Pocket nines, early position, against a raise

10 handed cash game, stack sizes are approximate. Blinds are $.50, $1.00

5 way pot, so I’m only listing the stacks of the 5 players involved.

UTG - $65
UTG+1 (hero) - $45
Player 3 - $200
Small Blind - $50
Big Blind - $20

Dealt to hero (9c, 9s)

UTG – Bets $3.50
Hero calls
Player 3 calls
Folds around to small blind
Small blind calls
Big blind Raises to $20 and is all in.
UTG folds
Hero?

I’m pretty sure I made the wrong decision here, but I’d like to know what you guys would do in this situation. Right now there’s $34.00 in the pot. Given my stack size, I don’t feel I can just call here, especially with two players left to act behind me. The player in the big blind could make this all in move with a huge range of cards (anything from two face cards to a small pocket pair and of course he could have a larger pair than nines).

Any input would be appreciated.

Firstly, you can't call profitably with the 9s preflop to the initial raise. You're playing for a set here and you aren't getting odds.

I'm sure you've heard it a million times, but buyin for the MAX amount.

As played you're clearly ahead of the squeezer's range:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 54.652% 54.22% 00.43% 1297967100 10282134.00 { 99 }
Hand 1: 45.348% 44.92% 00.43% 1075269624 10282134.00 { 22+, ATs+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, ATo+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo }

...and most probably are ahead of people who are only calling the raise behind you (which indicates a suited connector, small pair etc), so we can shove over top to isolate.

ChuckTs said:

Firstly, you can't call profitably with the 9s preflop to the initial raise. You're playing for a set here and you aren't getting odds.

I'm sure you've heard it a million times, but buyin for the MAX amount.

Click to expand...

That's the first mistake I made, was flat calling the original raise, and it hit me almost as soon as I did it.

And... I did buy in for our max - $100.00 - but me and the big stack got into a pocket Kings over pocket Queens situation and as you can tell by the stack sizes I was the one with the queens.

hmmm... don't call

To answer your question: don't call. You flat called the first raise, and this guy is all-in (with players left to act) - your 99 is pretty much toast. If you call, at least one player behind you will probably call, and then, at best, you'll probably be facing 3 overcards.

And to follow up on Chuck's point - you shouldn't have called the initial raise either. You have to either fold (I wouldn't, but if you don't like the alternative?) or re-raise from your position. If you re-raise, the most likely result is a fold-around to the initial raiser, who will either call (which means your pair is probably good, and you need to C-bet the flop) or re-reraise you (in which case, you probably fold). Either way, the key is to isolate - you only want a heads-up situation with a middle pair.
IF, by accident or inattention, you do flat call with a middle pair, you might as well treat them as a small pair - you're only going to continue this hand if you flop a set. You've let too may other players in, and someone is gonna hit an overpair/two-pair on the flop.

I disagree with the guys saying to fold preflop, this is definetly a calling hand, but it's not strong enough to reraise. Folding is excessively conservative. To reraise you need at least QQ here IMO, and the highest PP you should fold here is maybe 66. After all these callers though, you should only play postflop if you flop a set, if it ended up HU then it's a totally different story.

As played though I think you can shove or call here. I don't think you have to worry about player 3 and the SB too much, each of them had a chance to reraise but they didn't, so you can be pretty sure they don't have AA-QQ. And each of them was getting better pot odds after the previous caller, so they may have called with weaker than normal hands, I wouldn't be suprised if the SB called with a hand like 10 7 suited here. So if they both go away and you end up HU against the SB there's a ton of dead money, $10.5.

Bentheman87 said:

I disagree with the guys saying to fold preflop, this is definetly a calling hand, but it's not strong enough to reraise. Folding is excessively conservative. To reraise you need at least QQ here IMO, and the highest PP you should fold here is maybe 66. After all these callers though, you should only play postflop if you flop a set, if it ended up HU then it's a totally different story.

Click to expand...

I think you may be missing the distinction about when I suggest folding. The first time the Hero acts, he should raise with 99, to stop a lot of players calling in the first place. If you're playing very conservatively and you don't want to raise with a middle pair, then you have to treat them like a small pair instead - fold them because you're out of position, or flat call and fold to any re-raise. 99 is a classic hand where you want as few callers as possible. One caller is good, none is better, and 2 or more is a big problem. So you need to put yourself in a position where it's very unlikely more than one person will call by raising. Take control of the betting, and stay aggressive.