1050 $, EPT Online, 20 min levels, around 30-40 from the bubble (2300$)

3 very good regs at the table. The other ones seemed alright but im not sure since I dont play these stakes and sattied into this one for 50$.

Villiain is unknown (32/12/3 - 70 hands). Doesnt seem be that good. Earlier he flatcalled a 3-bet oop from mp w QQ vs a well known reg in mp+1. K93cc chk/chk. Turn Q villain bet fast half pot and snapshoved river x. (Most peeople would 4-bet/gii pre here. Its more likely that villain is scared money than trapping imo)

My image: Been playing pretty standard TAG (14/12/4).

On to the hand: decided to flat pre since its close to bubble and a mincash is a lot of money for me. I could literally fold my way itm. Villain snapbets half pot all streets. I think pre/flop/turn is standard (considering i really want to mincash) but dunno about river. If i fold river i still have 300 k which is a good stack and if i call and lose i have 160k...

I mean, he's betsizing was pretty big. Most people wouldnt play AA-QQ this fast, but i dunno. I also think that he might be the player who would check back turn with air. What do you guys think? What would you do?

Around 30-40 from the bubble out of how many people?

If you want to fold to the money, I think I’d just fold the turn. It’s very nitty, but it leaves you with 30 BBs and room to play after the bubble.

shove pre - it's fine at 30BB with JJ

As played, c/c c/c c/c is OK but never folding river and prob just check/shoving turn

It sounds like you’re giving us hints that the villain has you beat (he snap bets half pot just like when he was nutted, he plays scared, etc) but I’m never folding the river given how passively you played it up to then.

Preflop isn’t standard, a 3bet would be standard. Is 40 players away from the money close to the bubble? That still seems far away to me, unless there were a shitton of runners.

Anyway, no one’s gonna know if you just fold the river, so if cashing is that important to you (and it seems like it does since you bolded it and mentioned it twice), then I would fold river, but know that theoretically it would be a mistake. I think folding turn would be premature since he could be value betting worse pairs than yours.

Again, I don’t think it’s the correct play and if you’re posting here I assume you want to know how we’d play it. So I’d call river.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at with my question. If 500 people cash, you're close to the money. If 100 people cash, you're not.

Thanks for input! I think it was 170-180 who cash. Over 1000 runners. There were many stacks w 10-20bb left and i think i was in 110th place or something. Could without doubt fold to itm which basically was my plan except if i get dealt good hands, like this one.

I totally agree that preflop isnt standard. 9/10 times ill 3-bet/gii here but this is nowhere near my avg buyin and probably against the only bad player at the table. Except me of course, I dont see me as bad but im nowhere near the good regs in these fields. I was def scared money and didnt want to 3-bet/fold pre or shove. Didnt want to eventually flip for 2,3k. Would probably shoved pre against a late position reg open or against BTN.

I dont think I cant fold turn. I think he's betting all pairs 33-AA on turn. Seems like most of you would call river then?

3bet pre 3.5-4x.

As played I think you just sigh fold river. I feel flatting oop makes life very difficult. Villian stats are fairly active over small sample size. I like flat a small % of the time from bb but would just 3 bet this for value here.

If you go to 3.5x, you can easily set up a cbet/turn jam here and have the betting lead in the hand. As played, you just x/call and hope no scare cards come. I would rather just raise pre here as I feel that is lower variance in ways bc you get villian to fold pre.

I wasn’t suggesting you fold the turn. I was suggesting that once you call turn, you should be calling river. I rarely advocate making that sort of inflection point decision, but, here with ICM looming especially large for you, it might be correct. As an aside, I’d expect the weakest player to seldom have a bet/bet/check line here. That figures into my suggestion.

Except that V can shove quite wide (at least 75 combos) over a 3-bet and I suspect our Hero would fold anything under KK-AA when that happens. 3bet/fold may be cheaper than c/c c/c c/f but I get the feeling OP won't call this off correctly if jammed on (it would be a 3bet/gii for sure).

Shoving pre is fine btw. JJ is a mixed strat 30% shove 70% raise at 30BB and we're not too far off.

This surprises me a bit, since I think some villains might 4bet jam small pocket pairs that would prob fold to our jam. Not to mention those suited Ax hands everyone loves these days

I think folding the turn is out of the question. Your hand is so under repped. It looks like you have 66 - 99 at best. You have the top of your range or near the top of it. What would you be calling this turn and river with if you fold here? just a 5?

Given the way you played it, I think it's a call. I can see an argue for for folding the river. But for me, I still probably call it. Although for me, this hand't wouldn't make it to the river. 3 bet this preflop.


You lose to a hand like AQ/KQ, AA, KK, QQ and a 5 which MP should haven't that many in his range.

I think people are taking my 'if you want to make the money, fold the turn' out of context. Especially ignoring the first part of the clause.

One other point for the OP: If you are going to play extra tight to make the money, the original satellite might not have been such a good idea. Even if you are plus ev in that buy in, you are not in this one. That being said, taking a shot here and there in this way is a good way to maybe make a big score and give yourself some room to move up. It also provides some good experience playing a tougher field.

For the record, what did you do in the actual hand, and did you cash?

I did call and he had aces. And i didnt make it itm. In hindsight i shoulda folded river because really wanted to get itm. Ive been thinking a lot about this hand last days and feel stupid because i called. But im glad most of you actually says call, as played. That means that i didnt make that bad of a call.

I thought 3-bet/f was bad but youre probably right. Maybe isnt that bad. Im pretty sure he wouldnt 4-bet/shipped a worse hand, except maybe AK.

I entered the sat because of a massive overlay. I obv dont think im plus ev in a 1050 but on these bigger ones w more than 1000 players there is plenty of not so good players as well. The structure in these are usually good so with a little bit of rungood and good fundamental knowledges about mtts (which i didnt show in this hand, haha) i think its def worth a shot. And i agree that it actually its good to get the experience playing a tougher field.

Also, i dont know how high you guys play but imagine a bubble for lets say, 23k or 230k (SHR) for you? Wouldnt you play tight?

Unlucky you ran into it in such a big spot for you, but I think you played it correctly.

$2300 is a lot of money period, but don’t beat yourself up over it. Sounds like you played well in a tournament filled with pros. I think it’s good to take shots like these. Don’t get discouraged.

To be clear, 3b/f with JJ would be bad. It's a shove or 3!/call pre. A typical 30BB V 4! shove range here is wider than you think and includes some suited broadway, AXs, smaller pp, AK etc.

Great reasons to take a shot.

You'd think so, but then our lizard brain kicks in.


You played pre-flop in a non-standard way, but your post-flop decisions were fine - one of a few different legit ways to play the hand. WD on the deep run in a tough field.

Thanks

Is 3-bet/f bad against a bad players as well? Vs regs i totally agree thats its bad because of their wide 4-bet range, like you say.

Haha, i guess we all made questionable decisions when that part of the brain kicks in.

Fold turn would be insane , he can be value betting tons worse combos for value

You would have to have a seriously accurate read on that player as scared money who is never able to shove worse there than say 10s or better or AK. That combined with what you already mentioned about the extreme importance of the min cash can make the 3bet fold then understandable. Obviously not the right play, but it’s defensible IMO in those very limited circumstances. Unfortunately, by just calling pre, you also make that read impossible to obtain.

Given the circumstances and the description of Villain I would call pre-flop. I'd rather not risk a ton of money against a guy who would easily call a 3-bet with QQ and even KK possibly pre-flop and put us in horrible post flop position in a bloated pot.

I'm calling flop and turn because villain can have 66-TT in his range. I would expect villain to check back turn with all non-pair hands given description.

I'm folding river against this villain. I think villain checks back all pairs <QQ on the river.

Against any other player at the table I would probably fire 70,800 chips on the river as a blocking bet. We would likely get called by 88-TT and possibly 66/77 because by the turn we have so few Qx hands left but a few draws. We would save money against KK/AA and we get to fold against QQ anyway. Given the possibility that we have 5x I think most AA/KK will sigh call (the sigh being resisting the temptation to raise).