$1100 live tournament, three hands from the big blind
Three BB spots I found interesting:
1. Hero is in BB, Villain UTG is a young Asian kid in his 20s, no past experience but from sizings is a pro/studied.
Middle of day 1, far from the money, Hero has 70bb and Villain covers.
Villain opens 2.2bb UTG, Hero defends with KJo.
Flop 9-10-J with a flush draw. Hero has neither suit.
Hero x, Villain continues 25% pot, Hero calls.
Turn Q, bringing a second flush draw.
Hero x, Villain bets 75% pot, Hero calls.
River Q.
Hero x, Villain bets 75% pot. Hero?
2. Hero is in BB again, with the same hand (KJo) vs. same Villain UTG. This time Hero is 80BB effective.
Villain opens 2.2bb URG, Hero defends.
Flop A-K-J all spades, Hero has no spades.
Hero x, Villain continues 2/3 pot, Hero calls.
Turn brick — maybe a 7. Hero x, Villain bets 125% pot, Hero tank calls.
River brick. Hero bets pot. Hero?
3. Couple levels later, Hero is BB with 50ish BB against a different Villain, older white guy who is loose-passive pre and pretty aggressive postflop. Villain is >100bb deep.
Villain raises 2.5x from the lojack, Hero defends with 5d3d.
Flop 10-5-4r, one diamond.
Villain bets around 30% pot, Hero calls.
Turn Ad.
Hero donks a little over half pot, Villain calls pretty quickly.
River 2d.
Hero bets about 70%. Villain tank jams. Hero has
Withholding my thought processes for now and welcome comments on any street in any of the hands. Thanks.
7 Replies
Hand 1: We turned a straight and can be behind AK but so be it. On river we are now also behind QJ/QQ/JJ/TT/99 but I don't think I can fold.
Hand 2: I generally don't bluff with two pair but I guess it could work against AK. I just doubt Villain will fold with a better hand. Since all flush draws didn't get there and we are more likely to have one than Villain. I think I prefer to check/call here rather than bet/fold.
Hand 3: I call. If Villain has a bigger flush so be it. We have a backdoor flush when it looks like we liked the A on the turn (like we have 2 pair). For the record I wouldn't lead out the turn because it is an A. But it does make the river bet less obvious as to what we have.
Apologies, messed up description of Hand #2. Hero checks river, and Villain (not Hero) bets pot. Hero's move?
I thought it might be a typo but then Hero didn't x first...
Hand 2 makes me fell very uncomfortable. Not that I would fold the flop but I would think about it. I doubt Villain has a flush but there aren't many hands we beat. Maybe AQ/QQ where Villain has a flush draw. Not even sure Villain would open ATo UTG. The turn oversized bet is definitely polarizing and given Villain is Asian and young and a GTO/Solver it could easily be a bluff. But it could also be AA/AK/KK/JJ/QTs... Since we called the turn without a flush draw I think we have to call the river pot sized bet.
I think a flop call is standard for Hand 2; definitely not folding two pair and x-r to bloat the pot OOP on a board where he has a big range advantage seems bad.
Turn overbet is tricky. We block a lot of his value (KK, JJ, AK, AJ). Villain can put pressure on with hands like QsQs, AxQs, even 10s10x. I had not played with him long enough to have a feel for how many suited connectors he's opening UTG so Idk how many flushes can have her. But folding turn felt too weak given a good player will press the range advantage.
However, Hero did fold when Villain pots the river, so maybe check-calling turn is bad.
H1- as played call. Idk maybe raise turn? Weird spot bc raising turn seems to level yourself and allow villian to play perfect. Def call river as your hand is super underepped.
H2- idk I would raise flop. Just calling seems super passive and allows villian to realize equity with one spade. You need some x raises in your range- you can’t just call all the time from bb defends.
H3- this hand qualifies as a nice x raises. You can barrel almost all diamonds and hands that potentially help you make a straight. Again the x raise is villian dependent and prolly wants to be done against aggro players. Clearly call river- if they have a flush it’s just bad luck.
Idk why you don’t x raise flop. If you are going to defend these shitty hands at times which is a call from bb- you need to x raise sometimes with your non set, two pair, Tptk hands to realize equity and be a threat. I think I would raise flop, barrel cards where we pick up equity or two pair, three of a kind. I would bet to set up a 60%-125% pot bet all in on river also. I would potentially bluff river with one pair at times based on live reads.
H1- as played call. Idk maybe raise turn Weird spot bc raising turn seems to level yourself and allow villian to play perfect. Def call river as your hand is super underepped. H2- idk I would raise flop. Just calling seems super passive and allows villian to realize equity with one spade. You need some x raises in your range- you can't just call all the time from bb defends. H3
I think if we raise turn in H1, we fold out hands we can get value from on the river because we are underrepped and/or deter Villain from bluffing river, which he should do a fair bit with his range advantage.
I like the flop x/r line on H3. Working on balancing value x/r lines from the BB by incorporating more check-raises with bottom pair + backdoor FD or gutshot + backdoor FD.
Yea these spots are all kinda dicey. H1 idk- I think 2 pairs, sets, etc have to call a turn raise. Your hand is face up if you raise turn though. It almost seems like when you do raise though and villian continues, it’s a straight or AK. Also flush draws prolly continue. I think we need to raise turn but again I can be ok with calling and just calling off on river with a super underepped hand- as if we raise turn, it folds out all trash that may continue and bluff river.
