First level, flop boat.
Senior 150 event in quarterly series so it’s a well attended 80 person field already. First level, blinds are 100/100, no bb ante yet. I arrive a few hands late. V1 and v2 have already played a 5k pot. Starting stack is 25k. I am bb and it’s my second or third hand.
Family pot or close to it. I look down at 22 and check.
Flop AA2 calico. Sb checks, I donk out $600. Folds to V1 and V2 in late position (around cutoff) who call. Everyone else folds. I am absolutely certain they both have an A at this point.
Turn is a 5. I donk out 1.1k fully intending to reraise when V1 snap shoves 30k and v2 snap calls off his 20k stack.
V1 is a horrible female player who overbets constantly. She plays the carnival poker games and cash more than tournaments. V2 is a conservative 55 yr old player who is a regular for the better structured weekend tournaments. He typically folds to big bets and I would label him tight weak but I havenÂ’t played many tables with him. I did not witness earlier hand. I have another buy-in in my pocket.
What do you do?
13 Replies
I call. The first jam is clearly not A5 because why would somebody jam the nuts on the turn instead of just raising to like 3.3k? The insta call could be A5/55 but then so be it.
Also, I have folded in situations like this and would be tilted for the rest of the tournament if I would have won the hand. I have no problem with coolers if I can buy back in at an early stage of a tournament.
I call. The first jam is clearly not A5 because why would somebody jam the nuts on the turn instead of just raising to like 3.3k? The insta call could be A5/55 but then so be it.Also, I have folded in situations like this and would be tilted for the rest of the tournament if I would have won the hand. I have no problem with coolers if I can buy back in at an early stage of a
Not ruling out A5. People do the strangest things. Especially at a poker table.
That being said, I call with only a minor hesitation.
What range do we put "weaktight" "conservative" "typically folds to big bets" player on here? Do we expect him to check AK pre? Check AQ? Do we expect him to snap call with any AX-hand here after the double donkbets from you and the covering shove from V1? Wouldn't he at least consider the call very careful if he had say ATs? Or might even this player be so bad that he's capable of grossly overvalueing such a hand as the effective nuts giving this betting pattern?
Also we have to consider the possibility of the horrible V1 really having it this time, although I think most of the time she hasn't. Nevertheless I might be the real weaktight guy here, but I seriously consider folding here.
I'd have a hard time folding here, but I just don't know. I mean, do you think either of them ever have 43s?
But I probably also don't play this postflop in the same way. We're 250bb deep? I'm looking to check-raise the flop sizably and bet large enough on the turn to shove most rivers. I'm not sure what the pot size is, but based on my rough estimate, somewhere between 2400-2600 and you bet 1100 this deep with an underfull? If I took your line, I'd overbet the turn substantially, like b150 or even b200-- the latter maybe favored here so I can shove non A/5 rivers.
I dunno, I guess I call by description of villains. V2 might be conservative but he still might call off an Ax that's ahead of what he thinks V1 has, or if he's the one with 43s here. I mean, you basically have the third nuts (if we don't count AA, since if someone has AA they can't both have aces, and also no one raised preflop). I just think it depends on how wide you think villains will stack off, and that's your own judgment. I'm certainly more worried about V2 than V1, but I still don't know if i can find a fold here. Six combos of A5o, two combos of A2o, three combos of 55. So, again, it depends if you think they're getting in Ax beyond full houses or 43.
So a little more background on villains.
I have only played about 4 tournaments with V1. In satellite tournament to the quarterly 1,000 main event, we just get to the final table and she is in small blind with second largest stack with the runaway chip leader in the bb. I raise UTG with Jj, four handed to the flop. Flop is 882, two hearts. She open shoves , bb snaps her off with Ah, 8d. Everyone else folds. She flips over two black kings and berates the bb player for calling her. Other tournament regulars have deemed this the worst played hand ever.
V2 is the type of player that when he has a draw on the flop, he takes one stab at it to see turn but if the betting on turn still gives him favorable odds, he still normal folds with a card funeral. I sat next to him once, he was friendly, knew most of dealers and other regs. I would say he lacks the right amount of gamble as a critic of his game. So he ends up bleeding chips because he lack aggressiveness. Otherwise, a solid, well liked player who pays attention at the table and is always fishing for information with his table talk.
What I did not know is she one outed him on the river to win prior 5k pot. When V1 called preflop and on turn, he gave her a “not again bitch look.”
Anyways, I call and table 22. She tries not to table a10 off, v2 tables A4.
River card ****s me completely.
You gii 79% 3-way.
Seems like very easy call of the allins.
I would have played for a x/r rather than leading out OOP. Hard for low stakes players to fold trips.
So a little more background on villains.I have only played about 4 tournaments with V1. In satellite tournament to the quarterly 1,000 main event, we just get to the final table and she is in small blind with second largest stack with the runaway chip leader in the bb. I raise UTG with Jj, four handed to the flop. Flop is 882, two hearts. She open shoves , bb snaps her off
I was obv. wrong here regarding V2 (the guy). It really didn't feel like was the type of guy who would call shove here after all action with trips - bad kicker. What do you think about his thought process here? Since you say he's paying attention he surely must have had some idea about your and V1:s hands? Or might it be possible that he mostly just thought about his own hand and felt he couldn't fold because he has top trips?
I have to improve taking notes when I see this type of play. I think I overestimate some players ability to realize the relative value of their hand when taking a) the board and b) action from other players into account. Or maybe it's just they find it to hard to let "a real good hand" go.
I think we can mostly rule out A5o or A2o from the first player, when they shove for heaps on the turn quickly. Probably has the best aces that they don't raise preflop.
V2 calling the shove is worrying if we know that he has a clue, but I'm not ready to assume that he does without better reads. He could have any random ace that he limped, an ace plus a draw, or 43. If he had a boat, there's also a stronger likelihood of him hemming and hawing rather than snap calling.
I don't see how we do anything but call and shrug if we're beat.
Even if V2 has a clue, that clue could still be "V1 jams her stack in way too wide" and thus he would call wider than he might against someone else.
We are 250xBB deep in a low stakes tournament in a limped pot. Generally, people play really badly deep early. Tournament players are used to playing shallow. Totally not surprising two people would overplay trips here. Obviously, fist pump gii. Sure sometimes you are beat or someone draws out. If this is a reentry, more reason to gii, because they will gamble.
These early levels can be very profitable and 22 is a great hand to have. You can stack someone with a set versus a big over pair, etc.
So a little more background on villains.I have only played about 4 tournaments with V1. In satellite tournament to the quarterly 1,000 main event, we just get to the final table and she is in small blind with second largest stack with the runaway chip leader in the bb. I raise UTG with Jj, four handed to the flop. Flop is 882, two hearts. She open shoves , bb snaps her off
This has basically been my year (2025). I can't tell you how many times I would have had a huge stack if only my all in edge held.
You stood a tremendous chance of basically tripling up (like 80%) so you could go deep. So excellent decision. Life...
Absolutely call here, for all the reasons given above.
I feel its possible to overthink, especially in retrospect if things didn't go as planned. We have the flop we wanted and want to get all the money in. If somehow we are not ahead we just sigh and rebuy.
Results: 5 on river, they chop me up and send me to rebuy line. The math and the result concern me less than how wrong my read was on Villian 2. I gave him way too much credit.
