Hey all, recent tournament at parx where I have a few hands I have ?s about.

H1- not exactly sure on chip counts but I’ll estimate... ok it’s 200/400 400 and aggro solid young kid (21) raises to 1100 (60-70k stack) and has been opening a lot of pots from ep. I’m one to his left and 3bet AdAx to 3500 (started hand maybe with 35k) and only he calls. He has been opening a lot and I’ve 3 bet him 2-3 times with aq/ak strength hands and he folds each time pre. Opener calls and the rest fold. Flop 10d-7d-2d. He leads 75% pot, I flat. Turn is 8x. He leads 8k, I raise to 20k and he tank folds. Do we ever just flat turn and just plop most rivers or let him hang himself. Villian said he most likely jams river which I 100% believe and I felt I lost a ton of chips on this hand.

H2- ok I’ve been aggro at table so far and have 130k even though I’m racked with cards all day. Ok at 400/800, I make it 2.4k with qq from utg+1. Newer player to table with 32k makes it 8k (younger Asian guy so most likely aggro). One to his left, Indian guy I’ve played with before who has solid aggro game rips maybe 30k. Folds to me and I just sigh fold bc I’m not sure what Asian guy is betting. I’m thinking it’s like jj+ ak+ but maybe I need to call this shove. In game, I felt shove is almost always ak however not sure what Asian guy has so I take meh route and fold. He says he had aq and folded and Indian guy says he had ak which I believe. Is this terrible spot to fold? We can take chip hit I guess. I just didn’t know what Asian guy is 3 betting an ep raiser with. Maybe I need to take my aggro image into account and guess he could 3! Light.

Hand3- ok so guy from AA hand I kinda pissed off after telling him he ran godly at another series and not to expect that often. Ok so I feel this adds to hand, I have maybe 100k at 500-1k. Aggro kid opens ep to 2.5k. One to his left I flat 10d-9d. All folds and we see flop of 9x5c2d. He Cbets 70%, I flat. Turn 9c. He bets big again. I flat. River jc.He leads 16k. I tank a little and pop it up to 73.2k prolly leaving like 20-30k behind. He tanks for a while and I feel I’m good bc he’s snapping with better. He calls and we beat an unknown hand (I’m guessing overpair). Not sure but do I just rip the river here and not leave a little behind? I thought going 4xish his bet would be better but idk in game. I felt Villian would make fold if not for way we had battled early and fact I kinda irritated him by saying he ran godly in a tourny series and to not expect that long run in poker mtts (he was extremely frustrated at what I said and felt I was calling him a luckbox... even though I was just saying I hope you realize you aren’t going to final table 3 events every series you play).

I guess in this hand, is it bad to flat 10d-9d here from ep? I feel it’s fine due to our deep stacks however we prolly have to fold to anyone that pops a solid sized 3bet. Also I almost raised flop Cbet however when thinking about it, I felt this only allowed Villian to repop overpairs/sets and I would fold out any hands he would continue to spazz with possibly so we strengthen his range with a flop raise for hand he continues with.


Hand 4-again I’m not sure exact chip counts in this hand but ok we say have 160k at 1-2k and complete sb with 44in unopened pot. Bb is another Asian guy that seems like a good aggro. He checks and we see flop. I’m trying to mess around with a complete against bb strat. This Villian raised over me in a similar sb vs bb battle where I raised qc5c in sb and he raised big and I just mucked pre. Ok so villain taps table and we see flop of Ad-2d-7x. I check, he bets 3k, I call. Turn is an Ax. I check and Villian bets 6k. I feel I have more A’s than him... honestly feel he should have no ax in his range so I raise to 19.5k and he folds. This line ok? I was planning to raise if he raises over my complete in this hand. Villian said he folded a flush draw with 2d.

H5-on stone bubble in hand for hand, I have kk utg with 105k at 4k-8k. I open to 24k utg+1 to induce and not give a bb great price to defend. Brazilian aggro shoves all in (started hand with 400k maybe?). Snap call and we beat qq. Is opening kk fine here for my sizing and not just ripping? Not going to lie I was sweating hard here bc didn’t want to lose out on min cash of $780 but I’m
Never folding in this spot to really help my chip stack.

Final h6-I have 202k at 5/10k. Ok younger kid rips 127k 2 to the right of the button and I have AQo to his immediate left. I tank and think he’s jamming mostly pps and def worse Ax etc and just rip over. Is this a simple call based on his perceived range. Guy wasn’t an omc so felt he’s prolly ripping some light stuff here. All fold and he has A5s and we lose lmao. I guess I’m just wondering if tanking here by me is bad? I tanked for a min and think this is prolly an easy call in reality but just wanted to make sure this is easy quick call.

Snap shove said it was +2bbs so I feel it’s prolly simple call against someone not shoving an extremely nitty range.

Btw thanks for any advice on these hands and sorry for huge wall of text. I have trouble breaking down hands without all relevant info provided and I like to provide info on how people play/ table dynamics.

You have to tank with obvious calls sometimes, or you give blinds or buttons permission chance to reship you.

I will occasionally tank with aces preflop. I know, it is dick move to the guy you call. But, I also tank with K-Q and 9's and can't let myself pushed off.

I think A-Q is probably a call there.

Will respond to rest later.

LOL, chip leader (40ish BBs) limped from EP then tanked for at least a minute on my 7BB MP open shove with 7 left at an Aria $400 event a few wks ago. Flipped over AQo v my KQs. Apparently AQ makes people think hard.

Jk, I railed some of that final table, if it was recent Big Staxx. I don't know how play was the whole tournament, but seemed like a tough lineup at the final table. They keep the rail kind of away, so you can't see everything, but looked like every first raise was 2-2.5 x. I didn't participate, so I don't know what the early play was like, but if final table was indication, probably a very tough field. On to the hands

H1: I would raise. Any 7,9, J, or Q not a diamond is disaster for you. If he jams, you are in tough spot with those cards. 12 cards could come that could make you fold or make you lose. Get it in on the turn or take the pot is probably standard. if you were willing to fire 4-5 bullets in the tourney, maybe a slow play is warranted, but if you liked the bullet you were on, I believe your play was correct.

H2: Call is right, but folding and moving on to the next one with your chips is never that bad. Think it is 65/35 in favor to call. Lower Queens to jacks, it goes 40/60.

H3. You got paid. Well played. I personally would have folded the 10-9 85% of the time, but that leaves me in your spot 15% of the time. Personally, if I am villain I find all in's a bit more fishy and am more inclined to call if you go all in, but depends on his image of you.

H4: If I'm him, I never think you have an ace, but don't want to shove and find out. You think he never has an ace. Blind vs. blind with two aces out there, I can't give you an ace and you can't give him an ace. Line is bad for what he thinks you have, but good for what you think he has. Make sense?

H5: Due to bubble, I just rip it in. I don't want to lose to A-J or something. I want the blinds, though. In the end, if you rip, probably still get called by Q-Q. Good players who play a lot of tourneys that are only focused on top will tell you that you played the hand like a fish and should have stuck with your standard 2-2.5x open. Nothing blows more than making bubble and getting sucked out on or walking into aces. I don't think you can fold kings unless you are on your case money, though.

H6: Due to structure of big Staxx and play they give you, tanking with A-Q isn't bad. Levels are long and you have time to make a lot more low variance plays where you are aggressor. I don't think it is auto ship, but I probably find a call there as well.

Happy to go deeper into thought process if you like, but over all seems like you played solidly across those hands.

JK are you playing the $500? I'm thinking of playing some live poker.

Hey eggs, I’ll prolly be playing turning stone mtts the next 2 weekends bc it’s closer to me and I feel the play is much softer. Gl if you play. I feel the 550 at parx I played in past wasn’t much tougher than the 300s + way less variance with a smaller field size.

And smudger, yea the play was really solid all around I felt. I felt I ran very well at my first table. First table was actually really solid with maybe only 1-2 soft spots who all busted semi early. Meh it seems most of the nyc/ philly regs are all mostly solid. Not a lot of limping from Recs in early stages.

I’ll probably be at parx for the September- October + February series. The structure really is super amazing. Day 2 itm with 1hr levels really gives you the chance to find great spots I feel unlike most lower buy in mtts. I ran pretty damn well and had mostly simple decisions for my min cash but it was a lot of fun.

Why eeks Eggs? Cause of chip position?

Pretty sure folding Q-Q when you raise, goes 3 bet, 4 bet can't be that huge of leak. And, putting 4 bet shove precisely on A-K is kind of optimistic. What does he do with Aces or kings there? Probably going to rip that as well.

Hand 5, you raised 3x with 13bbs to induce? Were you trying to induce folds?

A minraise with your stack looks so strong, but in my experience, live players won't notice that as often compared to online since the stack size isn't precise and in their face, so I'd do that.,

Hand 5 was stone bubble. I took it that he just wants the pot by a slight over bet.

Hence, just ship it was my advice.

But, good players will call me a huge fish for playing in that manner.

With hero's stack on stone bubble I'm only playing aces or kings. I don't want action if I get them. Being that I am this silly on stone bubble, should I just go play video poker for 15 minutes?

Hand 1: yes, flat turn.

Hand 2: never folding here given what you've said and stack sizes.

Hand 3: I like how you played it.

Hand 4: looks good.

Hand 5: see above

Hand 6: easy call

I feel a raise in general on the stone bubble looks really strong so sizing I. My opinion between 2x and 3x doesn’t matter. This was the last hand for hand (didn’t know that at the time) but I really didn’t want Ax to peel from bb or some other goofy hand per se so I feel 3x is better.

I honestly considered shoving 12bbs but 3x I feel induces spew more so as Villians have some sort of perceived fold equity.



Btw I agree with eggs on that qq hand. The Asian guy was newer to the table and I didn’t have history with him. I wouldn’t expect him to 3b aq to an ep opener however I probably had a semi aggro image at table that was discussed (an older player kept saying he wanted to see what I was 3betting as I was only played really 3b at table even though it was aq/ak hands and not really light at all).

I agree that any raise will look strong, especially from UTG, but I disagree with your thought process/fear of the big blind calling and getting lucky. It's far more likely that if the big blind calls, he'll still be far behind your KK on the flop, and he might hit top pair or something else with some kind of J9/Q8/78 etc hand then feel committed and you'll take his stack.

Shoving is fine also, and if I respect my opponents that's the play.

Also there's a big difference between 2x and 3x--and you kind of hint at it since the reason you raised 3x was so the bb wouldn't call.

H1:

V's line is such a horrible, horrible line by a horrible player. Whatever he has it's ******ed and yeah you torched $$ that hand raising anything on any street it pretty spewy. Like I'm gonna be honest it's pretty remarkable how suboptimal raising either flop or turn is with any hand in your range. You probably lost 20bb in EV here. Probably a decide river if he triples but honestly all streets thus far are so silly by him I think we have to go to showdown with this hand on most rivers.

H3:

Flat Td9d fine I mix in flats and 3bs at 100bb eff. But I mean in game after that 1st hand if he's gonna have a tendency to make my life really easy and play super suboptimally I think for sure I would've 3b.

Good instincts with the river raise. In theory way too far down your value range and highly suboptimal, in practice (perhaps results orientedly but I don't think so) perhaps not. Think V is clearly overvaluing overpairs (which are pure turn x's in theory) thus he's arriving at river with suboptimally many bluffcatchers making raise river a nice exploit.

H4:

Turn is really bad. Yes, heading to the flop you have more Ax than V (limp your range strategy is good this deep w/ antes) but at the critical decision point OTT V has now filtered his range via aggression twice meaning his range is now decently titrated to Ax and better (probably a quarter of his range or so), you're faced with the classic dilemma of never getting worse to call (FDs are a very slim proportion of V's overrall range) or better to fold (7x are way too high up to b/f, they're pure b/c) but you certainly can't fold it's kinda trivial to see x/c is highest EV by a longshot.

Definitely not correct to say he has no Ax combos, that's just a bad job at ranging V.

This is maybe OK is by some convoluted read where V bets too much 7x for this sizing AND folds those 7x combos (which in theory and likely in practice are way too strong to be b/f, they're pure x/c)

In reality, this is just a pure x/c and x/r is super spewy.

ok

H1: I think you should flat turn... I think maybe you are loosing in that hand. Villian probably has 77 or TT. Then flat turn … Villian most likely check river, and then if you do not complete your flush you check back and if you complete your flush you bet 35% pot.

H2:Think fold is OK. Maybe I'm too oldschool but if I open EP and after me there is a 3bet and a 4bet, I believe I'm against QQ+...

H3: Don't be result oriented. T9s after an EP raise is a fold. Maybe sometimes you want to mix with a 3bet if you know well V... But calling I'm pretty sure is bad...

H4: Someone before said it… eventhough there's a lot of air in V range, I'm think there are more Ax in his range than 7x … You are never getting worse to call or better to fold... Just call and x/call river...

H5: I think 2.3-2.5x raise instead of 3x Will induce a shove more frequently.


H6: Nothing to say.. It's a call

H1: I have no problem with raising but I will generally flat here. If I am going to raise I would likely raise the flop. I might check back the turn to make it look like I am on a flush draw.

H2: I think with aggro image vs 4-bettor with solid aggro game, its a call. Especially since 3-bet guy only has 2k more.

H3: Can't believe he called there. I would shove because leaving 20-30k looks so strong and the BD flush got there as well as JJ. But clearly you had him fuming

H4: WP. I don't find the raise here. But I think it is solid.

H5: 13 BB's I just shove everything I'm playing. 3x looks so strong here I don't like it. Because lets say everybody folds and your next shove is with Ax, you will look especially weak. QQ is always calling anyway. I would rather get called by smaller PP's so I can double up, but your 3x makes set mining a bad option.

H6: I can't imagine folding to a LP shove of 13 BB's. So this has to be a shove. We are never folding to a shove after a call of over half our stack. And I would like 88-JJ to fold in the blinds.

H4 is not ok, it's horrid.

You never fold out better and you stop all his worse / bluff from barrelling again otr. Just strap in and cc it down after the second A hits - or cf and move on if this particular V flavour is too heavily weighted to nuts.

I think all hands were played fine except Hand 2 is a good spot to call. Im no pro but Id assume the 2 big raises would help the chances that they are blocking each other and the holdings AA,KK. Is that correct thinking?

QQ vs Ak vs AQ. I love seeing that scenario in the QQ shoes, before the flop drops of course.