What's a better way to play this?

I've been at the table around 30 mins. Aquama is a good TAG with good positional sense. He has been stealing from the Button, CO without being called down. I'm playing pretty much the same game but have dragged some pots with bluffs and haven't been called down. The rest of the table is pretty passive.

PokerStars Game #8419056376: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2007/02/13 -08:46:05 (ET)Table 'Sirene II' 9-max
Seat #1 is the button Seat 1: Balmunga ($32.85 in chips)
Seat 2: Sp-Ns ($23.90 in chips)
Seat 3: HipHip2000 ($21.25 in chips)
Seat 4: perma_t1lt ($7.75 in chips)
Seat 6: piets ($16.60 in chips)
Seat 7: aquama ($26.65 in chips)
Seat 8: Bluetones ($29.95 in chips)
Seat 9: Zanetti4 ($6.20 in chips)
Sp-Ns: posts small blind $0.10
HipHip2000: posts big blind $0.25
Yannu: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Bluetones [Jc Jd]
perma_t1lt: folds
piets: folds
aquama: raises $0.75 to $1 I think this is a steal.
Bluetones: raises $0.75 to $1.75 Is this big enough to say get out I have a hand or should it be bigger?
Zanetti4: folds
Balmunga: folds
Sp-Ns: folds
HipHip2000: folds
aquama: raises $1.25 to $3 No, I genuinely have a hand or bluff re-raise? I think genuine hand given my own tight image.
Bluetones: calls $1.25 Let me see a flop and re-evaluate.
*** FLOP ***
[Qs 9c 2d]
aquama: bets $6
Bluetones: folds
aquama collected $6.05 from pot

What do you think? Obviously looking back maybe a flat call and play for set value but I think that's a bit passive.

I guess what I'm really asking is: do you re-raise and should it be bigger to truly define the hand?

I like your re-raise. I think i probably wouldnt have, i tend to be passive preflop and prefer to see flops.

What do you put him on with his re-raise? Could he do it with AK? or tenten?

I generally would think overpair by this point, so i think it gave you some better info for flop bet.

Otherwise youd have been left wondering if he had AK, A10, Ajack and missed flop

Well I play a very LAG game in rings, but I think even had I been playing TAG vs this player, I'd reraise to $3-$5 PF.

All you're doing PF is reraising minimum, no? (Im really drunk and cant count right now)

Reraise enough to give him bad pot odds w/AT or whatever and also to get value from your hand + define his hand.

Then you can evaluate what he's got post-flop. As played, easy easy fold on the flop I think.

I don't know if I would have re-raised preflop...at least not minimum. If you're going to raise, make sure it's a raise someone will notice, and not try to steal from you. personally, i would have flat called at $.75 and left it alone, i mean, how many callers are you really gonna get preflop with a 7xbb raise pf? hoping to get lucky was all you could do, cause he had you with Kings...

i think you played it right. i might have raised a little larger on your first raise though but all the re raises by Aquama tells you he/she has something. she could have been stealing the pot but she could have been holding QQ or KQ or A Q or 99 or 22(unlikely though). I dont think gambling with that flop out would have been a good idea with a player like that

raise preflop harder, to straight $2.50 at least. this will do two things

1) isolate you with the original raisor. no one else will call expecting a cold call from the initial raisor and getting good odds w/ a middle pair or suited connector.

2) define your hand. villain now has to make a decision that will cost him a lot more now and probably more on the flop, because with a weak kicker he wont be comfortable with top pair, and if his kicker hits he worries of an overpair.

a bigger raise puts a lot more pressure on him, and that's the name of the game in NLHE

Minraise pf is horrible (see above post), rest is okay.

joosebuck said:

raise preflop harder, to straight $2.50 at least. this will do two things

1) isolate you with the original raisor. no one else will call expecting a cold call from the initial raisor and getting good odds w/ a middle pair or suited connector.

2) define your hand. villain now has to make a decision that will cost him a lot more now and probably more on the flop, because with a weak kicker he wont be comfortable with top pair, and if his kicker hits he worries of an overpair.

a bigger raise puts a lot more pressure on him, and that's the name of the game in NLHE

Click to expand...

Cheers, that's pretty much what I'm after. I wasn't really trying to isolate with the original raiser because the table was very passive and I knew no-one was coming with us. That's why I asked about the re-raise and general consensus is that it should be bigger as this will help me define where I'm at. Point taken.

DM I know the min-raise is bad.

Another question: is this an automatic re-raise? At this level I might be better off playing set value because if I hit I will stack AA/KK/TPTK and if I miss the PF fee is much cheaper. On the other hand weaker holdings can then push me off. What do you think is the better play long term?