Hello, i'm new to this forum I just been stalking it here and there. I would appreciate some unfiltered feedback from you guys. I feel like I'm playing bad.

It is Early Stage of a low stake MTT online. We are really deep, I'm the effective stack with 191 bb (3,835), I'm in the HJ with QsQd, I have no info on villain who is UTG+2. The blinds are 20/10 no ante.

PRE FLOP:
folds to Villain UTG+2 who opens to 100, folds to Hero in the HJ who 3 bets to 300, folds around to villain who calls.

FLOP: 2c6d5h, Pot: 630
Villain checks, Hero bets 160, Villain raise to 400, hero calls.

TURN: 7c, Pot: 1,430
Villain bets 715, Hero pushes all in 3,135, Villain thinks for few seconds and calls with KsKd

RIVER: 2s, Villain wins.

Some quick analysis of my perspective during the hand.

I found the 5 bb open to be alerting preflop but I did have QQ so I was not going to fold. I 3 bet to 300 to get an idea of his holding.

The x/r on the flop didn't scared me since this flop will miss his range. I was debating on pushing it all in on the flop but I got greedy and wanted to get more value on the turn with his bluffs and his 88 to JJ hands.

The turn felt like a safe card that doesn't interact with our ranges, after he bet half pot I was happy to put him all in hoping that he had an overpair 88 to JJ hand and that he will desperately call with his AJ+ KQ hands.

Any feedback is appreciated! I'm having problems with these "marginal" hands recently. Thank you for reading!

I don't play many tournament pots nearly 200 bb effective and I'm not at all studied, but here are my thoughts. I think preflop is totally fine, although I don't mind a flat either. Flop I like it - I may bet 1/3 pot but 1/4 seems fine and calling the raise seems good. On the turn, I'm not going to say shoving is awful, but I think I'd rather just call. I think V's range consists of some 99-JJ, 66/55, 87s, 65s, some AA/KK/QQ, some broadway flush draws, and maybe a few airballs. I think it's possible to get worse hands to call if we shove, but I think we'll always get called by better, and it's unclear as to whether or not we'll get called by worse. If we call turn, we can evaluate river and decide what we want to do. I think on most clean rivers we're calling any river size. If we get checked to on a clean river we can shove, on a bad river we can check or bet smaller.

Thank you for the feedback! Would love for you to clear some things. So I understand him calling my 3 bet with 66/55, 87s, 65s playing deep can be profitable due to massive implied odds. But isn't standard to play tight when there is no antes at an early stage of an MTT? Especially in EP So those hands are not on his range? I can see some bluffs like T9s+ QJo+ that can continue calling my 3 bet.

Also will they be check raising on the Flop with a set? They are pretty much losing value, to me his check raise screamed of an overpair and some overcards. Im open to change my perspective if I'm wrong.


1 question so if we call on the turn and we get a bad river and villain bets any size can we find a fold or just fold when villain bets are on the bigger size?

Yes it's true that theoretically we should play tighter no antes vs antes. However, at this stack depth these suited connectors and pocket pairs perform very well due to implied odds. I'm assuming +2 means 9 handed - I'm not exactly what GTO opening range would be but I'd guess all of these hands are near the bottom of the opening range - I wouldn't be surprised if they're pure opens, mixed, or 0% frequency, but I'm going to guess an average opponent will open these some portion of the time. Obviously we can wonder if someone would open any of these hands for 5x - that I just don't know how to range, however I'd be willing to concede I think 5x would be more weighted towards very strong value hands.

I don't see why they wouldn't check raise a set. It's a hand that wants to get the money in and has a real chance to stack an overpair on this board. I'm not sure what you mean by "losing value".

It just depends. Let's say the river's the 4c - probably the worst river in the deck for our hand. I find it really hard to believe our opponent is going to bet a worse value hand for any size on that river, and I think it's going to be hard for our opponent to find natural bluffs. If villain were to bet 10% pot I might just flick it in but I'm not even sure we should call that size. Let's say river came 9x. Another not great river. Is our opponent going for value with TT/JJ? No, so we're left with a pretty bad bluff catcher that I think should fold to any reasonably sized bet.

You got one of the best rivers in the deck besides Qh so I think had we called turn rather than shoving, we can call any sized river bet. I wouldn't love a jam but I'm probably not folding.

Exact stakes and site matter, because the difference between a $5 and a $0.25 will change their ranges and what they'll stack off with; similarly, I'd have different feelings on the action on, say, ACR vs. Ignition.

In general though I think you probably end up getting this in one way or another. Think low stakes players will take this line with a lot of overpairs to the flop here. I'd kinda just shrug and hop back in it.