First hand. 100/100/100; 20k starting stack

We’re the button with A♥︎J♠︎

LJ (central casting srs event midwestern American male; 57-64) makes it 400 we are only caller.

Flop comes
K♥︎ T♥︎ 8♥︎

LJ silently puts out one 5k chip and one 100 chip.

I say “5,100?”

He looks panicked and immediately looks at his chip stack. Doesn’t say anything.

Other relevant info:

- this is day 1B, one re-entry allowed
- the 5k WSOP chips are bright red; the $500 are darkish purple. People screw them up often in the early levels.

Against a range of TT/QQ/KK/AA, AKs, AKo, KQs we have almost 50% equity. Sitting from my house with the ability to run those ranges, I say jam. We block all possible made flushes IMO except QJ and if he has AK or AA he has zero hearts. I would think we get tons of fold equity.

Depends on your tolerance for risk vs. chance to significantly chip up at an early level.

I don't think the bet sizing was necessarily a mistake. And I also think if it was a mistake that the panic reaction could have nothing to do with the strength of his hand.

Still we have the nut flush draw and a gutter. We also could have 3 A outs if he has KJ/KT. So I would jam here.

I think I jam if I think villan meant to bet 600. However always be careful in these situations bc people can angle in spots like this at a low low freq. think it’s jam or fold on flop bc we can’t continue on non q or heart turns. Normally you can kinda tell when people goof here in spots they meant to bet 600 per se.

Hmm I wouldn’t hate fold either though bc I feel Kx is calling you minus weak kx. Idk if it’s worth running this if we don’t think we have fold equity and they are going to hero call kq/kj/Ak/ etc etc.

As played. I think I like 3!/ fold pre here. We can really put pressure on in position with a 3 bet and can make a simple fold if villian 4s. I think flatting is way to conservative here even though an open to 400 and in a seniors is prolly strong- it can easily be weak where we can get away with a 3!. I think flatting is a mistake honestly. Villian can flat a 3! With their suited Broadway etc type hands and we can just run train on them post by outplaying them.

If we make it 1200 and they call, we can cbet 1/3 or 1/4th post and make their life a living hell based on flop. I mean I’m prolly cbetting that with my whole range if they flat the 3!

All of these thoughts went through my head at the time. just based upon observation there was a 99% chance he meant to go 600, but that 1% gave me pause. Very early in my poker playing days I fell for a guy saying he was all in blind and called with AQ for a couple of hundred and he laughed and turned over AA, so I’m on the lookout for angles that depend on the greed of the mark to succeed.

But

With that 1% chance we could still have 7 clean outs to J9hh, and 12 to KK needing to fade a paired board.

Then I thought about the situation more, and that I would likely be playing at this table for the rest of the day with most of these guys; the fact that I’m typically someone who doesn’t think that the ends justify the means, AND that I made this exact same mistake in level 1 of the 2022 wsop seniors event, and I folded face up. He had Kx and we all laughed and moved on to the next hand.

As I’ve been reviewing my poor showing for this year’s trip I’ve been focusing on mindset and why I made some plays that in the cold light of day are obvious errors, and my brain came back to this hand that I didn’t even bother to write down.

Somewhere along the way I read the qualities that make for good traders, and at the top of the list is disregard for other people’s opinions of them. I know for certain that I care WAY too much about what other people think about me - and when it comes down to it, that factor is what drove this decision more than any other.

I’m good with my decision despite that, but it does make me reflect on this factor and how it may be influencing how I approach some spots.

If I think it’s a mistake 99% of the time- slam dunk jam bc we get some solid folds and easy chip pick up early. I feel villian will sigh call weaker ks though when we jam and it kinda sucks to run agains kx here.

Assuming this is the first open you've seen the gentlemen make, in which case I'm folding pre vs the 4x

Literally the first hand of the tournament, so yes first open.