Hi all,

After a long while, I grinded some Pokerstars tournaments in the past weekend. One hand especially left me wondering how it should have been played and would like to get some thoughts on it.

Below is the hand & some backround info:

- Villain stats: 29/14/0 (3bet) - Only 7 hands history in this table
- Due to short history, no specific reads - other than that the villain had done 1 or 2 steals.
- I don't remeber exactly how big the field was & how many made it to the money. Around 100 or so places paid.
- One hand prior to this one, I tripled up, won a big bounty and had a decent stack.
- At this point, there was 54 players left in the tournament.

The hand:

PokerStars - 900/1800 Ante 270 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 7 players


Hero (SB): 59.81 BB
BB: 11.92 BB
UTG: 44.85 BB
UTG+1: 17.07 BB
MP Villain: 81.69 BB
CO: 40.89 BB
BTN: 52.88 BB

7 players post ante of 0.15 BB, Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.55 BB) Hero has AdKs

MP raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 7.05 BB, MP calls 5.05 BB

Flop(16.15 BB, 2 players)[/i] 8dAh8c
Hero bets 6.46 BB, MP calls 6.46 BB

Turn (29.07 BB, 2 players) 7c
Hero bets 11.63 BB, MP calls 11.63 BB

River (52.33 BB, 2 players) 9c
Hero checks, MP bets 35.58 BB, Hero?

When I checked on the river, I had 34,5 BB left. I think my bet sizing could have been bigger in the previous streets, could still get calls from other Ax hands. But, the Villain was thinking a long time before calling my bets, and I kinda had a bad feeling of this hand that I might be beat.

Really curious to hear how others would play this hand and what would be your line on the river? Go for a small bet like 15 BB and fold to a shove / shove yourself / check fold?

Thx in advance!

Tricky spot for sure, his 3 bet calling range doesn't really connect with this flop, him calling down 2 streets indicates an Ax perhaps weaker than yours, maybe floating with a pair between 99-KK, but that seems even less likely.

As played I'm not happy about it but I guess a sigh fold is in order, he's either value betting trips or better, some elaborate float/bluff, or in a more rare case value betting AQ, or AK as well, completely over valuing his hand, but in all honestly I don't think he is ever value betting a hand here that you can beat.

Do yourself a favour and check back the flop vs V who covers you imho, your stack is so big that this pot is insignificant really because you can’t win a bounty and covering the other players is what’s more important.

Just my 2cents obv, but I’m NB at mysteries.

Won’t go into as played because basically you just inflated the pot and now your decision is whatever imho.

Calling 30 to win 80 you can probably call profitability vs a bunch of players. AXc is possible and a bunch of floats got there too, but decent V can recognise his A is not winning at showdown and turn hand into a bluff. Naked Ac likely too vs regs.

Check flop….

I'm not sure what a solver would say, but I personally prefer checking the turn with an intention of check calling.

You often get an extra bet out of loose flop floats that will stab when checked to and if it checks through you can go for a sizeable value bet on the river (on most rivers, probably not this one though with the back door draws coming in).

If he bets turn I check call a river jam on most rivers. I feel like you keep in more of your opponent's bluffs this way compared to when you bet turn.

As played you're in a tough spot on the river. You're getting a good price but what is he really bluffing with? T9s is about the only obvious combo that comes to mind. BDFD got there and it's hard to imagine he's value betting worse. I fold river. ICM is still a thing and if you were in the first level of the tournament I would be more apt to sigh call.

Also, how big the average mystery bounty is in comparison to the prize pool payouts is very relevant. There are a lot of factors to consider here and it's a tough spot for anyone to figure out on the fly