Marginal SB hand v Strong BB player

CLIOKID

I don't have any specific hands to post relevant to this situation, it's more of a general wondering.

Say it's folded round to the you in the SB and you are holding A rag or a small PP (22-55),  a hand which plays pretty badly post flop out of position.

How do you play this against a strong opponent who is going to quite often squeeze 3bet you as they think you are it and they also have position on you?

Do you risk the 4bet? Do you fold? Do you try and call and play a horrible hand out of position?

I find myself in this situation alot and never quite know what to do.

richtea

I'd probably chuck a raggy ace, small pair sometimes flat sometimes put in a small raise, then if you get raised re-assess. I wouldn't 4-bet, but I'm tighter than a nun's chuff.

DeuceAK_47

I dont mind folding ace rag against a tough player as long as its not suited, pairs are golden in nl so im always raising them here, i would advise you to never call a 3bet out of position (especially against a good player), so your only option is to either 4bet or fold (probably make my 4bet about 25% of my stack if 100bb deep and would only do it if i thought they were 3betting over 9% of hands in that spot).

CLIOKID

In Response to Re: Marginal SB hand v Strong BB player:

I dont mind folding ace rag against a tough player as long as its not suited, pairs are golden in nl so im always raising them here, i would advise you to never call a 3bet out of position (especially against a good player), so your only option is to either 4bet or fold (probably make my 4bet about 25% of my stack if 100bb deep and would only do it if i thought they were 3betting over 9% of hands in that spot).
Posted by DeuceAK-47

I always think it feels a bit nitty to fold an A in the SB when folded round but I do it quite often.

I pretty much never limp into the BB when it's folded round to me, fold or raise but I get a bit too aggro and WANT to 4bet too much when I know the BB is squeezing my raise out of the SB.

Is this just too aggressive and risky?

DOHHHHHHH

With ace rag, in an unraised pot in the small blind - how often are u gonna win a big pot from that situation?

I'd say hardly ever.

The only chance u have really, is to flop 2 pairs, and hope the bb has AK/AQ.

Im always looking at setting up the 1 big pot in cash. Therefore the raise from the small blind/button isn't about the hand taking place, its just setting up the image that im super LAG in unraised pots, and my opponents will play back light, and eventually ill find the spot to take all his money.

With ace 8 and lower, ur raising really to win 1 and a half big blinds, once you meet resistance, ur out of position with a yukky hand.

I think its called "balancing ur range"? - thats the only reason i'd be raising from the sb with marginal hands(and well below marginal hands too

DeuceAK_47

Generally your supposed to be rasing the same amount from the button as the sb except your more likely to play A6o in the sb than the button because high card value become more important heads up.

Against a bad player A6o is quite good as you can get two streets of value out of their second pair where as a good player is going to cause you loads of problems in position (also your hand does not pick up much equity very often to allow you to semi bluff).
If the villian is 3betting you a ton then at some point your going to have to make a stand but make sure you make it small (2.5x) otherwise you will be pot commiting yourself, also use the same bet sizes for your premium hands.
Sometimes though players just pick up loads of good hands as i stacked off twice stupidly today as i got annoyed at getting 3bet a ton by a total nit lol, so be careful as in general players are bluffing us less than we like to think.

So overall your going to have to tighten your range in the cutoff and the sb as the good player will have position on you, i probably would not be staying at that table unless there was enough bad players to compensate for it though.