8♠8♣ Preflop vs a Reraise, what do you do here?

88 Preflop vs a Reraise - optmzd.gif


DECISION POINT:
In a Tournament where blinds are 500/1000 action is folded around to you in the Small Blind with 8♠8♣. You raise 3.5x and the Big Blind reraises to 8000. Action is on you, what do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: Preflop it is folded around to us in the Small Blind with 8♠8♣. Eights is a huge hand blind vs blind and we raise accordingly to 3,500 chips. Our opponent then makes a small reraise to 8,000.

This small reraise sizing can indicate a strong hand range from some players. Our opponent is unlikely to expect us to fold indicating they are less likely to be bluffing here, however our hand is also VERY strong given this is a heads up situation.

There are already 12,500 chips in the pot and our opponent has 16,000 chips behind. If we were to get the rest of our chips in preflop in this situation we would be risking another 20,500 to win 28,500. That means we would need more than 40% equity versus their range to be able to continue profitably here.

Continued below…

Live Banner 300x250.png

If we consider the possible ranges they could be taking this action with:

  • In the worst case scenario, if they are only reraising small with QQ+/AK, we would have nearly 36% equity.
  • If they are doing this with a more reasonable range of 66+, ATs+, A5s-A2s, KQs, ATo+, KQo, then we have over 49% equity.

By default we would want to assume our opponent has the more reasonable range, especially since we have them covered by enough chips here to make opportunity cost not much of an issue.

If we had some sort of opponent specific read that our opponent’s range was skewed toward the tighter QQ+/AK range, then we could justify just calling or even folding preflop, but without that information our hand is way too strong here.

Moving all-in is the best play.

How would you play it?
Share your answer in the comments below!


WIN YOUR WAY INTO A WPT MAIN EVENT!

WPT-Mike-Sexton-Champions-Cup

Join LearnWPT Live at Commerce this February 2020 for a 2-Day Advanced Tournament Strategy Workshop!

Attending LearnWPT Live at Commerce will teach you advanced tactics the Pros use to thrive in today’s highly competitive poker tournaments and give you a front row seat from which to discover what’s missing from your game.

Once you’ve learned the right moves to make, you get a chance to put your skills into action playing a freeroll satellite with a $3500 World Poker Tour Main Event seat* as 1st prize!

Have questions about this Workshop? Contact us at [email protected] or (888)600-5593 and we’ll be happy to help.


*The Main Event Seat Freeroll is exclusive to attendees of the LearnWPT Live at Commerce Tournament Workshop being held February 2020. Visit LearnWPT.com/Commerce for more details.


Posted on Tags