DECISION POINT: In a $1-3 game with a $6 straddle the UTG+1 player raises to $20. A Middle Position player calls as do you from the Button with A♠9♠. Both Blinds and the original raiser fold. On the 3♠2♠4♦ flop the UTG+1 player bets $40 and MP2 raises $120 all-in. Action is on you, what do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: In a $1-3 game with a $6 straddle the UTG+1 player raises to $20 and MP2 calls. We have A9s which is a speculative hand. While MP2 is quite short stacked, the initial raiser has our $600 stack well covered and if we call it is highly likely the straddle comes along as well. This is a great spot to get in a multiway pot with a speculative hand in position on the Button. We call $20 and everyone else folds.

The flop is 3s2s4d giving us two over cards, a gut shot straight draw, and a flush draw. This is a big combo draw, one of the best unmade hands we could have flopped. UTG+1 makes a continuation bet of $40 and MP2 shoves all in for $120. We could potentially call here given our equity in the pot. Let's look at UTG+1's range a bit deeper.

Since UTG+1's range is from early position it should consist of a lot of over pairs and Ax type hands, most of which are currently ahead of us but we have a lot of equity against. MP2s range consists of some made hands, some draws, and some over pairs as well.

In this particular case we gain a lot of equity in the pot if UTG+1 folds, potentially even getting all-in when MP2 has worse draws where we can win the hand unimproved. Even if we were to get all-in versus UTG+1 we would have a lot of equity in the pot given that we almost always have 9 outs and often have 15.

In this case raising to try and isolate the MP2 player who is all-in makes a lot of sense and the most logical raise size is all-in.

Moving all-in is the best play.

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