Today's hand is a very common situation, before turning I open the pool to raise the pool, the effective chip is 42 big blind, big blind call, my starting hand is 99.
I don't remember exactly how I played this hand, either by passing or by placing a small bet and winning the pot in the flop. I took a screenshot of this hand because it's a very common situation, but there's no clear answer to how to play this hand. This is a hand that can beat all the high and small pairs, along with some backdoor win rates (or blocking cards). With such a card, you don't want your opponent to call you, and you don't want to turn a card or a river card that will allow the opponent to hit the forming card.
If my card is 33 at this point, on the surface of this flop, I will turn this hand into a bluff, because even if it has an advantage now, the chances of winning after the river card is issued are not very good. Unlike 99, 99 seems to be in the middle of "wanting to bluff" and "becoming a catcher".
The suit color is the key
Using the GTO-approved flip range table, I look at this hand with a solid. When the hand hits the flop, if the opponent crosses the card, we should:
(Dark Brown = Large Size Bet, Light Brown = Small Size Bet, Yellow = Subsequent Pass)
When we have a range advantage, most parts of our range, we should bet on small sizes, as exemplified by the image above. Only with value cards, such as AA, KQ and KJ, do we have to bet on large sizes, or use listening cards such as Q9 and square J9 to bluff large sizes. For medium pairs like 77 to 99, some people will bet on small sizes, and some people will pass the cards later, and the ratio is about 50/50. It is precisely because 99 in this range is a relatively special starting card, so I want to talk about it.
The ratio of 50/50 is based on the decor. If the 99 in hand has a square piece, the ratio of bets to passes is almost 50/50. This is easy to understand, because if we want to keep the opponent from calling and taking the pot, we should block the potential flush card so that the opponent will have a greater probability of folding. Moreover, if we have a block card, the opponent will be less likely to hit the flush, so that even if we play passively, we don't need to worry too much about the opponent hitting the forming card on the back two streets. So, when I have a square in my 99, I can bet or pass a card.
When there is no square piece, solver's advice is that there is a 30% probability to bet and a 70% probability to pass the card subsequently. In this case, the opponent may call our bet, so it is better for us to pass the card later, so that the least amount of money can be paid to play the showdown. On the other hand, if you are holding a smaller pair, such as 22 to 66, you can place a bet directly, because you don't need to worry about what is blocked or not blocked, and each card in the stack is not a good card for a card like 22 to 66, so it is better to take the pot directly in the flop.
It is also worth mentioning that the ratio of cards to bets is also 50/50, and another starting hand is QQ. Similar to the situation with 99, QQ's card strength is stronger than many cards, but if you use it to bet, you have to worry about whether the opponent has a K or a big listening card. Therefore, it is the best way to play it as a scare card and play a showdown with the least amount of payment. But it has one biggest difference from 99, the influence of suit color on QQ is the opposite. If we have a square in our QQ, then we should pass the cards, and vice versa.
This is because if our QQ has a square piece, if we complete the flush, we will block the second nut card, and the QQ with the square piece will also block the larger flush card that the opponent will take to call. QQ will also block cards like KQ, so QQ is more suitable for grabbing scare cards than 99 in this case.