Test your Poker knowledge part 2

You’re in the big blind with a pair of 9’s midway through a tournament. everyone folds to the button, who is an aggressive player and opens with a fair sized bet. The small blind folds.
Should you:

A) Fold
B) Call
C) Raise small
D) Raise big

(The answer will be posted Monday 9th April)

PS : Please, don’t forget to post your letter of choice in your answer, thank you.

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first of all, i like to mention this thread lacks some crucial information, i can use some deductive reasoning like last time to get some answers, but not the full ones:

this time we play in the middle stages of a tourney, which means we should’nt have lots of BB’s anymore. but since there are only the options to raise small or big, but not to shove. i can see we aren’t in push-fold range yet. so i guess we are somewhere in the range of 20-40 BB’s.

besides stacksize, i also miss the information how much the “raise small” or “raise big” options are. and i miss the betsize of the agressive player’s “fair sized bet”. since 2,5-3 BB’s are most common midway the tourney, i assume this will include the fair sized bet. as for the small or big raise options. it is really dependant on the stacksize. lets say for example the villain raised 3BB’s, and you make a big raise to 10BB’s. this would be a good play if i had 40BB’s, but not really with 20BB’s. as for my interpretation of “small” and “big” raises, i assume small is somewhere around 2-2,5 times the raise. and big is somewhere around the 3-4 times his raise.

since the information lacks i’ll just take the average of each deduction to get the most accurate answer: which is 30BB stack, 2,75 BB raise from villain, small raise meaning 3bet to about 6-6,25 BB’s, and big raise meaning a 3bet to about 9,5 BB.

as for the kind of opponent we are playing at: since all we know is that he is an aggressive player, but we don’t know yet if he is a TAG, TAGfish, LAG(bully) or a LAGfish(maniac). i assume we don’t have much information on him yet. because of that, a TAG or TAGfish doesn’t seem very likely because it means he hasn’t raised much, and since we don’t have much information yet, it probably doesn’t have showed you this information already. a maniac doesn’t seem very likely to me as well, because he would probably already showed you some crazy plays. and since you don’t have this kind of information, he probably isn’t a maniac. so most likely our opponent is a LAG.

edit: forgot to mention it also lacks the BI, and if it’s online or live. i just don’t think there is any deduction to figure that one out.

now we have all possible information, here is my answer:

i would choose D, to raise big for a few reasons. but first the answers i won’t choose and why:

a: probably the most obvious one, we have a pair of 9’s that’s facing the raise of a LAG who is on the BTN. this are all reasons why he can raise with an extremely wide range of hands. which includes any suited, any connector, any Ax, any KX, any broadway, any pair, lots of QX hands and many Jx hands. in other words, we are having a huge advantage over him.

b: calling seems like a very bad move as well. because of his wide range of hands. almost any flop is scary to you. even something cheap like J72 rainbow means he could have a jack and beat you. 99 is a good hand, but almost any flop will include one or more overcards which means you are never sure you will be good enough. on top of that, you play against a LAG that is IP, meaning he is in control and you have to be guessing blindly if he has it or not, and probably risking most of your stack for nothing more then a gamble.

c: because of the lacking information i still hestitate between C and D. but considering the information we have, i thing raising big is just the better option. a small raise will still make him call with a wide range of hands, which will still require you to play the guessing game after the overcard(s) flop.

D: considering all the averages our stacksizes and betsizes could be, raising big is doable. barely, but it is. as mentioned before, we don’t want him to get priced in with rags and hit top pair with things like Q8o, or give him the oppoortunity to act like it since we are OOP. by raising big we can usually get those hands out of his range and win the pot right away. if he decides to call. we have already a build pot preflop (where 99 is best). and we have a better sight on the range he might play with, and we still are favorite 70% of the time unless he plays a pocket himself, but most of the pockets that beat us, will probably 4bet shove pre. if we face a 4bet, we have an easy fold knowing we are most likely crushed

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B - Call

My answer is B) Call, and it’s mostly based on the opponent being an aggressive player. Whether I raise small or big, I risk making him raise me again, and we end up in a preflop raising war or even a preflop all-in, something I would probably do with pocket aces, but not pocket 9’s. I wouldn’t fold the 9’s preflop either because it’s a promising hand. So in my opinion calling is the best move preflop, and the flop along with my oppponent’s post-flop action would determine how I would continue.

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I’m with Maya- on this, for exactly the same reasons. Obviously, I’m praying for a nine and no A or K, but if there’s any reason to think this is a weak aggressive raiser, I’m probably going to call him/her down hoping the opposing hand is a low pair.

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Me too: I’d call. A pair of 9s is worth sticking in there for the flop. Then–a new decision will be needed.

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I would call to go at least to the flop… 3rd 9 … and I’m in :wink:

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**D ** Because I don’t like being bullied and in what is virtually a heads up situation 99 has an equal chance against possible over cards

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ANY pair is a coin flip heads up—against an unpaired opponent. You can’t know this opponent is unpaired. If she is paired, you’re a slight favorite IF your pair (9-9) is higher. If she holds a better pair. then your 9-9 stands to lose. In the absence of prior experience other than that this player is aggressive, the possibility of that higher pair must be taken into account. Caution dictates a call rather than a shove unless your intent is to counter-bluff knowing you might easily be beaten.
No one enjoys being bullied, but it is always an error to act from emotion. Far better to call and, assuming the flop is at least neutral, shove then, when you might credibly have caught a set and be betting from strength. It’s a more believable semi-bluff.
Just my opinion, but those are my reasons for having it. I’m still with Maya-…

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I would raise

d

d

A) if it is online poker
D) if it is real money poker (not online)

Don’t forget you’re midway through a tournament, it’s not a ring game. Raising an aggressive player will almost definitely trigger them to go all in preflop and you’re gonna have to call the all in.
If you’re prepared to get knocked out of the tournament halfway through with a bingo preflop all in then raising is the option for you. Aggressive players won’t fold and can easily bust you out with a ridiculous hand if they get lucky. Of course you can always win the hand, but it’s a risk to be considered. That’s why I believe calling is a safer option.

Mid way in a tourney I assume stacks to be 20-50 BB deep.

I would go with either B or D
A) folding is just not an option
B) when the open is bigger as the normal open of the oponent, this raises a lot of red vlags. I would probly just call and continue on good boards, when the villian doenst bet to aggresive like POT POT ( i would fold to 2nd pot assuming villian has a overpair)
C) doenst seem like the best option, an aggresive player would most likely call a small raise and I surely dont wanna play a hand which plays relatively bad post flop to an aggresive player out of position.
D) seems like the best option in my opinion. In medium stack dept I raise big. Getting a call you are most likely ahead and calling down on favourable boards seems like a good option. If the vilian raises all-in I think its an easy call, because the villian is aggresive and 9;s is to way to strong to fold in that case.

D - ALL-IN to maximize my winnings. And I’m not even a bingo player!

B. Call to see the flop if no 9 and the button player follow’s with a large bet. think about folding. If the button player checks then move to make a large bet to take the pot.
Mark B.

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The Answer is >>> D) Raise Big

Raise big and hope he gives you some credit for a big hand. After all, he could have anything here. Calling is no good, as once the flop comes down you’re probably on a sticky wicket, unless that 7/1 chance of flopping a set has come true, and folding is out.

Thank you for taking part in this quiz, I hope you all enjoyed it smile

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