Early Level basically like 5 hands into the tournament. well all have the same Starting Stack give or take some very small diff from previous hands. so all three of us had $20,000 and blinds was $100/$200

PRE FLOP

Fold
Fold
$200 Call
Fold
$200 Call

Then we look down and see A5 in position and bump it up to $1,000

Fold
Fold and we take the Button
Fold
$800 Call
$800 Call
Fold the action closed and on to the FLOP

FLOP

A9Q

POT $3,300

Check
Check

We hit the A and after two checks we lead out with a half pot bet of $1,650 into $3,300

$1,650 Call
$1,650 Call closing the round and on to the TURN

TURN

7

POT $8,250

Check
Check

Since Both checked maybe I should have as well ? but since I had Top pair and turned the nut flush draw figured maybe I could take the pot down with another bet so I bet half again $4,125 into $8,250

$4,125 call I'm thinking this guy has a weak A as well or better ? maybe even the Q or a St8 and or flush draw with his limp call pre flop range, check call range

$17,350 JAM ALL IN !!! at this point I tank and try to think what is in his limp call pre flop range ? set or 7 ? set of 9 ? I rule out A set or Q set giving I have no history with these guys and just trying to assign normal ranges seeing I believe AA or QQ pre would have raised or re raised pre...maybe two pair combos like 97, Q7, Q9, A7, A9 ?....I rule out AQ hand seeing I think this hand would have raised pre...maybe the guy has a St8 and or Flush draw himself and is playing aggressive with it ?

I try and get a live read on him by asking him did he turn a set or two pair ? all he does is smile lol....I'm getting the gut feeling I'm behind and need help on the River IF I Call ???

what should I have done ?

pre: limp behind ( deep, with Axs you want the pot to be multiway)
flop: check back ( you have top pair but very weak kicker, 1/3 bet is also ok )
turn: check. ( if flop checks through i'd start betting now. as played, just check. cause when you are raised it would be horrible)

on the flop its often a good idea to think how many streets of value you can get from your hand. With A5s and Axx ,vs most villains, this is max 2. So bet flop, bet turn , check river. Or check flop, bet turn, bet river.

I can get behind how you played it...it would have for sure been a lower variance Play.

I raised mainly wanting to take the blinds down or get head's up.

According to pokersnowie would have raised pre, checked flop, bet Turn then Fold to the Jam

Apparently it is a Negative EV Play to call...according to snowie it's a fold

Thanks for your helpful input.

2 things:

- snowie is a cashgame bot
- snowie doesnt play optimal vs limps, because it never limps itself.

So vs limps i would not take snowie very serious. If your deep, with Axs, your looking to create a multiway pot with lots of other players with weaker flushdraws. Not get the pot HU vs a player with lots of strong Ax in his range. Vs a raise preflop , Axs are very good 3bet bluff candidates. But your turning your hand into a bluff because you dont think a call is more profitable. In your scenario (limpers infront of you) i do think that a call is way more profitable.

An important note, technically you shoudn't have been able to speak to the person who jammed, live rules state that with three players in the hand you cannot chat. I see this rule broken all the time and it's an important one.

I would just call pre.
On flop I would bet as you did.
I would check turn. As played, I would fold to the jam.

-BD

I agree snowie is a cash game bot but doesn't deep stack tournament play just the same as deep stack cash ?

Snowie does have a freeze out mode you can play and you can adjust the players and BB to simulate the situation off a final table or SNG basically

I agree snowie is still probably most effective for cash mainly but it has got me to run way deeper in tournaments than I used to and more frequently.

Now addressing the issue of playing a game with people that strongly limp is a major issue because unless you got a past note on some one that does this the monster can be hiding in the dark...unfortunately the only way I've been able to fight back at this issue is just to take the note after its happen then remember for the next time up against this villain that it can be in his lip call range

It's definitely an issue when playing against weak or bad players for sure

I'm a GTO kind of guy so I'm snowie all the way cash or tournament

My results have been amazing since I've been using the software to improve my game

Thanks for brilliant points

You don't want to "take it down" as you say when you could cooler someone with another diamond and you have top pair. The half pot bet you made is fine though.