Defending vs. Continuation Bet

Primewise

Early in a Freezout Tournament
Blinds 100/200
A very good, loose/aggressive player in middle position raises to 700. Up until now he has raised fairly frequently first-in and made a decent sized continuation bet on the flop every single time. You figure he has a wide range and would do this with Ax, 88+ and J10+


All fold to you on the button.
You are dealt a medium pair (77 to 1010). You have a TAG image.

You’re stack sizes are both about 4000. To simplify the problem, assume the blinds are complete rocks and usually fold their blinds resulting in heads up.

You have a few courses of action: -

a) Reraise to 1500 in order to take control of the flop betting.

b) Just flat call. Raise his continuation bet if there is a low flop.

c) Just flat call. Flat call on a safe flop and re-assess the turn.

d) Just flat call with the intention of folding the flop you don’t improve flop a set. (ultra tight.. which will often concede the hand to unpaired J10+)


Which lines are strongest? Obviously they are all situation dependant and depend on bet sizes and opponent, I’m just wondering which lines are best in general vs. a LAG in a tourney.

Its very often you find yourself on the flop with a medium pair facing a continuation bet and trying to decide if you can continue (i.e. how do I safely figure out if he has paired higher than me?)

El Stuntman

you left out one course of action

careca

You'll think I pick on everything you say but your stack sizes are too small.

If you reraise preflop, you will nearly have all your chips in anyway, so its better to shove.

Option A is very poor for a few reasons. THe minraise (well 100 more than a minraise) is a nono and even if you do raise, why does it give you control of the betting post flop????

Personally I would either shove now or fold. If I had to choose one of your options I would call his bet and push or call or fold(depending on his action) on the flop. Reevaluating on the turn is very weak.

careca

Sorry, one other thing.

With the range you give him Ax, 88+, J10+ there are very very few flops which you will be confident with. Hes basically playing any two cards. If this is the case I would just push with 77-1010 or fold.

bops

if you had the stack sizes at 8/10k it would make for a more interesting discussion

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

ollyk1

We have 20 bb's ffs!!

Jam or fold. End of story.

I'm not cold calling off 17.5% with midpair without a very good reason.

Primewise

lol yeah the stacks are small.

But early in a tournament that's not unusual.

Ok lets say stack sizes are 10,000. That rules out the shove. Would you still raise Preflop?




El Stuntman, there other option is Fold preflop right? I hate folding pairs so I made it an impossibility vs. a LAG opponent

El Stuntman

Primewise wrote:

El Stuntman, there other option is Fold preflop right? I hate folding pairs so I made it an impossibility vs. a LAG opponent

lol, no - shoving was the unmentioned option for me

Lazare

If we're deep enough, and he's been C betting every flop even OOP, I'd prolly flat call and raise any flop, bar when we hit a set. Raising is not bad, but considering our image, he's folding most of his range preflop, hands he'll likely fire with on the flop.

Mr.Plough

given different stack sizes i take option c