Hey all, had a solid run yesterday in the 100k $400 Venetian tourny with some good spots to discuss. I’ll try to include what I know- I have some spots that are interesting before the money when stack was very deep for me.

H1- let’s say bubble. Idk exact figs but 20 left and 16 make day 2. I’m in bb with JQo, stack size is 550-600k at 6k bb level. Sb completes- he’s a good player- we talked and he discusses strat with very elite players + has had recent tourny success in vegas. His play is good- tag young kid- I think he’s card dead so looks tag but prolly a good on the lag side I assume based on age.

He completes sb on maybe a 250-300k stack I guess? I have JQo and make it 21k. He thinks and makes it 53k. I think for a bit and call. I think we need to call based on fact we are in position + hand is fairly easy and good to play post. Flop is like K82 and he leads 1/3 and I fold. Fine with calling the 3 bet pre? I think his range is fairly strong but JQo is just too good to fold based on fact we are in position + hand is solid. Thoughts? I think he can do this lighter than the standard person so I can see Ax etc in his range.

H2- before h1- we have 550k at 6k level. I open hj to min raise with J-10cc. German behind me calls and bb. The German- I saw him spew in daily at Wynn day before like 4 but ins quickly. He’s ok though and maybe just thought the $200 buyin is a fun tourny and didn’t care? He seems ok at poker but might be rec. flop is J-10-3 rainbow with one spade. I cbet 1/3. German calls in position (he’s cutoff). Bb folds. Turn 8 of spades. I bet 40% pot? He calls. River K spades. I bet like 33k which is maybe 1/6 pot to fold to the right sizing. Idk exactly but it was a blocker bet to not be put to the test on river. He thinks and calls. Shows Q-9 suited. Is this hand player well? Do we wanna hammer flop ever at a higher %, I say no but maybe? Wanna say other stacks are 40bb and we have 80+ so obv effective 40. Do we ever wanna check turn or river and give up? I don’t think this hand is a blunder per se but if villian puts raise on flop like he prolly should or on turn- I get massively owned. I think I call a x raise on flop and call turn bc I’m prolly checking to induce. I felt he got bare minimum on the runout as he could have hammered flop with a raise or a raise on turn.

As always- I’m playing tourny now writhing this on my iPhone. Prolly left out important stuff but let me know. I feel these spots aren’t too controversial but wanna hear thoughts by other good players.

I think they're both fine, although in hand 1 with a hand like QJo and the bubble situation I check back a fair bit hoping to cooler SB when they have a worse Qx/Jx and we hit top pair. Using your chip stack as leverage to pressure a shorter stack is fine, though (although against that 40-50bb stack pressure may not be so successful).

I'm trying to think if there's a more effective line in hand 2 to win you the pot, but I'm not sure there is. Sometimes you can c-bet larger on the flop given the strength of your hand and how connected the board is and how likely it is to hit other players, but I don't think CO is folding to 2/3 anyway. Going for a flop check-raise seems pretty high-risk in a multiway pot.

Hand 1 is fine. Villain makes it so small, that it's hard to fold anything we're raising other than like our K5o type hands.

Hand 2, I'd go bigger on the turn. I think a small river bet is good. Want to get value from QJ, AJ, K9, and KQ, which seem like the most likely hands in their range.

Hand 1 is fine. I would consider floating the flop against this player some % of the time. But I think folding is the standard here

Hand 2 - I think you need to be betting bigger on all streets. I am surprised that you didn't go broke against the player that you describe. I would expect this player to call you so wide. I would probably be betting larger on the turn and the river.