77 post

I would bet 2 bb's. The K hits our range hard and if BB has a small PP or 4x or 2x they will likely think that we either have AK or a PP that's bigger than theirs and fold. Now we could have AQ/AJ and they might call. If the turn is a A/K/Q/J/7 then I bet again (on the off chance they have 88/99 unless the flush got there and otherwise I check back. The river could be tricky so it would matter if BB bets or not and if so I usually fold. Otherwise I usually check it back.

yes and that's exactly what I did but he check-raised to 6.8bb

Tough spot, given that you're on the money bubble I probably fold. Unfortunately I expect the raise to be a bluff a lot of the time but there's not much you can do.

The bigger stacks can get away with pushing the short stacks around on the money bubble. Also, preflop 77 might not even be an open UTG on the bubble for exactly that reason.

You would have to give a specific example. Like most things in poker it depends.

Like in this very hand I posted: Kh 4s 2s. Or if it was Kh 8s 7d. One high card and two with draw potential. I’m used to cbetting rainbow flops, but here I don’t feel the merits behind it cause ppl often check-raise draws

It's just one of those spots. You open, CB small, and fold to a x/r. It's a weird spot for him to be x/raising because your range is strong and hits that K, so I've give him credit for a value x/r more often here.

Small-med pairs can be really difficult to play in spots like this, which is why 77 is pretty near the bottom of a 20bb UTG opening range.

I c-bet high when I have top or second pair (from the ones on the flop) to discourage them from chasing a draw and if they miss it then it’s ok but here I don’t know (when semi-bluffing)

Remember though it's on the bubble and he has three times as many chips as us. He can put a lot of ICM pressure on us with a raise. Pretty much if we don't have a K+ or flush draw it's difficult for us to continue.

I'm guessing you might be range betting this flop? If so that's probably a mistake. If we're range betting he can likely profitably raise with almost any two cards.

Postflop ICM is an area where I'm not as well studied though so I don't want to mislead you regarding how to proceed on those examples flops you gave. My guess is that a solver would likely be mixing.

I'm not sure if it's solver approved, but one adjustment I make as a shorter stack on the bubble is to check back more for pot control and go for delayed c-bets more in spots I would normally c-bet (betting turn if he checks to us again). I do this with medium strength hands, semibluffs and also some monsters to protect my range. I think it's good exploitatively against weaker opponents who are usually betting themselves on the turn if they have a strong hand. We can call a bet ourselves with most of those hand classes so they can't just blast away on the turn after we check flop, but if they check twice it's much less likely that they'll then check raise.

When we say "near the bubble" what do we mean exactly? Near the soft bubble? Already at the soft bubble?

TBH if we're close enough to the money there's nothing wrong with open-folding this UTG.

I probably c-bet smaller but I think you just give it up when you get check-raised at the larger size. I would be more inclined to check back a bigger pair under the king, like QQ-TT. But you don't want to lose the pot because you gave a free card to a hand like T9o that would have folded the flop.

Around 10 players left to get ITM which was a mini cash of two buyins and the buyin itself was $2.50 with . between 2 and 50 so not a bubble in the scheme of things, technically a bubble of bubble

I would fold to the flop c/r.

In general I think Villains tend to under bluff after a flop cbet when there is a K on the board. We have the dominant range including AK/AA/KK because there was no 3-bet preflop. Even with flush draws there are less c/r's with a K on the board. So it looks a lot like Villain has a KXs hand which means we can get away from the hand early.

Villains do c/r with flush draws sometimes and so be it. The chances that they have a suited hand and that it is the right suit is probably around 10% to 15% so its worth it to me to go after it on the flop when the flop is in our range or neutral. I would be checking a monotone flop HU when I don't have a 7 of the board's suit.

Against two Villains on a flop like this I would check without a 7 of the board's suit.

How many in the field / how many get paid? That's a big factor when we're discussing how close to the money we are.

Thanks, I owe you

400 out of 3000 (roughly), first place $500ish

I'm with nath on this one. 400 left and 10 players off, you are super close to the bubble. You need much tighter ranges, especially cutting out lower pairs like this, UTG to open into a covering BB. BB can (and should) do this to you all day.

Yeah, knowing now that we're 10 away from the money in a field this big, with a BB covering us by a lot, I think I just fold pre.

What about limping and set mining? At these stakes, when you open a limp fest from UTG, folks limp along.

I think it's better to just fold.

If the table is especially passive then opening with a raise the way you did might be OK. Other players with bigger stacks should be doing stuff like 3-betting you and check raise bluffing you since they know you'll have to fold way more than usual. If they're not playing back at you aggressively then your raise might be fine because you'll end up realizing equity better against passive opponents.

If you're playing 77 here you're typically hoping to steal the blinds pre or get heads up so you can take the pot down with a C-bet on a lot of flops. That kind of stuff.

The last thing you want to do is bleed off chips trying to make a monster at this stack depth. That's what's going to happen a lot if you limp.

He only said "close to money bubble" and I don't think the typical online player is going to be risking chips to apply ICM pressure against a strong UTG range against a 20bb stack.