Poker Stars $5.00+$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t15/t30 Blinds - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BB): t3575 M = 79.44
UTG: t2715 M = 60.33
UTG+1: t2310 M = 51.33
UTG+2: t2595 M = 57.67
MP1: t3570 M = 79.33
MP2: t5320 M = 118.22
CO: t3175 M = 70.56
BTN: t3075 M = 68.33
SB: t2395 M = 53.22

Pre Flop: (t45) Hero is BB with K A
2 folds, UTG+2 calls t30, MP1 calls t30, MP2 raises to t3545, 3 folds, Hero raises to t3575 all in, 2 folds, MP2 calls t30

Flop: (t7225) K 9 A (2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: (t7225) 2 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t7225) 3 (2 players - 1 is all in)



villain run like 75/8 and when not limping a hand just bet all-in preflop i figured his range to be 1010+ from UTG and 66+ from middle position, no info about how he plays big aces
its not really a thread i need hand advice from but im interested who makes the call since most of his range are pairs (no info about he plays AK) we are flipping against.
Who makes the call knowing its a flip since we have an advantage in postflop poker over the field

nh

i call.

the only reason i can think of not to call is that youre not properly rolled or something along those lines. you dont win tournaments not flipping, you win tournaments when you win flips. theres no reason to delay the inevitable.

not to mention, his range isnt just pairs, hes 75/8, its pretty clear he doesnt know what the **** he is doing, and shoving here displays that even moreso. i got it all in the first level last week in a 5 bet pot with AJo where AJo 3 bet me and 5 bet shoved me. which im not trying to relate this here, but my point is that these idiots overvalue all sorts of ****ty hands youre crushing.

if we knew he has a pair it's a fold if we don't it's a snap

I do, gladly. I'd rather flip now for a stack where i can start playing some really deep stacked flops against idiots then to wait around to basically get in this same situation in 2 hours.

Call me a nit, but I don't like to get all in and hope its a flip this early. I look for a better spot, especially when I think I can outplay the table post.

If we don't put the shover on KK/AA (and you can't obviously) then why would we ever fold? You're not guaranteed to ever see this situation twice in a tournament let alone once, why are we passing it up? If this were a live game or a much bigger buy-in you can make a case for folding but in a $5 donkament where people are doing this with the most ******ed of holdings folding here is burning money. If we lose the flip here, ok that sucks but we are going to get into another tournament fairly soon. If we win the flip here we have a stack that can start to absorb bad beats and also pressure other players... calling here is a win/win no matter how you look at it.

That doesn't need to be his range for calling to be unprofitable and with stacks as they are that would be a pretty big mistake to call if his range is pairs and pairs only

so if his range is pairs only this is a snap fold and it is not close

If we take our equity against 22+ as 42.7 then calling nets us 42.7% of the final pot which is 3085 for a loss of a whopping 490 chips or 16 1/3bb.

I call because he has other stuff in his range

there's no chance his range is only pairs... you do play $5 tournaments right? his range here includes stuff like QTs so often its almost insane to fold.

that wasn't my point you said

I was merely pointing out that doesn't need to be his range it would have been more accurate if you had said

If we don't put the shover on 22+ (and you can't obviously) then why would we ever fold?

You can expect to see him AQ-AT or KQ/KJ here as well as pocket pairs. A call is fine to me, as we're never worse than flipping.

ok lets say he has 22-QQ 9 times out of 10 and 1 time AQ
do you call
i knew he has other stuff since he really was a donk, but do you take the 50:50 knowing you have the postflop edge, to have a big stack and apply pressure.

right now im at 20k and the next guy on my table has 10k, thats really a dominant situation in the tourney and i guess you need to gamble to get that stack, right? i stacked another guy KK > JJ who had 10k aswell
if i fold the 1st flip i would have at least 8k less than now.

You are correct however personally I'm happy to call here even if I know he has QQ just due to the situation itself. On stars with like 3000 people in a $5 tournament we are going to need to win a ton of flips to get anywhere near the money, winning this one will give us the stack we need to absorb a couple of bad beats in the near future giving us the ability to make marginally +$EV decisions much much easier.

Overall if his range is only pairs though you are right obviously we are going to lose >50% of the time so it would be a losing play. However given that it's the first level of the tournament that makes me personally pretty willing to gamble on marginal -$EV situations.

I'm not saying im right or wrong, just saying what I would do and what my thought process is.

do the math but its probably a fold.

i think thats incorrect tho, and i think his range is alot wider than 22+ and AQ. i think its weighted towards pairs, but i dont think its a non paired hand we are beating 1/10 times, i think its at least 35% of the time an unpaired hand that we are crushing.

Depends on your strategy, some people approach these and want to play small ball, and just chip up slowly in the early levels. If you are desperate to get an early stack i guess you make the call here. I personally wait for better oppurtunities to get all my chips in. You will never see me snap call with AK in this spot. If im playing impatiently i may call but regardless of the outcome i wouldnt be crazy about a call there, it would be a sign to me that im going to play badly.

if we can narrow it that well then

90% of the time our equity is 3250 for a loss of 325
10% of the time our equity is 5295 for a gain if 1720

so it still loses you money

I understand what you are saying I just don't think that a marginal -ev decision is in the interests of a better player against a really soft field and when that marginal decision costs you 15 bb's or so I think we can turn it down.

ok forget the hands...
lets say its a 50:50 over 50 hands. its just theory i knew i had to call that one and its not the reason i made this thread.

you're probably 100% correct and this is a leak in my game, possibly a major one.. im not sure.

Some random dude just shoved 118BB in a $5, and we're not sure what to do with AKo? Super snap call, obviously. Yeah he has some pairs, but he has a ton of Ax, broadway, random, etc. I don't think we can give him a range, but if we could, I think we should put him on like 15% of all hands (77+, A7s+, K9s+, QTs+, JTs, ATo+, KTo+, QJo)... not like 5% of hands... he just shoved 118BB.

We have 62% equity against that range.

Given that it's a $5 tourny and most can afford a ton a $5 buy ins i would call here. But if im using my basic tournament strategy and my #1 objective is making a deep run I don't make that call. Even in a $10 buy in i dont think i make that call. Early coin flips are always avoidable. You only have a few hands dominated in that spot.

FYP obv.. also if this is a coin flip, you've been flipping some ****ed up coins.

On that note, the "photo shop a coin with 60/40 odds" contest has begun.

whose basic tournament strategy says to avoid +EV spots?

TJ Cloutier's