Blinds are 800/1600.
I'm sitting on about a 21k stack
I'm in the BB and pick up J9o.
3 limpers, SB folds and I check my option.

Flop comes 9TQ rainbow and I'm first to act.

UTG has about 30k and other two have similar stacks, maybe a little more 40'ish).

After posting I have about 19k left and the pot is about 7200.

My options:

Check/raise? I feel like the odds of getting a free card are slim oop and I'll have limited fold equity for a C/R against any bettor. Don't love this at all.

C/C? Any call will tie me to the pot and I will have no fold equity on later streets.

Open shove? Any less of a bet will commit me to the pot so I think if I am betting a shove is best to maximize fold equity. Over betting the pot here should force folds from any better draws and should give any top pair hand cause to fold without a strong draw to go with it. I also guarantee I will realize my equity if called. Getting everyone to fold and picking up this out is a nice increase to my stack.

1/2-2/3 pot bet? Probably get called by a ton of draws and get myself priced in to a raise probably taking the worst of it. It also leaves me in an awkward spot on turn if called. Figure I'd have 1PSB oop if facing one caller and less against multiple callers.

C/F: not much to say on this one. Seems bad to just give up.

Extra info: We started at 51 players. About 41 remain and the game is starting to play fairly short. No money until final table which is still a long way off. Average stack is probably around 40k right now.

League points are a consideration of I get knocked out this early but I'm not overly worried about this as my track record is good and we can drop our 4 worst scores out of 11 each year.

Thoughts?

If all or most of your outs are good, this is an easy push. At first glance, it looks as if any 8, 9 or K gives you a fine hand. That's 10 outs. (I'm assuming that a J does not help you, because it's so likely to make a straight for someone else, vs. your 2 pair.)

Trouble is, if anyone has KJ, you're praying for 3 outs to chop, while the rest of the deck (except miracle runner-runner quads, etc.) does you no good.

I'm not sure even a push will kick out all the other 1pr/straight draws. But it's your best hope. Give it a shot and hope you aren't up against a made high straight. With three limpers, that is a risk.

Open jamming the flop looks reasonable to me.


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I like open jamming too, although we know that board hits a lot of our opponents ranges I don't see how we can maximize our FE which I think is how we should be playing this hand.

x/decide - we haven't hit this flop very hard

I think an open jam is terrible - there are so many hands in Vs limping ranges which have us locked up - it's not just KJ - also KQ QJ QT Q9 JT 9T KT J8

That's true, a lot of our drawing cards are probably being blocked here.

This is an aspect that I totally missed.

This is almost exactly the same scenario I encountered last night. See threda below:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/23...stack-1659275/

Possibly the best play for us would be to just shove pre-flop. Regardless of our holdings, we have a bunch of limpers. Its difficult for them to call with players still to act behind them. The SB/button will definately have very speculative holdings, the refused the opprtunity to raise already whilst knowing there were already limpers before them.

Almost certain they would all fold and think twice about limping your BB in future hands. I have had similar situations recently holding AQ and AT, both times I shoved pre and everyone folded. True i was blocking an Ace both of those times, but the situation as a whole is almost identical. What are they limping with, that they'd be willing to call, knowing they haven't raised? Not much...

Thoughts?

15bb and a few limpers is a perfect spot to shove pre (assuming none of them are too short or huge). They will only call with the top of their ranges, which won't be too good to begin with since they're limping.

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+1
This is the first thing that went through my mind. I think jamming pre is best play. You're often going to fold out weak hands that are slightly better than yours.

Fwiw, I really don't like overbet jamming on the flop. Open shoving 19k into 7k pot seems very "bluffy" and screams, "I have a weakish hand, please don't call".
I think you're better off going for a check shove, and if it gets checked around then you get to see a free turn and play accordingly.

A flop check-shove reduces what little fold equity you do have though. But I agree, it looks far less bluffy and might actually get through more often. It's a very interesting spot.

I guess it's possible to just check-fold though. Yes, we have some out's. But, in a few hands we might get to open shove and be much, much better than 30-40%.

Can we get too attached to these type of situations? Any other flop we would have no second thought check/folding, moving on and waiting for a good spot.

Some great feedback guys. Thanks!

Shoving pre is very interesting and is something I need to pay attention to at this stage of the tournament. I don't think it would have changed anything on this particular hand, but is something I need to be thinking about.

I shoved and was called by AQ from the UTG villain, so I think he probably calls preflop if he was willing to call with top pair on such a wet board. Note taken for future.

Utg +1 limping AQ is wanting to limp/call I guess. A risky play from him as you might just as easily have had 9T.

He made a risky play and it worked out for him. Unlucky for you.