Hello,

This Hand happend yesterday on the final table of The 888 tourney with a 8,80 buy in.

So i played only few hands with this guy on the final table, no reads.
Thought he was a rec at that moment i played this hand.
I got to final table with 2.5kk stack, hand some rough spots and lost alot of chips. Then i didnt play like 15 hands atleast were i just folded, and thought this was a good spot to put some pressure again on this guy who was really raising alot, and he acted like he is the chipleader

So as he call's the 3bet,and the board comes down, should i barrel this board to make his Ax hands fold, KJs stuff like that?
After he calls me on the flop, i felt like i have always to barrel the A since it hits really good my 3bet range, and i will make all his pairs fold, which he probably has a decent amout of time after he calls the flop. Maybe the sizing was too small on the turn so he has kinda a cheap price to continue with his flush draws.

What do you guys think about the sizing's and the flop barrel?

I don't like the 3b at all against that stack size. You open yourself up to a 4b shove, and if called you'll be in a tough spot in a low SPR situation on the flop.

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I like that u showed a heart Sizing is good. There is no need to do this in 8$ tourney imo.

I think this is a marginal spot to 3bet bluff. Stack sizes are kind of awkward imho. As played, I don't think it is necessary to 3bet as big when in position.

I think this is a reasonable spot to 3b vs. a loose opener. 54s is one of the best semibluff hands to mix in your 3b range here. I don't like this sizing, though. If I were OOP, this would be the maximum sizing I might use. From the CO, I don't think there's any need to raise more than 5-6bb vs. a stack that's 42bb effective. There's also a <20bb stack in the SB, so we can still reraise-fold to him with this smaller sizing and our 3b should look stronger to the original raiser since it looks like we are committed to the SB.

I really like your flop play. 1/3rd pot or so works well on this kind of hit or miss board. Your 4 also needs some protection and a small bet achieves this.

Not sure I like the turn play, though. I think betting looks too polarized and a perceptive opponent could take a shot at you here, especially vs. your small bet. While this card is good for your range, if I had an ace here I would usually check turn (the last thing I want is to bet AK here and get raised). Villain has a lot of Qx/Ax in his range, so I'm usually willing to check one back here. *Edit - had to go back and adjust for us being IP on turn.

Having some strong Aces in your check back range here protects your weaker checks (like 54s), keeps his bluffs in that can bet river, pot controls vs. the Qx, and can potentially get a light call from JJ, etc on the river.

Thanks for your explanation.

This guy seemed to me like he likes to play Pot's. I saw him later also opening K3s from MP1 if i remember correctly, with 2 bigstack's behind him who can 3bet him light to put pressure on him, probably not the best open raise.

I usually go with a smaller sizing, but he seemed to me like he wants to play pots. So i wanted to giv him a little more reaon's to fold pre.
But shouldnt probably go over IP 3x while their shorty's behind me.


Completly agree that i would probably most likely check back my Ace on the turn. But on the otherside, if i had something like AJ their, wouldnt it make sens to bet turn small, and get a cheap showdown? Cause if we had an Ace in that spot, and check it back river roll's of a blank and he bets like 60% pot we have a tough decision. Since that type of player who like to play pot's is willing to bluff.

Also i never expecting to get bluff/semi bluffraised in these stakes on the Final table. I feel like that happens way to rare.

Hope evrything is understandble, since my english is not the best i can offer

It's kind of tough to say what is actually best with hands like AJ-AK. If we bet turn, it's polarized, so maybe we can include AJ-AK in our value range and bet all of our air. The problem is that some rec players will just spazz raise with a worse ace, or something random, and it kind of sucks to bet-fold these hands vs. a player like this. I also want to have some Ax in my check back range...so I don't really know what's best with AJ-AK. A small turn bet might even encourage a rec player to bluff more often, so I think if you do bet it has to be a bit bigger. I had to rethink this hand a bit, and I'm still not sure whether I like betting these or checking these back vs. a typical rec player in this spot.

I think 54s plays better as a check back because we have showdown value and I'm not even sure we can bluff out hands like 55-JJ. Some players will just keep calling down on the turn. It seems kinda high variance. I think it's a little too good of a hand to start turning into a bluff on the turn. However, there are some upsides to betting if we can fold out those hands. People also tend to under barrel in 3b pots also, so it's certainly close. Both plays have some merit to them IMO.

If we do check back turn with 54s and villain checks the river, now I would consider bluffing big. He would usually lead his Qx/Ax+ for value, so now his range is filled with a lot of middling pairs like 55-JJ. It's tough for them to call down the river with these since he should realize we can check back some Ax on turn.

Interesting hand overall. I'm also kind of debating the 3b pre now. I think it's ok because of ICM pressure, position, etc. I usually like including a couple hands like 54s, 65s, 76s in my 3b-bluff range as well as some hands like AJo/KQo, A2s-A5s. I mainly throw in some 54s types for board coverage, but maybe I should be a little more careful with these lower connectors, since they are trickier to play post and make weak pairs, etc. Hands like T9s probably play a bit better.

Good hand to post, though. I thought more about this hand today and the only conclusion I came to was that I'm still unsure what I like with 54s, AJo, etc. Maybe the best play of all is just folding pre and picking better spots, like most people mentioned.

completly agree with u, its not the type of hand i usually 3bet, but felt like was a good moment to do it here cause i was really tight after i lost some pots and just folded 2 orbits arround. Thought its hard to not belive me in this spot when i wake up with a 3bet.

Thanks for ur explanation again