2 hands in a $220 live MTT.
Both of these hands took place in a $200+$20 live MTT that I played today. 99 entrants with a 10k starting stack.
My play was pretty straightforward for most of the tournament. Played the cards when they came and found opportunities to steal and resteal to keep chipping up when they weren't. These two hands were the only ones that I was confused about and I was wondering how others would've played them. I am 95% sure I made the wrong move in the first hand.
1. 40 left and I have 34.5k. The average stack is 24750. The blinds are 500/1000 with 200 antes. 10 person table.
I'm UTG+1 and raise to 3500 with AKs. Folds to cutoff who moves all in for 21000. It's folded to me and, after having the clock called on me, I folded. My read on the cutoff is that he's a smart player. This probably meant that he knew that a raise coming from me from EP should've indicated a strong hand. For this reason, I don't see him pushing all in with a lot of hands that I'm dominating (AQ, AJ, AT, KQ). I figured he most likely had a pair from 8s to Qs or we were chopping with AK. Having that read, I'm thinking I should've called as there's 28k in the pot and it's only 17.5k for me to call with the most likely result being a coinflip. However, during the hand, even after I used up all that time, I made the mistake of not counting up what was in the pot. I was a little drained and I spent most of the time wondering what hands he's possibly holding with zero thought put into thinking about what kind of pot odds I was looking at. I came to the conclusion that there was almost no way I could be ahead and folded. I think I also made up a possible scenario where he was overbetting with aces to get a call from me who supposedly had a strong hand.
Anyway, did I blow it here? Is this an autocall for you guys? I immediately regretted it right after I folded.
2. This second hand, I was kind of just playing by feel. I didn't really have a plan which is kind of bad.
It's an orbit later, same blinds. UTG raises to 4000. (UTG was a middle aged asian guy with ~13k who got moved to my table a couple orbits ago.) I call with pocket 10s. Young asian guy 3 seats behind me calls (he has about 50k, plays a lot of hands, and is generally pretty aggressive). The 3 of us see an 8 high flop, all hearts. UTG checks and I decide I want to see where I'm at out so I lead out for 7k (I also have the 10 of hearts). Guy behind me raises to 21k and UTG calls allin for the rest of his chips. I think for a while and muck.
Is there a better way I could've played this hand either preflop or on the flop? I kind of don't like checking the flop because it's pretty much a guarantee that the guy behind me will bet if checked to and there's a good possibility my 10s might be good.
Thanks in advance for advice and comments.
My play was pretty straightforward for most of the tournament. Played the cards when they came and found opportunities to steal and resteal to keep chipping up when they weren't. These two hands were the only ones that I was confused about and I was wondering how others would've played them. I am 95% sure I made the wrong move in the first hand.
1. 40 left and I have 34.5k. The average stack is 24750. The blinds are 500/1000 with 200 antes. 10 person table.
I'm UTG+1 and raise to 3500 with AKs. Folds to cutoff who moves all in for 21000. It's folded to me and, after having the clock called on me, I folded. My read on the cutoff is that he's a smart player. This probably meant that he knew that a raise coming from me from EP should've indicated a strong hand. For this reason, I don't see him pushing all in with a lot of hands that I'm dominating (AQ, AJ, AT, KQ). I figured he most likely had a pair from 8s to Qs or we were chopping with AK. Having that read, I'm thinking I should've called as there's 28k in the pot and it's only 17.5k for me to call with the most likely result being a coinflip. However, during the hand, even after I used up all that time, I made the mistake of not counting up what was in the pot. I was a little drained and I spent most of the time wondering what hands he's possibly holding with zero thought put into thinking about what kind of pot odds I was looking at. I came to the conclusion that there was almost no way I could be ahead and folded. I think I also made up a possible scenario where he was overbetting with aces to get a call from me who supposedly had a strong hand.
Anyway, did I blow it here? Is this an autocall for you guys? I immediately regretted it right after I folded.
2. This second hand, I was kind of just playing by feel. I didn't really have a plan which is kind of bad.
It's an orbit later, same blinds. UTG raises to 4000. (UTG was a middle aged asian guy with ~13k who got moved to my table a couple orbits ago.) I call with pocket 10s. Young asian guy 3 seats behind me calls (he has about 50k, plays a lot of hands, and is generally pretty aggressive). The 3 of us see an 8 high flop, all hearts. UTG checks and I decide I want to see where I'm at out so I lead out for 7k (I also have the 10 of hearts). Guy behind me raises to 21k and UTG calls allin for the rest of his chips. I think for a while and muck.
Is there a better way I could've played this hand either preflop or on the flop? I kind of don't like checking the flop because it's pretty much a guarantee that the guy behind me will bet if checked to and there's a good possibility my 10s might be good.
Thanks in advance for advice and comments.
Comments
Hand 2 is tough, I hate playing middle pairs against EP raises from solid players. I think you pretty much have to bet the flop once checked to and you're up against something like a set and thenut flush draw here after the raise and call so good fold. I really want to fold preflop sometimes in these spots but unless he's supertight I think that's way too weak.
Hand 2 is tough, i think you pretty well have to fold in this spot. although the guy behind you could only have Ah8 or something like that, and the other guy could have two pair or a set... i think based on what you are saying about the guy who reraised to 21K i'd be more worried about the other guy having a big hand... gotta fold it.
Hand 1... I have no clue  :fish:
Hand 2... I think that the fact that your read is the guy behind you will bet everytime its checked to him, you should check that flop. If you think that he checks behind a decent amount of time a free card is disasterous because any overcard/heart sucks for you. Now given that you think he bets most flops, you can then evaluate after UTG has had a chance to act (the person you should be most afraid of).Â
If he bets and UTG calls comfortably all in or moves in (on a small bet) then I think you can fold safely. If he bets and UTG folds, then its time to make a read.Â
Since you only have 4k invested, folding is viable. If he's a thinking player, he might not bet into a 2 other players w/o a strong hand (especially after a UTG raise and a postflop check). However, this sentence contradicts your read that he's betting almost all flops if checked to (the very reason I advocate a check in the first place)...so then I hafta assume that his betting range is quite large. If he has two overs w/ a flush draw you're basically flipping and folding with all the dead money in the pot is pretty bad...
Would this player smoothcall JJ-AA PF with 2 people in the pot already? If not, then his range is probably set / 2 overs + flush draw, complete bluff. So after all my analysis I have no clue, and I guess it just depends on your read of his play. If he's betting a ton of flops of checked to and playing lots of hands then I'm probably going to move in if UTG folds. THe problem is even if he's super loose, my hand isn't great against his range so if we have an edge (which I think we do given your read (please clarify read)) its a small edge... Either way if the read is confirmed I push and suckout accordingly. If he has a set I'm like 79% to hit a flush and dodge the board pairing and if he has 2 overs + flush draw I'm like 93% to dodge hearts and lastly if he has a weirdly played JJ-AA with a heart, I'll spike two tens.  :D
Hand 2: If he was rock here, I would consider folding this preflop because you have no idea where you stand against this guy and his UTG raise. But since you called lets play it from there. Since you did not iso, aggy guy came in behind. 8 high flop all h + UTG chk, I think I got the best hand now. You bet and the aggy guy may put you on a play at the pot. now the UTG guy is thinking hhmmmm....4K+4K+4K+3.5K+7K+9K = 31.5:9K left. So hes getting a good 3.5 with whatever he has. So he could have anything. Aggy guy could have probably some piece of flop or just Ahx. I think the pot odds now dictate a call from you. But I think the play was either fold or raise UTG bet (but raising UTG bet here is an awful play), so I think it shoulda hit the muck since UTG stack wasn't deep.
- What hands do you think I can be ahead of? I was thinking that the best case scenario was a coinflip or a freeroll against an unsuited AK and worst case scenario was domination by aces or kings. I guess it is possible he pushed with a hand like AQ suited or something. I may have given him too much credit. I thought the only unpaired hole cards he could possibly push with in that position would be AK.
Replied to comments about hand 2:
- I don't know if this counts as a read but the UTG player was at my table for about 2 orbits and had raised 3 hands preflop. He doubled up the first time he raised with AT and then raised two more hands. So, although I've only played with him for a couple orbits, I didn't really consider him a rock because he's playing too many hands to be playing just premium cards. I did want to still respect his UTG raise though. If I'd been paying more attention (I didn't realize he only had 9k more behind him.. maybe because of possible steaming from the AK hand before), I might've raised to isolate but, in such early position, I didn't want one of the bigger stacks behind me picking up a hand and coming back over the top of me in which case, I think I'd be pot committed.
- A check raise did occur to me but I thought I'd have to invest too much of my chips in that case while not obtaining anymore information about the big stack player. I'd be pot committed if checkraised and I just didn't really like the feeling of deciding to move all my chips in blind.
- I found UTG's check suspicious and was pretty sure he had me beat when he moved all in. But he only had 9k left and I'd bet 7k. So only 2k more would be dumped to him with me playing against the aggressive guy behind me for the rest of my chips (I actually only had about 17k left). I'm figuring I have either the best hand or the best draw. Is that enough to push the rest of my chips in and play for a 30k side pot?
As I mentioned earlier, I did end up folding and saving my 17k. UTG had KJ of hearts for the second nut flush and the guy behind me had AhJc for the nut flush draw. Turn brought a 10 and the river was a blank.
Hand 2: so the utg guy flopped a flush, so you are basically playing for the side pot and as it turns out you made a good fold cause the guy has 2 overcards to your pocket tens and the nut flush draw... so you were about a coinflip to win this sidepot but it's all your chips. I'd tend to fold in this spot just because i would be pretty sure the other guy in the hand had me beat and i was really only getting 1-1 on my money... turns out you woulda won this coinflip, i'd be happy though IMHO you made a good fold here.