[converted_hand][hand_history]Poker Stars, $1.29 Buy-in (10/20 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 9 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite. View Hand #10433382

UTG+2: 1,500 (75 bb)
MP1: 1,685 (84.3 bb)
MP2: 1,620 (81 bb)
MP3: 1,610 (80.5 bb)
Hero (CO): 1,470 (73.5 bb)
BTN: 1,520 (76 bb)
SB: 1,530 (76.5 bb)
BB: 1,380 (69 bb)
UTG+1: 1,185 (59.3 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with J Q
2 folds, MP1 raises to 50, 2 folds, Hero calls 50, 2 folds, BB calls 30

Flop: (160) 8 9 T (3 players)
BB checks, MP1 bets 80, Hero calls 80, BB folds

Turn: (320) 4 (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets 120, MP1 calls 120

River: (560) 9:diamond, Villain checks, Hero?


is Checking back way too cautious?

Thanks

Bet and maybe fold to a shove, not firing this is being too cautious imo you get calls from worse A LOT at this level

I'm folding pre

As played pre flop... Raise flop to ~250... Bet 2/3 pot on turn... Shove river

Fold pre. Raise flop. Bet much more on turn.

As played, I prob b/f ~t200

Flop is so damn drawy and hits everyones ranges so hard I can't see a reason why I wouldn't raise it.

And your turn bet is tiny, why are you scared of value?

300/f on river imo

Yes b/f river for sure!

fold pre, bet turn higher, obv b/f river

Several things in this hand that could be improved.

1. Raise flop. On that kind of flop, villain probably has a decent piece. You need to protect against a diamond. You also need to protect against a lot of turn cards that
a. kill your action (i.e. any 6, 7, J, Q, diamond; also, if villain has a single pair and combo draw, the board pairing also kills his equity and forces him to fold, i.e. 8, 9, T)
b. make villain's hand (i.e. KQ, Qx, two diamonds) so he wins the pot or chops

I'd put in a pretty significant raise. Not so much to fold out his hand, but big enough to protect and small enough so that he can still call with odds to his 'perceived outs'. Especially at the micro-stakes, players are just ******ed and I could see him drawing with an off-suit 7 here.

2. Turn bet is ridiculously small. Given that you didn't raise the flop, I'd bet a good 230 here. You need to protect your hand for the same reasons that you needed to on the flop.

Also, you need to build the pot. When you flop hands like this, the first thought that should go through your mind is, can I stack him, and if so, how can I do it?
This is a common mistake that beginners make. They get too excited when they flop good hands and don't know how to extract value. They're afraid to fold out junk (and therefore become results-oriented when they raise / bet big and villain snap-folds) but the reality is, if villain has junk you're not getting paid anyways. You need to make sure you get paid well by the remaining part of his range.

I mean, you could've easily stacked a villain with QT, JT, two-pair, AdT, KdT, etc. Especially at the micro-stakes, again, people are so terrible there's going to be a lot of junk he'll stack off with. I'd be willing to bet good money that there's a handful of players at those stakes willing to stack off with an off-suit 7, Q, J, Tx, A9, A8, etc.

3. Value-bet river 100% of the time. I'd bet like 190-230 or something.

Coming back, this is the problem you've gotten yourself into. The flush card either makes his hand, or kills your action. You should never be in this situation with a flopped straight on that type of board. That being said, now that you are here, you can think through the situation a bit.

If villain had a flush draw, it has to be a really badly played low flush draw. Any decent flush draw would have had straight outs and he probably would've barreled turn. In fact, I don't think he has a flush here at all. I think he has a straight draw or some type of weak combo-draw. You need to value-bet smaller because I don't think there's much he can legitimately pay off. His draws now have zero equity and he probably has something super marginal like Q-high or a single pair.

As for players advocating a fold preflop, I'd disagree.

QJo is a hand that flops great equity. You have position. Your stack is deep. It's not deep enough to flat with like 43s, but you with QJo it's definitely deep enough.

If you miss, whatever. You blew off 50 chips. Not going to make any difference in your tournament result at all. In fact, I'd bet if I started off with 1300 chips every tournament instead of 1500, I would see a microscopic difference in my ROI. What will make a difference is when you hit your draw or flop monsters and double up. That will significantly increase your shot at the bigger prizes.

you sure can