I feel this pot should have been mine...
What should I have done different and why ?
Flop bet size... or fire again ?



Full Tilt Poker $14,500 KO Guarantee No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t80/t160 Blinds - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BB: t15933
UTG: t7630
UTG+1: t8382
UTG+2: t3175
MP1: t5700
Hero (MP2): t5549
CO: t21927
BTN: t5355
SB: t8480

Pre Flop: (t240) Hero is MP2 with 2 2
4 folds, Hero raises to t490, 1 fold, BTN calls t490, 2 folds

Flop: (t1220) A Q Q (2 players)
Hero bets t170, BTN calls t170

Turn: (t1560) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: (t1560) 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Your pre raise is fine but after seeing a call from the button and being OOP I'd slow it down unless you hit your set. This flop totally missed you and betting 170 is way too small even if you intend it as a probing or blocking bet. For your bet to have any impact you need to bet at least 1/3 - 1/2 pot and adding more to this pot with 22 is incorrect IMO. You took a stab at the pot pre, now that you met resistance I'd play the pot small and fold to a bet.

Checking the flop here may send a stronger message then betting. If villain checks then you get a free card to see the turn, maybe a 2 pops and you can value bet the turn. You may also be able to check this hand down all the way and your 22 could win at showdown.

Check the flop and bet the turn and the pots yours. Shows more strength than just leading out on such an active board

Yes, you would have won the pot with this strategy. Your flop bet is too small to really do anything for you. Check the flop and if he checks behind you can bet the turn and take it down.

fold pre

raise less pre and more on flop..or as discussed a delayed C bet would work too...hate the bet sizing on both streets

Way too tight. We has a pocket pair, raise it up.

I like a flop bet, but it has to be more than 170, and should be somewhere around 50-70% of the pot. And you should make the same bet with Qx or AK.

t800 on the flop wins it 80% of the time.

Make a real c-bet on flop but turn/river are standard imo.

edit: I also fold pre with these stack sizes.

Please explain. I don't see why we want to fold here at all...

Pf is fine as long as those acting behind you have not been overly aggro.

Not sure what you're trying to do w/ that flop bet. I make standard 50-65% c-bet/fold to most.

Were too short to play 22 for set value. If we get 3-bet we have to fold. Basically every time we get flatted were put in a horrible spot post flop, and with no antes in effect we are risking too great a % of our stack for the small gain we get by stealing the blinds.

I have noticed that flop bets when I have a player acting behind me are much less effective, and get called / raised much more then when the player has already checked (acting before me).

so concensus here seems to be "bet a real C bet on flop" ... OK

well...either you make a realistic flop bet or just check and give up...if you choose check and give up that is fine given your hand and the bored texture.

Your bet size on the flop was horrible.

As to opening I think it is semi table dependent but I would rather open to 400 or so than 490..

1. OOP
2. 3 bet = fold pre
3. any card on flop besides a 2 is bad which leads back to OOP.
4. C-bet + call = worse spot on river than flop
5. C-bet + raise = fold

I want to set the situation up a little bit before I answer.

Your M (Stack size divided by starting pot size) is well over twenty which is great.

So you have the ability to be very aggressive and greedy if you want to. If aggression is your playing style and you feel comfortable with your table and table presence, I like your preflop raise with the 2's.

However, if you aren't a very aggressive player or you don't feel comfortable with your table and table presence, I would fold the 2's. It is not good odds to call because there is not going to be a lot in the pot pre-flop and there is only a few players in at max. So your implied odds in this case, doesn't look like it will be very high. Unless of course, you have a read on one of the players involved and see him as an aggressive player who you can gauge a good amount of money from. (once you hit your set)

Anyways, the button calls your 490 and he had 5355 at the time. Depending on your interpretation on the tightness of the table and tournament, he could be doing one of two things. He could be preventing you from stealing the blinds, however, the blinds have yet to act behind him. Besides, he doesn't have much chips and therefore, there is little reason in this play. More likely in my opinion, is that he has a moderate hand that isn't worth the raise. He wants to see a flop with a small pocket pair or something like KJ, KQ, QJ, AJ, A10.

After the flop, I think you need to figure out exactly where you stand in this hand. You have chosen to be aggressive for one reason or another. You need to keep up your aggression for aggressions sake and so you can get a feel of exactly what he might have. Your 170 bet into a 1220 pot on the flop just isnt good at all. What was your intention with that bet? Betting 170 after raising to 490 preflop, definitely isn't showing aggression. As an observer, I see this as a bet of weakness, trying to not act weak by checking.

I would suggest that you bet big on the flop (half or about 40%) the pot to continue your aggression and find out exactly where you stand in the hand.

Spartnic, I agree.
Ill just explaing what i was thinking placing that small bet on flop,
basicaly I was checking this flop and others like it, BUT sometimes the other player actualy folds to a mizzly bet such as this, so I figured what the hell, its worth a shot at such a low price if he is weak enough to fold it...

If he folds 1 in 10 its still a profitable bet is it not ?

do you think its better to check-fold instead ?

Just grunching here so I havn't read the replies yet.

Your bet size on the flop looks scared, I don't think anyone ever folds for 10% of the pot. If you are going to raise the 22 preflop instead of set mine, your on a bluff. Follow through with your cbet of 1/3-1/2 the pot. You should not ever be betting less on the flop than you did preflop AFAIK.

1. We are in the HJ, if we get 1 caller we are oop 50% of the time. Not a big deal
2. We are surely raising many other things that we are folding to a 3-bet. That is no reason not to raise.
3. So, we will have the initiative a c-bet will take the pot down quite often. And as above, we will be oop at most 50% of the time.
4. I would normally c-bet and give up, with the occasional doubel barrel.
5. The same thing applies to AK when we miss.

In short, unless we have a couple of extremely aggressive players to our right, I think this an auto raise. And our raise is far less than 10% of our stack, so if we do get called and hit our set we can still get payed off big.

You think as I do :P

I don't think it is a profitable bet. You took the initiative before the flop when you were aggressive with 22. 22 is not a hand you expect to be in the lead with post-flop. I think it is more profitable if you continue your aggression and bet about 40-50% of the pot on the flop. For one, the flop is favorable as long as your opponent doesn't have an ace or queen. And even if he has an ace, your aggression may cause him to fold a weak or smaller ace. Besides the ace on the flop, two queens also came off. Therefore, the likelihood he has a queen is significantly reduced. I think that if you played this situation 10 times you would win 4-5 times with a nice-sized post-flop bet which would cause your opponent to fold. Instead of betting small, hoping your opponent will fold, why not bet a good amount and force him to make a difficult decision. If he folds, you win a good amount of chips. If he calls or raises, you can bet he has a hand, and check the turn.

Just to add to my past answer, I would like to say that if you force your opponent to make more difficult decisions and make the decisions easy on yourself, you can expect to win more than you lose in any game.