A pocket nines hand

If anyone has been keeping up, I've been reading Collin Moshman's new book Sit'n Go Strategy: Expert Advice for Beating One-table Poker Tournaments from two plus two publishing. It's really a pretty good read, and is presented in the usual two plus two fashion. Concepts are introduced and then followed by hand examples illustrating how these concepts play out in practice.


One concept from the book that I was able to successfully employ came up during last night's Monday Night Game. The principle in question is laid out on p. 58 of the book, where the author states (in a gray box in the text, like Caro's laws of tells), "If you are the pre-flop aggressor and an opponent bets out unexpectedly at the flop, then he is very unlikely to have a monster hand."


This is even more true when you're the preflop aggressor and you have a propensity for continuation-betting on the flop. I do tend to make the continuation bet, but more often in heads-up pots than if it's multiway. The idea is that if the other player in the hand really had something strong, they'd check it to you in order to get that continuation bet out of you, then come back over the top (or in some cases call, then make a play later).


So, last night I was on the button and we were three or four handed. It had folded to me on the button, and I looked down at two black nines. Blinds were ¢50/$1 at this point, and I decided to raise it up to $3.50. Marc folded his small blind, and Lee called from the big blind. At this point, the pot was now $7.50 and Lee and I each had about $60 or $70 in chips. The flop came out terribly for me - Ace of hearts, king of hearts, five of spades. Lee now bet $8, about the size of the pot.


I had to think about it for a while, and weigh my options. It would certainly be okay to fold here, facing two overcards on the board, along with the possible flush draw. If I was behind, I could be drawing very slim. But I suddenly thought about a reraise. Was Lee willing to risk his current chip lead in a marginal spot? What could he hold that would stand up to a big raise? Only a set or an unlikely two pair, probably. But the problem with those holdings is that I doubt Lee would lead the flop with them. I raised preflop, didn't I? And it's a heads-up pot so I'm most likely gonna bet here, even if I miss, and I know Lee knows that. With a strong hand like 55 he most likely would have let me bet the flop and then raised to shut out the flush draw or hopefully stack me when I hit the ace (or best case for him, the ace and the king). Taking this all in to consideration, as well as the fact that I would still have $40-$45 left should the play not work, I decided to reraise Lee $16 more. If he came back over the top, it'd probably be for all the chips since there would be $55.50 in there (an enormous pot by Monday night standards), and I'd know I was beat and have to fold. The beauty of the bet, though, is that it implies that I won't fold. It's a bet that says I'm willing to put $24 in out of my $60-$70 stack to protect the hand I have, which given my tight table image usually means I have it.

Fortunately, Lee folded and I won the pot. I showed him the two nines. I normally don't like the play of showing your opponent your hole cards, and indeed I probably do it too much and need to give away less information. However, I think it was a good time to do it here, because it told Lee that I was not going to let him run over me, and that if he tried to bluff me, eventually I was going to play back at him, and I didn't necessarily need a huge hand to do it. For a player who plays the way Lee does, in a loose/aggressive manner, but who understands the basics of correct strategy, it is important to make this play, especially in a tournament, due to the increased importance of blind stealing and blind defense. You don't want him raising you every time you're in the big blind, etc.