i have been playing 37 hands at atble and started off fairly active until one of the stronger players to my left trippled and got really agro raising 30% of hands .. i let him take initiative for a while.

we are already quite deep with 150 left (out of 5k) and i am avg stack ..
then this hand comes up:
i won a huge flip vs villain when i got moved to the table
he plays 27/14/7.7 and cbet the only flop i have tracked from him
he might see me as 16/8/6

I obv defend for value with 55 and decide to just call
flop hits my perceived range (small connectors, small pp etc) quite well (i have 3bet a fair amt and shown down strong hands) and i decide to represent a really strong hand here (2p or trips) and check raise him i still have 2nd pair and now also openender. i decide to push as i have a really decent amt of equity vs his range (actually a8, any broadways sometimes small pp. i assume he would get it in on flop if he held 99+ or sets).

analyzing my game, i realize that i tighten up too much when getting deeper. i blind down and then mostly must flip so i try to be more active in later stages and to keep building my stack.

how do you like it and what is your play on all streets please.
thanks.
Poker Stars $5.00+$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t1400/t2800 Blinds + t350 - 9 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): t89976 M = 12.24
UTG: t43407 M = 5.91
UTG+1: t51576 M = 7.02
UTG+2: t76204 M = 10.37
MP1: t143770 M = 19.56
MP2: t126547 M = 17.22
CO: t134626 M = 18.32
BTN: t72567 M = 9.87
SB: t28516 M = 3.88

Pre Flop: (t7350) Hero is BB with 5 5
4 folds, MP2 raises to t5950, 3 folds, Hero calls t3150

Flop: (t16450) 8 2 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets t14000, Hero raises to t31100, MP2 calls t17100

Turn: (t78650) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets t52576 all in

I hate it tbh. I start with folding pre, it will be very hard to play the hand profitable (esp if villain is good) oop.
You say villain is good, his betsizing otf says something different. Don´t know I just don´t understand his nearly potsizebet on this ***** dry board so maybe you´re right and he just wants to create max feq. BUT he´s calling your c/r, I don´t think he has that many broadway combos that take this line (maybe one combo of AKs if he´s fos). Also if I flopped a set (or held QQ+) in this situation with this spr I would never raise over your c/r. And either getting in A8/99/TT/JJ or folding.
I´m folding pre, folding flop, as played ott yea guess gii now with more outs but still not excited.
If you feel you tighten up to much start 3betting vs wide ranges ip. Playing marginal hands oop vs aggressive villains with small spr is almost always a losing strategy

thanks for your reply but i never fold 55 in bb vs agressive villain more than 30bb effective. so i could rr pf but folding is not an optoin here .. is it ?

hm I would rather flat scs and broadways esp vs aggressive villain. Most of the time we just flop very poor equity with small pps. I mean on what kind of flops do you continue? do you c/c Axx/Kxx/Qxx flops etc?

Pre is fine, I hate the flop though. You basically never have 2p and sets don't have that many combos. Plus people don't like the fold button and probably aren't hand reading you like that.

I guess it depends on what you think his cbet means? Usually i find laggy spewy villains will bet pot wiyh strong hands but idk what kind of player he is.

Im not c/r unless i think hes on a hand thats 2 broadways like KJ and im not sure of hes on that right now. Without a lot of info, facing this kind of weird cbet, i think folding would be best.

I think when he cbets pot it`s not the best idea to c/r as a bluff bc he won`t fold much.

However, if you have reads he could cbet to that sizing with hands like AJ+, then you could try to c/c flop and re-eval (and outplay him) ott.

Don't fold pre. If you haven't 3bet villain at all and villain is raising every hand, then find a 3bet at some point, maybe here.

You aren't representing what you think you're representing with your check-raise on the flop. You absolutely never have two pair here, and on such a dry board you're probably never check-raising a set either. So I think your hand looks like exactly what it is at this point and if villain can figure that out, villain will play perfectly against you. So on the flop I much prefer either a fold or a call, and re-evaluating on the turn, and I'd base that decision on what I read into villain's bet sizing here, based on past hands.

yeah I prob 3 bet pre some percentage of the time here 55 is a good hand to do this late in a tourney. If I flatted I prob check call, I think there is a fair chunk of his range that is c betting with air here. reevaluate on the turn.

pre is fine

c/c or c/r flop vs smaller sizing but c/f vs that sizing.


I don't think I like any street

this is spew

we should always be c/raising a set on this board as we can potentially stack 99+

we aren't getting much value from anything that folds anyway unless they improve ott and im not going to rely on that. plus a competent villain can easily let go of top pair vs a c/c,c/r line (baluga theorem) so I think we should just worry about maximizing ev from 99+

villain held 77 and called my allin ott .. so actually i put him on the correct range but I played the hand bad somehow . he didnt believe my story and called. so i agree it was spew the way i played it maybe i could ve take it away somehow else from him, still not sure how.

so u r right villains at low stakes cant let go hands (same for me and for him : ) even if i wanted to try a tricky play here that didnt work out and he just stationed my bets)

That's not the question, though. This is $5 poker. Villains won't *think* you're check-raising with a set. They'll think you'd always slowplay a set. So a call should be scarier to villain then a raise.

I'm talking about how villain interprets the check-raise, not how we ought to be playing sets in this spot.

pre is fine
Yes

1- never bluff an idiot/station
2- we don't make money at the micros by bluffing
3- you can't win every pot, and you shouldn't try to


pick your favorite saying.

ok, everybody wants to flat pre with 32 bb or so? and what is your plan, c/c most flops?
I´m much more ok with 3b/f pre than flatting, I just don´t get how we can play this profitable vs an aggressive villain!