How Could I Have Played This Better?

I found myself unsure how to play this hand.

Villain was 11/9 over a 57 hand sample. His flop cbet was 100%.

Should I have 3bet pre-flop here?

Should his short stack size be changing my play/thought process in this hand?

The flop just seemed entirely in his range and I just don't think I was ahead. Even if I continued and hit a set I'd be concerned that the 10 gave him a straight. Didn't seem worth the risk to proceed against a short stack.


$0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
FullTiltPoker
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($10.57)
UTG+1 ($4.02)
MP1 ($9.37)
MP2 ($7.45)
MP3 ($4)
hero (CO) ($10.58)
BTN ($10.85)
SB ($10)
BB ($6.40)

Pre-Flop: ($0.15, 9 players) hero is CO
4 folds, MP3 raises to $0.30, hero calls $0.30, 3 folds

Flop: ($0.75, 2 players)
MP3 bets $0.40, hero folds

Looks good to me.

Some things to think about re 3 betting vs flatting.

What would 3 betting TT achieve vs a nit with a tight opening range and tight 3-bet continuing range? Can you do this, for value, as a bluff? What are you doing vs a shove and is this the most +EV situation you can create preflop?

The flop is a pretty easy fold vs a guy whos range is just tight as shit. Your equity sucks to improve and you're behind or going to be folding by the turn too much to ever continue here.

Originally Posted by Carroters

Looks good to me.

Some things to think about re 3 betting vs flatting.

What would 3 betting TT achieve vs a nit with a tight opening range and tight 3-bet continuing range? Can you do this, for value, as a bluff? What are you doing vs a shove and is this the most +EV situation you can create preflop?

The flop is a pretty easy fold vs a guy whos range is just tight as shit. Your equity sucks to improve and you're behind or going to be folding by the turn too much to ever continue here.

Thanks. That's pretty much what I was thinking but for some reason my mind gets all screwed up against short stacks. I think I was even more focused on him being short then I was his nitty stats, which must be another mistake on my part.

I think I have a phobia of short-stackers.

3-betting here is pretty bad because it narrows his range down to hands that beat you. consider the following hypothetical (though pretty realistic) situation

he opens with a range of 66+,A9s+,ATo+,KJs+,KQo. you call with TT and play a pot in position with

Hand 0: 45.123% 44.49% 00.63% 589677516 8352120.00 { 66+, A9s+, KJs+, ATo+, KQo }
Hand 1: 54.877% 54.25% 00.63% 718941540 8352120.00 { TT }

55% equity against your opponents range.

OR

he opens with a range of 66+,A9s+,ATo+,KJs+,KQo. you 3bet with TT, against which he calls with a range of 88+,AQs+,AKo, and play a pot in position with

Hand 0: 54.483% 53.44% 01.05% 312929136 6129618.00 { 88+, AQs+, AKo }
Hand 1: 45.517% 44.47% 01.05% 260419596 6129618.00 { TT }

only 45% equity

the general idea i'm trying to get across is that 3betting here manipulates your opponent's range so that it's actually stronger than yours. you can certainly flat TT here profitably against his opening range. but 3betting kind of "wastes" (not the best terminology) some of the value of your TT, because you're putting it up against a range which generally has it beat.

so now that's over. i think you played this hand optimally on all streets. nh

Originally Posted by rpm

3-betting here is pretty bad because it narrows his range down to hands that beat you.

the general idea i'm trying to get across is that 3betting here manipulates your opponent's range so that it's actually stronger than yours. you can certainly flat TT here profitably against his opening range. but 3betting kind of "wastes" (not the best terminology) some of the value of your TT, because you're putting it up against a range which generally has it beat.

Although I didn't have the words straight.. this is along the lines of what I was thinking. Nice to see it put in language that makes sense to me.

Looking at it now I can't understand why I even thought a 3bet was a possible good idea. I got really confused at what to do here. Not sure why.

yeah this is pretty standard,

I understand you querying it though, 99/TT even JJ a pain in the arse hands quite often, they are easy over value when they flop as over pairs, and they dont often flop as over pairs anyway.

I don't like 3betting TT it gets you in the shit, you're weak against the continuing range and you don't exactly hit a lot of flops that you can bet out on with good outs, as aposed to hands like Axs or sc's in pos that can continue on more flops and are easy to get away from on missed flops because your never 3bet pre with any notion of value, its all in the implied odds