Need help with a hand situation in MTT.

Coronabomb

Hello, I am fairly new to this forum but have a question about a hand situation that always seems to get the better of me.

About an hour and a half into a large MTT game 2000+ players. Average chips stack about $3000. You have $6400 and have been playing pretty strait forward/tight for the most part. At a solid table thus far, no real loose canons or anything.

Blinds 100/200
You are big stack at the table.
You are to the right of the button.

Folds around to you, and you look down at KJs

You decide to raise it up to $450, take the pot right there.

Button calls (he now has $5400 after the call), small blind folds, and big blind make the call.

Pot now has $1450

Flop comes K92 rainbow (none of which are your suit)

With top pair and an ok kicker you come in for a bet of $1100

Button flat calls, bb folds

There is now $3650 in the pot. You have $4800 and your opponent has $4300

The turn comes up a 7.

My question is: now what? You are still doing very respectable in this tourney, and your next bet is going to have to have some meat with it to fend this guy off.

I guess my problem here is how do you play this hand in this spot so that if you are beat you can get away from it?

Anyone can pound this hand and either go broke or double, but there has got to be a way to get away from this if you are beat, but to also not just give it away with the best hand.

Any thoughts about this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

coronabomb

Graham

If the average chip stack is 3000 and the people have over half of their stack invested you have to wonder what they were calling the flop with. Unfortunately if its only going to be another 1500 to make any call so I don't know if you can really get away from the hand at that point. I find I struggle with what to do in these situations as well and usually end up continuing on because I feel I am committed to the hand. One other thing you could do is check the flop and see what happens next. At least the pot will stay a bit smaller. I suck at NL Holdem though so there are probably better people on this site with more insight.

FRoSTy

you would have to ask yourself this question.. does he have a draw!! he smooth called the flop and the turn... 9 on the flop 7 on the turn... but did the 7 gave a color too was that guy playing lots of hand only to fold mid hand??? if so he missed a draw and folded to a big raise.. there's no deffinite way to play that hand.. but checking the turn would be a good way to see where your at in the hand... and if he checks too this means two possible things either he wanted a free card or he wants you to make the pot bigger to win with his monster... so he could have had a good draw that he wanted to try... or pocket A's... so just check and if he comes firring on the river with a miss on an apparent double gutshot then he might have A's so i would fold but he migh have made a move on you too knowing you where tight...


all these things comes into question on the river ... trust me i too made some stupid call but youll get over it and learn from those mistake

Johnith

yeah this is one of those hard spots! If i was in that exact situation of yours i would only bet 1/2 the pot on the flop, just because no draws were present. You also get to see whos willing to play after the flop for a cheaper price. You dont want to build a huge pot with top pair against a solid player. On the turn, Depending on the button's playing style i either take one more stab with a small bet about 1/4 the pot or about 900-1200 or im check /folding. Or if the button is a really weak player who can loose alot of money with middle pair, or top pair with a weak kicker ill bet a small bet on the river if he just calls the turn. If you get raised on the turn get out right away. With this play you still leave your self just above the average stack and you can keep playing solid poker.

jdAA88

I'd bet the turn and fold to a raise, if he just smooth calls I'll probably fire the river as well.....

DennisG

Presuming he is a solid player..don't know the buyin, but at 100/200 still lots of donks left in the game..

What beats you here? AA, KK(unlikely but not impossible), AK, KQ....77(unlikely he would have stayed with 2 overs), 99, or 22..barring a freak call with 29s..AA and KK he have re-popped preflop likely..he is a decent size stack to start, and now has near half into the pot...so we presume he called with top 5% and hit something..

only 6 hands beat you after the flop, and with him playing top 5% (ruling out AA, KK) you are about a 60% favorite?

I think I have that right..if not..someone will surely correct me..lol..

hmm...I just re ran that in pokerstove. (going with suited kj and using other suits for flop) After the turn, 7..suit matching first flop card, not hero... and button calling with top 5% (including AA and KK) plus KQo makes the hero 46%

Personally.... Without a read on him and putting myself in the spot...I think at that stage I feel like I am way ahead of him..his range is likely huge, and it is early, so a really good chance he is a donkey..go big or go home...he probably shows a mid pair or a 10Js

herschelw

First of all, if you're playing online using pokertracker or holdemmanager would at least give you some idea of how often this guy folds to continuation bet and that's helpful info to know if he often has a better hand when calling on the flop. Without that info our situation is a bit tougher.

Normally on this ultra-dry board most better players would check the flop instead of C-betting the majority of the time. They'd also check most pairs rather than C-bet to balance thier range a bit. The reason they check it is to avoid the spot you're in. If I bet this flop I'd definitly bet smaller around 55-60% of pot. Then checking turn is a must because if you bet turn almost everything you beat folds.

herschelw

Also, any time you post a hand including the buyin and whether it's an online hand or live poker hand is a must.

PokerKai

I would have made it 500 to go pf. Not a big deal but psychologically, most ppl in the bb see that 50 extra chips above a min raise and just treat it like a min raise. In my experience the extra 50 to go to 500 will get you more folds and less random calls.

Balancing ranges in a tournament against ppl you have no history with and likely wont have history with isnt really a big deal. So I wouldnt make that arguement for checking the flop. Its more for pot control and to induce bluffs really.

As played I think we definitely need to check back here because its going to be hard to get value on the turn and if we do get a call were playing for stacks. So the optimal line in this spot is check turn, value bet blanks 1/3 to 1/2 pot if checked to or snap call half psb or smaller and tank shoves...

runbad89

fold pre,

if not the flop bet is too big, should bet about 50% of the pot most times, i cant remember but i think he had pos. on you so i would prolly check-fold turn to a bet and wait for a better spot.btw this is my first post so just my two cents.

Quinner

Interesting spot, I'm by no means any good at NL, (working on it) I see why checking flop here is a good idea, personally, I used to pretty much automatically c-bet any dry board (with or without a made hand), but OOP, it's better to keep pots a bit smaller-ish if there is not necessarily a need to protect the hand. This is especially true without a good read on your opponent.

I'm curious though, what if hero checks and villain bets on the flop, does hero call and then check turn? At what point do we say ok, we're beat here, and at what point do we say he's just using his position wisely and possibly bluffing?