Critique Welcomed
$1/$3 cash game at the ARIA last Sunday night.
A few hands in I made a preflop raise UTG with 58 suited, flopped the nut straight and got paid off and stacked a guy. After that, I got no credit for having a hand and was called down light several times.
This was how my signature hand of the week unfolded:
UTG makes it $11 pre, I call with 55 in CO+1, button calls, BB calls.
4 of us to the flop.
Flop J 8 5 rainbow. BB bets $15. UTG raises to $45. Thinking Button and BB would both fold, I just flat the $45.
Button makes it $100 (Surprise!) and BB and UTG both call. Now I'm kinda crapping my pants. I tank and think it through. Button does not have JJ - she would 3-bet preflop in position. 88 is possible here. I put UTG on an overpair as soon as he made it $45 or maybe AJ. Not exactly sure what BB has, he has a wide range and has good odds to play a draw or 2 pr here. Also, he only has about $60 behind.
And so I shove $400+, which has everyone else covered. Button grumbles and folds, BB calls his last $60 and UTG calls his last $250 or so. UTG has KK and BB has 9T (OESD).
Turn and river brick and my 5s hold up.
Total pot: $1000-ish
Button told me afterwards she had AJ and would have turned top 2 and paid me off also.
A few hands in I made a preflop raise UTG with 58 suited, flopped the nut straight and got paid off and stacked a guy. After that, I got no credit for having a hand and was called down light several times.
This was how my signature hand of the week unfolded:
UTG makes it $11 pre, I call with 55 in CO+1, button calls, BB calls.
4 of us to the flop.
Flop J 8 5 rainbow. BB bets $15. UTG raises to $45. Thinking Button and BB would both fold, I just flat the $45.
Button makes it $100 (Surprise!) and BB and UTG both call. Now I'm kinda crapping my pants. I tank and think it through. Button does not have JJ - she would 3-bet preflop in position. 88 is possible here. I put UTG on an overpair as soon as he made it $45 or maybe AJ. Not exactly sure what BB has, he has a wide range and has good odds to play a draw or 2 pr here. Also, he only has about $60 behind.
And so I shove $400+, which has everyone else covered. Button grumbles and folds, BB calls his last $60 and UTG calls his last $250 or so. UTG has KK and BB has 9T (OESD).
Turn and river brick and my 5s hold up.
Total pot: $1000-ish
Button told me afterwards she had AJ and would have turned top 2 and paid me off also.
Comments
I was going to ask how much people had back before calling with 55 pre, but it seems based on results that the answer was "plenty".
I like that you tanked, but also were willing to recognize there's only two hands that beat you, and you can likely eliminate one of those from the 3-bet. BB with only $60 behind is inconsequential here, as you said. It's a shame you couldn't get the button to come play too, but I think your push was the right move considering the pot was about as much.
Expertly played.
Mark
Yes, enough to make set mining profitable. UTG AND BTN had almost as much as me ($350-ish each) and BB was the only short stack at $175 or so.
BTN was a solid player. She was definitely capable of trying to buy the pot with the $100.
UTG was tight and got tied to big hands easily. Saw him get stacked already with TPTK on an equally dry board.
BB was a big donator. I stacked him earlier as did a couple of others. Was his 4th $200 buy-in by my count, but he was already at the table when I sat down so could have been more.
Critique is both + and -. Personally, I thought I played it well, but the button did tell me afterwards that she thought flatting the $45 was insane.
Auto-correct, was supposed to be "Just"
It shows tremendous strength and will fold out top pair and even some two pair hands most of the time. A flat keeps them in the hand, where there are no draws on that board.
Like you said, if someone had a higher set, oh well, good for them. But in this scenario, those are the only hands that should have called your shove.
Fortunately for you, one was already short and this was $1/$3, where they don't put you on a hand they can't beat.
B. Raise was effectively 1/3 the pot since opponents only had $250 (or less) behind and were therefore priced in with any reasonable hand. Nobody's folding 2 pair here
and the only person in the hand who could fold TPTK here had just 4-bet, so I put her on better and would thus call.
C. What turn cards would be considered good for me? If the board pairs draws fold, if the draw fills in the others fold , if an A hits the overpair folds. On the flop, I'm pretty sure I'm ahead and they all have max equity to call.
This was clearly the best time to bloat the pot.