it's level 1, 25/50. i'm slightly under starting stack.
one of my big goals for this tournament was to play plenty of pots preflop early, and try to get in and win a big pot with a donk, if possible.

the hand:

I open Ah6h utg+2 to 150. two people call in MP and LP. older gentleman from the SB takes a few seconds and then makes it 450. the BB folds.

does the immediate price i am getting, plus the consideration of position on the SB, justify a call? how do the chances of it going multiway affect the profitability of a call here? i don't expect a 4-bet behind me.

I think a call is fine, it will almost 100% be 4 way

Really don't like it. You're basically saying by calling "I WANT FLUSH DRAW."

stack?

what's starting stack?

i think it's a marginal call with 10K and terrible with 5K

Starting stack 4k.

insta fold if its 4k obv lol

ZOMG die die die for even thinking about making a call like this in a tournament for this much of your stack in a tournament, you suck, LOL. All those live players who make more money playing tournaments than anyone else who would call here are just lucky.

More seriously, getting reraised in these short stack prelims just sucks (I haven't called a single 3bet early), you can't call here IMO. Gobbo is right, you're basically hoping for a FD (and then hoping to generate a fold (good luck) or really hoping that your A is an out if you get it in). The good part is that the other two will come along, giving you 5:1 immediate odds, but the bad part is that the presence of the other two means you have no ability to outplay the SB and also you'll have no idea if your A is good if the flop comes A-high and the SB checks.

While the other two coming along increases the size of the pot, I think it's probably worse with a hand like this (obviously it's great with a pair hoping to flop a set) because part of the "value" of drawing hands in position is the ability to win pots without a hand by outplaying your opponent. The presence of the other two also increases the size of the pot to the point where it's going to be very hard for SB to get away from an overpair (which you don't want with your hand unless you flop the nuts).

this is such an easy fold.

Whenever I make call like this I assume the people behind me need to be ******ed to fold, yet after I call, yet they always do. I would for sure call with any pocket pair with stuff that is more connected and can make two pair more often like t9s.

[ ] Connecting cards make two pair more often.

nath--

Weirdly enough, I do better at playing pots with bad players early in tournaments when I don't make it an explicit goal.

Call me old-school, but I usually fold this the first time around. I also fold for the 300 more. Your immediate odds are almost OK, but your implied odds are not good, despite your suitedness. (Implied odds having to do with pairs matters more than implied odds having to do with flushes, when there will be maximally 1.2 or so times the pot left to bet on the flop.)

All my best,

--Nate

LOL, this is exactly what I thought at first, but then I realized that card removal from the other players' ranges makes Pudge right.

I realized that after I made the post. What I meant was due to live old guys super tight range when t9 makes two pair it is much better disguised and likely to get paid off because villain will have overpairs more often. Also since AA is obv in his range there are more combos of winning two pair for T9.

if his range is QQ+ AK then T9 does make two pair more often

ugh, i obv called because i was feeling quite fishy, even though i know it's pretty bad. i figured position combined with the small raise size (i fold for any more) plus the pot size meant it would be worth getting in if i flopped anything with decent equity.

i'm sure i overestimate how often this happens. i gotta shore that up.

the rest of the hand is potentially interesting, although i think the decisions are straightforward.

yeah pudge you were right the first time...

I call any pocket pair and alot of suited connector type hands here, but not AXs

I know you want to stack a donk, but I don't like opening this hand in early position to start with. If limps aren't getting raised a lot, then better to limp than raise, but I like a fold.

How often do you flop something big with this hand? Are you trying to outplay people OOP?

fold pre, if you raise this hand pre you should raise like 33% of hands that are better (including many suited connectors that play better)

Edit: I can't read.

i'm pretty sure 9T and A6 make 2 pair at the same frequency, fwiw

1

IMO the preflop raise was a mistake in the first place. let the a6 suited go in EP and move on to the next hand. its still early, give yourself a chance to find out who the donks are b4 u raise them out of position.

ZOMG I AGREE WITH TODD TERRY