Hi all,

I played a £25/$30 live tournament last night and reached the final table.

7 pay and there are 9 players left with payouts ranging from £80-£570.

Currently, I am 3/9 with around 110,000 with the average stack at 110,000. There is one short stack of 30,000 and one big stack around 300,000, with the rest at around average, so it is all very close.

I am dealt pocket 33s in the sb at 4000-8000 blinds. The big stack limps from UTG and I decide to overlimp 33s as I feel in these live games people limp strong hands from early position and shoving 33s will be a lot when I am 3rd in chips and on bubble. Is this correct or should I shove here?

The big blind checks and we see a 2d4hQc rainbow flop and it checks round. Turn is a Q of hearts, I check, bb checks and UTG big stack bets 15,000. I decide to call as I feel he would bet top pair on the flop and the flush draw came in meaning I feel the big stack would bet all flush draws and maybe some random j10/kj/56s type hand that checked flop.

River is the 7s and I check and the big stack bets 35,000. I thought about this for a while but thought that he would double barrel all missed draws and bluffs to get me off a 4 or what I have, so decided on calling and he shows 44 for a full house. After this hand, I was 8/9 with 52,000 chips.

Is this call a bad call, particularly given that we are on the bubble or do you think I should go with my read?

Thank you and I look forward to any feedback.

if you thought the limp utg was strong then you shouldnt be calling down here. easy for him to be bluffing here but a lot of fish that play tricky preflop will also do so postflop so trying to put this hand together as if he was a decent player is wrong. the board is super dry so he can still have KK, AA, QQ, JJ, TT, 77 and 44. really depends if hes limping a lot of offsuit ax and suited hands to make up for the value he can have. also turn only brought a f.d which isnt that many bluffs depending on his strategy. if the turn was a 9 or T then you could put him on JT and KJ but generally they would probably give up this turn with no equity.most times people dont bluff rivers enough, if you have reads that a particular player tends to overbluff, and thats mostly the people with big egos + big bankrolls that play live then i would snap call this down. board ran out pretty good for our hand so i dont blame you, but you have to think about your opponents tendencies. if hes playing tricky preflop then he'll probably do so postflop. you seem to have named a bunch of bluff hands he could have but didnt name any value bets he could definitely have. why wouldnt he bet JJ or TT on turn + river once flop checks multiway? i also think most of the time if he was to bluff this hand, he would most likely start betting flop with the hands you named.

It really depends on the player there. I think you're right, he usually bets top pair and flush draws on the flop so it's fair to remove those from his range leaving him with just 22, 44, and 77 for value - 9 total combos. If he's been barreling a lot, I think a call is fine, because he can have a lot of combos of air, but if hes playing tight and solid, I would probably call the turn and then fold the river. Also, if you're directly on the bubble, that's one thing, but you were two from the bubble so I kind of like a shove here. Does he call you pre with 44? I'm not sure. Again it depends on the players tendencies and what he's been limping with, but you definitely don't just want to nit up and sneak in for a min cash. I know when you've been playing a tournament want to feel like you at least get to go home with SOMETHING, but sometimes you have to take a chance and hope to either take down the pot pre or win a flip and build a stack for when the payjumps start. I know he happens to have 44 here, but if he's limping with this, hes probably also limping with a lot of broadway and suited connectors. I really don't think it makes much since for him to trap with AA here since people aren't going to try to make a move on the big stack two spots from the money.

Thanks for the suggestions guys very useful. On reflection, I think shoving pre is probably slightly better than calling pre because when he had AA a few hands previously he raised so he does have a lot of offsuit broadways and suited connectors in his range. When I get post flop I think I need to nit it up a bit and fold turn as hero calling on FT is usually not the best play with ICM unless I am very sure he is bluffing.

I would like to think limping 33's here is never good with your stake size or at least pushing here would have been better. IMO

definitely like limping here for 4k out of ur 110.

i like ur thinking postflop and it makes sense. but, with icm, i would commit 4k to flop a set, and then nit it up real hard postflop, wouldnt even call the turnbet. even if he bets 55-77 and then tricky played Q's and then sets, wouldnt risk any of that, since it will just cost you too many chips, and if we go cold for a few orbits we could really use those chips in the future. also every chip saved here provides a bigger reward when we can jam and win that future pot.

so id say fold turn, and gameplan would be with remaining 14bbs is to wait for shorty to go bust, and hopefully someone else before you, and play shove or fold from here on (not until after you reach the money, but every hand from this hand on), until we get 15+ bbs or something like that.

id say bet the turn instead of checking, now fold imo or reraise but idk the man u play vs

happy to limp pre, agree with betting turn with plans to x/f rivers unimproved, esp if we hold a heart

If you think he might have an over-pair to begin with - it' better to evaluate with a raise pre-flop. At-least, you would be able to get better understanding of range. If you raise to 24-28K, it's 20-24K investment to find out where you are and narrow down his playing range. That to me is better vs putting in 50K later on. Believe me, he might not continue with 44 to your raise at that stage and you take the flop down without any further action. If he does continue, you put in a c-bet another 24-30K, if he continue to call - it's easy fold for you from there. That's still better play in long run instead of being a calling station & regretting later.

i am fine with limping to keep opponents range wide sometimes but it creates so many problems post flop one of which is being tough to narrow down v's hand and continue with c/r

Please do not do this.

Complete from the SB & play poker.

Consider that if he wanted to throw his weight around as the big stack, he was free to start betting flop and/or get you all in by the river.

Fold. You only beat bluffs plus he's got a big stack to bully you and value bet as well. Better spots ahead.

Not to nitpick, but with info provided, 4 players have 550 of the 1mil in play. Other 5 players would have 450k between them for average of 75k each. I would bet their stacks ranged from 50-90k.

I am pointing this out because saying you had average stack and they did too is incorrect and you should be more focused on their actual stack sizes. The short stack has to gamble and the big stack(s) can afford to gamble. You want to play hands against the other 5 players, not the second smallest pair with the bigstack limper.

As played, I see no problem with how you played and survived. Just want to adjust your thoughts of the true state of the final table when you played this hand.