Hey all, played a $1k live event yesterday at Jack Cleveland I have a question about. Play is super passive and fishy for a live $1k and itÂ’s the 2nd level of day- I have 50k in chips after starting with 30k. Will post a 2nd hand also.

Ok H1- 50k stack, we all started with 30k. Ok fishy passive mawg limps And I have AKo on button. He limps to 300, IÂ’m button with AKo and make it 1500 and he calls. He has been limping a lot and not raising etc. flop is 446. He checks I cbet 1500 into 3800 he calls. Turn 9, he check I bet 4k into 6.8k he calls. River 4. He checks I bet 12-13k and he jams for 300 more and i lol sigh call- he has 45o lol. Well played sir- I didnÂ’t mean to bet such an amount on river where I couldnÂ’t fold to a small jam- looking back wish i bet like 1/3 to 1/2 his stack and fold river bc IÂ’m never good.

Probably high variance but I felt i could easily fold out some of his overpairs bc my hand is super strong looking when I iso and bet 3 streets. I felt he would have something like 77,88,6x a lot and would fold bc he was a super rec. as played- kinda wish I just bet flop or flop+ turn. Felt the play was spazzy a bit but worth a go against someone I think is going to fold turn/ river a lot to additional pressure. The 45o call in a 1k kinda had me going wow I didnÂ’t realize live 1ks could be so soft.


H2- this is before hand 1- all 30k starting stacks and first level of day at 100-200 with a 200bba. Ok 2 limps, cutoff is a slightly older white guy who isos to 800. IÂ’m on button with AKo and make it 3k. 2 limpers call and cutoff makes the call. Pot- 12.5k. Flop K-10-2 with two spades and we have one (I think). Xx, cutoff bets 2.5k, I make it 7.5k, 2 folds and cu calls. Turn is a 3 (red). Cu checks and I check behind. River is a K. Cu checks, I elect to jam 19-21k into a 27.6k pot. Is the jam ok or should we just go a smaller sizing looking for more calls. Villian folded after thought and showed QQ.

I kinda lol at how villian played hand. I felt he could easily 4! QQ pre in this spot against a button 3! + the fact heÂ’s way ahead of both limpers ranges. My image and look- if you arenÂ’t 4! QQ- idk why you even play tournaments lol bc you have almost no chance to win one. Typecasting me- not 4! QQ should be a sin. I also donÂ’t get why he leads 2.5k on the flop. I felt it was really bad to bet 2.5k bc you only get folds from worse hands and punished when against Kx. I feel qq would be a better check call for one street.

Only part of this hand I wonder about- is checking back turn bad? I feel we get way more value checking turn so thatÂ’s why I did it. Maybe IÂ’m supposed to bet and go for a smaller river shove? Also my river shove seems like it might be too much? I was hoping with my line- he would think itÂ’s a bluff bc it should be sometimes. Check back turn with K, and then jam K on river. Maybe IÂ’m just a clown with 10x who thinks itÂ’s good when 2nd king hits board? I felt jamming river looked bluffy so thatÂ’s why I did it. Maybe in retrospect I should bet 25-75% pot though? Would guess 25-40% pot is ideal sizing based on fact we almost never run into another Kx here.

H1 looks good. You'd want to block one of the two A4s combos that are left ideally. AK makes a nice triple since you unblock all the small pps and things like 56s, 67s, 68s, which you'd hope find a fold (if not, you just print with your value portion of range) and block things like trappy AA/KK.

H2 villain should obv 4b jam with all that dead money and beating some of your calling range. Taking a flop 4way is disastrous, so closing the action with a call is not the play.

From your perspective, I think just geometric betsize the turn. You're giving free equity to all his QJs, flush draws, worse Kx, Tx (and QQ-JJ apparently). In theory, you can balance a triple well but balancing a flop raise, check turn, river jam gets very tricky. In practice, you'll exploit this weak type of play more by building the pot on each street with your strongest hands.

Thanks for a really good response.

H1- I find it tough. I like that I went for it but sometimes I think I should just give up after flop
Or flop/turn bet. I felt this opponent was the type that would call way too often with an overpair to the board or maybe even sneak a call with 77/66 in there bc they can’t fold and may just put me on a hand such as AK, AJ, KQ etc.


H2- I check turn because I feel villian isn’t calling often 3 streets. I feel if I bet turn, only hands that continue best me and maybe small percentage of draws and double floats. I think jq and fd pay us off. If scare card comes on river my attitude is I can just call his river bet and lost minimal amount when he gets there with drawy type hands. As played- I really wish I sized way down on the river- still a leak I think I have in my tourny game is getting as much value as possible when I have very strong hands: I tend to shoot for the moon with my strong hands and go for max value almost all the time. In this spot- I felt a jam looked super polarized like a nutty hand or pure air w/ a bluff trying to leverage max fold equity so I just went for the jam hoping for a crying hero call.

Bet turn is probably best though setting up a less than pot sized bet on the river when we look at their whole calling range.


Btw jack Cleveland- this $1k tournament is so soft. I know it’s table dependent but my table was so passive and players were limping. Omg for a $1k, I feel this tournament is gold. I saw some good players in the field but I feel it’s so easy to recognize who is competent if you get a bad table draw. I def recommend middle America for larger buyin tournies- me for example if I somehow make money and day 2- I feel this tourny would be much easier to win than some $400s I’ve played in vegas/ turning stone/ philly/ AC. The good player to bad player ratio is just insanely skewed to mediocre to bad players I feel: folks aren’t 3 betting enough and normally as always it’s mainly value 3 bets. Insane value.

Definitely bet turn on hand 2. You say you don't think villain is calling three streets, but you jam the river anyway so that factor becomes irrelevant. There are too many draws and worse hands you can get value against, and with the size of the pot going to the flop TPTK is basically the nuts and you should be playing it to get the money in. Betting the turn also allows you to check back dangerous rivers.

H1 - interesting spot, like the flop bet, turn + river are debatable. He did limp so I guess he's more weighted towards small/med pairs. I don't like taking these lines early in tournaments as doubling up isn't as valuable as doubling up late game, and if you have a big edge I'd rather find other spots

H2 - I like the raise given how many draws there are on a flop like this, but once you get a blank turn you have to bet again. Your equity improved significantly and should charge him to realize his equity.

H1 - I like this sometimes, but I think after the player calls the turn, I would probably just check back. I would expect that the player is going to call the river with whatever pocket pair that they called the flop and turn with.

H2 - The villain leading this flop is a weird way to play their hand. Lead the flop and then calling a raise? I mean, what does he even put you on? He blocks AQ. You can have AK/AA/KK/TT (all of which have him crushed). The only reasonable hand that you can would be AJ/AJs/JJ and you probably aren't raising the flop with JJ. I think the check back is fine to mix it up, but I also think that there are a some cards that can kill your action. An Ace, a spade. With those limpers calling your 3 bet, I think that a 4 betting is pretty mandatory by the villain.

It would help a lot to know what suits are on board, if there's a flush draw on the flop, etc. These things matter.

That said, I probably just check back the river-- I'm not expecting to fold out any full houses, and if he's calling with a draw or worse Ax he thinks is good, I can win at showdown.

I don't even look at the turn as a bluff so much as a merge-y bet-- you might fold out 6x hands with no way to improve, but you might get a call from 87, 75, worse Ax as I mentioned. (If he's limp-calling 54o, he's certainly going to do it with all 87 combos, probably 75s, maybe even 75o.) But I give up the river because I can beat the worse hands at showdown and that seems like a bad river to try to get 9x, 6x, or a small pocket pair to fold.

You say 45o call makes villain a fish and that he is soft but your play actually makes the call profitable. He has about 38% vs your broadway 3 bets, that is plenty of equity if you´re going to blast your stack off to him when he hits.
Turning AK high into a bluff seems kind of unnessecary to me. With position I would just check back turn and evaluate river, you still have a decent bluff catcher depending on the size he takes.

And the turn check with TPTK on a open ended nut draw possibility plus flush draws that is truly disastrous I think. You simply have to bet 3/4 pot or more and evaluate if you get CR.

Hand 2, he donks 2.5K into 12.5K and you raise to 7.5K. I would make it at least 10K. Definitely bet the turn and set up a smaller river shove or just shove the turn. It's a wet board and you don't want to give free cards. Plus don't want him folding to a biggish river bet as occurred.

Hand 2- I think we fold out the hands we have crushed and only are called by better. I also think checking turn can lead to some spazzy river bluffs. As played, i tbink QQ can call river jam at a freq as I could be ripping river with missed draws easily- a second K makes me having a king less unlikely. Probably a mistake not to bet turn but I think as hands show up- he’s never calling turn with how action went on flop. Maybe im wrong?

Hand 1- yea it’s a little spazzy. Idk limp calling 45o is atrocious and just punting chips. It was like one of the only hands he can call 3 streets with so I feel my bluff isn’t terrible per se- I just ran into the top of a shitty range. If he’s overfolding hands he shouldn’t or maybe should- I think it’s fine. I do think as an exploit giving up on turn or river is good. I think the big mistake was not betting 1/3 his stack on river and folding to a jam bc im never good with AK against a river shove against said opponent.

I do think going 3 street bluffs in a soft $1k where people are going to probably make bad calls and not fold is meh too aggro. Im going for it though.