When there is a raise and a reraise ahead of you l Strategy with Barry

Is there ever a time to flat call when the action before you has gone raise, re-raise?

There has been a raise and a re-raise ahead of you, and you look down at 99. What do you do?

It is very tempting to call in spots like this and hope that the initial opener does the same. You're going to have the best hand a lot of the time, but it's a hand that dislikes a lot of flops and cannot withstand much more action. What do you do? 

The one thing you shouldn't do is call. 

Solvers hate being raised

The following lesson is something I have seen time and time again from looking at pre-flop charts, no matter what the format. Let's say UTG1 has opened and the LJ has re-raised. The stacks are 40bbs effective. 

I won't show you the response from every remaining player at the table, but here are a few of the responses when it is folded to the player.

This is the response from the HJ:

This is a response from the BTN:

This is the response from the BB:

The lesson is quite straightforward. The solver will never flat in this situation. One of the big lessons I've taken away from years of studying GTO is that one of the solver's primary motivations is to avoid being re-raised. We therefore never see a flatting range because we do not get to close the action.

The initial opener could easily come over the top of us, especially if they began the hand with a very strong range. They also will not relish the prospect of playing a multi-way pot out of position to at least one player, which is another reason for them to raise.

Notice also how the ranges for everyone left to act are almost identical. Facing a raise and a re-raise, it stops being about position and simply now comes down to which hands are strong enough to take on two opponents with tight ranges.

It's very tempting in spots like this to call with a hand like 99, which feels a bit too strong to fold but not quite strong enough to raise with. In reality, it's just better to get out of the way unless you have a very strong hand when there has been a raise and a re-raise before you.

I could go on, but this is a consistent trend across most GTO preflop solutions. If you looked up the ranges for 200 bb cash games, you would see the same thing happen. We don't see flatting even when the raise and the re-raise make up an incredibly small percentage of a player's stack. Even when they have a very nice hand that potentially could stack two players. Flatting when the initial opener could come over the top of you is something to be avoided.