Pocket pair vs. limp-reraise

Joined: 17.12.2009

29.12.2009, 22:26 0

Background information:

I had played ~30 hands with this opponent. His stats were 74/23/1.6. I had raised his limp (and other players' as well) before, never open-limped or limped after someone else had limped. His limp-call was about 50%. I had seen him limp-reraise with KK about 10 hands before this hand against another player. My read on him labeled him as a loose player who liked to try unorthodox plays but maybe didn't have the required skill to pull them off. Probably someone who idolizes Gus Hansen and Tom Dwan

Finally, the reason for my play after he 3bets my raise: I believed he was annoyed by my frequent raises to his limps and tried to utilize his image following the KK limp-reraise against another player to imply he had another similar hand. I put him on AJ-AT, KQ-KJ, QJ in this hand, as I believed he would've played a pocket pair differently.

$0.01/$0.02 No Limit Holdem
iPoker
6 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($3.20)
UTG+1 ($4.17)
CO ($5)
BTN ($0.93)
Hero ($2)
BB ($2.58)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03, 6 players) Hero is SB 2♦ 2♠
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.02, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.08, 1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $0.18, Hero calls $0.10

Flop: 6♣ 9♦ 9♥ ($0.37, 2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets $0.34, Hero raises to $0.90, UTG+1 calls $0.56

Turn: 9♣ ($2.17, 2 players)
Hero bets $0.92, UTG+1 calls $0.92

River: 10:heart: ($4.01, 2 players)

Final Pot: $4.01

Results follow:

Hero shows
2d: 2s
UTG+1 shows
Ad 10d

UTG+1 wins $3.76

2 replies

AAkthxbye

Joined: 17.12.2009

Posts: 1,050

29.12.2009, 22:48 0

I appreciate any analysis on this hand, but what I would like to know specifically is if I should simply check on the turn, hoping for a free showdown on the river? If my read on his hand (trips on the board and two overcards) was correct, he would have 7 outs to win, meaning that he would make a mistake by calling my turn all-in for odds a little over 3-1. Despite realizing that he had three additional outs for a split, all I could concentrate on was myself with a made hand and my opponent drawing. Do the additional outs make my play -EV?

_Anonymous_

30.12.2009, 02:25 0

Hi,

Last i heard Gus Hansen had nitted up quite a bit. Nothing wrong with idolizing durrrr tho.

As for the hand, since your flop play is based on your assumption that his range is mostly overcards that aren't folding, there is no reason not to put the last of your money in when you're committed (you don't plan on check/folding the turn getting more than 3:1 do you?). If you do you'll only allow him to make better decisions against you, he'll shove any pair for sure and yet he might check back overcards, which would be clearly an inferior result compared to you shoving yourself.

That being said it's still a very marginal play overall with 22. If you believe his preflop range is wide, that means he will rarely have a strong enough hand to stack off against your set when you hit one. And when you don't, ie the vast majority of the time, most flops are going to consist of overcards to your 22, that you'll be forced to play out of position against what seems to be a wannabe aggro machine. Hence, lots of check/folding leaking away money and no guarantee that you'll ever stack him unless you're willing to make big call downs against his bluffs, which you can't reasonably do with 22.

So, we're getting great odds, and i'd certainly call with medium pocket pairs, suited connectors and broadways that have decent postflop playability, but 22 just doesn't cut it for me. Also, you folding sometimes reinforces his belief that this is a good play, which means chances are he'll try it again soon enough when you have a more playable hand.

Hope it helps.

[Closed] Pocket pair vs. limp-reraise