Hero is new to the table. This table was just created about 30 minutes ago. Players seem to be playing cautious. Villian who opens the pot seems to be a regular young guy in his early $20s. Both our stacks are $200.

These spots are always tricky for me. Advice/input as to how to profitably play these mid pairs UTG or EP, and when to call a raise with them would be great advice for me. Thanks.

my cards are 9,9

Preflop: Hero limps UTG, one fold, Villian raises to $7 (im thinking lol), donk in EP calls, three other calls, Blinds fold, hero re-pops to $50.

What do we think?

Why do you always want to isolate with middle pairs? These people are just dying to give your their money when you flop a set, so just see some flops. Set mine FTW.

IDK, i figured it would an easy opportunity to pick up the money that is already out there. Plus, i limped UTG and reraised so i'm assuming Villian would recognize this, and unless some donk was trapping, the squeeze might work.

BTW, i hope you weren't offended by my Asian thread.

There's an asian thread?

I don't think it's a terrible move or anything. If they fold, u can show them 88 face up and then use your LAG image to get paid off on later hands.

That being said, I rather play a straightforward TAG style against donks. As played, calling the EP raise is better. Then when you flop a set, check-raise FTW.

It was tounge in cheek, not meant to be offensive, but yes i made one today.

Yea, i'm OOP deep on this one so if some donk is trapping with QQ or some crap like that in late position, then i'm ****ed.

You really need better reads and reasons before you start limp/reraising hands like 99 in a spot like this.

Out of curiousity and to help me play this hand better, how would play it? Would you limp? If you do limp, and someone raises to lets say, $12, how many other callers do you need in front of you before you call the $12? Is this an auto-call heads up against the original raiser regardless?
This is a tricky spot that i find myself in often, and normally with a 77, or 88, i would limp, and if its raised ahead of me with more than 1 caller, i would call. If the raise is significant, something like $15, and it is heads up, normally i would just dump this hand because there's no odds to call to hit.

To me, it really depends alot on the table chemistry and my image. Generally with 99 UTG, i open-raise and see what develops. If there's a ton of limping going on, and very little aggression and squeezing, I might MIGHT limp.

When it comes to figuring out when to call and try to flop a set depends alot on implied odds. If stacks are deep enough and think you'll get paid off on your investment if you do indeed flop a set, then it's profitable to call. It also depends on if there are people behind you who might reraise to isolate. So there's a lot of depends. My rule of thumb is, if I think I'm going to get paid off 10x my investment for flopping a set, then I go for it. I think there was an article here posted about that advice. So if I have to call $12 to see a flop, I have to calculate I that I can profit $120 from the investment.

Just raise preflop. Limping 99 UTG is pretty weak. If I limped then I would just call most raises and just evaluate street by street.

exactly



by limp/re-raising, you're either holding AA/KK AK, or complete air for the steal.

most of the time, at fullring, people read it as AA/KK. so if the flop comes down 9,5,3. and they have JJ. they're probably already worried you have AA.

if you held 10,5 and u limp re-raised and stole $50. that would be cool.

but as is, you have a real hand worth value. i dont see why u need to get HU with it, since you'll make a lot more if you flop a set

Getting HU is best because then we're not dodging as many cards, but aside from that, I agree with everything that you wrote here. Especially the part about a 9 high flop vs JJ or TT.

Middle pair mistakes by Annie Duke

http://www.bluffmagazine.com/magazine/read...le.asp?aid=1018

Lets say I raise PF to $10, and i get two callers. One villian seems to be a passive loose donk and the other seems to be a solid regular. Flop is Q, 7 5 rainbow. How should we proceed with the hand?

You have to figure this out for yourself. This situation should happen to you 1100 times a day playing cards. Every one is gonna be a little different, but you should figure out which approach is going to work best for you depending on your opponents. Learn to look at the flop texture and figure out what kind of hands they liked called your preflop raise with and whether the board has helped those hands. Once you start asking and answering these questions, this scenario becomes second nature.

Dude, you're trying way too hard to play strictly preflop poker. You have be able to play postflop to be a profitable player.

Actually, i thought i laid out the flop texture and opponents pretty well to determine what action would be best. I was asking your opinion specifically because i know you play alot and your advice would help me. You have a loose villian and a solid regular behind. Normally in this situation i would only be afraid of the solid reg, so i'm betting $20, and if i get called by the solid reg, i'm usually check/folding.

Why? Just because i started two threads where i'm squeezing with a mid pair preflop? I don't normally do this, but i thought i would mention these two examples to help determine if I'm playing too aggressive preflop, or if the play is standard. Based on other people's responses, it seems that its too aggressive and i need to flat these more to flop big. I think i have decent postflop skills, that's not where my dilemma is. If i had a dilemma right now, it would be trying to figure out how loose, tight i need to be in general in order to bring home a more consistent profit.

He's saying what he said because you have a very firm grasp of relative hand strengths and positions preflop (although if you're LRRing 99, you're still making some fundamental mistakes) but that if you don't know what to do in the most standard post flop situations, then you really need to focus on making better decisions there.

Sometimes, I bet here, I get called twice and I c/f the flop. Sometimes I bet, get called by the regular, feel that he's floating me and I try and showdown my hand. Sometimes I value bet 3 streets vs the passive donk if he's calling. Sometimes I bet, get called and give up. There isn't one way to do things and hands like this, you really just have to sit at the table and play cards.

Why in the world would you want to turn 99 into a bluff here?

That's what you are doing... you're not getting called with less than 99 the way you played this...

Start to think about WHY you are making certain plays, or WHY we advocate certain moves (feel free to ask in the threads, if we don't make it clear).

The awesomest advice I can ever give someone who is posting hands like the ones I see from you: You aren't playing to win most pots. You are playing to win the most money.