10 handed game of .10/.25 nl

he always raises to 4x the BB after everyone folds to him in the sb - this time I have Qh9h and I call because I've already defended my blinds twice, but folded to his all in the third time I tried it.

Stacks are even.

Flop is two low hearts and a 10. He pots and I push.

Thoughts?

If a guy is constantly steal raising your blinds, I think re-raising PF is a safer way to 'fight back'. If he re-raises that bet, then I would instead do what you did.

The bolded section is not relevant. Now if you told us how many blinds the lower stacked one of you had, it would be much easier to make an evaluation.

about 70

I don't like overpushes. Others do. it's just my preference.

I like getting to the flop w/ position though.

When you say you've defedned in the past, do you mean you're reraised preflop? It's not a bad idea, but I'd like a semblance of a hand to pull this.

it was a mixture of preflop raises and raising the flop, leading the turn. I didn't want to just pick one or the other because he'd catch on eventually.

I made my flush in this case, and he was calling with AQ offsuit, so...

just wondered what people thought of this push. maybe it was too much considering the stacks.

he called with AQ?

wow. that's either the best or the worst call i've ever seen.

Probably worst ...

The times we went to show down after battling for blinds, I saw he was raising to 4X preflop with stuff like J3, 2-9, etc.

but they'd be serious battles because we'd each hit for a pair and try to represent more than we had.

I almost never make a huge push for a small pot, but this guy was so loose I felt like he could call with just a high card.

Turned out he had two high cards. Heh. Luck was with me.

NH.

Nobodys said this yet, so I will. His play is pretty donkish. He's still out of position and there's not enough in the pot to make that play profitable over the long run. The fact that you had fought it out before, and he saw that you were not just stone-cold bluffing tells me that he was seriously donk for calling your push w/ a high here.

Did he reload?
If he did, did he keep up the bs?

NH.

Nobodys said this yet, so I will. His play is pretty donkish. He's still out of position and there's not enough in the pot to make that play profitable over the long run. The fact that you had fought it out before, and he saw that you were not just stone-cold bluffing tells me that he was seriously donk for calling your push w/ a high here.

Did he reload?
If he did, did he keep up the bs?

He reloaded but played very conservatively after that. He stopped raising my blinds (heh) and started playing more passively on the flop. I think he knew his table image was shattered because he split after a few orbits.

NH, Well played.

I cannot think of anything I would do differently. Good job sending him packing with his tail between his legs.

Cheers,
Merby

Newish question here: When you say "blind stealing," are you talking about the .10/.25, or the fact he plays more aggressively than you post flop? These should be two different situations, right?

1) If he raises 4x preflop on your .25, in a ring game, who cares? It's a quarter compared to the $10+(absolute minimum) you should have in your stack. If he's that predictable, wait for a solid hand and blast him back! He may take a buck or two in the process over time, but he probably will defend his 4x raise. Now, you not only have position, but you should have better than a coin flip advantage. That happens once or twice and he will back off.

2) If you're talking about defending your quarter post flop, you're no longer defending a blind, you're defending a $2+ pot! Big difference.

I'm not exactly new to the game, but will never call myself an expert either...

In a ring game, you can have my blinds preflop all day before I get myself into a crappy situation where I have to defend my pride. My reads are getting better, SLOWLY, but I seem to do better if I stay out of marginal situations, cut my losses, and keep my stack in tact for a bigger hand where I have an obvious advantage. If you like pushing me around for a quarter, I'll pick my spot and trap the hell out of you...it's only a matter of time...

Live to fight another day, don't fight over ring game blinds, pick your spots, and BLAST 'EM.