Playing daily tournament at the Aria today.

Blinds 1000-2000 w/ 2000 BB ante.

My stack is 54,000 (27bb) with 13 players left. We are playing 7 handed. Money Pays 4 players.

I'm in on the button with A4h.

Folded around to the CO who open-raises to 3x making it $6000.

Usually I elect to 3-bet, but this time I decided to flat.

SB and BB fold.
Flop is 6h,3s,2c, with 17,000 in the pot. CO has me covered.

CO checks. I decide to check back, if think this is better than x-raising here. I can't rep much and would rather play some turns than getting x-raised myself and folding. I also have a gutshot, and a heart on the turn is swell as well. I also think CO floats flops fairly often, so personally I'd rather not bloat the pot against him. Other players at the table, I would consider betting the flop, but not the player in the CO. I think CO leads here with 77-JJ, and sometimes with stronger Ax combos. I assume he's check-calling with sets, some AJs+ and check calling QQ-AA maybe 50% of the time with the other 50% check-raising.

Turn is the 10h. CO checks. I bet 8000. I'm semi-bluffing my gutshot/flush draw obviously... I can rep some 10x here as well and think villain usually can find some folds with some better Ax holdings. CO is a decent player, I surmise he understands some level of CO stealing ranges. I think CO leads the turn with 77-99, KXh combos, and some Qxh combos, but he checks.

CO raises to 18,000...

I tank. This is where I think I made a mistake. I personally don't think I properly thought through the hand in its entirety... I didn't fully consider my options, became flustered and...

I decided to jam over the top with my remaining 40000. Even if you think this may be correct, I arrived at this conclusion out of being flustered, which is never good.

Villain snap calls and shows 6d,6c. River is the Qc. I go home.



Personally, I think there might have been a few better options given the stage in the tournament. I could have simply folded on the turn leaving me with 20bb which I think is a decent stack size, and I could have managed it most likely better than the field. There were considerably shorter stacks I was probably in the 6th or 7th or better chip position.

I could have flatted the raise to 18000, saw the turn and folded the river leaving me with 30000 @15bb. Personally I think either options are considerate of valuing tournament life. However, hindsight is always 20/20.

I understand this is quite the diatribe. Your thoughts on this spot would be very helpful. Is jamming here ok, or would another action be preferable.

Also your thoughts on my preflop flat, flop check, and turn bet sizing would be much appreciated.


Thanks for the help.

fold pre, esp in an ARIA daily structure. I'm OK BB defending with a weak suited A but don't like the button call as you don't close the action and you cannot continue if SB/BB wake up.

You have decent equity OTT but I wouldn't bet without a plan if raised. your shove is getting called frequently - 40K into ~83K and you are definitely behind a c/r range from V.

In this situation, you have a decent bluff-catcher if unimproved OTR with lots of outs. I probably check back and see the river card. Really wish you didn't show the results.

@Beachman42

Interesting. I'm curious... Does the CO stealing/opening ranges have any baring on how to play this hand (call,3b,or fold pre) regardless of the blind structure? I have a cold calling range of roughly 13.5% OTB against a CO, and A4s is not in that range... A4s however is in my 3b range. But I'll explain my decision to flat below... Why does the blind structure affect the ranges here? Thanks.

Personally I think flatting OTB with A4s is ok. Now... I would normally consider 3-betting this spot the some of the time, but the SB and the BB were folding WAY to much; and they would flat with hands in the SB and BB that they should be 3-betting. Which means they are 3-betting only the strongest hands in their range, which I'm totally cool folding here if i get 3-bet from the SB or the BB. If they flat, I'm happy to navigate post flop 3-4 way though its obviously not preferable.

So my flat was simply to pot control w/ the high likelihood that the SB and BB were folding.

"but I wouldn't bet without a plan if raised" I'm not sold on this dogma in the poker world, that we must 'have a plan' should you get x-raised on the turn because it is so rare. I can reference a Bart Hanson video explaining this very theory if need be. Just give me a day or so to sift through them to link the correct one with a timestamp...

"your shove is getting called frequently" and "and you are definitely behind a c/r range from V." I couldn't agree more. I think this is where I negated having a proper thought process at this point. I'm almost always behind and I have no fold equity. The only time I think is the RARE occasion Villain is semi-bluffing a worse flush draw.

I ran the numbers in flopzilla and equilab on the turn, with a resonable value range from the CO and I'm simply risking too much here. Even with some weaker value hands and semi-bluffs the CO could have but mostly likely are not x-raising the turn. Either way with my equity is too low to stack off here even before considering the value of my tournament life...

"In this situation, you have a decent bluff-catcher if unimproved OTR with lots of outs. I probably check back and see the river card." I agree. Would leading here with less equity be better? Hands like suited broadways not of hearts, and weak unsuited aces.

"Really wish you didn't show the results." Sorry about that.


Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it.

OK you went pretty deep on your replies

Here goes: a 3X open from a typical Aria rec donk generally isn't nearly as wide as GTO/Nash/Online soul crusher/etc. Having a 13.5% anything is way over complicating the actual situation and can potentially lead to FPS.

This structure is typical of a Vegas daily - fast. flatting isn't horrid, but you do have a 5-6% chance of either SB or BB waking up with a hand where you simply cannot continue. I believe your range disadvantage is too great vs. V's normal opening range which I'd put at AA-maybe 66/55 AK-AT s & o and a few suited and nonsuited Broadway combo's. I seriously doubt that V is anywhere near optimal opening range here. If you know V is "fit or fold" post flop, calling IP is a decent option. you didn't provide any read on V so I went with my own experience.

I generally do not bet later streets without having some sense of what I'd do if I get raised. As played, I'd fold. This really isn't a math exercise as much as a preference exercise. We have a so-so bluff catcher plus good drawing equity, but we most likely are NOT ahead right now. Sometimes the power of position is opting for the free card. Plus, you can always bet the river unimproved and still beat the same range you beat now (more or less).

I'd only "lead with less equity" if my plan was to bet/fold. In most cases, I'd consider that if there is no hope of improvement OTR.

In a daily donkament, learning to play the player has really helped me to turn off the quant brain when all it does is bounce me from the MTT.

Awesome feed back man. Thank you.

I think you make a solid argument on the ranges the typical player is opening in the CO and I think I automatically put him on a more standard range. This was my first live tourny in a while since grinding the last year or so online. So missing that is definitely my fault.

I did notice that my live play was a bit rusty making the transition back. I had an interesting time adjusting earlier in the tourny to the limpers and how I was often seeing the flop with 3-4 ways even after trying to isolate with proper bet sizings.

I've played two tournaments in the last few days. I am putting some time in coming up with a new strategy to live. I also don't think the bad structure helps. Also I'm usually pretty good at playing the player, but I need to warm that skill set back up again.

Again, I really appreciate the feedback. Checking the turn is best.

Thanks bro.

I think the major mistake here is preflop. I’m 3betting/ shoving or folding here mainly. I think fold is correct here in this spot as you have 27bbs and a hand that doesn’t really play well as a 3bet in my opinion. If you 3bet to 7-8 bbs, you have 19-20bbs behind with a hand that will be super awkard to play if you don’t hit or flop a flush draw.

I would prolly just fold in a daily bc people are play generally straightforward in dailies and you can find a better spot.

As hand is played... I’m not sure this is correct but why jam the turn? Only hands that have you beat or over 50% equity are calling and bluffs will fold. I think you should just flat turn raise and fold to most rivers that don’t make a flush for you. Again though, the major mistake in this hand is not folding pre. I would just fold pre here and find a better spot in a daily.

Rip it pre my man

Like I said above. I don't jamming on the turn was good. This was where I made a mistake. I personally think I should have checked back. If I did for some reason decide to lead the turn, I think folding to the raise of 18k would have been best. I ran the numbers against some ranges and I have pretty zero fold equity here. It's truly a stupid spot to jam, so that's my fault.

I guess the reason I didn't jam pre is because I don't think jamming on 27bb to an open is the best, simply because that's not what I normally do. I have been playing the last year or so online and I'm going to have to be cognizant to the difference in online and live tournament play. So this spot could very well be a spot live that I should be shoving... I don't know. I need to put some time in the lab and work on spots like this.

Typically online this hand would fall in to my 3-betting range. I elected to not 3-bet for reasons explained above.

I also think you do have a point regarding the stack sizes after 3-betting and the post flop dynamic with those stacks sizes.

I def need to put some time into spots like this.

All in all, when I was leaving I was thinking to myself that I could most likely manage my stack size better than the remaining field. Conserve my chips and allow the field to make mistakes. So I think putting up a fight here against villain is really just increasing my risk. I agree that I could have found much better spots.

I need to adjust again to live. It's easy to disengage because of the slow pace and not take into consideration what is actually happening in the ecosystem.

Thanks for the feedback.

Is this a legit option sitting on 27bb? Ill look at it in some software I guess.

Let me know your reasoning if you have the time.

Thank you.