Mystery bounty ITM ICM discussion
Specifically when we are a tournament big stack.
Hand that prompts me to start this discussion is pretty straight forward tbh, 75bb wild donk big stack opens, we 3b KK off 74bb and he just rips it in my face. I snap into AA obv.
In the above example the average stack is like 20bb, all other players at my table were sub 10bb. All mega bounties remain including 1000x (50k) multiple 600x’s and 300x’s etc.
Hundreds of players remain and I have a big edge on the field.
I would normally play a lot of flats here initially to trap the shorties/opener trying to iso, but I was gunning for the whale, unfortunately Moby had a bigger knife.
Retrospectively I think this is a pretty important lesson for me for mystery bounties and I would like to discuss it.
My view; as a big stack in a mystery bounty we should be playing passively and mega nitty vs a covering player (assuming spot/line is credible) in order to preserve our stack so we can farm bounties.
Discuss?
3 Replies
I think it is important to know the exact bet sizing pre-flop and also if Villain has 4-bet jammed before in out of proportion ways.
If for example the raise was 2 bb then you 3-bet to 6bb and he jammed effective 74bb rather than 4-betting to about 24bb then its a tough decision. But if his 4-bet was usually 2.5x to 3x which in this case would be 15bb to 18bb then the jam is disproportionately large and is very tough for KK.
I almost never fold KK pre-flop but when I do its because I believe the bet sizing is wrong (even way wrong). I was right once and wrong once.
But here in a mystery bounty with so many small stacks then this is a crazy tough spot. Villain can have AK (8 combos) or AA (6 combos) or KK (1 combo). Maybe QQ but I doubt it. Unless Villain has been 4 bet jamming a lot I just don't think I like this spot. Specifically because of the stack sizes you mentioned and the mystery bounties still out there I think I would lean towards folding.
Still best case in this hand I tank and fold.
Hi Rick, thanks for comments.
Was 2.5x to 9.5x to rip.
9.5 (enough to cover all other players) was intentionally larger to force him to go huge to iso any bounties that came along for the ride.
Hadn’t seen a 4bet from him before.
I think the 9.5x sizing is to big unless you were SB or BB. So sorry I forgot to ask positions.
I think it doesn't matter much where donk guy is opening from but it matters a lot where you were.
His jam is fairly normal even in position because a 3x 4-bet would be 28.5x which is more than 33% effective stack.
In a way I wish I didn't know he had AA. I think it changes my inclination because he can not only increase his stack significantly but he wins a bounty with say AK against QQ or JJ against AK if he wins the flip and he may get you to fold a lot by shoving.
The other thing that I guess is important to know is how wide would he think your 3-bet range is? Did you ever show any hands that were weak 3-bets like A5s or 76s?
