I kept thinking about these two hands on my drive home from Commerce tonight. Any comments or advice, positive or negative, are greatly appreciated.

LAPC event #22 $150 NL doublestack tournament 8,000 chips 15 min blinds

I'm UTG with18,000 at 400/800/75 holding JcTc. Probably should just fold with this stack size, but I have been folding for an hour and decided to raise to 1,700. Folds to BB who has 15,000 and he calls. Flop J 9 2 rainbow. He checks. I bet 2,500 (I think I should have checked in hindsight). He raises me about half his stack to 7,500. I tank, then shove, and he reluctantly calls with QJ and holds. I believe my best play would be fold PF, but as played I should check that flop back and see how the hand develops. Most likely just calling him down if he bets, and betting most turns if he checks. Thoughts?

Commerce $2/$3 cash game hand

I have $550. UTG blind raises to $7 (he does this everytime) and 3 people call his blind raise. I look down at 99, in the SB, and sense weakness so I raise to $40. UTG calls the $40 (he is sitting with about $800) and everyone else folds. I'm out of position with 99 against who knows what and stacks are effectively about $510 after my PF re- raise. Flop is 10 5 2 with two clubs. I decide to follow through with a continuation bet of $50, and here's where things get interesting. He throws in a $100 chip in an attempt to raise, but the dealer rules it only a call because of the one chip rule. Pot is at about $200 and the turn is an 8. Usually I would bet again, but he tried to raise me on the flop, so I decided to check. He throws out a quick bet of $140. I deliberate for a few minutes and reluctantly fold. My gut told me to shove because that bet looked a little big to want a call, but my head kept telling me he probably has a set and there is an outside chance he has a hand like AA. After folding he shows Ac6c for the nut flush draw. Explain if you think I played this right, and if not what you would do differently.

No comment on tourney hand, cause I do not know a thing about tourneys.

Cash hand - you probably can't fold 2nd pair on a wet board to a guy who blind raises everyhand. But it is a variance train ride for sure.

Hand 1

-You can go either way, fold pre or raise, either is fine imo.

-You didn't give description of villain but guessing from small buy-in and horrible structure that he is a fish. Unfortunately I would fold to his raise, yes you hit a great flop but fish do not bluff in tournaments, and i don't think he is raising with worse. It's not worth it to call or shove and just hope you are slightly ahead, this is your tournament life.

Hand 2

-I like your raise size, I personally would've bet a little smaller like $35 hoping to get a caller, and not scaring anyone out.

-I would put villain on 2 big cards when he calls me here, AK, AQ, AJ, KQ, QJ KJ, or s pair smaller then 99.

-This is a almost perfect flop for you hand, unfortunately when he raises you I the worst hand he can have here is a flush draw with 2 over cards. (Turns out he has even worse a flush draw+1 over card) so you are either 50/50 AT BEST or he has you beat. Also the fact that he min-raised you leads me to believe that he's not bluffing. So I would fold.

*Grunch* #1

Tourney hand: Preflop we don't really have enough information about the table. I'd be more inclined to raise this if the table was generally playing tight. Are there many limped pots? If there aren't a whole lot of preflop raises, I might just call this hand if there is a likelihood of seeing a flop cheap, since this is a good multiway hand. Table usually has to be REALLY passive to try it from this EP, though. With your tight image, I'm ok with the raise, but would need more info about the table to say for sure.

Flop: Why would you not cbet top pair here on a pretty dry board? I think you are just being a bit results oriented. Cbet was fine, bet size was fine. You should muck to the check-raise, though. He is C/R you on a dry board, committing himself by putting half his stack in. What can you possibly beat here? There are very few hands he MIGHT be doing this with that you are ahead of, and most of those he more likely donk bets instead of C/R.

Shoving is just really bad. Sorry.

Cash game: 140 into 200 is not too big to want a call. Wondering why you think that? Even if it was, shoving would be bad. You have good showdown value with your 99, so if he doesn't want a call...call him.

bump

Hand 1 is entirely table flow/read dependent for the entire hand. PF raise/fold are fine IMO, depending on table..I might limp if I had more BBs at the right table. I hate checking the flop with that hand. I might bet a little smaller on the flop (1800?)..I tend to bet smaller amounts in tournaments. After he raises it really depends on your reads on the guy. Is this guy a "defend most of his hands in the BB or pretty tight"? It doesn't really feel like he's making a move and you're only beating Jacks with really bad kickers.

#1) Your M is only 9. You are getting very close to shove or fold territory. If you are going to take a hand like JTs and try to make a move some wimpy min raise isn't gonna cut it. Honestly if you are going to play it just jam and hope no one calls. As played the flop cbet is fine, but you gotta muck to that raise.

#2) Probably calling down the whole way against a dude who doesn't look at his cards.