Pocket Pair + Open-Ender Flop

Reads: Zeke=Aggressive bully, plays many hands; Meszi= Chaser; The Rest= much limping. Many non-pairs being aggressively bet & raised by Zeke and chased by Meszi. When Zeke folds PF, almost everyone limps.

Pre-Flop: My min raise was designed to stop limpers but encourage the chasers without risking much. I would have folded to the re-raise had the chaser not called. I felt the pot was now big enough to warrant a call.

Flop: The chaser checked and my pocket pair now had an open-ended straight draw working with it, so I had plenty of outs (10) giving me good B.E. odds (3-1). I had a decent read on these guys, but I was sandwiched between them.

Given my stack size, what next? Check weakly, bet softly, bet strongly, or all-in?

** Game ID 836734456 starting - 2006-06-22 08:53:22
** Sounds Like [Hold 'em] (0.10|0.20 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money

- -Zeke- sitting in seat 1 with $20.05
- eeken123 sitting in seat 2 with $35.78 [Dealer]
- sam24 sitting in seat 3 with $7.92
- Meszi sitting in seat 4 with $19.35
- MrSticker sitting in seat 5 with $7.70
- sixteen sitting in seat 6 with $36.90

sam24 posted the small blind - $0.10
Meszi posted the big blind - $0.20

** Dealing card to MrSticker: 9c, 9d
MrSticker raised - $0.40
sixteen folded
-Zeke- raised - $1.60
eeken123 folded
sam24 folded
Meszi called - $1.60
MrSticker called - $1.60

** Dealing the flop: 10h, 8c, 7c
Meszi checked
MrSticker ...
-Zeke- ...

I'm sure it's the wrong move but I probably would check and try to get a free card (or cards) but would be prepared to call the rest of my money off on the draw.
There is already $4 in the pot and you only have $5 left in your bankroll after calling the raise so I'd probably go broke here. Which is why I suck at poker.

- Don't minraise UTG. You don't want to play 99 multiway, which is what you're heavily risking by only minraising here. You're also inviting someone to reraise and take control of the hand from you, as calling a big reraise OOP with 99 is uncomfortable.

- If you have a bigger stack I'd suggest trying for a checkraise on the flop and aiming to see a free river if you miss on the turn (hopefully everyone folds to your c/r though). Zeke is aggressive, so it's worth a shot - if it's checked around it's not the end of the world even though you may be giving a free card to a flush draw. As it is you have to lead with the stack you have (this is why you should rebuy when down to less then half max or so ).

- Any sort of sizeable bet pot commits you, and any smaller bet is giving other draws good odds and begging for someone to come over the top of you, so I just push.

Giving Zeke a standard aggro reraising range here, on the flop...

Hand 1: 58.8926 % 57.64% 01.25% { 9c9d }
Hand 2: 41.1074 % 39.86% 01.25% { 99+, AJs+, KQs, AQo+ }

Yeah, pushing is fine.

I'd probably bet 1/4 of my stack & if raised push allin. Freak, since you keep taking my money at the tables would you please stop telling people you suck at poker. LOL.

you have to raise that flop as it stood you had no barrings. i dont think 1/4 yu stack is right. but something to know whats up. how'd it play out ?

Ignoring the girly raise preflop. When you hit that flop with 9-9, the money already in the pot, your stack and that flop; YOU INSTAPUSH.

If you're going to raise UTG, raise big! Otherwise, either call of fold. I just would have limped in to disguise my hand. I would have made a decent bet on the flop after Meszi checked just to see where everyone is at. Then, decide whether or not to push or fold.

For middle pocket pairs (call it 77-TT), I play it one of two ways depending on the situation. Either I limp and then fold if I don't flop a monster (set, flush draw, overpair, etc) or I raise to isolate one person (which ends up being much more complicated and requires good reads). If the table is loose/passive, I'll do the former, if it's more aggressive, the latter.

In your situation, it would have depended on the read. I'm not sure what I would have done to be honest, it's a really tricky case. I might have gone for the semi-bluff here -- fold equity + middle pocket pair + open ended straight draw = looks pretty good.

Thanks for the responses. The consensus seems to be that I played it correctly (at least the flop). Here's the conclusion:

** Dealing the flop: 10h, 8c, 7h
Meszi checked
MrSticker went all-in - $6.10
-Zeke- raised - $12.20
Meszi folded

** Dealing the turn: 4d
** Dealing the river: 5c

MrSticker shows: 9c, 9d
-Zeke- shows: Ac, Ad
-Zeke- wins $16.80 from the main pot

Sometimes you lose your chips because you made a mistake and then it's good to go back and analyze it to improve your play, but sometimes you were destined to lose. I think here there's a reasonable probability that you have the best hand already, and then you've got 8 outs * 2 cards = about a 33% chance to draw to the straight if you're wrong. Add that to the chance that he folds in certain situations where he has the best hand (eg, if he's got T3 or something), and your play is good.

That is what kills me that no matter what ZEKE wasn't going to fold AA's even if you did have a set.. I would mark them down that the over valued AA's with a straight on the board especially if you made the flush bluff bet which actually had hit.

If this was Titan I would mark that guy as my buddy and get a whole bunch of money off of him. He is like those players who slide down the big slick when you have a set.