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RunnerJohn · Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 11:06 am Post subject: Ace-Nine A Good Call?

I was in an SNG a couple of nights ago. I was on the button, with A9 and blinds at 20/40. Another player raises to 140 and I call. The flop comes up with a 9 high and the original raiser goes all in. I have top pair and top kicker, so I call. I win. The original raiser gives me a hard time about calling with A9. My thinking is if Tim didn't want a call preflop, then 140 chips isn't enough of a raise. She (Tim had a female avatar) should have gone all in preflop. 140 chips was a fairly cheap flop, and A9 is an above average hand. so I think I made a good call. If the flop hadn't gone my way, I could have gotten out cheaply enough. Actually, after my call, the pot was at 340, so I'm a little surprised the BB didn't call, as well. He must have been holding garbage.

IMO, I made the right decision here. Tim calls it a bad beat. I call it Tim's bad play. Anyone else think I should have folded?

Here's the hand:

Full Tilt Poker, $6 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Sit n' Go, 20/40 Blinds, 8 Players
[url=http://www.leggopoker.com]LeggoPoker.com[/url] - [url=http://www.leggopoker.com/hh]Hand History Converter[/url]

UTG+1: 3,495
MP1: 1,455
MP2: 1,255
CO: 1,450
Hero (BTN): 1,440
SB: 1,390
BB: 900
UTG: 2,115

Pre-Flop: (60) 9 Heart

A

dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to 140, 3 folds, Hero calls 140, 2 folds

Flop: (340) 9 Club

3

4

(2 Players)
UTG+1 bets 3,355 and is All-In, Hero calls 1,300 and is All-In

Turn: (2,940) 4 Spade

(2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (2,940) T Spade

(2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 2,940 Pot
UTG+1 showed K Spade

A

(a pair of Fours) and LOST (-1,440 NET)
Hero showed 9 Heart

A

(two pair, Nines and Fours) and WON 2,940 (+1,500 NET)

st6truckie · Message Board Junkie Joined: 28 Dec 2007 Posts: 2018

Easy decision...Fold pre-flop.

Nositi · Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 12:22 pm Post subject:

I would fold that preflop, but that's not a wise decision on the all in either IMO. He/she didn't even bother to see where you were with the flop and only had 2 over cards!

JDizzzle72 · Royal Flush Joined: 01 Mar 2008 Posts: 533

Bad call, could easily have an overpair. Poor call preflop too. UTG raise should = big hand. UTG raise + autopush on the flop = definitely a monster. You just got mad lucky and hit 1 of your 3 outs.

Cattivo · Straight Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 120 Location: Chicago

Questionable call for sure, as any Ace raising from that position would and did have you dominated preflop - but the villain's push was pretty foolhardy as well.

DrAndrian · Straight Flush Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 383

A9 isn't a good hand to call a raise with.

jdub416 · Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 2:43 pm Post subject:

Ya, imo A-9 and A-10 are the most overly called hands in poker. Bad call preflop.

live4freerolls · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:38 am Post subject:

Fold preflop but Villians flop shove is lawl.

RunnerJohn · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 9:58 am Post subject:

OK. I'll give all of you this one. I was certain I made the right call, so I pulled out my "Sit 'n Go Strategy" book (Collin Moshman) to see if I could prove it to you. Unfortunately, I found that even Collin says it was a bad call during low blinds. In the book I found an example hand that is close to this one, but not quite. In hand 1-6 in the book, you are dealt AJo, and someone before you raises to 140. Close enough to this one.

In the example, Collin says "The call allows you to see a flop with a good hand if no remaining opponent raises, nor are you over-committing yourself."

The "...nor are you over-committing yourself." part is what I was thinking.

He also says "A flop of two low cards and a jack would give you a strong hand, but should your opponent be holding an unlikely overpair, you figure to lose all your chips."

I was hoping for the nine to come up with two lower cards, or ace and nine come up. I know that's a lot to hope for, but I was thinking it was cheap to look.

OK. Collin agrees with all of you that it's not a good call during low blinds. He suggests that it would be a good call if I were short stacked late in the game, however (but he's talking about AJ, not A9, so that might not be entirely accurate). His main point, however, is that if the ace came up on the flop, I could lose all my chips. That wasn't going to happen. If the ace came up, I would expect to be outkicked and fold to the all-in bet.

So, I bet 140 chips into a 200-chip pot. 1.4:2 pot odds. I had three chances to hit one of three cards in the deck that could help me, or 9:47 (about 1:5). Now that I analyze it that way, I can see it was a poor choice.

That's why I post here...

Peepers_au · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 11:38 pm Post subject:

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