POKER

Bet-sizing is critical, and here’s a case where one player may have gotten a little too cute. In a $2-$5 cash game, a player in second position raised to $15 out of his $500 starting stack. The button called. Our Hero, holding 9♥ 9♣, called from the small blind, as did an aggressive player in the big blind.

Hero’s preflop call made sense, although if the effective stacks were smaller, going all in could be the best option. As stacks become deeper (100 big blinds in this case), three-betting a decent middle pair from out of position in a multi-way pot usually isn’t ideal because those hands play well postf lop. You always know on the flop whether you have a strong hand (when you make a set) or a marginal hand (when you don’t make a set).

The flop came J♦ 9♦ 2♣. Hero decided to check with his set.

I like Hero’s check. On a somewhat coordinated board, it’s safe to assume someone will bet if you check this flop.

The aggressive player in the big blind led for $35 out of his $165 remaining stack. Everyone folded back around Hero, who made a minimum check-raise of $70.

I’m strongly against minraising when facing competent opponents. Take a second and think about what your bet offers your opponent. You’re giving him 4-to-1 pot odds and position. Even if your opponent has a hand such as A-J, he should consider folding.

I don’t like min-raising with premium made hands because the opponent is getting an excellent price to call with his draws. By putting in a minimum check-raise, Hero essentially forces his opponent to play perfectly, which is the exact opposite of what you want.

In this spot, I would have gone all in to get called by the opponent’s strong and decent made hands that are drawing nearly dead, while also pricing out the draws.

The aggressive player pushed all in, and Hero called.

The opponent lost with J♣ 4♣ — top pair with no kicker.

While a minimum checkraise doesn’t make sense against competent players, perhaps Hero knew that this specific opponent wasn’t capable of folding marginal made hands on a draw-heavy board to a min-raise.

That said, I think most players would view an all-in as being just as weak as a min-raise, because an all-in creates fold equity. A lot of knowledge about an opponent’s strategy is necessary before min-raising becomes a consideration. While this play worked out well for Hero, I still think check-raising all in was the better option.

Little is a professional poker player and coach with more than $6 million in live tournament earnings.