$5 NLHE Full Ring: am i play this hand right

$5 NL HE Full Ring: am i play this hand right

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (9 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($2.18)
SB ($4.95)
Hero (BB) ($2.52)
UTG ($4.05)
UTG+1 ($6.46)
MP1 ($4.93)
MP2 ($0.51)
MP3 ($5.66)
CO ($1)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9 , 9
3 folds, MP2 calls $0.05, 2 folds, Button calls $0.05, 1 fold, Hero bets $0.20, MP2 calls $0.15, Button calls $0.15

Flop: ($0.62) K , K , 6 (3 players)
Hero checks, MP2 checks, Button checks

Turn: ($0.62) 7 (3 players)
Hero bets $0.20, MP2 calls $0.20, 1 fold

River: ($1.02) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.11, 1 fold

Total pot: $1.02 | Rake: $0.06
Main pot: $1.02 returned to Hero

I'd raise more preflop. At least .30 and maybe more just because being OOP sucks.

Postflop is just weird. I'd cbet this flop about 100% of the time. Turn bet is oddly small and the river bet is barely there. If I'm a villain in this hand I'm taking this pot away with a raise on the turn and if you call I'm going to shove the river after you check with my hands that have no SD value. Your line is just too weird to ever be anything other than a small scared pocket pair and you're not going to be able to take too much heat unless you improve.

WVHillbilly said:

If I'm a villain in this hand I'm taking this pot away with a raise on the turn and if you call I'm going to shove the river after you check with my hands that have no SD value. Your line is just too weird to ever be anything other than a small scared pocket pair and you're not going to be able to take too much heat unless you improve.

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I agree with everything else you wrote. That said, I see a lot of players trying to play AK "tricky" like this though, so yeah, it can be other things. When it's not AK, it can be a strong underpair. Unless I have a lot of hands on hero, I would tend to give him credit for at least TT+ here, because so few players will raise 99- from the BB with two limpers in already.

As you said though, raise more PF and a 2/3 pot continuation bet here all day every day.

99 on a KK6 board is a strong hand, play it accordingly. C-bet this flop as you're OOP, lots of turn cards will suck, and villains will call with worse (6x, most pairs, random floats because they think you can't have a king).

Yeah alot of good advice so far.. I dont think raising is a must with 99 OOP in the big blind, Your going to get floated with alot of trash by the limpers and alot of boards will leave in a terrible situation OOP. But this is a very good board for your hand and a cbet is a must. Turn bet and river bet are super weak and better players would have probably raised you (or bet out on flop) and got you to fold the best hand.

WVHillbilly said:

I'd raise more preflop. At least .30 and maybe more just because being OOP sucks.

I'd cbet this flop about 100% of the time.

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Ditto

matt20 said:

Yeah alot of good advice so far.. I dont think raising is a must with 99 OOP in the big blind

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We almost certainly have the best hand right now. Not raising here would be tragic.

Deco said:

We almost certainly have the best hand right now. Not raising here would be tragic.

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But thats rather insignificant imo because at the micro level once they limp they are going to float you with random trash and you only have a pair of 9s. Of course he hit a rather good flop for his hand, but theres going to be a great deal of pots where he raises is called by a couple players and there is a couple of overcard or even an overcard flopped leaving yourself OOP for a large pot where you may be drawing to two outs. You dont always have to raise preflop with the best hand. When your dealt pocket 2s in the BB and its an unraised pot Id say you have the best hand a large portion of the time... 9s play slightly better but with this many limpers I think its a longterm loser raising that large OOP imo.

There was a very long discussion on exactly this type of hand on another forum years ago. Not raising has a lot of value when the flop comes low cards and a villain hits one and gives action. Raising has value when you are playing nits who will actually give up their limps to a reasonable size raise. As always, it depends.

In the end, when there's an argument as well-reasoned on both sizes as raising 99 from the BB, it's probably so close to EV neutral as to not be worth the time to argue the point. Personally, I raise it most of the time, but I don't think not raising is a large error.

Sysvr4 said:

There was a very long discussion on exactly this type of hand on another forum years ago. Not raising has a lot of value when the flop comes low cards and a villain hits one and gives action. Raising has value when you are playing nits who will actually give up their limps to a reasonable size raise. As always, it depends.

In the end, when there's an argument as well-reasoned on both sizes as raising 99 from the BB, it's probably so close to EV neutral as to not be worth the time to argue the point. Personally, I raise it most of the time, but I don't think not raising is a large error.

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I agree that just checking your option in this situation is likely +EV, I just think that raising is probably more +EV because we exploit the major flaw of a lot of bad players at these levels of limp/calling most amounts preflop and then playing fit/fold post.

Sysvr4 said:

There was a very long discussion on exactly this type of hand on another forum years ago. Not raising has a lot of value when the flop comes low cards and a villain hits one and gives action. Raising has value when you are playing nits who will actually give up their limps to a reasonable size raise. As always, it depends.

In the end, when there's an argument as well-reasoned on both sizes as raising 99 from the BB, it's probably so close to EV neutral as to not be worth the time to argue the point. Personally, I raise it most of the time, but I don't think not raising is a large error.

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WVHillbilly said:

I agree that just checking your option in this situation is likely +EV, I just think that raising is probably more +EV because we exploit the major flaw of a lot of bad players at these levels of limp/calling most amounts preflop and then playing fit/fold post.

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I look at it by asking, I am ahead of what these guys have limped with? If I'm ahead, then I'm losing value by not raising. I think this question comes from a Belugawhale video reviewing a fairly low stakes game.

But that's not the only consideration. One is position, which sucks in this case. Another is, if I raise, what will these guys call with? Another is, If I am ahead preflop, how vulnerable is my hand postflop, considering what they might call the raise with? If I think they're likely to limp/call with big cards, then there's a lot of cards that are bad for me on the flop making my hand more vulnerable.

And the last question is, how well do I think I play postflop, out of position, against this level of competition? If I don't play well, maybe limping is better.

There will be times at this level that someone will have limp/called with TT or JJ and you lose on more on a dry board, but hopefully that's offset by the times they call with A7 and call down having paired the 7.

Taking all this into consideration, like WV says, I raise because I'm likely ahead preflop, I raise more than normal because of the limpers, I raise more because my position sucks, and I raise more because there's lots of bad cards that can come. And as played, I c-bet this flop 100% of the time unless I have some strange read on the opponents 'cause this board is not bad at all.

-buy in for 100bbs
-raise more pre, maybe to .30
-bet flop, maybe .40
-bet more on turn
-bet alot more on river.

NineLions said:

And the last question is, how well do I think I play postflop, out of position, against this level of competition? If I don't play well, maybe limping is better.
.

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We know where we stand on most flops. They do not.

AK2
268
QTA
J82

All these flops we have a perfectly good idea where we stand in the hand whilst they have'nt the foggiest.

As an added note which is completly irreleveant at these stakes at some point you will want to balance when you have huge hands here. Really even at these stakes it can make a difference when you've been seen to raise from this position alot your AA/KKs may get more action.