miss we need to be careful not to lose a lot of chips for example on an undercard flop) however I don't think it's ridiculous to say that we make up for it the times we hit. If we're 7.5 to 1 against to hit a set on the flop then we only need to win an average of 300 chips every time we hit a set to make it worthwhile. There will be plenty of times that opps stack off when we do hit a set.

[mobaka]

Im saying we might not even win that much given the blinds... And we lose a decent amount of the time aswell if he flops top set and we flop mid set *unlikley* We lose a bunch in a spot where we could easily fold pre... I dont think there is a problem with calling its def better than trying to iso the UTG raise and getting 4 bet on but if we call miss we can also lose a small % of the time when we do flop a set. Im more likely to call when the blinds are bigger like if the blinds are 25/50 u are more likley to win 300 and a call is def good cause ur right were gonna def win 300 chips in a spot like this utg raise 150 +sb and bb = 450 so we are already getting the right odds to call. when the blinds are 10-20 and he raises to 60. I dont think were gonna win 300 on average because he might check back the flop and fold to the turn bet. I think that ppl at these stakes are def the worst on the planet but i dont think we can expect to win 300 on avg given the blinds.

[Fielmann]

Our odds for flopping set are almost exactly 1:7.5. 7.5 times we lose the 30 chips we put in, that's a total of 225. If we win an average of 225 when we do hit, then we break even chip-wise (and should probably fold, due to ICM and 'edge' considerations). If we win an average of 300 chips, then calling is clearly profitable. There is already 135 chips in the pot. At this level getting an average of 165 additional chips (against two opponents, with remaining effective stacks of 1345 and 1410) really shouldn't be a problem at all.

Now, if the blinds were 25/50, and UTG+1 raised to 3xbb like in mobaka's example (instead of min-raising like in the original hand), we would need to put in 100 chips, instead of 30, and hence would want to win an average of 1000 chips when we hit. This would be much harder, because the remaining relative stacks would be smaller. Calling would still be a viable option, but both folding and shoving would look more attractive than they do now.

As for us stacking off to a higher set, it's rare. If we lose our stack, it's mostly to straights and flushes. All these losses are easily covered by the times we stack off worse hands, redraw to quads or full house, or when we don't hit a set, but end up winning the hand anyway.

[taipan168]

I can think of many other set mining opportunities where calling and folding are a lot closer than this spot (eg. where we are in early position or where we do not close the action).