Hey guys, i just played a little micro stakes SnG and made it to the last four when this happened.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Qd Th]
Hero (1 off the BTN): raises 1200 to 2400
BTN: folds
Villain (SB): calls 1800
BB: folds
*** FLOP *** [Kd Ah 3h]
Villain: checks
Hero: checks
*** TURN *** [Kd Ah 3h] [3d]
Villain: checks
Hero: checks
*** RIVER *** [Kd Ah 3h 3d] [Jh]
Villain: checks
Hero: bets 3150
Villain: raises 3150 to 6300
Hero: raises 11194 to 17494 and is all-in
Villain: calls 11194
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hero: shows [Qd Th] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
Villain: shows [Ac Ad] (a full house, Aces full of Threes)
Villain collected 41288 from pot

Thinking about it now i feel like that shove on the turn was false because there were too many possibilities out there that would have me beat. Please tell me what i did wrong... This felt like a punch in the face. Like in rounders where KGB turns over the better Full House...

Thanks in advance.

Standard

Just call the river check-raise. You should only stack with boats/quads. I think I'd probably just call with flushes too. When you 3-bet jam the river, what worse hands are calling? It's especially bad to go broke with about the 25th nuts if this is the bubble.

Thats what i thought. I still need to learn to apply the "what worse hands will call me" way of thinking. Thanks so much

Completely agree with just calling the raise on the river. It's tough to think that way when you actually make your hand but make sure you take a few extra seconds before acting to go over all possibilities. This is one of those spots where its almost impossible to get called by worse

Convert your hands, hide results etc.

Also though, did you stop to think about what your opponent is representing? He claimed to have nothing all hand until the river, when he now claims to have a strong hand. There are three possibilities:

- He was lying earlier (ie he's been trapping)
- He's lying now (ie he's bluffing)
- He only made his hand on the river

If you run through these possibilities, you'll find that reraising is not helpful no matter which of them is right. General principles like "what worse hands will call me" are fine, but thinking about the specifics of the hand is important too.

This is everything in Poker


In a situation like this you have to ask yourself (random order).

1. What do I beat?
2. What does he think I have?
3. Has he made a big bet like this before? If so. Did he have it? Was he bluffing?
4. What hands beat me?
5. What is he trying to rep?
6. Has he called bets from the SB in the past? If so what was his range? Can I beat that range?

Once you start answering those questions the puzzle will start to put itself together.

Do not be scared to fold a big hand.

First thing that stands out to me is that he called from the sb that can usually mean strength.

This is where a read would come in. Has he been calling a lot from that spot when raised in the past? If no then it's reasonable to assume that he can have AA, KK, AK, JJ all hands that beat you... QJs or any suited connector hit a flush.

What I am trying to get to is that hand history and position are huge here...

Once he jams it we have to give him credit for a flush or even a boat. Both hands that you lose to.

With all that said I would have def delayed C/bet the turn. If he was drawing you did not want to let him get there for free. If he calls or pushes the turn you know the hand is done if he calls turn and pushes on the river hand is done.

As hand was played once he pushes on the river your hand is no longer good. You have to fold it. Unless you have a read indicating otherwise.

He played weak the whole time then shoved that indicates strength...

Gl in the future good thing is that next time that something like happens you will be ready for it.

Wow Chicago has a very good detailed post. In that situation if I get raised I'm probably folding for my stack

The hand is pretty standard, but when you have a straight, get re-raised and there are 3 suits plus a pair on the board, never re-raise the re-raiser. He's either shoving with a straight, a flush, or a boat. If he has the latter two, you are screwed. Even if you think he also has a straight, then you're chopping anyway so why not just call? Here, you made no mistakes to the river, then all the possible mistakes. V is clearly trapping by checking back so once he re-raises on river, either the same card gave you both the same hand, or he improved to better (would he just hit a Jack on the river with sth like AJ and re-raise you here? doubt it highly) than you, so once you got raised, if you have a great read, fold it. If you don't wanna fold the top of your range (which on a paired board and three of a suit a straight should be closer to the bottom of your range) then just flat the raise and you still would have a lot of chips to continue.

If you shove, would any worse hands call? Would an A call with Aces up? Would a Jack call? Would a hand like 34 for trips call? pretty much never unless they are huge fish, so your raise can only get called by better or same.

So your re-pop was clearly a bad choice.

Normally I'd recommend you be more aggressive in pots you open, but here you would've been stacked anyway.

The only thing that could've saved you from all this, is not playing QTo from the CO to begin with lol. I pretty much wouldn't do it unless I have external reasons to do so.

What could've saved him is thinking that unless the Villain is calling with tons of Ax hands (they'd be hoping to chop) his hand isn't strong enough to bet.

Somehow I doubt Hero plays A4o this way (checking to the river and then betting) and bets the river hoping to get Villain to fold his chop.

Actually A4o would be a great way to play this hand since villain called from the SB. Most of the time that is a strong ace, some KQ/KJ or medium pocket pair. Against that range you can bet flop but you don't really need to protect that much since he has 5 outs max unless he has KXhh specifically and you potentially create nasty river spots. On the turn you might find a bet but when villain checks again he is likely to have KQ or something that is only paying off one bet anyways and again you don't need to protect against anything. Checking it till the river has the advantage of getting a lot of pocket pairs to finally call a river bet that they would never have on flop or turn.

What you're saying is that an ace is not a strong enough hand to bet the river with after checking twice. What hands are you betting? There are almost no hands left that are stronger.

Beware any hand flow that 'blows up' all of a sudden. Most of the others have already covered the 'who's calling you' advice.

But no one's mentioned how shallow you were on the River (7.5BB stack behind) before you made your first bet. I don't think you mentioned how deep the V was either.

In looking at this spot I don't think you can bet the River at all unless you are committed to shoving/calling a shove. And then your opponent throws out the OMC min-raise against you!! Is he really going to fold to your shove for 5 additional BB? I don't think so.

You already know that you should've just called the min-raise, but my thinking is why even open up that door when you are so shallow?

It will be interesting to me to see how some players who have more tournament experience with this share their opinions. GL

Because that isn't true

Confirmed: 17494 divided by 1200 is ~14.58bb.

Yep ... was working off the 2400, not 1200.

Ok .. we still just need to flat the min raise then and take our medicine. Really no reason to shove/raise and probably get booted, thus leaving us with a 'workable' short stack if we lose the hand.

I guess I don't mind leading out here but now with the intention of folding to all shoves and calling all of these min-raises based on pot odds. GL