Home game, 50c $1 NL average stack ~$25. my stack is ~$50 and so is villains. Villain is a good friend, who i have played with and watched play for countless hours. Hes fairly conservative, and not too tricky. This is a lot lower stakes than we both normally play though, so he might be willing to gamble a bit.

PF: 6 handed, im UTG+1 with 99. UTG limps (giant fish, will play anything), i make it $4. Villain makes it 12 more. I know he doesnt have a monster (AA,KK,QQ) or he would have smoothcalled. I figure he a) doesnt want the limper in the hand and wouldnt mind for me to fold since ive been raising a lot of pots, and hes likely trying to test me. I put him on a smaller pair, or two over cards. Theres a small chance of 1010, but he probably would have slowplayed JJ.

UTG folds. pot is $17, and its $12 to me. Hes got about $32 left and i have him covered. I can almost guarantee im never behind here, but will often be tossing coins to a couple overs. your move...

Blaze, if you can almost guarantee that you are never behind here, then this is an easy call, and you push a non-face card flop.

But, you're best case scenario is that he has a pair of 8's or less (or bluff). How often is he going over the top here with that... especially since you say he's conservative player?

So, yr either up against two overcards, or a bigger pair. Personally, because both options would seem viable to me, I find that call very hard to make. If you think you can find a better spot to push, I would fold and wait. But with your reads, I'd call, and push with the right flop.

ordinarily you're right, but i know villain EXTREMELY well. the only bigger pair he could have here is 1010. He knows im folding here without a premium hand, as hes the only guy i respect in this game, and with a pair bigger than 1010 the most he would do is double the $4 to ensure that the limper is folding.

I decided to come back over the top, for a couple reasons. Firstly, the pot was decently sized already, and i didnt mind to take it down right there. Secondly, i didnt want to be faced with making a decision if any paint hit the flop. Id rather put villain to the test right away. I figured about 30% chance i was dominating, 50% chance it was a race, 15% chance he folds, and 5% chance im dominated.

Of course, i dont play NL, and i was probably still steaming from the disaster that was my limit session yesterday. The real problem i didnt want to have is a K64 flop or something similar. What do i do then, out of position? check? i can guarantee he'll bet no matter what if i check, and if i stab at it on the flop im pretty much pot committed.

That's a good point. When I was considering my options (when it was clear by your initial remarks that we are very likely ahead), it was between a call/push the flop, or just push preflop. If you had bigger stacks, I'd have gone with my original idea, but I can see how this would be very tough to play post flop. So, yeah, I don't mind the pf push at all.

yea, the game was stupid. starting stacks were $20, for a whopping 20 big blinds.