Ok I obviously don't post often but I have been on a pretty bad downswing in the past two months and thought maybe talking some strategy might help. CO is among the chip leaders and has been aggressively attacking the blinds. Button has been solid. I have a very tight table image, just doubled up with KK the previous hand.


Full Tilt Poker $5 + $0.50 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t250/t500 Blinds + t50 - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

mdailam (UTG+2): t34070 M = 28.39
R_Dutschke (MP1): t12695 M = 10.58
Agentace (MP2): t7018 M = 5.85
SharkJohny (CO): t47902 M = 39.92
Pottamitta (BTN): t19182 M = 15.98
gwenpok (SB): t29635 M = 24.70
Hero (BB): t18890 M = 15.74
DIRTY DOG49 (UTG): t28935 M = 24.11
bobcat45 (UTG+1): t5475 M = 4.56

Pre Flop: (t1200) Hero is BB with A J
5 folds, SharkJohny raises to t1500, Pottamitta calls t1500, 1 fold, Hero calls t1000

Flop: (t5200) Q A 9 (3 players)
Hero bets t2500, SharkJohny folds, Pottamitta calls t2500

Turn: (t10200) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, Pottamitta bets t10200, Hero requests TIME, Hero raises to t14840 all in, Pottamitta calls t4640

River: (t39880) 8 (2 players - 1 is all in)

You're only posting this hand because he sucked out on the river. Seems like a BBV post with an attempt at strat

If you do actually want some advice, reraise pre, bet flop, shove turn

Shove pre. The best defense is a good offense, not passive calling.

^^ I don't like shoving 38bbs over a standard button open.

reraise pre. As played bet turn, call shove.

calling pre is +$ev. as is shoving pre. but i like making it around 8-9k pre.

3bet 4250 shove flop

With the pot at 1/4 of our stack anything we do is +EV as long as we don't fold.

I agree this could be a quite profitable squeeze

Standard button open and a call...

Shove pre all day.

I completely agree that its +ev but I think 3betting creates more +ev

that sounds weird but you know what i mean

good image
good hand
nice pot to pick up
shove pre

I like a shove here...

how do we play w/o the flatter, do we stack of vs BTN w an effective stack of 38bbs ???

std shove pre

Shove 40 bb with AJ? Is this +cEV? I mean we will probably win the pot right there a good percentage of the time but when we get called we are either a slight underdog(PPs) or big one(AQ+, JJ+).

u have less then 40 bb and there is ante
if u shove u ll win the pot a huge percentage of the time(+25% of your stack!),
if get called u still have about 30%
->easy shove
btw: u could also do this with A2s, since its nearly the same suckout-equity against calling range(99+, AQ+)

This is super interesting.

Easily +cEV and definitely the right play imo.

Let's say CO is opening with 20% of hands here, and calling the shove with the top 33% of his range. Button is usually flatting about the same percentage but folds a lot more of his range as it's less likely to include the high PPs and top aces. We're taking the 4200 pot away preflop over half the time, and when we're called we're like 40% but are only just short of getting the right odds for that anyway.

Well, against the aforementioned AQ+ 99+ we're not even 30%. That's not to say we shouldn't shove.

meh i pulled that figure out my ass and although i think 99+, AQ is right for CO, button will often call lighter than this for odds.... but yeah 30% is a better figure and it's still not even close to being a bad shove.

If you dont like shoving pre, then making it 6k planning to call a push or planning to jam nearly all flops is perfectly fine too. (We would fail to jam AJJ or other flops we completely crush, and instead let opponent catch up or bluff, but nearly every whiff we are jamming, unless its live and it comes 5d6d7d and we see his eyes make yahtzee.)

4Card

meh I don't love overshoving pre

I don't hate a 3 bet pre and an aggressive line on most flops
I don't hate a call

If I call I think I check/call flop and see what happens

Why 8 or 9k?

Shoving is probably best, folding is silly. If you 3bet you gotta make it like 6250 and be jamming most flops if the button calls, doubt the SB will be calling a 3bet too often