T.J's Play

wader

I have a question after watching T.J in the WPT the other day. If he has pocket 5's or better and is in position, many times he will come over the top to an earlier position raise. So i'm just wondering if anybody has tried this and if you have is it because you have a read or have seen a betting pattern of some sort? I realize that this probablly would'nt work as well early in a tourney because of weaker players.

Wader

Velvet Alley

I have tried this several times. It's worked and failed. It works well because your being the agressor and representing the huge hands and if early position is trying to steal the pot by acting like there holding top hand they will generally fold to a large raise or all in. Now the losing factor to this is if there short stacked and they put in a raise and you raise them all in, they'll probably call, hoping for the best. The other problem is that the raiser has the top pair. And if they do expect to be slow played and loose alot of chips. I suggest you use this move only when you see weakness in a players raise or the player is known to raise week hands. eg.A 10 unsuited.
This is just my opinion, I hope it helps with your question.

Dave Scharf

If he has pocket 5's or better and is in position, many times he will come over the top to an earlier position raise. So i'm just wondering if anybody has tried this and if you have is it because you have a read or have seen a betting pattern of some sort?

It is a great play against players who have a very wide range of hands with which they will raise, but a very small range of hands with which they will call your re-raise. You win a lot with no contest and when they do call you still have a 25% chance of winning.

This is the joy of no limit. Player A raises in early position with A-Js. Player B on the button re-raises. Player A thinks, "That sonofa might be pulling a TJ on me and re-raising with something like 5-5. I'm gonna teach him. I re-re-raise." Player B (holdng J-J) now thinks "He probably has at least A-K or a big pair. But, what if he is pulling a Carlos Mortenson and re-re-raising with nothing. Crap. What the hell do I do?"

arkose

ya it works sometimes but not always...its situational......but if you have a tight image, and you are reraising the right guy....they'll usually fold rather than risk a big chunk of their chips