Hey all, played a tourny earlier today and have 3 spots I would like to go over. They go in order however I feel hand 2 and 3 are much more important spots than 1.

Hand 1- we have 20k at 50/100 and no reads on anyone really as first few orbits. Ok so folds to me in small blind and I raise 3d6d to 300 and bb defends. Flop is kd10x7x. I check Villian checks. Turn is a Jx and I check, villian checks. River is a K. I lead 500 and villian sigh calls. Is this ok spot to bet as we have no showdown value and beat nothing. Also do I just muck or complete pre lol? I tend to like raising pre over folding so I honesty almost never complete in pots that haven’t been lumped from sb. Imo this is a fold or shutdown on flop as played. Thanks.

Hand 2- I have 20k at 25/50 and open 22 to 150 from ep and what I feel is a super nutty older woman 3bets me to 650 from sb. Flop is 992. She leads 1.5k and I flat. Turn is a 9 and she leads 3k and I just muck. Should I raise flop here? I was planning on raising turn to get stacks in here. She was a super nit I feel so I never think she has worse than an overpair or 9. Thoughts? I just wonder if not raising flop is terrible. I feel you can call flop- raise turn or just raise flop. I felt since there was so many harmless turn cards, why raise flop but idk. If she has an overpair, she might just stack off on flop but idk.

hand 3- I have 13.3k at 200/400 (400 bb ante). I raise late early position to 900 with AcAh. Guy next to me from mp flats (weak tight player), and guy to his left 3 bets to 3.5k. Folds back to me. So 3 bettor has been 3 betting a lot in last 2 orbits (maybe 3 times) but it seemed he has super nutty hands each time. He’s been 3betting 1100 opens to 2.5k which is odd sizing but goes bigger here. So here what do I do? I elect to flat bc I want guy next to me to either spazz which is u likely or call so we create a bigger pot. I flat and he calls behind. Flop is Qs-8s-4x . I lead 3k out of position (maybe bad but no reason to check here I feel for me). Both guys call behind me. Turn is a 9x. I lead 6k and leave 800 behind. Guy to my left folds after though and other villian says all in after counting the pot (as I have maybe 800 behind). I call and he has please let me know if the pot geometry can be better here?

My sizing of leaving 800 behind on turn looks goofy and is goofy I feel but it’s ok. Should I check raise flop in spot like this as 3 better may Cbet? Meh I feel my line is ok but maybe I just min4bet pre here bc I’m always getting call most likely from 3 bettor? Idk Hanks for thoughts on this hand.

Hand 1: Pre flop is good. I'd probably lean towards betting flop, but I don't think giving up is bad. River bet doesn't make much sense IMO. What are you repping? It seems like villains range contains a ton of pair and A high that are gonna call off.

Hand 2: Personally, I'd fold pre both times. As played, I think raising flop to get stacks makes a lot of sense. What 9's does she have??? She has an over pair close to 100% of the time and she ain't folding it. Brutal turn card.

Hand 3: Can't really go wrong with flatting or jamming pre IMO. The tiny 4-bet looks way too strong. Hate the lead on the flop. Just check and jam vs a bet.

In hand 2, it’s fine to just raise flop? Meh she honesty has no 9s in her range with a 3 bet I feel. Maybe I should just raise flop? She’s never 3 betting 99 and not the type of player that would 3 bet a suited connector or A9s.

Hand 3- yea I felt leading was kinda derpy especially to a big 3 bet bc my line looks super strong. I feel as played, if I check... we get same result where if I check he bets and I raise or shove and he calls. I guess with hand 3, just wanna make sure it’s fine to flat pre. I like disguising AA and flatting 3 bets that lead to a bloated pot rather than 4 bet in a tourny where people rarity 4 bet light.


Btw hand 1was funny. Guy had K9o. He like sigh called thinking I somehow had a straight. I feel river bet is bad and prolly just a shutdown so early with nothing really to win in pot.

(if you're really 400bbs deep w no ante) def open Fold 22 in Hand 2.

4bet Ship AA in Hand 3. Don't slowplay AA 3-way (especially if you have a betsize tell that 3bettor is strong)...HU slowplay is fine in good spots. 3-way you're not tarping nearly as much as you think...just run some ranges Equilab and see how much your equity drops when there are 3 players.

Hey ERC, can you explain why we should be folding 22 in spot like this? I assume you will say we have to check fold so often and we obv can’t continue in certain 3 bet or 4 bet situations where we don’t get proper odds to set mine. I feel live in mtts I play, people 3 bet so tightly and 4 bets are so uncommon.... opening 22 is fine to hopefully set mine and just quit if we don’t hit but yea just wondering what small pps you would play in this spot and which you would fold?

Also erc, I’ve wondered this one a lot, from ep and a semi shallow stack say 20-30bbs what pps should we fold from ep and what should we continue with? Say from utg..... I feel maybe 77+ should be opened and maybe 66 and worse would be folds? Just wondering what good mtt players think of this at a standard full ring in mid-late stages.

Btw I probably should just 4 bet ripped AA. I felt Villians range was probably 10-10+, AQ+ even though he was quite active 3 betting in a tourny that sees very few 3 bets. Knowing his range is that, I feel a fold never is happened based on how short my stack was compared to villian

H1: If no antes then pre is fine, if antes in play then pre is a pure complete.

Haven't simmed the spot or anything because my server is full to capacity with hands I need to study but my gut feeling is we're supposed to be cbetting more or less mixed from across our range here since we have lots of air but so does V and we have lots of pairs+ but so does V.

AP you're both super duper capped so can't be too terrible to fire 5bb OTR, A-high doesn't always call and we certainly get folds from worse than A-high all of which are beating your nut low hand. We can rep a T or a J or a 7 perhaps. W/e it's 2.5% of your stack, just don't do it often.

I'm generally skeptical of metagame stuff but at least maybe you get a lil extra credit for being willing to bluff when you roll over 6-high, though this consideration is minimal.

H2: For sure folding or at most limping and hoping to start a limping train because there's a decent chance you're already smoked and you're never denying the requisite equity to make the open profitable. Don't think we need to go any further than these principles to justify just mucking 22 here.

AP for sure raise that flop.

AP, IDK man lol.

H3: Def jamming pre.

Hand #1 your line is as follows: Raise unopened pot pre from SB, check flop check turn bet river. In other words you tried to steal the blinds from the SB, checked through the hand and then took another stab at stealing it on the river. The smart villain is going to see your moves as just what they are; your hand is pretty face up IMO. If I am villain I am thinking all of my bluffcatchers are good and I am calling with pretty much anything possibly as wide as ace high.

Hand #2 and #3 are both pretty good examples of "Fancy Play Syndrome" IMO. Not that you should never get fancy with your play, not at all. Me personally, I would have possibly slowplayed the 22's on the flop in hopes of catching the nit, and of course you have to fold the bad turn. But I would have kept betting the Aces, I do not want to slowplay my big pair in a multi-way pot, I will try to trap one villian but trying to trap versus multiple villains is a bad idea because the more random hands you face the worse your aces do.

Anyway if you choose to slowplay a big hand in hopes of getting some hapless villain to fall into your trap, then you have to accept that sometimes if you give them enough rope they will hang you with it.

Agree that playing 22 for it's set value has some merit but at 400bbs (if that's the effective stack) you will encounter some significant reverse implied odds. I'm not one to vouch for the abilities of most MTT players (esp. Live) but vs anyone good when the money goes in 400bbs deep it will be set over set. Really deep (300bbs-500bbs) the value of small PPs goes down quite a bit, just as the value of sooted Ax hands goes up.

RE playing PPs from EP with 20-30bbs...I like folding way more than most MTT players (a lot of whom have very good results.) I just don't think 22-77 will show a profit but if anyone has a decent sample in PT4 or HEM I could stand corrected. It really doesn't seem like anyone (except Cash Plyrs) actually look at their stats when opening marginal hands from EP but mine have pretty bad when I do.

Totally agree with you that opening 22-44 can't possibly be making money (from EP, off this stack depth). Could potentially be making less money than K2o would, hypothetically, due to unblocking effects.

However, I find it difficult to believe 66-77 *isn't* making money in the same spot. I'd provide hard data, but I'm an MTT player, so naturally I have none. Just my strong gut feeling combined with a bit of corroboration from discussing this with others.

hmmmm...ok...kinda torn...

If it was just your "gut feeling," I could probably continue to fold and feel pretty good about it. But this is a "strong gut feeling," plus an oblique reference to corroboration by "others."

I feel like I need more information...

Let me ask you this, do any of these others play any poker?

#FeelPlayers #PlayMoreHands

My apologies. I shouldn't have posted anything, in hindsight.