Here is a position I came into during a game this morning. I am white:
is something that's interesting to me. I don't get that response often. Here's what was played in the game:In the game it turned out OK, I guess, but I have reason to feel that my play is not the best for a couple of reasons:
The move above feels great to play. That's why I wanted to play it. But is it really bigger than the area around 'a'? The reason I wonder is, as you can see in the diagrams above, I played two additional moves later to stabilize the three white stones on the left.
However, if I do not play the marked move, it seems easy to get an attack on the white stones this way:
The second point that I wonder about is if it is worth it to atari, since it gets cut later anyway. In other words, how about this?
Above, I omit the atari. This prevents black's cut, and maybe gives me the choice as white to either atari or get sente on the bottom.
What do you guys think?
was sente, effectively you spent only one move (namely 
) to defend the left side, and that move gives you a lot of strength also towards the top left. But mostly, you get to atari at 
, which feels great! After this sequence I would probably approach the bottom right corner at 'a'. The points 'b' are then miai for either making shape by sacrifing a stone or starting a fight.
is good, it destroys black's shape, and is certainly better than playing 3-3.
is better than defending the corner. White can either take the corner or extend, so that side is not urgent, while these two stones are weak.
and 
are wrong, the corner is not important at all right now.