We are on bubble. I'm sitting on a fairly avg stack, though I'm still feeling constrained by the blinds. Most players are playing fairly tight/trappy, which is allowing me to play relatively LAG pre and do 2.4-2.8 BB raises to take down pots. I'm curious as to your general opinions about the following play. Obviously, no reads.

Full Tilt Poker $32,000 Rush Guar (Rebuy) No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t500/t1000 Blinds + t125 - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BTN: t18497 M = 7.05
SB: t42381 M = 16.15
BB: t19369 M = 7.38
UTG: t123392 M = 47.01
UTG+1: t2775 M = 1.06
UTG+2: t94949 M = 36.17
Hero (MP1): t57936 M = 22.07
MP2: t103955 M = 39.60
CO: t47384 M = 18.05

Pre Flop: (t2625) Hero is MP1 with 7 8
3 folds, Hero raises to t2900, 3 folds, SB calls t2400, 1 fold

Flop: (t7925) 3 5 3 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (t7925) 4 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: (t7925) 2 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t4975

Seems like you should have bet the flop or turn for 4200.

C-bet is reasonable on this board. Turn bet is really scary to villain too. If called or raised, you're finished with the hand.

On the river, the only way villain gets money from you is if you bet. Even if he only has one pair, you haven't shown any strength so it's hard to lead into you, but very easy to call with a wide range of hands- everything that didn't get there on the turn got there on the river.

Less pre, bet the turn. I think they float you pretty wide on the flop.

What are we repping by betting the flop? Turn bet would be a lot better than betting this river imo. Otr your range is very polarized for not betting the turn and the flush being there. You also have a gutshot to hit otr in case you do get flatted which is always a plus. Also I might have some flawed logic here but in a rush mtt I'd rather bluff the flush since people don't float or do things like that given it's rush. I don't think he calls river that wide it's just that we rep so bad to now bet river.

Also def bet less pf.

betting flop for sure. dont even care what we "rep" (likely that villain doesn't, either!). people fold a lot, especially in rushes when its basically "oops i missed flop next table plz" and especially on the bubble when people would rather not get into inflated pots OOP without something playable.

True true. That's a good point about the bubble, I forgot OP mentioned that. OP is it the EXACT bubble or the like 10-20 people before money bubble? If it's the exact bubble then I like betting flop more.

don't make it so big pre, make it like 2300, then we can c-bet like 3500 and take it down a large amount of the time... as played I like the river bet, and he usually can't call without an A (which he obv. doesn't have), although the way you played it might get a call with a mid-pair like 66/77/88 which is also a hand he'd have checked down

at least bet turn, you have a gutter ball for crying out loud!

Not sure if you're being sarcastic on my comment or not. But to elaborate my point is that when we bluff the turn we atleast can river a very good card and have it basically be completely disguised. I didn't mean we're hoping to hit it for why we bet, but rather that if we get called we still can hit a nice river.

less pre, bet flop. check turn. river w/e.

This

It's such a good board to c-bet, cause it is v unlikely to have hit villain and if he doesn't have a PP or FD, he is folding. And if he gets aggressive, it's easy to get away from, since u have 8 high.

Sorry I haven't been able to respond. I've been away. Thanks to everyone for their input. A couple questions:

As counter intuitive and anti-best practices as it sounds, that's exactly WHY I didn't C-bet flop. Three reasons I can give:

1) SB is getting around 2.4:1 to call, and has implied odds on my raise amount of more than 15:1. If he flops hard, he's waiting for a bet to either smooth (making me think he's on a FD) or could raise me if he incorrectly believes I have Showdown hand. Remember, players are playing very tight, but very trappy, so a CR is entirely possible given that his range is also very wide.

2) Related to 1), SB could correctly deduce that I have any kind of unmade hand while still giving me credit for a "raisable" hand (e.g. ATs+). Bluff 3bet can force me off the hand given a very wide range of possible value hands I have.

3) If he flats a Flop bet, I'm giving a possible FD or SD the chance to get rough odds to call and then take various lines to try and extract value from me.

Ergo, I choose to check behind, as I would also check behind with the upper range of my hands here as well, to disguise strength and also to extract more value from a wider range of Villain hands.

THis is precisely WHY I can't bet the turn. I know I'm contradicting myself in a way with my previous post, but if I don't bet the flop, I can't bet that turn either. Any FD, or more important, marginal holdings with a with relatively strong redraw to a four flush are calling ALOT of bets I'm making there. There are also hands that call me that feel more confident to now c/c BECAUSE I didn't bet flop (i.e. PP, Straight draw + pair, etc)

One last thing I've been finding weird as a common theme....Bet sizing is too big? Serious? With a pre pot of 2625, a 2.9 BB raise is too much? I'm putting 2900 out there to a 2625 pot, giving cold callers almost 2:1 to call b/c of the fkn antes! The blinds get it even better. If anything, I thought it was probably far too small a bet overall, and that I should have been sizing closer to 3.2 to 3.4 BB pre.

Can someone explain why my head is so far up my ass on this?

i generally make it about 2200-2300 with my entire range unless I had reads on specific opponents the looser they are the bigger all the way up to a 3.5x, and if they are tight then just a min raise will suffice.

As played---flopcheck/turncheck it was a good river bet. I'm fine with the play TBH but a flopbet/turn check/riverbet would have been good too.

Whats wrong with playing pots IP against nitty rush players?
--you risk less to win more with a 2200 raise, a steal only has to work 45% of the time, with yours it has to work 52% of the time

I think you're levelling yourself, sir.

Standard cbet to me. My standard is 4444.

That flop misses a lot to him. We don't have any SD equity so it's pretty good to take the pot right away.

Check flop bet turn shouldn't represent anything tbh. You just give him chance to bet the flop which forces you to muck your hand.

I agree. You're assuming a lot of stuff for it being rush. Just treat them like randoms AKA bad.


The main reason people are saying to bet less is not due to pot odds. Usually pot odds pf are applied more to all in bets. I think you're kind of misapplying it. I never raise above 3x ever as an open, esp not with antes. I usually raise 2.2-2.5 pf once the antes come in. The point of that I want to bet the same amount with my steals as I would with my good hands. So when I'm stealing it doesn't cost as much when I get 3b and sometimes people think small bets are weak and will spazz out. Are you 3x big hands too? I'd rather be able to bet small with both and let them make mistakes.

it might just be me, but if there has been an open raiser who then checks the flop and turn and then bets the river, i think it looks really weak to the villain.

i know if im in that situation, i think im calling with any pair and maybe slightly less, unless something really obvious had been rivered.