500 mistery bounty live hands
Hello everyone. I have a question about three hands that happened within one orbit and cost me the entire tournament.
I'm playing live Day 1 of a €500 buy-in mystery bounty tournament. Levels are 40 minutes long. Blinds are 3,000/6,000, I start the hand with 350k, and the average stack is around 250k.
Info about the players involved in all three hands:
Both players are seated directly to my right and both perceive me as a weaker player. They’re actively trying to outplay me and want to be in pots where I’m involved. In the previous level, one of them gave me a lot of chips after a failed 3-barrel bluff.
Hand 1 – My stack: 350k, BB 200k
Hero opens UTG with AA for 12k. SB and BB call.
Flop (42k): 9♣ 4♦ 2♦. I have A♦.
Blinds check to me – first decision. Since I know the blinds are trying to outplay me, I don't feel comfortable facing a check-raise. Holding the A♦ and considering the value hands that could call me are mostly 9x and smaller pairs, I decide to check back and play the turn.
Maybe I should be betting the flop to keep the aggression, but they’ve seen me check-fold in similar spots with AK-type hands, so I think I wouldn’t get much value from betting here.
Turn: 6♠.
SB leads for 20k, BB calls, and I raise to 50k. SB folds, BB calls.
My reasoning: I don’t want to go to the river three-way, and I don't believe players will bluff on the river multi-way. Now seems like the right time to get value from one-pair hands or flush draws that wouldn’t fold to this raise. If I get 3-bet on the turn, I’m folding.
River (160k): J♠.
BB checks. Now I have no idea if I should bet. Is a pair of 9s going to call me? Will he call with Jx that paired the river? My hand is kind of face-up, so I think the best play is just to check behind and take the showdown for a 25bb pot.
But I make the worst kind of bet – I don’t want others to think I’m a nit who doesn’t bet aces…
So I bet 50k, hoping to get called by a 9 or a J. I get called by 9♣ 4♥ – two pair.
Questions:
– Is it reasonable to check back the flop?
– On the turn, should I just call and let them continue bluffing?
– Is the river bet too thin?
Hand 2 – My stack: 250k
SB from the last hand opens UTG to 12k. I’m UTG+2 with JJ and 3-bet to 35k. Player behind me calls, and UTG shoves for 140k.
Now it’s a 22bb shove. If the player behind me isn’t trapping with AA/KK – and I believe he’d just fold – I’m calling 110k to win around 350k, so I need about 25% equity.
Worst case, if UTG’s range is only QQ+ and AK, I still have 35% equity. So purely based on equity, it’s a call.
But since there are only 80 players left and 47 make the money, is it better to avoid flipping with an average stack and just live to see another level?
Or is building a huge stack more valuable for collecting bounties on Day 2?
I shoved, the player behind folded, UTG had QQ and I lost.
Hand 3 – Stack: 100k effective
SB from Hand 1 opens the BTN to 12k. I defend J5s.
Flop (30k): K♦ T♦ 2♣
I check, he bets 8k. Now what?
One option is to just call and play the turn. If I miss and he bets more than half pot, I don’t think my shove would have any fold equity.
If I hit my flush, there’s a decent chance it goes check-check, and I might lead – but in that case, I don’t know if I’ll get called (my image is pretty nitty right now).
Shoving seems like way too much into an 8k bet.
So I try a different approach – I raise to 22k to prepare for a turn shove. Pot would be ~70k and I’d have a pot-sized bet left.
But he shoves over me. Now I’m calling 70k to win about 210k, which gives me the right equity to call.
I call, miss, and bust.
How would you approach this hand?
– Just fold preflop?
– Call the flop and navigate turns?
– Shove the flop?
Mby i am result oriented, but i definitely dont want to just thing "just unlucky spots" and believe there are better ways to play these spots. Thank you for your feedback
1 Reply
Hand 1: I actually don't mind the flop check back which under reps your hand. The flop range favors the blinds and you are up against 2 players. I probably bet my pre-flop bet size (12k) but then BB would likely c/r so here it was an effective move. On the turn I probably just call SB's bet to continue under repping. But if you are going to raise then 50k is too small. I would make it about 70k vs 2 players. So you saved some money based on your sizing. The river bet seems reasonable vs 1 player. I probably make it more but then again you saved money by keeping it small.
BB basically misplayed the hand on most streets. I would never call a preflop raise with 94o in the BB. Then on the turn BB doesn't raise SB's bet. And also on the turn BB doesn't raise your raise. On the river BB doesn't lead out which in all likelihood would look like a bluff or c/r which might not get called but 2 pair.
Hand 2: Nothing you can do differently here. JJ for 22 blinds is a given Your jam is good because it gets it HU. UTG can have 99+/AQ+ and even AJs/88/77/66. In theory if UTG is tight in EP then I might sometimes call with JJ, but given UTG has only 22 blinds its not a huge risk and UTG will be jamming with AK/AQ and possibly other hands other than QQ+.
Hand 3: J5s preflop raise call in the BB with 16 blinds is marginal but I would do it sometimes. I would not raise the flop because you are getting a great price for your draw and we don't have any overcards to the flop, so its strictly a flush draw and BDSD. And the problem is that when Villain jams we have to call with like 33% average odds of winning. If I did choose to raise it would be a jam with 12 bb's behind so we have Fold Equity. The bigger problem on the hand is that as played if Villain just calls the flop raise then what are you going to do when you miss (80% of the time)? If you jam its a pot sized bet and Villain would likely not fold Kx hands.
