This is a situation that I find either wins me a large pot or loses me a large one. I play sit and gos at PP at the 10 and 20 level.

1st round. Full table. You have your original 800 stack.

You are in the BB with 9 2.

There are two limpers to you. The SB checks, as do you.

The flop is K 9 2

The SB checks.

I will usually check here, looking to come over the top of one of the limpers when they raise.

However, is bottom two pair too vulnerable a hand to do this with? With three others in the pot, is it best to lead out with a pot sized bet here? How would things change if there was only one limper?

In this situation, I have been checking, but have got into trouble either when everybody else checks, they all get a free card, which makes someone else a better two pair. I would definitely not be making this play with a connected or 3, or even 2, suited flop. And how do you play it if you get a caller to your check raise and the turn is a dangerous card?

How do others play this hand?

In this spot, at Party, I leave nothing to chance on the turn or river and look to check-raise big in a field where I am acting early; if there's only one or two players to act behind I will usually lead out for around the size of the pot, however with 3 or 4 to act after, I'll check it and then make a big, big raise if anyone bets. I'd be happy to play for my stack here at Party 10 and 20 SnGs where early on there's at least 3 or 4 utter balloons at the table. If my opponent has K9, so be it, but more often than not they'll turn over K5o or something similarly powerful . At Party I feel the small sizes of the stacks and relatively rapid advance in blind size means that when you flop a hand like this you have to take the opportunity to double through if there's players willing to put their stack in with top pair average kicker, which is more often than not the case here. A lower risk play is perhaps to lead out and then fold to a significant raise, but I prefer a check-raise here; note that if you're ahead your opponent is drawing pretty thin (5 outs maximum) and if you're behind, well, somebody played K9... it happens, but in this spot it's tough to put someone on that.

Monk
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