Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 400
First off, if our opponent only has 20 to 25bbs, I think you should either be jamming against a sb raise (vs more aggressive opponents) or defending against a sb raise (against a tighter opponent) with A5, not making a small 3 bet. We would be giving him a great price to either call or shove over us, and both put us in difficult spots with a hand that doesn't play very well post flop.
As for the 99 hand, it's about as standard of a spot as you will ever see, regardless of previous history. The only thing I don't like about your play is the size of the 3b (should make it a very minimum of 32k imo). You're giving him way too good of a price to flat in position if he has any kind of J10s, K10s, 76s, etc etc, which he always should be flatting with since it looks like you are always committing yourself to call if he decides to shove over your 3b. Regardless, there is no way we are wanting to do anything rather than to 3b/call off a wide button opening range with a hand as strong as 99, even against the tightest of opponents. Flatting is beyond terrible, as we would have to play our hand out of position against a hand that flops marginally at best oop, while also knowing that our hand is almost always ahead of a late position button open. We want to do all we can to get all the money in pre flop for sure. You could debate flatting if you were both 40+bbs deep, but even with 40bbs, I am still more likely to 3b to either call off a 4b/shove or to 5b/jam myself. Stacks would have to be very deep here to argue just flatting, and 3 betting for value with deeper stacks is probably still the better play when playing out of position against a late position open.
Bottom line, this is just one of those spots where there's nothing you can do and it shouldn't be overlooked just because of the end result.
