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Von Nate The Great, 2+2 Forum:

1) You have 7 6 in the BB. Everyone folds to a 2+2er who open-raises on the Button. Folded to you. Call, fold or raise?

2) Same scenario as above except your hand is A 8 . Call, fold or raise?

3) Same as above except your hand is T 9 . Call, fold, or raise?

4) Same scenario as above but your hand is Q 4 . Call, fold, or raise?

5) Two loose players in MP limp and you have 7 5 on the Button. The blinds are fairly loose. Call, fold or raise?

6) Same scenario as above except your hand is J 9 . Call, fold or raise?

7) It's folded to you on the Button and you have A 6 . The SB and BB are unknowns. Call, fold, or raise?

8 ) Same scenario as above except your hand is 9 8 . Call, fold, or raise?

9) A 2+2er raises UTG+1 and a loose fish in UTG+2 cold calls. You are next to act in EMP. You have T 8 and the players behind you are fairly loose. Call, fold or raise?

10) Same scenario as above except your hand is 5 5 . Call, fold, or raise?

11) You are on the Button with K Q . An aggressive player is in the CO and open-raises. The blinds are fairly tight. Call, fold or raise?

12) Same scenario as above except your hand is 6 6 . Call, fold, or raise?

13) You are in UTG+1. UTG folds. Your hand is A 9 . The players behind you are loose and fairly passive. Call, fold, or raise?

14) Same as above except your hand is K J . Call, fold, or raise?

15) You are UTG and first to act. The game is tighter than usual for your limit and a 2+2er is in the big blind. Your hand is A T . Call, fold, or raise?

16) Same as above except your hand is Q T . Call, fold, or raise?

17) Same as above except your hand is 7 7 . Call, fold, or raise?

18 ) A 2+2er raises from three off the Button. It's folded to you on the Button, where you have A J . The blinds are unknown. Call, fold, or raise?

19) A very loose and passive player limps in late middle position. You have A 9 on the Button. A 2+2er is in the SB and you don't know the BB. Call, fold, or raise?

20) Same as above except your hand is 4 4 . Call, fold, or raise?

21) An average player open-raises in middle position. You are in the SB and have 6 6 . This game features a 1/2 blind structure. The BB is fairly loose. Call, fold or raise?

22) Same as above except your hand is Q J . Call, fold, or raise?

23) You are in the BB and everyone folds to a 2+2er in the SB, who raises. Your hand is 8 7 . Call, fold, or raise? [/quote]

 

 

Nun die Antworten:

 

Hier die Antworten von Nate the Great, die Zahlen in Klammern zeigen, was die anderen 2+2 Spieler gesagt haben:

Zitat:

1) You have 7 6 in the BB. Everyone folds to a 2+2er who open-raises on the Button. Folded to you. Call, fold or raise?

Call (10)
Reraise (7)
Fold (0)

This is one of the clearest answers in the entire quiz. You need to play this sort of hand. Remember, depending on the rake structure, you're typically getting around 3:1 to see the flop when defending against a raise from someone other than the SB. The primary concern I have in blind defense is to play a hand that will like a lot of flops, such that I can proceed with some confidence and recoup some of that loss.

76s will hit a ton of flops. It will make a pair, two pair or trips around 30% of the time. While sometimes that will include a flop like AQ6 that gives you a headache, you should generally assume that you're ahead when you flop a pair in a blind defense situation, and should proceed accordingly, and 76s is not all that subject to domination concerns from big cards. What's more, it will flop an OESD or a straight around 8% of the time, and four-flush or made flush around 12% of the time. That's already about half of all flops, and that's before counting things like when you flop a gutshot and a backdoor flush draw or a gutshot and you think your pair outs might be good, where you should also usually proceed. Very easy blind defense. Reraising is fine as a variation play, but this one should fine with a flop-or-fold approach.

Zitat:

2) Same scenario as above except your hand is A 8 . Call, fold or raise?

Reraise (10)
Call (8)
Fold (3)

This hand would certainly outperform 76s in a hot-and-cold simulation; in fact it's probably a favorite against the range of hands that an aggressive 2+2er would open with on the Button. That said, it can be somewhat difficult to play out of position after the flop. The main reason why is that some of its value comes from being the best hand unimproved once all the cards are out, but check-calling the whole way leaves you in a guessing game that gives up too much control to your opponent. On a flop of KJr rainbow for example ... do you feel comfortable there? You'll probably check-fold, but a lot of the time, you'll be doing so with the best hand against something like Q9s.

So I think it's somewhat more important to take control of things with this hand in order to pick up the flops where neither you nor your opponent improve. This is not so much to induce your opponent to fold incorrectly - though that will happen sometimes when the flop is like the example above and he has 55 - but to prevent *you* from folding incorrectly, or from giving your opponent free reign to take free cards, value bet, or bluff at the pot as he sees fit. The easiest way to do this is simply to 3-bet before the flop, but other players have success with check-raising or betting out on flops that seem favorable for ace-high (something ragged without face cards, generally).

Even if you're only going to call, that's almost certainly better than folding. The fact that you have an 8 for your kicker matters when your opponent will be raising with hands like 66 and K7s.

Zitat:

3) Same as above except your hand is T 9 . Call, fold, or raise?

Call (10)
Reraise (6)
Fold (6)

This one is closer. You'll still flop plenty of pairs, and they'll be higher pairs than you'd make with a hand like 76s, but this is compensated for by the fact that the T and 9 are slightly more subject to domination concerns, or could put cards on the board that will give your opponent a straight draw and encourage him (correctly) to proceed with his hand. Still, you'll make plenty of straights, and the hand has enough high-card power that I think it's usually worth it to proceed. As several have noted, I wouldn't go too much lower with offsuit connectors unless the opponent is really loose or you've really become expert in blind defense.

Zitat:

4) Same scenario as above but your hand is Q 4 . Call, fold, or raise?

Fold (10)
Call (6)
Reraise (5)

This is not a particularly good blind defense hand. It ranks higher than something like T9o, but you are certainly not going to be showing down queen-high very often. The Q will be dominated a fair amount of time that it hits, and the 4 is a rather useless card. The hand is suited, but it doesn't contain the straight draws that will give you good redraws and semibluffing flops. An expert might be able to defend with this hand profitably but it wouldn't be one of the first ones that I'd add to my mix.

Zitat:

5) Two loose players in MP limp and you have 7 5 on the Button. The blinds are fairly loose. Call, fold or raise?

Call (10)
Raise (7)
Fold (4)

The Button is so powerful that I think you should almost be going out of your way to play hands when you have it. 75s is nothing fantastic - but as in the example of 76s above, it will hit a surprising number of flops that you like, and there's little bad that can happen when you have the nut position. I'd expect to make a small profit with this hand against two limpers. Raising is not horrible, but I'd probably wait for something with just a little bit more high card power like 98s.

Zitat:

6) Same scenario as above except your hand is J 9 . Call, fold or raise?

Fold (10)
Raise (6)
Call (5)

When I ran some experiments a while ago based on hand equities against typical limping hands, things like J9o did not hold up very well. The main reason is that hands like KJ, QJ and K9s are very typical limping hands, so there's a good chance that you're dominated, and/or that your cards will not be very live. This hand will make some straights, but not as many as a pure connector, and the cards that it makes straights with will often hit your opponents' hands, making it more expensive to draw. I like a reraise a little bit better than a call if you're going to play, but I don't remember the last time I saw the flop with this hand as anything other than a blind steal.

Zitat:

7) It's folded to you on the Button and you have A 6 . The SB and BB are unknowns. Call, fold, or raise?

Raise (10)
Call (3)
Fold (1)

Clear raise. You might muck the very weakest offsuit aces (A2o-A4o) on the Button against tough opponents, but generally your opponents will be even more uncomortable with blind defense than you are, and the combination of position, momentum and a hand that is likely best before the flop should be enough to proceed with.

Zitat:

8) Same scenario as above except your hand is 9 8 . Call, fold, or raise?

Raise (10)
Fold (3)
Call (1)

I actually like this hand a fair bit better than the previous one. The reason is the way it compliments the other sorts of hands that you'll be raising with - if the flop contains high cards like aces and kings that don't fit your opponents hand, they'll usually give you credit for them if they've missed the flop themselves. However, 98s will also hit plenty of flops on its own.

Zitat:

9) A 2+2er raises UTG+1 and a loose fish in UTG+2 cold calls. You are next to act in EMP. You have T 8 and the players behind you are fairly loose. Call, fold or raise?

Fold (10)
Call (3)
Raise (2)

This hand was thrown in partly for deception purposes. I think calling here is pretty bad. It would be closer if you had the Button, but a fold would still probably be best. I'll explain a little bit further below.

Zitat:

10) Same scenario as above except your hand is 5 5 . Call, fold, or raise?

Call (10)
Fold (7)
Raise (3)

This hand is not a slam-dunk, but I expect you'll probably show a small profit by cold calling against aggressive online opponents who will pay you off if you hit a set. Your position against the initial raiser is not great; on the other hand being relatively close to him on the table has some benefits as there will be times when it's nice to face the field with two bets cold, either for hand protection or for value. If the players behind you were very tight, you would probably want to muck, but the problem specifies otherwise.

The reason I think this hand is a lot better here than T8s is because it tends to hit all-or-nothing on the flop. While T8s will hit big flops like four-flushes and OESDs, there are also a lot of times when it will make something like a pair or a gutshot or even overcards plus a backdoor flush where it has too much equity to throw away but not enough to really leverage. The particular problem with the T8s hand is that you'll often get stuck in the middle - it might be fine to call the initial raiser's flop bet with a gutshot, but this can get very nasty if there are players behind you who could raise. With a hand like 55, you're not nearly as likely to get yourself in trouble after the flop.

 

Zitat:

11) You are on the Button with K Q . An aggressive player is in the CO and open-raises. The blinds are fairly tight. Call, fold or raise?

Reraise (10)
Fold (5)
Call (3)

I don't want to oversell this hand: it will not be a huge favorite against your opponents' range of raising hands. In fact, it might be a slight underdog, even if he's fairly loose. Still, it's a pretty good hand, and it has position, momentum, and your superior skills going for it after the flop. You should show a profit by reraising with it against a loose opponent.

Note also that there is something of a 'reverse gap concept' at work here. Suppose that your opponent has A9s. Suppose he knows that KQo is a hand that you'll rererise with. Suppose he also knows that KQo is about the *weakest* hand that you'll reraise with. He's not very well-equipped to proceed on a flop like J63 rainbow, since KQ is about the *only* hand that he'll beat, while many others will have him drawing to 3 outs or fewer.

Zitat:

12) Same scenario as above except your hand is 6 6 . Call, fold, or raise?

Raise (10)
Fold (6)
Call (5)

This hand requires a little bit more expertiese to play as you won't hit as many flops. It also leaves you somewhat vulnerable to flop semibluffs as it has so few outs if behind. Still, it will generally be the best hand before the flop, and as before you have position and initiative. Having a reasonable table image is somewhat more important when reraising with this hand than when you have something like KQo since your opponent will generally have at least 6 outs if behind and you'd like to get him to make some incorrect folds. An example is when he has A J and the flop is K 9 4 . He's actually got quite a bit of equity here between pairing outs and backdoor draws, and folding on the flop would be a substantial mistake. However, if he convinces himself that you're likely to have a king, a better ace, or a big pair, he'll be hard-pressed to proceed. Even better is when he folds a hand like 77 on a flop such as this one.

Zitat:

13) You are in UTG+1. UTG folds. Your hand is A 9 . The players behind you are loose and fairly passive. Call, fold, or raise?

Call (10)
Raise (8)
Fold (3)

I think it's important to get over the idea of lumping all suited aces with a kicker less than T into the same category. The equity calculations and the simulations that I've evaluated suggest that A9s and A8s are a lot stronger than their lesser counterparts. Their kickers may play favorably for you against opponents who will come in with any ace, and something like a pair of 9's is a lot more likely to win the pot for you than say a pair of 3's. I don't think you can go too wrong by raising here but calling is the standard play in a loose passive game.

Zitat:

14) Same as above except your hand is K J . Call, fold, or raise?

Fold (10)
Raise (5)
Call (4)

Another case where you should not override what you've been taught previously. KJo is a troublesome hand in this spot. You can call with it and risk getting isolated or being out of position against a large field, or raise with it and get cold called in a couple places and be out of position in a large pot. Without the capacity to make nut-type hands to bail you out, I think this is a fold.

Zitat:

15) You are UTG and first to act. The game is tighter than usual for your limit and a 2+2er is in the big blind. Your hand is A T . Call, fold, or raise?

Raise (10)
Fold (5)
Call (1)

It's important to pay attention to your circumstances. Based on the simulations that I've run, ATo is probably about breakeven or a slight loss UTG against a typical, somewhat loose table. On a tighter table, it should play a lot closer to AJo or KQo and is probably worth a raise if your table image is solid. Note in particular that the big blind can be presumed to be tight against an early position raise. Since the blinds are going to be seeing more flops than any other player at the table, it's especially important to pay attention to their tendencies when determining whether to raise.

Zitat:

16) Same as above except your hand is Q T . Call, fold, or raise?

Raise (10)
Call (9)
Fold (4)

I prefer to raise with this hand at a tight table. UTG raises tend to get a lot of respect, which will lead your opponents to fold some of the hands like AT and KQ that might dominate you. If things go wrong and it gets cold called or reraised, you still have a hand that can make big staights and flushes to bail you out. Calling is probably better than folding if the opponents are tight and fairly passive, and should probably be your default play if your opponents are loose and passive. The only time I'd be looking to muck a big suited broadway hand up front is when I was at a tight aggressive table, and then I'd probably be looking for a new game.

Zitat:

17) Same as above except your hand is 7 7 . Call, fold, or raise?

Raise (10)
Call (4)
Fold (1)

Raising here should be clear. Although Sklansky and Malmuth somewhat exaggerate the concept, there is something to the notion that you'd rather play a small-medium pair against either a large field, where it gets more equity from flopping a set, or a small field where the pair is more likely to hold up on its own. Since you're not ensured a large field at a tightish table, limping is mistaken. On the other hand, you stand a good chance to get it heads up against the blinds or perhaps a cold caller, where it should perform reasonably well. If everything else goes to hell, remember that you'll flop a set 12% of the time. If raising here makes you uncomfortable, it might be a helpful exercise to sort of mentally append a couple of extra pips to your hand when at a tight table - pretend it's 99, rather than 77.

Zitat:

18) A 2+2er raises from three off the Button. It's folded to you on the Button, where you have A J . The blinds are unknown. Call, fold, or raise?

Reraise (10)
Call (6)
Fold (4)

Very similar to the KQo example above. Your opponents hand range is going to be a little bit stornger, but your hand is a little bit stronger too. Cold calling is probably better than folding but gives up too much chance to win the pot right away on the flop.

Zitat:

19) A very loose and passive player limps in late middle position. You have A 9 on the Button. A 2+2er is in the SB and you don't know the BB. Call, fold, or raise?

Raise (10)
Fold (5)
Call (5)

This is not a fantastic hand but should perform well against a very loose limper's range of hands. Note that you'd rather play this hand against a limper who plays with 50% of his hands but raises with 10% of them rather than one who plays 50% of his hands but raises with 3% of them, since that pretty much nullifies the chance that you might be dominated. Calling is not all that much worse than folding and might be the correct play in isolated circumstances when the blinds are very loose or your table image is poor but you're still likely to have a much better hand than the limper.

Zitat:

20) Same as above except your hand is 4 4 . Call, fold, or raise?

Raise (10)
Call (9)
Fold (5)

I'll raise with this hand when I'm playing my best. Note that you won't be much of a favorite against anything except 33 and A2s so the best time to raise is when the limper plays straightforwardly after the flop and will let you know when you're beat. Floating in with this hand and hoping to flop a set or steal a pot on the flop is fine too; there's not that much that can go wrong when you have a reasonable hand and the Button.

Zitat:

21) An average player open-raises in middle position. You are in the SB and have 6 6 . This game features a 1/2 blind structure. The BB is fairly loose. Call, fold or raise?

Call (10)
Reraise (8)
Fold (4)

Some of my blind play has gotten sloppy because of the Party 15/30 game, which uses a 2/3 blind structure that is very favorable to semi-coldcalling. That said, a pair of 6's is a hand you should probably want to play here unless the raiser is rather tight. You won't quite be getting odds to flop a set, even considering the extra bets that you'd likely make after the flop; on the other hand you're in good position to check-raise a ragged flop where your pair has a good chance of being best. I slightly prefer to play it this way than to 3-bet before the flop and put pressure on my opponent to miss, but if someone like bicyclekick says he's done better with 3-betting, then I'd pay a lot of attention to that.

Zitat:

22) Same as above except your hand is Q J . Call, fold, or raise?

Fold (10)
Call (3)
Reraise (3)

I'm including a few of these examples here just to remind you of the point that you can loosen up considerably without adding the sort of icky offsuit hands that you've been taught to avoid. This is a pretty clear fold, as even the raiser's weaker hands are likely to leave you dominated.

Zitat:

23) You are in the BB and everyone folds to a 2+2er in the SB, who raises. Your hand is 8 7 . Call, fold, or raise?

Call (10)
Reraise (7)
Fold (1)

The odds that you're getting when defending against a small-blind open raise aren't nearly as good as when defending against a Button open-raise. Having position more than makes up for this. Provided that your opponent does not need a premium hand to raise, you should be defending with almost any reasonable hand, and reraising pretty liberally to mix your play up. Even if you adopted a passive strategy of simply calling down when you made a pair, you'd probably show a profit against an opponent that will continue betting into you while getting thoroughly annoyed.