i come in about 15 minutes late
villain is mid-50's, headphones, has a stack of green chips so i assumed he was aggressive, but no reads
we have starting stack, villain covers

HAND 1
25/25
1st hand i'm dealt i open AKhh UTG for 75 (6 handed at this point)
villain next to act makes it 225
we 4b to 525
v 5b to 925
we 6b to 1825
v flats

flop 7s8s5x
we bet 725 with 1800 behind
villain folds QQ
luckily i was going against the bottom of his range, but i hate flatting AKs OOP to a 3b, i rather have initiative, and i did not want to fold
as this hand was happening i thought to myself i'm a spewtard, he's gonna ship it and i'm going to have to continue with 1800 chips


Hand 2
8-9 handed at this point
25/25
villain from before opens UTG 75
kid (seems to be weaktight) 3b to 225
we 4b from BB with AKcc to 525
only kid calls with 3.3k behind, we cover

flop (1150) TsTh6s
we bet 525, he flats
turn (2100) 9h
we bet 875, he flats with 2k behind
river (3850) 5s
we shove

this hand i'm ok with, his range is capped and left him enough on the river to fold to a shove
maybe i could've bet a little less OTF



HAND3
hero just got moved to a new table with 18.5k at 100/200/25
no reads on anybody, and vice versa

about 15 minutes after being moved hero opens 450 MP AKo
folds to SB who has 8.5k
mid-50's, beard and glasses, looks like jesus
SB 3b to 1550
i got the impression this was really strong, JJ+, mayyybe AQs+, AK
we shove
i hate myself for this, i thought calling the 3b and folding when we brick flop was so weak, and thought i could get him to fold JJ and QQ
should we just be flatting and playing poker 40bb effective?
thanks

First two hands is terrible button clicking. Third hand is standard.

i'm ok with hand2, nobody wants to bust in level 1 with JJ/QQ against a cold 4b
i think hand3 is the one i'm most disappointed with, given effective stack sizes

All hands are horrendous... You're lucky to run into villains bottom of the range the first two times...in fact QQ shouldn't even fold the flop because the plan for villain shouldn't be to set mine but to avoid AK flops... Third is the worst of all... If you know villain is unbalanced strong why not play post flop poker against such a narrow range?

Now back to second... OP is weak tight..so why are we inflating pots pre, also I disagree with your suggestion of a capped range... Villain 1 and 2 just gave you two gift lives to fold on such board textures after putting more in the pot...3 barrelling that board is horrible.

Maybe just start with playing AK like suited connectors within your opening and 3 betting range... I don't see how you 4-bet shove against JJ+ expecting V to fold

Shouldn't we take any fold equity when we can?

I agree hands 1&3 were pretty spewy, but I really think villains range is capped at QQ once he flats the 4b

Playing AK passively pre and then putting money in only when we hit seems pretty weak to me, and I feel most players shut down when an A or K peels

Hand 2 is a little spewy too, when V calls flop and turn, the river card is a really bad card to bluff against - and the way to describe villain I don't think he is capable of thinking that you should know this and almost never bluff here. Unless you think V is a thinking player and levelled him here, that's is borderline aggressive and spewy

We rarely have too much fold equity against weak nit 3 bets and it's awful to assume villains should fold QQ exactly because they were never priced to set mine. So why are we trying to run hyper aggressive and super volatile bluffs against such a soft field.

Keep playing AK like that for long enough and you'll realize the fold equity you have is not worth the amount of flips you put yourself in this early in tourneys which easily cuts your deep runs by 30-40%. By the way you play it I see it as if you make a deep run you just won alot of flips.

So am I calling the 3b in all 3 hands and check/folding flop?

That just seems so weaktight.. Like I wouldn't be able to make a deep run unless I continually win at showdown

It's weak to assume we should put money in when we hit... How do you play suited connectors? If you're not gonna have balance then you're taking way too many marginal EV spots to make enough deep runs. Making this play later in the tournament makes more sense, but early is just narrowing down how many deep runs you will make.

Also, if you find the table to be so weak I can't see pushing to be very profitable in pre ante stages where you don't scoop many chips, and often called and race

I'm mainly a cash game player and in this day and age I usually get the last bet in pre with AK

Guessing tournies are different because there's a lot more flipping involved and you can't reload lol

No getting the last bet with AK is very important unless you are <20BB. But tournaments being a volatile type of game, it's important to not take marginal spots early if the table is weak. Most of your EV will come from being on a whale table...also remember people can't cash out in a tourney so no need to rush a slightly +EV spot against fish when you can wait for better spots.

And for the past few years small ball approach has proven itself to be the optimal strategy for pros. You want to take marginal spots if you don't have skill edge.

[ ] Poker is dead

Hand 1 is embarrassing

Hand 2 is meh

Hand 3 why can't we just call and play poker IP against a strongish range exactly?

I just hated the idea of folding to a flop cbet when we miss, which happens more often than not. Also villains can (not that they necessarily will) play perfect against us when we do hit an A or K

Yeah I hated myself for hand 3, given stack sizes and relatively early levels

3 > 2 > 1
Hand 1 is just bonkers lucky you found the bottom of his range
Hand 2 prty sure it's spew
Hand 3 seems fine/standard but peeling vs an old guy can't be the nut worst

Hand 2 bothers me. I disagree that his range is capped. He can easily have sixes full, quads, nut flush, 910 suited, J10 suited. What are you trying to represent? Sure, he might be holding on with a medium pair or JJ QQ, but I wouldn't want to bluff off my stack OOP during level 1 without a solid read on the situation.

Villain in hand2 seemed to be weaktight, I would've been very surprised/shocked if he showed up with 66-99, JTs, don't think he's 3b these pre

Guess AKss could be in his range, but after I bet flop and turn leaving him with enough to fold river, I decided to just go with it. I feel like we would've heard from nutted hands OTT (even if he somehow has AA he prob jams given draw heavy board), but maybe that's being optimistic

Given that we 4b I think barreling off might be better than betting one/two streets. I felt like betting two streets and x/f was bad, when a river jam could very well get folds from JJ/QQ, which I felt his range was heavily weighted towards.

Yes I hate folding

So his range is JJ+... You can find a better spot than this to get your chips in during a 1500 wsop at the 25/25 level. It's tough to represent something on this board after cold 4-betting OOP. Sounds like it worked but relax a little.

I hear you, as the hands were playing out I just thought how spewy it was, hence the title of this post

You prefer flatting the 3b in each instance and playing fit or fold?

You could play suited broadway or whatever the same way in hands 1 & 2. If you play agro, sometimes you get folds. If you want to 4-bet bluff, there are hands that play as well postflop that you can easily fold or flat to a 5-bet.

Usually not good to gii for 160xBB in level 1 of an MTT with AKo.

Hand 3, push is fine, but flat is OK. In 1 & 2, more standard to flat 3-bet. Don't necessarily have to play fit or fold postflop. Depends on reads, board, action, and what you can represent.

+1