1/2 5straddle
250ish effective
Villain 2/5 reg waiting for a table. Seems ok, but not great. At this point I didn't know much about his game. Im not sure what he thinks of me.

Folds to me I raise 15 w 99 from mp folds to straddler (villain) who reraises to 45. Do I 4 bet to like 110 or is this a fold

I'd let this go. You're not deep enough to set mine and you're going to hate a lot of flops. Sure, the straddler could be doing this really wide but 99 is not the hand I'd take to war here. Fold and wait for a better spot.

I'm not 4betting to set mine

I didn't mean to imply that you were. If you 4! and get called, you're crushed. So why 4! at all? I think a fold is the right play. 99 isn't that strong, so why are you marrying yourself to them?

let it go. most flops he's firing away and it's not nearly enough to setmine

fold. Next hand.

Yea i don't disagree w folding (that's what I ended up doing). Would you rather 4bet a connected type hand in this spot or are you only 4betting for value here

Need a little more info. Have you seen him play a hand? Has he straddled before?

Without more info, just fold.

He's playing a lot of hands and he seemed at least a little annoyed about not getting into 2/5(long story) At this point I don't think I saw anything out of the ordinary at showdown

more of a reason to fold if he's tilting

Stacks need to be deeper for anything but a value-4!, IMO. If you go to $110 you've put over 40% of effective stacks in the middle. Are you ever folding after committing that much? Are you ever ahead of he decides he wants to jam? Maybe sometimes against a frustrated 2/5 player (they tend to be overly aggressive when they're stuck in a smaller game - it creates a dynamic).

So I'd fold and wait for a better spot. If this situation comes up again, I'd be going with JJ+, AKo but not TT or less.

I think this is a fold. My 4bet range here is probably {JJ+, AK, A5s}.

Hub? If he's tilting he has a wider range, n'est pas?

With the straddle, we start the hand with only 50BBs, and we just got our rather weak looking raise 3! by a bored 2-5 player.

I really don't want to let this hand go. I'm torn between 4bet/calling and calling the 3bet with the intention of getting it in on most non-ace flops.

Why only raise 3x? Do you normally raise to $6 at 1/2?

Pre, I'd raise to $20 or, if he likes to defend his straddle, $25. I think your teeny tiny raise may have induced him to 3!.

As played fold. If he was really really aggressive on the straddle (like he's 3-bet from the straddle twice, or he's raised a bunch of limpers and then shown T4o), then I'd 4-bet (extended value). You haven't mentioned anything like this though so let's fold it.

In general, 4betting with 99 in live poker tends to be pretty terrible. Villain really hasn't given us much reason to suspect he is getting out of line. If his range was really wide then I could see calling here and playing postflop in position but in general this is a fold pre...and if you are wrong it's no big deal. You essentially just lost 3 big blinds. No big deal compared to risking your entire stack against a polarized (or dominating) range.

But this is a little different due to dynamics. we're playing 1/2/5 here by a 2/5 reg who is annoyed. there is a good portion of his range where he is trying to blow a normal 1/2 player off a hand he is likely flipping with due to initial bet sizing. 3x in a straddle in MP seems weak. But more importantly raising to $45 is something a lot of 2/5 regs will do in a regular 2/5 game to ISO. However, considering it folded to V, you do need to be weary he might just have a stronger hand.

if you dont have a lot of history on the player/good read, you can always opt to fold as many mention to play cautiously. But I wouldnt necessarily say this is an instant fold. Calling is not an option as others mention. So you need to decide on either shipping or folding. (do not 4! to 110 -- your raise if you choose to play is to play for stacks.)

It's close. If I had TT/JJ this is closer to a shove against a random annoyed v.

Too narrow of a viewpoint. If he's tilting he'll be playing unpredictably, making it extraordinarily difficult to determine where our hand stands. It's tough for 99 to continue post flop unimproved without significant info.

At best you're flipping against an unpredictable opponent with no way to assess the strength of your hand at any time. Your hand is unlikely to improve and your post flop bets will have very little equity when called.

That's not really that crazy of a dynamic.

The sizing is more indicative of a made hand than someone trying to blow a player off a hand. If he wanted to blow someone off a hand I would expect a bet of 60 or $70+.


Actually, not one person in this thread said that calling was not an option. It clearly is an option. BTW, hate the shove. You let him off the hook with all his mediocre/bluff hands.

If he's tilted and I get the sense that he is just trying to steal, calling is not a terrible option. I probably still fold, though. I don't 4! or ship because I agree it just folds his junk and we can't (shouldn't) want to gii here.

Against very aggro/spewy villains I just put it in. Against standard villains I think it's a straight forward fold.

Against a reasonable 3 betting range of TT+, AJ+ you're a 3:2 dog. Yes he straddled, but straddlers often raise when it's limped around; they don't often 3 bet from the straddle. Seems like a fairly standard fold.