Question here is regarding the turn decision. Stacks are deep and it's very early in the tournament. Is it better to bet again or go for a check/raise?

I guess I'd be curious to know what you guys think about the flop cbet size too. I was going for around a 1/3 pot bet (it's actually about 30%). I chose the smaller sizing because I hold the Ad which means I block the most likely flush draws they could have called my 4bet with. Also the board smashes my 4bet range so I don't expect QQ-TT to float lightly and I block AA/KK/AK/AQ. Felt like it would be hard to get value from worse.


Winning Poker Network (Yatahay) - 20/40 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: 153.27 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
BTN: 128.2 BB (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 100.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
SB: 114.3 BB (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 1)
BB: 113.4 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
UTG: 124.35 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
UTG+1: 106.12 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
MP: 125 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
MP+1: 123.5 BB (VPIP: 17.24, PFR: 7.14, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 58)
Hero (MP+2): 280.95 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K A

fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.25 BB, CO raises to 6.37 BB, fold, SB calls 5.87 BB, fold, Hero raises to 18 BB, CO calls 11.62 BB, SB calls 11.62 BB

Flop: (55 BB, 3 players) K 8 A
SB checks, Hero bets 16 BB, CO calls 16 BB, fold

Turn: (87 BB, 2 players) 5
Hero?

I'd bet the flop a bit bigger. The way you bet he gets the correct odds to call for a flush. As he is unknown I can still imagine some non-A suited hands in his range. If he folds and you dont get any more value - so be it imo.

I think you're a lot more likely to be on a chop against a 4b flat than you are against QJdd or JTdd, especially with him just flatting the turn. Jam the non-diamond river and push him off and hope he doesn't call with exactly 1 combo of each AA or KK.

Stacks are deep so I suppose it's possible but I think flush draws are highly unlikely given the preflop action, board and what I have.


Agreed on the range. Did you mean the flop?

Err yeah, flop. Not sure how I misread that, sorry. It does change things, since he's unlikely to raise you on the flop anyway because you have so much AA/KK and AK in your range and he has literally 0 fold equity and doesn't want to play QJdd or JTdd for stacks against those 3 hands. QJdd and JTdd are so unlikely regardless here. I just don't think they show up much as a 3b/call in smaller stakes tourneys.

I don't think V would give you credit for a made flush either, though. I think you're really just weighing the worthiness of pushing him off an AK chop. It's a high variance move but there's an awful lot of chips in that pot by the time the turn hits. You're basically trying to get him to fold AK or KK here. If he has AA he's gonna snap call. If he has JJ/QQ then you aren't getting any more chips out of him anyway.

He only has 120bbs on the turn and there's 87bbs in the pot. If you're up for the high variance play I think this is your spot to jam. I think a bigger flop bet would have set this up a bit better since you would have had around a pot sized effective jam left.

Typically in this stage of the tournament I'm not looking to play really big pots without strong reads or I'm at the top of my range. So I would opt for the lower variance path in these low stakes MTT's. Players practically give you their chips most days especially with the unlimited re-entries. As for this hand I have a hard time seeing many of these players letting go of top two regardless of stack size.

Just call preflop, bet more on the flop as played.

call pre camp

as played bomb flop, jam turn

Is 4betting overrepping our hand or are we just trying to reduce the size of the pot on the flop? If I were closing the action pre and it were HU I would have just called. Since it would have been three way I went for the 4bet. Maybe you guys could elaborate a bit, MTT noob here.

In a vac, when we 4b our range is super defined which makes it easier to play against us and we iso only the top of our opponents range when we want to keep it as wide as possible.

Also this early 4b opens us up for a reraise when v is repping a narrow range and playing a 300bb pot with ace high pre is not a good idea, later stages AK is much more valuable because the stacks are shallower

Makes sense. Thanks for expanding on that.

We're just too deep to 4b ak. We don't wanna stack off really and aren't getting all in when we flop a single pair either

You are almost overrepping your hand with the 4bet in that spot given stack sizes. Flat pre and play a small pot unless you hit big. As played check turn. You really dont have any bluff hands in your range the way you played pf after that flop and turn. Even your flush draws got there (which is why flatting 3b is better) . So unless you know villain is a passive calling station you will miss value betting ott. And you have the nfd so u got nothing to worry about. The hand that beat u you will go broke to regardless u bet or check but u get more out of his weaker hands esp if he hits a weaker flush otr and you bomb it.

Ps. We are check/jamming