Full Tilt Poker MiniFTOPS Event #14 Limit Stud Hi/Lo Tournament - t200/t400 Limit + t30 - 7 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Seat 1: t8426 M = 16.52
Seat 2: t8812 M = 17.28
Hero (): t6005 M = 11.77
Seat 4: t3634 M = 7.13
Seat 5: t7989 M = 15.66
Seat 6: t5634 M = 11.05
Seat 8: t4117 M = 8.07

3rd Street: (1.05 SB)
Seat 1: xx xx 5____Seat 1 calls____Seat 1 calls
Seat 2: xx xx 6____Seat 2 folds
Hero: A K A___Hero completes
Seat 4: xx xx 7____Seat 4 folds
Seat 5: xx xx 2____Seat 5 brings in for $50____Seat 5 folds
Seat 6: xx xx 8____Seat 6 calls____Seat 6 calls
Seat 8: xx xx 6____Seat 8 folds

4th Street: (4.3 SB) (3 players)
Seat 1: xx xx 5 5____Seat 1 checks____Seat 1 raises
Hero: A K A 9___Hero bets___Hero calls
Seat 6: xx xx 8 3____Seat 6 calls____Seat 6 calls

5th Street: (5.15 BB) (3 players)
Seat 1: xx xx 5 5 3____Seat 1 bets
Hero: A K A 9 J___Hero calls
Seat 6: xx xx 8 3 7____Seat 6 calls

6th Street: (8.15 BB) (3 players)
Seat 1: xx xx 5 5 3 8____Seat 1 bets
Hero: A K A 9 J 8___Hero calls
Seat 6: xx xx 8 3 7 J____Seat 6 calls

7th Street: (11.15 BB) (3 players)
Seat 1: xx xx 5 5 3 8 xx____Seat 1 checks____Seat 1 calls
Hero: A K A 9 J 8 Q___Hero bets
Seat 6: xx xx 8 3 7 J xx____Seat 6 calls




I'm not very familiar with Stud 8 strategy. Can I get a line check?
4th seems like a bet/call, but should 3bet to try to get this pot HU? It seems likely the guy in between is drawing for low, but am I too far behind the 55 c/ring range to 3bet?

If I don't catch a heart on 5th, should I be considering folding? The other player looks like he made a low, and I could be just drawing for half.

Comments appreciated.

this would be a great spot to overlimp aces for deception and to keep the pot small; you don't have a low out here like you would w/ AA4 or something. In a tournament I would like to check 4th, the 83 would probably bet, and see what 55 does. As played, it looks like 83 paired the 3, so I don't mind calling 5th. You are an equity favorite though so raising would be okay since again, I think the 3 paired him since he didn't jam 4th and we hadn't seen any yet.

If 83 had bet 4th, and 55 had raised, do you plan to fold? Also why use the distinction, in a tournament? Do you think it's really close and lower variance is worth while?

Also can you explain your thoughts more on limping on 3rd?

with A9A, your hand isn't much better than K9K, and you don't want a big pot with a lot of low cards in when you have a big pair. if you limp an A, noone will think you have aces, so you add some deception; accomplishing two things.

yes, in a tournament, you want to avoid variance, and the variance here isn't not pushing a small edge on 3rd street, it's keeping the pot small so you're not going to have to call down 3 big bets against a probably made low hand. if the pot is limped on 3rd, you could fold to two cold.

I'd probably peel one off on 4th to the cr but I wouldn't be happy about it one bit ... I'm likely behind to varying degrees: close to drawing dead to eventually likely half the pot or just behind to eventually likely half the pot. Once the flush draw comes on 5th I'm going to plug my nose and call and fold 7th if I don't improve to at least aces up or action heats up to the level that I think 55 is full. Being protective and defensive of chips is important in stud tourneys imo. You want better spots to play to the end against typical fishy opps.

Tourney stud 8 and cash stud 8... WAY different. Although I do see what you're saying, I think making a distinction between the two does help because there are sooo many differences between them. Being agressive in anything lower than 100/200 isn't very profitable in cash games, but to be profitable in the tourney play I think you have to use a lot more agression especially when it comes to having an A with a few people in the hand.

As for this hand, what I would personally do is one of two things to the C/R by 55. If you know he's willing to 4 bet (which my guess he is a maniac if you were playing this on PS and he started with the T), then I'd say it's a call, possibly even a muck because you're needing to call 3 more bets to see if he's full of s*** which could end up costing you more than it's worth. Plus, if 83 hits his low he can go nuts too, which if I were him, and I hit my low on 5th, I'm going crazy because you two are fighting over the high, and you find yourself in an extremely tough situation when the repops come later in the hand (these guys seem really bad though so who knows if they would ever think like this). Thing number 2 I think is ridiculous now which would be to repop him somewhere so you know if he has trips, but now I am leaning so far towards muck with no low draw and you look like you're sooo far behind.

I think on 4th in most cases it's a muck because simply put.. Aces just aren't that strong in that game because so many people hit trips, straights, and flushes, and they will scoop the s*** out of them many times. Don't be result oriented because many times you're beat there.

i think with the third opponent showing a low, that you are simply too squeezed to call the checkraise. optimal line = raise 3rd, bet/fold 4th. unfortunately this split aces didn't work out...get out cheap and save those bets for the next time.

I call the check-raise on fourth although I'm not crazy about it. The check-raise doesn't quite make sense to me, really. When my opponents do things that don't make sense and I have a decent hand, I'm inclined to look them up, especially if the action isn't too heavy. Once you pick up the flush draw, you're seeing the river. When you get there, you bet. Nice hand.

Very costly in tournament play if you're wrong.