Hey all, I’m hardcore on the tourny grind and just wanna go over some more spots.

Hand 1- I start hand with maybe 80k at 300/600 600bb ante and I’m in the sb with JJ. A solid tourny player (200k cashes Hendon mob and I recognize him from various tourny series- I played with him day before and posted hand for review)... opens to 1.8k from the cutoff. I’m in the small blind with jj and decide to get tricky and flat (3 bets fold out what we dominate is my thinking). Bb folds and we see a flop of A37 (R). I check and he cbets maybe 2k? I decide to flat and we see an A on turn that makes 2 to a flush. He bets slightly bigger when I check turn (2.5k I think). River is a blank (guessing a 9.... idk the exact sizing from hand as it was many hours ago but this is close to it). I decide to lead river for say 60-70% of pot and he folds. Do I just check/ call here? I know I’m turning my hand into a bluff somewhat with this line and it prolly sucks. I felt he could make my life miserable and barrel here. He just folded. I know this line sucks bc he can jam nuts and correctly fold worse hands. Please let me know if I should check and eval based on sizing? He folded but yea my line is terrible on river I feel. I feel check call let’s him continue a bluff.

Hand 2- I have a history with a really douchy borg reg (knocked him out of tourny with AA) early in week and he told me I don’t 3 bet my big hands and he has a tell on me(lmao bc I almost always 3bet qq+ and he has me mistaken for someone else). He opens to 2400 at 300-600 when I have 140k and he has roughly 100k. I elect to 3 bet to 6600 as he is a blaster and will play poorly postflop. And OMC regular jams from cuttoff for maybe 80-90k? And ep guy folds. Is this a simple fold. The guy is super tight imo and has ak+ qq+ I feel
Here. I folded but just wonder if this is simple. I feel he has ak a ton here but yea at best I’m flipping and dominated a lot. I just sigh folded and felt it was correct in game. I showed my cards bc I do that and he didn’t show but I’m sure he had better.

Final hand- at 3-6k 6 bb ante I open 77 to 12k on a 230k stack from lp. A pretty tight player (prolly more so on rec side of spectrum) rips 74k? Ugh I sigh called off and he had 10-10. Is this an easy call based on minimal reads as I moved to table 3-4 orbits back. I felt it was close to a must call based on his stack size(tad over 10bb more to me to call). Should I just muck this to a tight player? He had 10-10 and we don’t get there. Guy


Btw as an aside.... live mtt players are bad. I raised a limper late in tourny with aq of clubs and he flats oop. He calls 2 streets on q-k-10-8 (2 clubs on flop) and then checks a 5 of clubs to me and I pile for roughly a pot sized bet and he snap calls with 55 and started bitching about hand and how he runs bad. It’s like dude... you should pitch the flop and maybe if you just need to peel 1 and get the f out. Not sure how anyone could defend calling 2 streets with 55 on this board texture. Live play is so soft. I’ve been doing well lately making late in tournies by lowering my aggression early (aka not cbetting like a maniac into 2-3 players) and picking spots better.

Not a pro or anything, but doesn't seem like there's much activity on this sub so I'll put in my two cents:

Hand 1: Are you sure the reason you didn't 3bet preflop was because you were trying to be tricky? Or was it that you didn't want to play a big pot OOP against a good player? I think you should be 3 betting, and you're rationalizing after the fact. I've done that before too, and I think it'll help you to think about that. As played, river is a check/call imo. Although he bets more chips on the turn, his bet was smaller relative to the pot than his c-bet. Why would he do that with an Ace when a flush draw appears, unless he has a boat?

Hand 2: what did you have? OMC shoves over 100bbs as a cold 4bet--yea I'm not calling with anything less than Kings, and I'm thinking about that even.

Hand 3: I'm calling.

Re: your aside. Online is definitely tougher, but I've seen very skilled players in tourneys with buyins <$300. Yea that hand is silly, but it's not like everyone is a moron. Good luck.

Hand 1- yea you are right, I’m not trying to play a big pot against a good player. I don’t see point of 3 betting with a taggy image here. He should fold out what I dominate and call or make my life miserable with 4 bets somewhat of the time. I know live players don’t 4b often but it does here... it’s a gross spot.

Hand 2 I had JJ. Guy said he had ak after the hand and I believe him. I can’t see jamming so many bbs with qq kk or aa but it’s possible as I just 3 bet.

Hand 3- yea def not saying guy is a moron but you could tell he was too tight and a rec. I called bc I thininhes going to jam smaller pairs here and overcards a lot. I feel for small price we should call. Just sucks bc it put a dent into my stack near the bubble where 30-40 bbs would be nice for maneuverability.

Reply to response to aside: yea I know not everyone is a moron... but the leaks in live tournament poker are glaring. People opening to 3-4x close to bubble, stacking off silly light, limping, etc make me salivate at live play. It’s so easy to spot who has a clue also whic makes live play nice. I’m not saying I’m great at poker or anything but I feel low buy in live mttsa re so soft.

I’ll throw one more in. Please let me know if this bluff is solid and sizing thoughts. Looking back I didn’t set river sizing up well if it gets there.

I have probably 60k at 300-600 600 with Qd-10d in small blind. ep player limps, from mp a tight tag raises to 2100 and button calls. I elect to call and ep player calls so we see flop 4 ways. Flop is 852 with 2 diamonds. I check, original raiser makes a standard Cbet to 3700 and button folds. I elect to raise to 11,100 with flush draw. Original raiser pre calls and we see a turn of 7x. I lead 17k and he tank folds. I said after hand overpair right? And he said yes which I believe.

He told me he was going to shove or fold and that is why he tanked. Let’s say he flats, I’m going to jam almost all rivers but I left my sizing to roughly 30k with remaining stack. How bad is this? I feel I wanna be closer to a pot sized bet on river to have some FE. I feel if he somehow flats, we have very little ability to get him to fold river based on pot size and my stack remaining. Any thoughts on Better sizing for this hand or different line?

Also if he shoves, do we call? I did math against JJ which he could have and we have 25% equity against that hand. Not sure what he had but I would guess 10-10s-queens. Do we have to call his shove on turn based on math? I think I did math right and would need 31.1% equity to call. Do we ever just call here or is it a fold if he shoves. I don’t know his starting stack but I think it was roughly 60k.

H1: no postflop comments because preflop is so, so bad. This is an auto 3bet and I won't even entertain arguments otherwise.

H2: Am I missing where you tell us your hand? Cold 4bets are exceedingly rare online let alone from an old geezer live. Prob folding everything except KK+.

H3: Call for less than 1/3 your stack and likely 50% equity. Don't think it's unreasonable to see a rec player shipping 22+, AT+, KQ

H4: x/r into an overpair-heavy range seems suicidal but hey it worked. Doubt he folds any other pocket-pair combo from this open range, but live players hate JJ what can I say.

Of course, your reads are wrong--this guy isn't a TAG he's a weak-tight nit (look at that fold and that preflop sizing).

Prob pitching this pre from the worst spot at the table and likely one overcard to the opener's hand (at best). In fact, pre is pretty spewy.

Also your pot geometry is terrible, leaving 30k behind into a pot of 60k.

Your comments on the skill of live players are unreasonable. They can and will make your life difficult with their unorthodoxy, even if it's unwittingly so on their part. I've only played online the last several months and I freely admit that when I transition back to playing some live cards I'll prob struggle for a bit against weird nonsensical donk bets in particular, multiway limped pots, and also in ranging V's who'll do things like limp/c 42s, flat opens in MP w/ QTo, etc. Don't get cocky.