Played the nightly double $10 FTP tournaments last night after reading bond18's bet sizing post and realizing how poorly I had been betting. Fresh ideas and lessons in hand I dove in. Finish ITM in one and 3 hands from ITM in the other. Wondering if I bet this hand out decently. No great read on the villian. Seemed a bit tight passive.

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 30/60 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker Hand History Converter

MP2: 4,240
CO: 4,225
BTN: 3,925
Hero (SB): 3,360
BB: 5,185
UTG: 995
UTG+1: 4,420
UTG+2: 2,305
MP1: 6,400

Pre-Flop: (90) K J dealt to Hero (SB)
7 folds, Hero raises to 120, BB calls 60

Flop: (240) 9 2 T (2 Players)
Hero bets 120, BB calls 120

Turn: (480) Q (2 Players)
Hero bets 240, BB calls 240

River: (960) 5 (2 Players)
Hero bets 500, BB calls 500

1,960 Pot

Wow what a perfect turn... would I pf bet? no... but as played it looks good... I bet a little more on river... overbet the pot make it look like you're bluffing. I think he's calling whatever you throw at him since the river isn't very scary.

I agree, hand played well, villain must be on some kind of gutterball draw or backdoor flush draw as played in early streets. However, clearly river play shows he does not have a flush. What kind of hands could he be smooth calling flop and turn? Top pair weak kicker is out of question, I think it's something like J9 or something. If he's not floating flop and turn to make play on river, what did you put him on? Also, just for discussion sake, if we check river, does he instacheck behind with middle pair? or is it possible he is flat calling turn to fire on river if we check? Just trying to run scenarios.

But hand played well, bet more on river please. pot and a half or 2x pot.

actually looking back, I do not like PF raise. If you're going to raise at all OOP with a modest holding like that, y only min raise? When BB calls you have not made any move to narrow his range whatsoever. Most likely will call with ATC taking a flier, knowing that most garbage flops will not hit u. Fortunately, the board came coordinated and scary for a hand like 7-8 or 33-88.

Make larger raise or just complete SB.

Why not bet more on each street? It doesn't seem like you maximized your profits in this hand. If you raise pre-flop to 180 and make 2/3 pot-sized bets on flop and turn, the pot will contain 1000 more on the river. Now, you can size your river bet to whatever you feel is most likely to take him to valuetown.

I would normally attempt a turn check-raise here and try to get the most of him, but since you labelled him tight-passive I think leading out every street is best. IMO they rarely make crazy moves but they don't mind calling slightly higher bets on each street.

Yep Rocco nailed it.

yes... bet more on all streets. Never minraise pf from the SB. You're giving the BB irresistible odds to call (3:1) and you'll be OOP post-flop.

Agree, def bet more on every street, and 3x pf.

couldnt agree more with rocco

Make it 180 pf (360)

Then you can bet 240 on flop. (480+360= 840 total)

Then ~600 on turn (~2kish total turn)

Then you can shove river with it not making it look like an overbet, and you get max value.

Results: 1,960 Pot
Hero showed K J (a flush, King high) and WON 1,960 (+980 NET)
BB mucked Q T (two pair, Queens and Tens) and LOST (-980 NET)

BB proceeded to call me a horrible player and an idiot (icing on the cake to me).

Improved betting for me but felt like it was still weak. Awesome advice. Thanks!

Not that it matters, but why was BB calling you an idiot? I agree that you could/should have gotten more value here, but there was certainly nothing majorly wrong with how you played it (except the preflop minraise).

I couldn't figure out why he thought it actually. I don't take that kind of bait. Just told him thanks. Previous hand I was in CO and dealt AA. One limper from MP, I went 4bb. Villain above called from the button, BB called. MP went all in (he was stack leader), I shoved and the other two folded. Hit a set on the river but had him beat even without it. Dug a bit and haven't found any play I"d call stupid.

Nit picking, but if he mucked, how do you know his hand? Or am I just missing the sarcasm?

I noticed that too. FullTilt reports it that way. Raw logs:

Seat 5: themtking98 (big blind) mucked [Qc Td] - two pair, Queens and Tens

He did show. Not sure why the logs say mucked.

I agree 3x pre but why bet big here.. what about playing a small pot with a small hand and a big pot with a big hand... he doesnt have a big hand until the river, nice draw on turn but not a big hand yet

i definitely need to work on thinking a hand thru like this. I think these analytical skills help A LOT in cash games as well. There are lots of hands where you really are just trying to get all the money in the middle and by knowing what to bet each street as to price them in or make a large river bet look unsuspicious.

I tend to try and lock down what the holdings of my opponent and what they would do with those holdings and how they would react to what I am going to do. So basically, i play street by street very carefully. It seems like I am not focusing enough on pot manipulation.

How important is pot manipulation and how can i improve on making my lines look like above, that make sense, and have a good shot of getting max value.

My style of play includes a decent amount of re-raising with minimal showdowns, so I rarely ever get to play all 3 streets. Any advice would be awesome guys, thanks.

also, i can't believe the BB called u a donk! If you are a donk then can anyone explain to me how he could have played this hand worse. I think the only thing he did right was PF call. No raise on flop or turn from BB? Also, if he is not raising river than he is clearly making a crying call. Hopefully i get to play him!

Turns out that FullTilt (and maybe Poker Stars) logs every hand on show downs even if in game the player mucked. PAHud uses this to display even mucked hands.

reread bond's article... i believe u may have missed the point.. no insult to u of course but with this hand u def need to find a way to get it all in on the river.

Fear not, I'm posting for criticisms not an ataboy. I was pleased with the hand and played it better than I would've pre reading bond's article but felt I still had room for improvement.

He has the nut straight on the turn, with 2nd nut flush draw.