Hi guys,

I played a tournament recently in a local casino and managed to get to a heads-up.
I don't play much HU poker, so please comment on the hand below.

So , Hero is on Big Blind with 21BB in stack, Opponent is on SB/BTN with 17BB, no ante in play.
The difference in prize money between first and second place was significant (2000 and 1200).

We have a limp-pot, Hero has 7d 5d

Flop : (2 BB) Jd 6c 4s
Hero bets 1 BB, Opp raises 3 BB, Hero calls

Turn : (8 BB) Td
Hero checks, Opp bets 6BB, Hero goes All-in

Haven't played with this guy much, only on the final table. But I saw him opening from EP and folding to the following push from the short stack couple of time.
That was a key hand in our short HU match and I wonder now if should have played it a different way (maybe pushing the flop?)

I like the lead out on the flop. And the call.

Villain is probably never folding to the turn c/r. He bet close to 50% effective stack. I think it is a good spot to call because you have about a 33% chance of winning. Villain will probably call a river jam if you hit. You could also check on the river if you hit and Villain will likely jam because your flush draw isn't obvious and your straight draw is a maybe.

Congratulations on getting heads up.


Even if not shoving turn, I am never folding and I may bluff the river when I miss both draws. You suffered from too many outs syndrome, you might have caught it from other posters here.

Edit: not related to your question but related to another thread, I would guess you could have chopped and gotten around 1,700.

Well,

First of all I have not posted the outcome of a hand yet :-)
As for the deal, the guy demanded 50/50 despite the fact I was ahead in chips 220k to 160k. The chip advantage wasn't that big, but I still didn't want to chop 50/50 with him. Or do you think it still made sense chopping 50/50 considering shallow stacks?

Calling turn and bluffing the river? Even if an overcard hits, it is unlikely to be in my range considering a limp-pot. Isn't pushing the turn better in this case? What would he call my push on the turn with but fold on the river? A flush draw?

And what about leading the turn? Does it make any sense after calling re-raise on the flop?

I would ICM chop but I never give other players extra money in a chop. If they offer me extra money I will always take it. So here i wouldn't do a 50/50 chop.

I wouldn't be bluffing the river because Villain bet almost half his stack on the turn and isn't going to fold to a river bet unless your straight hits and he realizes it. Similarly if your flush hits - it is unlikely he will realize it but in many cases I check the river when the backdoor flush hits if somebody bet large on the turn because they will almost always follow with a river jam.

I guess it's never that bad to get it in with so many outs but I think you've got no fold equity with the line villain took. He's basically saying he has a jack or better.

I don't think leading the turn makes sense because he can just jam on you and then you have to fold all your equity.

That's also a reason I decided not to just call the turn. I wasn't sure what to do on the river if I miss (would happen 2/3 of the time).

There was one minor detail. When he bet the turn he grabbed the chips with one hand and threw it in front of him (not sure if he event counted them). Chips rolling across the table, dealer had to collect those and made a count. A tell, maybe ...

Anyway, after all I pushed the turn the Villain checked his cards and folded to my surprise. Never figured out what he had, but I assume it wasn't the Jack (middle pair maybe or some AK/AQ he intended to limp-push preflop?).
So, I got the big chip-lead and in the very next hand we were all-in preflop my Ax vs his KT, and it was a final hand of the evening :-)

Maybe just open shove the turn. Shove as played may be good, as he could have air HU and air is way ahead. I doubt he was bet/folding a pair on the somewhat wet board.

If you are posting here, he probably doesn't have a big enough skill advantage to make chopping even with the chip lead shallow reasonable for you.

I think if you lead the turn you may have gotten to the river for only your bet but I don't have any criticism of the play. You had best air, it was worth raising on turn.

Did you try to negotiate up from an even chop or not I would have said, I have a little chop lead give me a little more, that's fair.

That being said, a 4bb lead at these blinds is not very significant in my eyes, especially if their was a bb ante.

I haven't really seen a bet of half somebody's stack be a bluff much. Really the only other time I've seen it has been in a couple of final table 2 players left HU spots.

One was in a WSOP event where a guy raised with QQ preflop then A6o 3-bet then QQ 4-bet and A6o 5 bet all in. QQ guy called and I don't think he even tanked (he held for the win)

Another one was I think a WPT event like 15 years ago where each player was bluffing on a flop they both missed on, and it went bet raise re-raise 4-bet and then a 5-bet jam and both guys were bluffing. The 5-bet bluff worked like your c/r jam did. At least here you were semi bluffing...

Congratulations

Preflop: Checkback or jam is both ok. Never iso non-allin. Only if it was 75o.
Flop: Depending on the exact preflop strategies, there might be couple % of donking, but it's so marginal I would not bother with it. You generally want lower flops to have more donks. As played call vs the raise is fine. Small reraise would probably work too.
Turn:
NO, there is absolutely no donk jamming on turn with anything. You could consider some tiny donk but easier to just check everything.
Opponent should be betting this big, but not this big. Something around 2e, so 4-4,5bb. Being OOP call or jam against it should be pretty similar (IP in such situation you want to be calling). You could argue that if a weaker opponent on drawy board does sizing thats bigger than GTO sizing, he is probably too strong, so maybe just calling is better. But you will get to some weird rivers.