Mo's Deepstack tournament. $1.5K Buy-in, 10000 25/50/60 minute round.

Play these 3 hands with me.

Hand 1, Villain is unknown LA local guy, from his table talk knows he plays low stakes cash games at local cardrooms; he's not advanced level tournament player.
50/100, villain limps UTG (9500), 2 more limpers, I raise to 600 with KK from BB (15000 behind). villain makes it 2000 (1400 more), fold to me. I make it 4600, he calls. Flop A93 (two heart). He has 4900 behind ... I??? check/fold, bet/fold ...???

(What do we put him on? Remember he is an below average player)

Hand 2, Villain 1 is a maniac, villain 2 is super solid but bad player (limp utg with QQ, flat call raise from button with AA) push any c-bet on the flop...

300/600/75. I raise utg with JJ to 1750 (30k behind), villain 2 flats from MP, villain 1 calls from CO. 3-way. Flop T52r. I bet 4750 (25K behind), villain 2 (50K behind) smooth calls. villain 1 shoves 40K. I??

Hand 3, (BvB, FT bubble) 11 players all in the money, two short stacks 40K and 20K. 6k/12k/2k.I have 390K. fold to me at SB, look down Qs9s. BB is a tight player who definately wants to fold to the FT. He has 75k. Shove or raise (how much?)

1. You have to shove pf ur raise created really crappy stack to pot scenario where there's 9300 or so out there and villain only has 4600 left I'd probably shove and hope he made this move with qq or something as bet folding is impossible and check folding feels so weak

2. This sucks u kind of have to hope that he's playing back at u with ak or something given villains read I think u can fold but its close

3. Turbo shove.

1. think u shud raise to 700-800 preflop. on the flop i cant see folding with so much in the pot already, so id prob check/call/shove to at least give him a chance of bluffing

2. shove. ur crushing the maniac's range, and the other guy might fold better overpairs

3. u shud be shoving any 2

Hand 1 - def. raise more pf. I think this will change villian's response. As played, I can't see folding here. Villian limping UTG, reraising, then CALLING your 3 bet seems to discount AA or AK here. Your comment about below average implies maybe he did poorly play big slick, but from this line I think QQ & JJ are a big part of his range.

Hand 2 - I'm not sure I like leading this flop. If you c, V2 c-bets, anf V1 shoves, then your calling the AI is soooo much stronger and folds V2 a higher % of the time. I believe your goal on that flop should be to iso the maniac.

Hand 3 - Do you *really* want to see a flop? Shove.

QFT

Seriously, how can you ask about 3? And your raise sizing in 1 is atrocious. c/f but he'll prob check behind, so you can c/f the turn. or get a live read or something. 2 I wouldn't fold but it seems kinda close.

and how can a player be solid but bad

Am I the only one who isn't that crazy over the 4bet in Hand 1 as played check/soul read.

Hand 2 is a fold, UTG+1 could be trapping and on this board texture you aren't beating that much of what the maniac can have.

Hand 3 Shove ATC

pudge u really fold hand 2? i can easily see the utg+1 player folding a better hand

hand 1 is pretty awful. and an ace high flop isn't really bad for you, you were either getting destroyed or were destroying. the ace on the flop makes it much more likely you were destroying.

hand 2 i think is a reasonable fold.

hand 3 is ldo.

djk,

bluff calling is a lot better when you're trying to bluff call out good players.

djk,
It depends on what type of maniac he is, but on this board he is going to need to be shoving air or bare tens a lot and the other guy is going to need to fold a lot since he has us crushed when he doesn't. Also Maniac is a pretty generic term is he a maniac that makes nonsensical bluffs and overvalues hands or a guy who will shove ATC and raise sooted cards from ep.
Edit: djk you should know this well one way maniacs make lots of moneys is when people don't think and are just like ZOMGGGGG HE SO CRAZY CALLLLLLLl

1) I'd raise to 750 or so from the BB. The flop is a trivial check then get allin.

2) Depends on how much of a maniac he is. Its probably a fold, but if you know more about the villain than you've told us and he is a true clown, then go allin.

3) easiest. shove. ever.

i assumed op didnt mean maniac in a good way,as in someone who overvalues top pair and will make crazy bluffs.

and we have no reason to think that utg+1 has anything

i dunno. a good player might realize that we know that villain is a maniac, making our shoving range much wider. but a bad player might not realize this and just think "2 all ins yikes my qq or kk is no good"

hand 1 is a check/something/hand 3 easy shove as stated

hand 2 is a shove because you definitely do get v2 to fold better hands, but more importantly because v2 doesn't need to have a monster to call this flop and you are so far ahead of v1 that even if he does, you take your chances

hand 3 is the easist shove. But I realized I put in 8 5K chips instead of 8 10K chips... villain actually just called. Flop AA7 one spade, shove/call. He has AQo. Turn spade. river... blank. The hand plays itself.

hand 1 and hand 2 will be interesting for those who will play LAPC mid buy-in prelim events. you would expect to see these villains very often.

hint for hand 1, pf 600 and 750 raises are functionall the same, villain would think you steal, when you come back with a 3bet, villain would think about his hand (not your range at all) and want to see a flop. Now, what can we put such villain on? what's our action on the flop? Remaining stack to pot ratio is important, but it's less important comparing to the structure of the tournament at this level.

I am not crazy about minireraising the limpreraiser. Even a low stakes player may figure out this is AA/KK like always and the small reraise doesn't really accomplish much. So I would probably flat call, disguising your hand. Also, if you push, a fold isn't that terrible as the pot is not that big, and villain is 20-33% to win if he calls and is behind.

I couldn't fold the flop getting 2-1. He should have a lower pp a lot, and you are 10% or so to win it against an ace, as you have two outs and some runner runner possibilities. If you have an extremely strong read, then you can fold. I don't know if I bet or check/call.

Yes, he overvalues TP a lot, but he's also stupid and doesn't slow play big hands - put this way, he'd shove AA on this dry board even if he's the first one to act because he doesn't want a pair turn into a set... so it's possible he has a set. (but certainly not he put me on AA and shove on this dry board type play)

utg+1 100% has a hand, in this 3-way action, he's capable of slow playing a set. v2 gives v1 no credit at all.

I like this very much! Actually, this is what I learned from this hand. I bet 1.9k and fold to a shove, villain shows AQo.

this seems godawful.

I guess you found out where you were in the hand huh?

The few chips you have left have more value in a live tournament, so there is some benefit to playing this way to keep alive. However, by time you cbet like this, you are almost getting odds to call the push if villain had already turned AQ face up.

If you had more than a pot sized bet left, then betting small might be a good approach. If there was 10K in the pot and each had like 20K, then maybe bet 4K and see what villain does. Sometimes he will bluff, but usually he folds if he is behind. Also, you could play it the same way when you have an ace and sometimes induce a bluff.

In this case, I think you have to just get your money in. If you think villain will bluff, then check/call, otherwise push.