Puzzles
#04
BB Defence
Advanced
15bb, then 40bb

The same hand, at two stack depths

Two preflop decisions with the same pocket pair against the same button open. Nothing changes between them except the size of the stacks — and that alone changes the answer.

  1. Pre-flop

Hand info

Seats
BB vs BTN
Street
Pre-flop
Pot
4.6 bb
Effective stack
15 bb
Villain raised to
2 bb
You already in
1 bb
To call
1 bb

MTT, 9-max. Blinds 0.5 / 1, 12.5% ante — 1.125bb dead before anyone acts.

Pot4.6 BB
1
HERO ·BB
15 BB
UTG
FOLD
UTG+1
FOLD
UTG+2
FOLD
LJ
FOLD
HJ
FOLD
CO
FOLD
2
D
BTN
RAISE13 BB behind
0.5
SB
FOLD

PREFLOP · 15BB EFFECTIVE · ANTE 0.125BB

BTN OPEN

9-max table. Hero is BB with 15 big blinds effective. BTN OPEN. Hero holds 9s and 9d. UTG is short-stacked at 15 big blinds. UTG+1 is short-stacked at 15 big blinds. UTG+2 is short-stacked at 15 big blinds. LJ is short-stacked at 15 big blinds. HJ is short-stacked at 15 big blinds. CO is short-stacked at 15 big blinds. BTN is short-stacked at 15 big blinds. SB is short-stacked at 15 big blinds. BB is short-stacked at 15 big blinds.

Hand history

Pre-flop

  • UTGFolds
  • UTG+1Folds
  • UTG+2Folds
  • LJFolds
  • HJFolds
  • COFolds
  • BTNRaises to 2 bb (min-raise)
  • SBFolds

Mid-tournament, 15bb effective. It folds to the button, who min-raises to 2bb. The small blind folds. You are in the big blind with 9♠9♦ and 1bb more to call into a 4.625bb pot.

You have 15bb. What do you do?