Hey all, I have two hands from a tourny today at mgm. $500- 50k that has smashed the guarantee.

I started day very hot, got $50k starting stack to like 170k.

H1- this is an easy spot which I donÂ’t think is controversial but want thoughts. Idk know specifics 100% but I open AA to 4.5k at 2k bb level. Kinda new table. I have 170k. Ok so cutoff calls (old guy who is standard omc type Rec with 100-120k). Bb also calls and is not important to hand. Flop A610 (rainbow). Bb x, I x, old guy bets 6k (very small) and bb folds and I call. Turn J. I check, he bets 10k, I pop it up to 30k and he folds.

Is this hand ok? Should i ever just call turn and hope he spews on river also or nah we gotta build a pot sooner or later? I say we gotta raise turn to build a pot and get stacks in but idk? Maybe we just call turn and X river also and let him hopefully spew even though I donÂ’t think this player type will bet 3 streets without a really good hand. We block Aces so I donÂ’t see him having a big hand per se.


H2- this spot to me is very tough for me even though I think I would have played it more conservatively.

Ok I have 182k at 3k/6k bb level. The other big stack at the table opens from utg or utg+1 to 15k at 8 handed table. He has 240k and seems like a really solid player per his sizing and play so far but hard to say. Everyone folds, I have A6o in bb. I defend. We see flop of 10-8-3 (no FD). I check, he bets 20k into 39k. I raise to 65k. He tank peels. Turn A. I check. He jams. I sigh call.

Is this hand played ok? I feel itÂ’s a high variance play by me no doubt. With flop, itÂ’s know itÂ’s prolly a little crazy but I just felt this spot and flop favored my range. I feel I have more 10x than him/ sets/ 2 pairs/ straight draw type hands etc. is this a good play at a freq or is it pure spew? Idk I feel maybe I should just fold flop and find better spots but also think this type of spot- if someone is going to cbet in a spot like this semi wide which I assume they will, I think itÂ’s a spot we gotta take once in a while as a X raise with hands that arenÂ’t always what we would x raise here- example IÂ’m prolly x raising hands like flush draws, 79, sets, two pairs, and maybe sometimes hands like mid pair such as K8 or A8 (not sure if correct but prolly some pair type hands with potential back door flush draws or blockers).


Guess hand of villain if you want. I will reveal what it was after discussion.

Maybe sometimes we just gotta take the low variance route here and not battle but I just felt in game, if we can get ep raiser to fold bc we have somewhat of a range advantage- might as well take advantage of that somewhat. Sure heÂ’s going to have the overpairs, maybe A-10 and K-10 suited type hands. IÂ’m guessing people here will say just wait and nit it up.

Hand 1 AA
I would have played this hand the same way, you did. Its ok to slowplay top set on the flop, because its so dry, and you have a lot of board lock. But on the turn many hands pick up equity, so I would definitely not continue slowplaying on turn.

Hand 2 A6o
Just fold preflop and fold flop. No reason to go to war against an EP open with such a bad hand. If you are trying to play "correct" poker, you cant check-raise any two napkins, just because the board favour your range. On the turn you have a bluffcatcher, and maybe its ok to call it off as played. But you should never have gotten this far in the first place. Part of the reason for not defending A6 is, that you have big kicker issues on A high boards. So just fold and aviod this kind of situation all together.

H2- I agree that maybe we should not x raise flop or even call. But I think the defend pre is perfectly standard and should be made. If we fold A6 from bb, I feel we are folding way too much. Folding to a 2.5x open when we have to call 1.5 seems kinda bad. like we can see streets and play cautious. Sure we are going to lose when villian has a better A which is likely
However we donÂ’t have to play a big pot if we see aggression.

A6o is worse than A4o-A5o, because these hands can make a wheel straight. And you are facing an UTG open, which should be a very strong range. So for me this is an easy fold, but of course you are allowed to disagree

BB defend is standard, everything after that feels a bit like fancy play syndrome.

I might defend bb here too although I'd rather have something like T9o. I honestly don't mind raising the flop as he has a lot of unpaired hands he cbets but I'd raise smaller. Once he calls and you turn an ace, you should be betting and stacking off - checking just allows him to check back worse hands and bet better hands. But yeh if the structure is good and field is weak, I would avoid high variance plays like this.

I felt the structure was bad. I had 30bbs deep and had a too 3 stack at my table. Everyone else was sitting with short stacks like 5-20bbs. 100 left in field and avg stack was something lol like 20-25bbs maybe (at the point where a lot of people were getting knocked out). I do agree that this was fancy play syndrome. I’m prolly better off just folding flop and maintaining stack

The villian ended up having AKo. Personally, I think we have to defend A6o here bc villian can utg raise a lot of worse hands even though they have a position advantage post. Also think extreme caution needs to be followed when flop is Axx bc we prolly can’t call 2 streets and expect to be good always. I would be more fine if utg was an old man omc raising to say 2.5x-3.5x.

Also agree with other poster though that I would rather defend a hand like 9-10o in spot like this.