Midway through the nightly MTT, almost all older men playing. And sorry if my formatting is horrible, I don't know how to post it without pulling it from a program. Super standard play, lots of limps.

blinds 800/1600 1600 ante
CO :30,000 K10o K spade, 10club

BTN 35,000


All fold to me I raise to 3200. BTN calls.

flop A8Q ace and queen of spades 8c I bet 5000 BTN calls

turn 10d Now my stack is pretty weird at this point, so I check planning on shoving any spade. I put him on either a Q with a str draw or a set. He quickly checks behind.

river 4s and I quickly jam a little over a pot sized jam.

Was this played correctly? Should I have done different sizing so I could triple barrel? Bet super small on turn and jam Any raise? tips would be appreciated. Or was this hand supposed to be folded period?

You could probably bet smaller on the flop, especially if you want to 3-barrel this. I suppose you could possibly go for the flop check-raise at this depth-- and call it off if he jams flop, or jam turn if he flats.

I'm not sure I have any specific advice otherwise. Seems mostly played OK; the 25BB effective stack size make it a little tough to go with a 3-streets line.

I definitely wanted to 3 barrel after seeing the flop. I think sizing was my one mis play on this hand. Was also 4 away from the money out of 60ish, winning the pot would put me top 3. The older gentlemen tanked for a long time and kept saying "wow" and finally made the call with a set of 8s. Not sure how he found the call when I didn't get out of line once and this was my first "bluff" as well.


I have done very little live poker play period, and this being my first MTT live. I felt like I played it almost perfectly and was still super happy about how I played it even after getting stacked. I'm just mind boggled he found the call. It seems like from the limited cash games I have played live and this MTT, you almost are always going to get hero called in spots like this? Only thing I could have done better is just not have played the hand period at my BB size and how semi close I was to cashing?

Hmm, I'm generally averse to running big bluffs this close to the money against someone who covers me. The downside of a big bluff at this point in time in terms of real-money equity would make me shy about running one. I'd probably take a more passive approach to the hand under those circumstances.

I think your reasoning for your line is solid-- even if you ran into a set, he still apparently thought about folding a hand that good. But with the bubble pressure I would consider folding pre, or giving up after the first flop c-bet doesn't work, or even checking the flop and folding to a significant bet (this board is gonna hit an old guy's range a lot-- you might fold out JJ-99 but not much else). I dunno how many shorter stacks there are, but with your stack as it stands now you are likely not one of the shortest and can afford to be more patient.

That said-- how many people were left and how many were paid? Was the "60ish" total entrants or was it the number of players paid? 4 away from paying 60 vs. 4 away from paying 8 definitely creates different bubble dynamics.

Preflop
Standard raise.

Flop
I think, this is close between C-betting and checking. This is a good board for your range, so against players, who are not tricky, there is an argument for C-betting your entire range. However you do also have decent showdown value here with the second nut nothing and a gutshot plus BDFD, so checking would be fine as well. It would suck to get raised and forced to fold out your equity.

Turn
You improve to a pair, which increase your showdown value, even though it can be argued, that most of his junk probably folded on the flop. Even so I would definitely check, and if he jam, its probably a check-fold. But luckily he check back.

River
I get the idea, that you block the flush, but I am not sure, it makes sense to turn third pair into a bluff. I think, you still have at least some showdown value, so I would just check here and hope, he checks back. And if he makes a substantial bet, you can just fold and live to fight another day.

Results
Him calling with a set is not surpricing. What is surpricing is, that he played it so passively on the flop and turn. Maybe that means, his range is generally stronger, than I assumed, and then turning third pair into a bluff is perhaps ok. If you can get him to fold top pair or second pair and only call you with sets or better, this should be a profitable bluff. But personally I would probably not have made it.

A set of 8s (88) is quad 8s here. OP meant he had trip 8s (8x).

Board was As8cQs-Td-4s

Yeah, my bad. Thought it was AsQs8c-8d-4s for some reason. Excuse the derail, good analysis fundiver.

Yeah definitely thinking back on it I agree. The way he played the turn I honestly didn't put him on a set at that point, was thinking more top pair. It does make me feel good knowing I almost got him to fold though, my image was pretty tight up til that point and I seriously need to work on my bluff spots. Thanks for the feedback.