What to do with this hand?

Ok so I made the final table in the UB 1500$ garenteed and the following hand occured:

Final table just started so i dont have a read on the villian
Blinds 1200/2400 ante200 my stack is about 31k .. villian has about 110K
I get A9off suit in MP
I raise to 6000 ( I thought that I cannot limp because I needed to have a shot at stealing the blinds and play this hand if i get called)
everyone folds and BB calls
flop:

Jc 6s 4c rainbow pot:16200

he checks to me

I bet 8K( So now im down to 17K)
He calls
turn is Qd POT:32000
he checks to me

What do you do??? Push all in for 17K? Or maybe did I play the whole hand wrong in the first place(ie i shouldnt of raised or something)

Let me know what you guys think! I found this decision quite tough because I was average stack and raising PF and doing a continuation bet pretty much pot commited me.. so should I of even raised PF? Any other good strategies to this situation? Maybe i should of folded PF?

Suggestions!

Comments

  • The raise is a little weak, especially against a big stack who can easily call.

    I am not passing an opportunity to show a little aggressiveness early on a new table.

    You have to keep in your head whether this is a raise for value or a straight steal. With A9o I would put it more in the straight steal category. Since you didn't hit and since this is a new table I would be inclined to give up here.

    Since it is a new table, he doesn't have a read on you either. You have position and checking behind on the flop won't necessarily be a sign of weakness.

    However since you cont. bet, unless you have a read that he is a known floater, (which you don't), there isn't much he could be drawing to on this board. You have done just about all you can do to win this hand. If you shove, even if he has a small piece of the board, he gets almost 3:1 to call you.

    If you check behind on the turn and he bets into you on the river and you fold, you have a m just around 3. This leaves you in push or fold territory on any subsequent hands. But at this point, with A9 what can you beat? A8, A7, A5, A3, K10. Is it likely he called you with these hands preflop and flop? Is it likely he would bet into you with those hands on the river?

    So you have to decide if you are better off pushing now on the turn or taking your 17k and using it to push in another hand, starting fresh.
  • In my opinion, the point that screwed me was the continuation bet. Do you think it was the right play to do a cont.bet?

    Because if i didnt do a cont bet, I would have another 8K of chips to work with.. which is quite good.

    On the other hand, I figured a cont bet might be able to take down the pot.. Maybe I played this a little too aggressive on the FT with stacks with everyones M's around 8-10ish(besides the chip leader)?
  • I would tend to see a free card for the river. If he checks the river he has a small pair or was on the flush draw. You may get lucky and see a card you can bluff at. Keep in mind that he would call you down with a pair with that stack.
  • Moose is 100% correct in that you need to have a plan for this hand before you even get involved. Personally I would need a convincing reason to get involved with A9o from mid postition with a stack this size. Playing it as you did can't really stand a re-raise with it and even if you get called and hit the flop you don't have a clue where you are in the hand (you will likely be dominated).


    If I decide to play the hand I am playing it as a steal and here is my thoughts:
    You have 10 trueBB (2/3 X (SB+BB+antes)).

    You push your stack into the middle.



    If for some reason I was going to raise with this hand but not put my stack in the middle here is what I would do. I would raise exactly enough to leave a pot sized bet in my stack that I can get in on the flop.


    My stack is $31,000
    $3600 + $1000 antes in the pot = $4600

    If I raise to $9000 (that is just less than 4XBB) and get called there is $22,600 in the pot and $22,000 in my stack.
  • On top of the suggestions above, I would suggest you learn english. It's of great value when communicating with Canadians.
  • On top of the suggestions above, I would suggest you learn english. It's of great value when communicating with Canadians.
    Don't be a dick. There are only a handful of spelling mistakes in the OP and his reply.

    /g2
  • I suspect it's my rock-like play but my opinion on this is final tables means time to restablish my tight image all over again. If I have to show down an A9o and potentially some of that goes out the window.

    So I wouldn't have picked this hand or this position (as a combination) to try a steal.
  • On top of the suggestions above, I would suggest you learn english. It's of great value when communicating with Canadians.

    I like it when the person who's been around here the longest and has learned the least starts picking on grammar. Good use on your time and energy. I agree, why try to improve the impossible?
    I suspect it's my rock-like play but my opinion on this is final tables means time to restablish my tight image all over again. If I have to show down an A9o and potentially some of that goes out the window.

    Don't expend so much energy worrying about ESTABLISHING an image, just concenrate on understanding what your image to the table actually is. If it's tight loose rock nit or maniac, you have the ability to flip modes and win.
  • I don't play on UB, what is the buy in for this?


    provided its LLNL

    This is where I bust out probably liquidfire (at least once we choose to raise pf)

    I like the amounts you chose, I like the con't bet. I like it all.:h:
  • BBC Z wrote: »
    Don't expend so much energy worrying about ESTABLISHING an image, just concenrate on understanding what your image to the table actually is. If it's tight loose rock nit or maniac, you have the ability to flip modes and win.


    This is a leak in my game that I know about, how do you do this exactly?

    What tells you what other people think of your play? I mean, if I raise and I get re-reraised, that could indicate that there's little respect for my cards or my oppt has a monster, and unless I show it down (potentially costing me a chunk of my stack), I won't know which.

    I'd love some tips on how to get an idea of the image you are portraying.
  • Watch the reaction of the table when you show a hand down. If you get a lot of eye rolls, you are loose. If they start nodding like they knew you had the nuts, you are tight.

    Instead of trying to look into the soul of your opponents, just look at your own play from thier perspective. Have you been failing to showdown hands? Then you look tight. Did you pick up a pot with 83o cuz it was 20:1 in the BB and you flopped trips? Yer loose.
  • zunni74 wrote: »
    This is a leak in my game that I know about, how do you do this exactly?

    What tells you what other people think of your play? I mean, if I raise and I get re-reraised, that could indicate that there's little respect for my cards or my oppt has a monster, and unless I show it down (potentially costing me a chunk of my stack), I won't know which.

    I'd love some tips on how to get an idea of the image you are portraying.


    Don't give villains too much credit at low limits. Most are too busy looking at their own cards to give your play much consideration.


    Personally I would use your tight image (If that is what you feel you portray) to get aggressive with your stealing when stacks start to get short.



    Intuitively you should realize that with 10BB (or 15BB when you have large antes) you are in push or fold mode. Your fold equity becomes the deciding factor in these situations.

    We discussed in another thread recently that many opponents will not properly adjust their calling ranges when faced with all-in bets and that is why they are +EV. Unfortunately you lose this fold equity when you end up with a stack that is well below 10BB. Big stacks will happily flip coins with you when you shove your AK while sitting on <10BB. I would rather make my moves when I have stack aided fold equity to push my plays into +EV territory.


    Here is an excellent reference to explain what your stack size is good for in an MTT. It is written by Bond18 and is on his blog.

    Things it took me a while to learn: Part 1 - Stack Sizes



    Cheers,

    Caddy
  • ok, I only read half...I promise to go back and read the rest and am looking forward to great poker discussion....

    but...."true BB's" WTF? Do we really need ANOTHER way to talk this?

    oh yeah, and MCU charts 4Life kidz.


    (kidding)
  • Kristy_Sea wrote: »
    ok, I only read half...I promise to go back and read the rest and am looking forward to great poker discussion....

    but...."true BB's" WTF? Do we really need ANOTHER way to talk this?

    oh yeah, and MCU charts 4Life kidz.


    (kidding)

    Agreed, the poker literature should just talk about M.
  • I'd push/fold preflop, because these situations postflop are so awful on your stack size and people are probably playing even scareder than usual at a final table so you usually won't get called light. Your bet would be around 5.5 times the pot though which may be a bit more than I'd like to shove depending on your exact position.
  • Oh just saw caddy's post, Bond's series of things it took me a long time to learn posts are an excellent crash course in a lot of the specifics of NLHE tournaments.
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