Hello there!

Have a hand here from the a medium stars tourney 20+2 with which I feel quite unconfortable.
Advice on all streets apreciated.
Thank you!


Poker Stars, $20 + $2 NL Hold'em Tournament, 50/100 Blinds, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: 3,340
BTN: 2,825
SB: 3,275
Hero (BB): 3,195
UTG: 1,160
UTG+1: 3,340
MP1: 1,920
MP2: 3,290

Pre-Flop: (150) T 8 dealt to Hero (BB)
7 folds, SB raises to 200, Hero calls 100

Flop: (400) 8 5 6 (2 Players)
SB bets 200, Hero raises to 600, SB calls 400

Turn: (1,600) 4 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: (1,600) J (2 Players)
SB bets 200, Hero calls 200

Any prior info? for instance, has the villain min raised your blind before? Has he min raised anything?
Has he shown down anything that gives you an idea of his style.
Do you have any PokerTracker HUD stats?
Up to this point, How would you describe his play in general?, TAG, LAG, Loose and or Passive, Donkish, Thoughtful, etc?

Any reads at all?

PREFLOP:
"+" You have a halfway decent hand.
"+" You'll have position.
"?" The min raise could be a steal, or a trap.
"+" it costs you $100 more to get into a $300 pot. Heads up.

FLOP:
Top Pair!
I like your 3x raise ..it's both a take down raise, or a probe bet... (if he comes over the top, you can let it go.) Maybe you coulda gone a little more but I still like the 3x raise.

TURN:
He checks. Here is where I think it went wrong.
You have Top pair. What can you possibly gain from checking? Unless you decided to give up when he called your raise.
Yes, he could've been trapping, but I think a hefty bet here could've taken it down.
And if he hit his Jack on the river, you deserved it.
If he was trapping. then maybe you lost the minimum.... but I still dislike the turn check.

RIVER:
Once you got to this point, I, of course, don't like folding. Raising would be TOO risky....You had to call.

nice post LottaNirvana - thank you!

Yes, villain has done min-raises before - but not against my big blind so far.
He seems to be more the tight side but mixes in some raises which have to be marginal holdings.

As a matter of fact I decided on the turn that I´m most likely beaten and therefore checked.
The idea of beting the turn in order to represent something like a two pair, set or straight I like a lot but haven`t tought of at that moment.

Why can't we check the turn for pot control?

I like the turn check, and I like it all the way around, really.

it looks standard to me

betting the turn could get him to fold some better hands, though

I'm not sure about the turn but betting there makes me uncomfortable.

i like the way you played it. seems good.

Actually, when I think about it, You're quite right. Checking there for Pot control is exactly what I would've done.... but if I lost the hand, I would've second guessed it later.

It was a honest question TBH, I'm not very confident about my game so I'm just checking whether I'm crazy or not

This is a pretty well played hand by our hero, and probably among the most profitable lines. The raise on flop gauged his interest and checking the turn got us to a cheap showdown.

I might have flatted the flop bet (we are in position after all) and represented the made straight on turn or river, depending on read of villian. Costs the same amount but gives villain a better chance to fold.

I prefer to flat flop and bet turn. raising flop isnt great since u might or might not be ahead...so raising for value is marginal and ur not raising to bluff. as is you must call the donk river bet.

I also like flatting the flop bet, though I think the reason is once again pot control. It's pretty likely that you are ahead on the flop, but, being blind vs. blind it is virtually impossible to narrow the villain's range of hands. When you raise, you put yourself in a very awkward spot on the turn: you have no idea where the villain is at, and any bet you make effectively commits you to the pot with top pair medium kicker. With 1600 in the pot and 2400 left in your stack, betting just half the pot means a shove from the villain would give you 3 to 1. In essence, by raising to "protect" your hand, you lose any ability to protect it in the future. By flatting, you now have a pot of 800 with 2800 left in your stack, which leaves a lot more room to maneuver. Against a good player, the raise works much better, because they are likely to be aware of how calling such a raise will affect your respective stacks and dictate future play, but against the average weak player, the same call merely ties your hands without letting you know if that is a good thing.