I posted this in my PGC thread, but wanted to put it here on the general forum for thoughts.

$1/2nl

V1: newer player to the table; seems to be passive, not sure about how tight/loose yet as he has only been in play for a few hands. Has $130 behind
V2: young kid, has made a few Hero calls successfully, playing with confidence and under the radar as far as the rest of the table understanding his skill level. Has not shown any big bluffs yet. Has $430 behind
HERO has ~$300 behind. Been playing TAG.


V1 UTG + 1 raises to $7
1 caller
HERO looks down at TT in MP. Thinks about a 3 bet and a good squeeze spot as V1 seems like a weak player that can be pushed around easily. Hero decides to flat $7 with expectation of 2-3 more callers and looking for a middle position set mine instead since V1 is still new to table.

V2 in CO, 3 bets to $35.
Folds around to V1 who tanks for some time and then calls $35. other caller folds.

HERO appears to be stuck in the middle of an obvious squeeze play. Or at least a good squeeze scenario. But has not seen V2 make a play or show cards suggesting he is capable of making this type of play yet.

Does HERO force the issue suspecting a squeeze with a wide range or get out of the way?

There was a great article in Cardplayer last year entitled "Wobble" - where the table captain would 3-bet any newcomer to the table to see if they would wobble... and lay down.

Don't know if this is what V2 is doing, but based on your description of V2 he seems to be pretty good at navigating his way in heads up situations. And maybe, this is what his reraise is about.

Personally, with v2's stack at over 400 - and his propensity to make hero calls - I think I would call the $35 (or actually 28) to set mine or play the hand based on the board texture.

V1 doesn't seem to have a monster pocket pair (since he didn't reraise) so you might just be up against two guys who are sitting on big aces.

If your hand or position were stronger (or if you were playing online), I might be more inclined to resteal. But in live poker, imo, i think you're best off flatting and playing poker on the flop.

BTW... where's the straddle?

No straddle. Just raise, call, HERO call to set mine, reraise..

my only problem with flatting to set mine here is that I would have to get almost all of my remaining stack in when hitting to be profitable. And as you mentioned, V2 is good at navigating heads up/positional play. So I'm not sure how often I could manage that when hitting.

oh... cuz the title of your post is "Stuck in the middle of a straddle.."

I don't think Tens are strong enough to shove pre-flop, or weak enough to fold. Reraising or squeezing only makes you build a pot oop - which is the worst way to play poker with a middle pocket pair.

Sure - you can hope for a set. But there will be many baby flops that you can play, in which you are ahead. The question you'll be asking is whether you think V1 or V2 has a bigger pocket pair on a small board. And that's where hand reading comes in.

at the 1/2nl level, players don't squeeze at a high enough frequency for me to want to jam it here with TT.

Also, going from a $7 raise with two callers to $35 doesn't really feel all that squeezy to me and is more for value. Pot is $14 when it gets to him and he makes it $35 meaning now the pot is $49 and the initial callers need to put in an another $28 getting almost 2:1 on a call...

yeah, that doesn't seem like a squeeze to me. Especially since players at the 1/2nl level are notorious for overcalling...

So, I would just set mine. We "barely" have correct odds to set mine our TT here, so set mine...

-If you are looking to 3b w/ TT against V1, are you looking to iso and play him post flop? If you 3b to 20ish, you will have an SPR of ~4. Do you want to stack off against V1.
-I think calling v1's open is more profitable.

When v2 3b, what do you think his range is? For the most part, live 3b are super strong. Have you seen him 3b before? Is he really active pre-flop? If he's 3b like the average V, it's usually QQ+, AK. But wait, you said he could be squeezing. He could have tons of hands. Ax, Kx, small pocket pairs, some mid suited connectors.

When v1 tank calls, what are some hands that you put him on? KK+ is usually 4 betting here and getting it in. What other hands are there? AQ+, 99, TT, JJ? I'm just throwing some ranges out there.

When it gets back to you, there is ~77 in the pot. You have a little under $300 left. If you call, you'll have a SPR of ~2.5/3ish. You've put in more than 10% of your stack pre. Are you willing to stack off and almost any flop? Calling looks bad.

So it's either raising or folding. I'm leaning towards folding but it can be close. It''s really V dependent.

When you raise, I think you are overplaying your hand. Versus v1, when you raise, you are basically saying that you want to get it in. Versus v2, you are saying that you have a strong hand/ you know that he is squeezing and you are playing back at him and in this case, he can play perfectly, meaning he can fold his trash, and call/shove all of his strong hands.

Bottom Line: Get out of the way. I know it sucks. It just means you have to adjust.

Good thoughts. It was just a really unique spot where I got the feeling/read that V1 seems really weak here, but didn't act aggressive on it. Then V2, who is the only other thinking player at the table, just happens to make a 3 bet and probably the same weak-read on V1 as I did...