This is from the Ignition $22 3k Extra Play from a couple of weeks ago. 5 left. 20 minute levels, hence why we're so deep. Note that the button is the only player who covers me, making this spot pretty ICM-intensive.

Payouts:

1st - $815.77
2nd - $604.62
3rd - $459.96
4th - $333.70
5th - $246.85

Gonna start with the first real decision point-- what do we do as our first action on the flop?

Ignition - 3500/7000 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 56.08 BB
BB: 41.62 BB
Hero (UTG): 63.12 BB
CO: 23.51 BB
BTN: 68.53 BB

5 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2 BB) Hero has A A

Hero raises to 2.14 BB, fold, BTN calls 2.14 BB, fold, BB calls 1.14 BB

Flop: (7.43 BB, 3 players) 4 5 3
BB checks, Hero?

20k

Interesting spot, this is obviously a scary board for you with the other two players having more 2-pair+ combos. Against a cold call from the chip leader I would probaby check my hole range on this flop. AA is an especially good check, because it is less vulnerable than other overpairs. Against bet, call, I would overcall. After bet, raise you should seriously consider folding.

The BB should have leads in this spot, evem MW, and alot of his betting is coming from hands that hit this board hard. So his checking reduces the combos he has left that hit this board, and the button, shouldn't have too much board covereage there. He has some but not as much as the BB.

I think you can bet here, maybe about 2BBs.

I would check here all hands (OK I might bet about 2.14 bb's with hands like 66-JJ and A3s-A7s and possibly some air with BDFD). If I had a set, straight, or two pair I would c/r if BTN bet and BB called or folded.

This flop basically smashes the BB's and to some extent the BTN's ranges. By checking we under rep our hand and can call turn and river bets by BB. Also, we can choose how to deal with calling BTN bets if he 3 barrels.

As was mentioned we can possibly fold if BTN bets and BB raises. Depends on sizing and how the players are (if BB is tight then I would expect 2 pair+ especially because BB would want us to call with straight draws like 6x and 7x so would be more likely to just call BTN's bet)

I would mix check with cbet here. Prolly lean big cbet here as board is connected. Fine with check. This seems like a gross spot.

I think you should exploit raise large pre in this spot. Biggest stack is 68bb. You have the best hand in poker. I would be more willing to go 2.5-3x here to lower spr post and make cheap flats not so accessible. We have the best hand. If a 20-40bb stack wants to 3!/ gii let’s go.

I think opening to 2.14 is a mistake. I would either make it 2x or go 2.5-3x. Not sure why folks go 2.14 vs 2.0 . 2.0 is cheaper and allows for more play post flop. I like min when stacks are shallow as I don’t think that .14 is materially going to make the bb or sb less likely to defend. In this spot, think going closer to min is a fairly big mistake as its not a super short final
Table. I would lean 2.5-2.8x pre raise.

Interesting spot because against the BTN in a single raised pot this would be the easiest of checks, we'd be checking close to range here. Against the BB in a SRP we'd do a lot of betting when the BB checks.

However, if the BB Is not leading in this spot (and they may not if they're either not good or overly ICM conscious) then their range is basically uncapped. And in a $22, we have to ask whether we think the BB is going to be finding the leads they should often enough.

So the fact the BB's range might be stronger than we think, combined with the fact that we likely don't have a range advantage against the BTN, makes this a pretty clear check for me.

I agree with this. If it goes bet by BTN, raise by BB, this becomes a clear fold. The BB has little incentive to pile in money with worse when they're 4 of 5 and there's a short stack in play. If I was going to continue, I'd have to have a pretty good read that the BTN is passive and the BB is spewy.

I would also be betting about 2.5x preflop at 63 bb's effective stack.

However I never raise 2x. I read a book by Greg Raymer and he said that betting 2x gets more calls from BB than 2.1x. If the extra 0.1x can get an occasional fold then I'd prefer it.

I would also be careful in changing your pre-flop bet sizing based on the strength of your hand. I only base it on effective stack size. Some people also base it on position. I prefer not to do that because I think I will be biased by my hand strength while I pretend to base it on position (also its more complicated).

Out of position on this board I would be cautious about making a large cbet. A BB raise would normally be about 4x. which means likely an all in now (which could happen on the turn anyway but at least they might check or reduce their bet size on the turn when we call). If the BTN raises we are increasing the likelihood of the BTN going all in by the river (which would be all in for us).

I personally like 2x vs 2.1 of 2.2x. If stacks are say 40bb or less- I find playing pots against a bb defend that is out of position. I find cbetting 1/3 to 1/5 pot at least in live game and having people play super straight up where they fold when they whiff. I understand going 2.1 or 2.2x but just feel that small extra doesn’t really get more folds. From live play this past week- i noticed folks will fold to 2x if their bb hand is bad or at least bad to their view of the game.

I love going smaller bc it allows us to lose less when folks 3 bet and we have a hand that can’t continue. As an exploit, I kinda don’t mind going bigger with our strong hands bc I think most rec players don’t understand when we try to exploit with sizing.

Agree that folks shouldn’t change raise sizing. I just live say 2x over 2.2x at 40bb or less bb stacks effective. Gto says go 2.2x but idk in live game- most folks are bad so I think going 2x is better with all of open range.

This past weekend, I opened QQ to 2x on a 10-15bb stack and was called by j9o from cutoff which I consider to be a massive blunder. Villian then stacked off when he had top pair on some low card flop- I later told him it was a massive mistake. He said he thought I could have Ak. I probably only min open 2x on 10-15bb stack with qq+ honestly. J9o is a trash hand to call with when stacks are so shallow.

As far as the preflop raise size goes:

My typical standard in tournaments at sufficient depth is 2.2x. (I only go as high as 2.5x if we're very deep and I'm in late position. I also scale up sometimes if the BB is short enough that the difference between something like 2x and 2.3x is going to matter in terms of getting folds.) The shorter effective stacks get, or the deeper we get in the tournament and ICM becomes more of a factor, the more I scale down since I can achieve the same effect putting fewer chips at risk. And I don't vary my sizes based on hand strength.

Over 2.5x seems like way too much to me and I don't ever do that from position (i.e. except when raising SB vs. BB).

The ICM at a final table is strong enough to minraise, but I'm deep enough I don't feel the need to do that. I don't think I should start blasting significantly higher than my standard, especially since I feel pretty comfortable about my own play compared to the field. Ignition does not offer an option to display chips in terms of BB, so I often just go with a rounded size close enough to my usual raise size. In this case, the BB was 7k, so I raised to 15k. I suppose I could go bigger but I see no reason to go out of line with what I'd been raising, especially if that might be a tip to my hand strength.

By this point of the final table I've shown down a number of hands and almost all good preflop values. I think I've opened and showed down a half dozen times or so, mostly AK or TT+. I opened KQo once and c-bet an AK6 board and won a pretty big pot going check/check on a Q turn and getting a nice bet on a K river vs. a 66 preflop call from SB. I also did open T7s one hand and got called by BB, checked back a 643 flop one of my suit, bet a T turn and called a check-raise, and called again vs. a big bet on a T river and won vs. KJo no draws pure bluff.

More about the flop decision later.

All right, so, as far as the flop decision goes, my thinking is that I don't want to play a big pot here. I have a solid chance of having the best hand, but this board is very dynamic and I can't really improve. A 2 giving me the wheel gives any 6x a better hand; while it's less likely they have 2x in their hand if I hit a set of aces, I'm also probably not getting a lot of money in against a worse hand-- and I don't want to be piling in money with only two outs to the hand I'm looking for, which may not even be good. They could already have 76s, and I don't even want to build a pot against a hand like 65s, with the ICM pressure. (I did suspect the button was playing wide enough with that chip lead that these are possibilities, as are any sets and probably 54s.)

There's an argument for betting here and just folding if the button raises, as weak/tight as that sounds. I decided to check and hope it checks through or that I can get to a turn for just one bet. I'm hoping to show this down as cheaply as possible unless I get some kind of miraculous nutted runout.

Instead, this happens, as some of you suspected it might:

Ignition - 3500/7000 NL - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 56.08 BB
BB: 41.62 BB
Hero (UTG): 63.12 BB
CO: 23.51 BB
BTN: 68.53 BB

5 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2 BB) Hero has A A

Hero raises to 2.14 BB, fold, BTN calls 2.14 BB, fold, BB calls 1.14 BB

Flop: (7.43 BB, 3 players) 4 5 3
BB checks, Hero checks, BTN bets 2.7 BB, BB raises to 6.61 BB, Hero?

Now what?

Ugh.

If I'm playing this as a pure 3-bet/fold strategy on the flop (i.e., I'm never cold calling here), the big question is whether AA is a hand I want to put in that 3-bet range. If we're checking our whole range here, we may have enough other hands, like straights and sets and even stuff with cleaner outs like 6x where AA might be a reasonable fold.

I think blocking a lot of the nut backdoor flush hands is kind of bad as that's going to make up a fair amount of the BTN's opening and BB's bluff range.

I actually just don't mind folding this now. Sure we're going to feel dumb when the BB has K6dd and the BTN calls off with 77. But the alternative is to play a big pot in a very ICM-heavy spot, and I'm not convinced we need to do that with AA here. Risk premiums are pretty massive here and busting out fifth, or even going down to being the short stack, would be really bad.

Think you've kind of got the information you wanted at the price you wanted?