Early stages of the tournament... 100bb eff

UTG Opens
BUT Calls
Hero Calls in the BB with 8◇7◇

FLOP (6.5bb) 9♡Q♤6♧

Hero checks, UTG Bets 4.5bb, BUT Calls, Hero Calls.

Turn 5♡ (20bb)
Hero checks, UTG Bets 10bb, BUT Calls, Hero?

... if Hero raises, do we have any bluffs in this spot and does our plan change for various populations assuming Villians are:

1) Regs in high buyin tournament? (WSOP, WPT, MSPT)

2) Unknowns in a live low ($350) regional weekly tournament

3) Unknown or Regs in low stakes (<$33) online (on ACR or IGGY)

Is this an unbalanced spot where we are simply fast playing our hand?

Thank you

You have very few bluffs here I think, the only hands I can think would be some BDFD or a combo hand like a SD and pair like 68 or 58, perhaps even KJ, as UTG could still be firing with AK and BUT could be floating looking to take the pot away hoping you're weak and fold. Against those various villain's I would have to say it like this,

1) If you raise here against good players they will most likely fold even AA or KK here, it's very unlikely that you would attempt a bluff here so early in the tournament against 2 players one of which raised from UTG.

2) Unknows in a medium buy in like that will probably fold hands like KQ or A9, but will most likely still call a bet with AA or KK, and not be good enough to realize that you have very little bluffs here. It may make more sense to raise these players.

3) Regs in low stakes especially online, I'd be hard pressed not to the raise this, people at those levels will GII with K high sometimes haha.

Since it's early and most likely no history between each other, I would raise and fast play it, there are quite a few bad cards that can come off and kill the action, and if the board pairs or the flush card comes, are you able to fold to an all in bet if that should happen?

In general, multi-way pots you want to play much more straightforwardly than heads-up pots.

Any bluffs you might have would probably involve an 8x/7x hands that blocks the nuts and has some other outs, maybe one of the flush draws.

But I don't think it matters here. The pot is already 40% of the stack you started the hand with, and there are lots of ways you can be outdrawn. Raise. Even if your opponents fold 100% of the time that's a fine result for you. A spade, heart, or even 8 or K on the river could stack you.

your bluffs should probably be pair + combo draw types of hands.


6h7h, 6h8h, Qh7h, Qh8h would be the most natural bluffs to me. with a value range of 87 and the occasional slow played flop set. We should probably have a few more bluffs in theory and Id guess they are also coming from the pair + gutshot part of our range, but its also easy to overbluff into a pretty strong turn betting range.

Yeah, I didn't specifically highlight this when I talked about playing more straightforwardly, but this is a good reason both to not bluff very often here and to raise now with our actual holding-- UTG is representing a pretty strong range betting twice into two people. I wouldn't expect bluffs to work very often against what UTG should have, but with the actual nuts we can raise for value and likely get at least one more bet in.

Think raising the flop is a better strat as you can put together a more balanced range and this is the ideal hand for that. I think raising this turn screams the nuts - UTG is uncapped and still betting 3 way on the turn so it's not really a spot we're going to raise without it. Thinking outside the box - in a higher stake tournament with intelligent players it does get interesting to raise the turn here without the straight. In a lower stake tournament it's suicide as they won't fold KQ/AQ/etc.