We are passed the re-entry point of the tournament so that portion doesn't play into the hand and we made it here on one bullet. Which is always nice. 190 entrants somewhere between 45-48 left 21 spots pay $265 is the first payout level.

I'm much more of a cash game player trying to work on my tournament game.

I've been at this table for 3 levels and have played many times with the villain. He's a very solid tournament player. Two new players were just moved to the table to my direct left who I have played plenty of cash games with. They're both mid 60s to early 70s and are the definition of how you expect white guys in their 60s to play.

Anyway onto the hand.

9 handed table Blinds are 600/1200/200 with 5 minutes left in the level going to 800/1600/300 villain covers hero who has $32k

Folds to hero in the lowjack I like down at 22 and make it 3400 folds to the villain on the button who flats SB and BB fold.

Flop is 235 all spades. Hero checks villain checks.

Turn Jd hero checks villain makes it 3k


What do you do here?

I'm guessing we were checking for pot control reasons? If we wanted to get more money in the pot I would have bet the flop. I'm OK getting raised and getting it in on the flop.

Not sure why we aren't leading the turn.

As played I'm calling. If we are going to raise it would be all in. I prefer calling because if a spade doesn't come on the river we can hope villain bluffs again. If villain has it already then calling turn is far better. And if spade falls on the river, we get to decide whether to make a crying call or not.

Preflop, you can go smaller (But your raise size is fine). I think Flop is a bet. Given that you checked the flop, bet the turn?

Given that you got to where you are in the hand, raise big on the turn (probably All-in).

The default way I think you should play this hand is, bet flop 4.5K, and shove turn on a blank or c/rai on a blank turn.

I think your line is a line to take if you think the villain is going go nuts if you check it to them.

If you call the turn, what rivers are you happy to see? Now the pot is getting to be big.

Still new to posting on bere but judging by the number of replies most threads get I think its fair to continue the action.

So, yeah I totally messed this hand up post flop. I probably played it about as badly as I could.

To the raise size preflop it was right in line with the standard open at this level so I was just going with it. Plus the SB was a total nit and the BB was pretty passive so I figured keeping it with the table standard even if it was a bit higher than need be would give me a better shot of taking it down pre and with 22 obviously I'd prefer to just take it down.


Back to the hand

As played I had calling chips in my hand and for whatever reason decided to halt and put in a raise that was way way way too small. I make it 8500 and after going in to the tank and everything pointed to a fold coming he jams. I've seen him put it all in a few times where he was obviously good and his mannerisms here were totally different. The way I put everything together the story I got was that he didn't think I had a flush and it felt like he didn't have a flush because it was just such a strange play to me.

I have bottom set and it just feels a bit like a bluff catcher and that he could be doing this with Jx with a spade or something like that.

The other thing that plays into my head is that over the last two levels he's been borderline to call down a few bluffs I've gotten through.

So, call it off or fold it?

I'd bet a bit less pre, too.

As far as the play post-flop, I'm cbetting that all day long. If I get x/r it's time to get it all-in. If he flats, I check/call the turn and re-evaluate on the river.

I don't agree with bet flop and shove blank turn. If V flats the flop I'm looking to pot control and not stack off to a flopped flush with only 22% equity.

You know this V and I don't but against most good recs and regs this is just about always the nuts, or damn close to it.

I don't disagree with you. End of the day I didn't take long enough and in the time I took I couldn't put together a hand that made sense to me that I didn't beat for whatever reason a flush for him just didn't make sense to me. So, I called it off.

Good news. He did not have a flush. Bad news he had As4h(or some 4 that wasn't a spade).

Naturally as soon as I saw the hand it all made perfect sense.

I'm betting flop and I'm jamming over a raise.

As4x is an accurate hand to fulfill my "damn close to it" of the raise you described by V. Straight with the As blocker and a huge re-draw if he's behind is just about the nuts. That raise he made is almost always huge strength from a good player. I'd say it can often show weakness when done by an average or bad player.

Yeah 100%. I just never ran him having a wheel through my head.

I would say this guy is probably in the latter category if he's flatting A4o to 3x raises when he's in the SB.

I don't disagree but there are good players that can have weak points in their games, which would explain why they're not instead labeled as very good/great. I'd say most players are pretty terrible at SB defense and many of them are mediocre at best with BB defense. A4o/KTo/etc. as an SB defense isn't too shocking to me. I see it more often than I should be. I don't think it makes them a bad player per se, even if it's a bad play.

Villain was button. Still don’t like the flat with A4o, but Villain probably thought he could outplay hero, and didn’t mind the weak tight blinds coming along.

As played, the long think look like fold, followed by a jam is just never a bluff. I would have bet flop and jammed turn myself. Mostly just a cooler, but you played it in such a way that you could have gotten away from it.

Misread the OP, yeah agree that BTN flat there is still not good in a vacuum, but much much different than flatting the SB.

Hadn't read the thread in a few days, was just responding to Black Aces 518. I also don't disagree with him that flatting A4o on the button for 3x isn't a great play either, unless the person in front of you has been raising really light (in which case you should maybe be attempting a re-steal and not flatting anyway).

Yep I would want something very specific to flat there, like they open really wide, but then they check-fold the flop unless they hit it hard. Very few conditions make flatting A4o better than both folding and 3b.

why play 22 hit a set then don't put any more money in?

I mean, I'd bet the flop too, but to be fair, the only way that flop could be more wet is if it was QJTsss instead of what it was. I think betting the flop is +EV vs. a BTN flat but it's not like it's a total slam dunk by any means.

The wet flop cuts both ways. It also means that Villain has many draws and overpairs that he is likely to give action with.