Posted Fri Feb 17, 2006 9:26 am GMT by tame_deuces
So I'm playing a little head's up NL game versus a friend of mine. Nothing serious, just killing time and playing about who's buying dinner.
He likes playing small pots and smacking it on the flop or turn.
I enjoy playing big pots and raise alot of hands preflop.
100BB stacks.
Anyways, I get dealt A9o in the BB.
He opens for 4BB
I re-raise for 10BB more.
He calls.
Flop is A 9 5
I bet the pot, he pushes, I call.
He shows AQ. A ten on the turn gives him some extra outs, but I take it down.
The hand generated some discussion.
His view was that:
1.) A9o is too weak to re-raise with out of position, even if it is heads up.
2.) AQo is too weak to push against a re-raise with head's up.
My view was that:
1.) A9o is strong enough to re-raise with head's up, unless the opponent is too tight.
2.) AQo should be more than strong enough for most preflop push situations HU.
Now, I know these views are coloured by our respective playstyles. But if playing a relatively unknown player, what would your view be?
Remember it is 100BB stacks...not an 8BB SNG endgame situation.
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Posted Fri Feb 17, 2006 9:40 am GMT by UrAteUp
I think it mostly depends on your read of the other player. I have raised with A9o several times with success. If you feel someone is playing A-x<9 then why not raise with it?
As for AQ being too weak to call a raise. I tend to think AQ is fine to call a raise with provided that your getting a good read on the other player(s). Perhaps the other player is trying to scare you with a lesser card.
Posted Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:35 am GMT by greathuskie
ill very rarely if ever fold A9 heads up
you played it fine
Posted Fri Feb 17, 2006 3:56 pm GMT by suitedaces84
I don't play HU NL games. But in general it's bad to re-raise preflop with a marginal holding OOP. You're uping the stakes of the hand that you will have to play OOP. Assuming your hand is not significantly better and you're not signifcantly more skilled than your opponent the preflop advantage you had will be more than canceled out by position.
If you keep the pot small you'll minimize his positional (is that a word?) advantage. Josh Arieh wrote something about this a few weeks back. He claimed that the biggest mistake most players make is playing big pots OOP.
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