$2.20 MTT Line check

PokerStars - $2+$0.20|400/800 Ante 100 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

Hero (UTG): 27,437.00
UTG+1: 24,940.00
MP: 11,632.00
MP+1: 9,196.00
LP: 15,045.00
CO: 3,174.00
BTN: 16,531.00
SB: 21,414.00
BB: 13,955.00

Hero posts ante 100.00, UTG+1 posts ante 100.00, MP posts ante 100.00, MP+1 posts ante 100.00, LP posts ante 100.00, CO posts ante 100.00, BTN posts ante 100.00, SB posts ante 100.00, BB posts ante 100.00, SB posts SB 400.00, BB posts BB 800.00

Pre Flop: (2100.00) Hero has 3:spade: 3:club:

Hero raises to 1,800.00, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1,000.00

Flop: (4900.00, 2 players) K:diamond: Q:diamond: A:spade:
BB checks, Hero bets 2,200.00, BB calls 2,200.00

Turn: (9300.00, 2 players) 7:club:
BB checks, Hero bets 3,600.00, BB calls 3,600.00

River: (16500.00, 2 players) 6:heart:
BB checks, Hero bets 6,500.00

River bet covers villain.

Table had been tight, villain was kind of a loose fish though and could easily have called flop with jx or tx. My image was tight and aggressive on the right board textures although I did c/f a few flops here and there. I had been taking pots without showdown and nearly always had the goods when it did get to river. We commit to the river barrel when we fire the turn, was this spew?

Caveat: I don't play MTT's anymore, and never did seriously.

You have over 10M. It is 9 handed. You're UTG. The cards are about to be dealt.

In a vacuum: I'm comfortably folding ATo, here. I'm comfortably folding 77-, here.

Under no circumstances: I widen my range enough to include 55-.

The spew was (pre) PRE when you didn't tighten down the screws on your EP range(s).

As played:
That board smacks your (assumed) ranges PRE, and I think you commit OTT to barrel the river, like you said. I much prefer a b/f OTF, though. Then shutting down and taking the loss when Villain fires back. I need to see your guess at Villain's ranges at each of his decision points to assess otherwise.

I want to respond to that but first can you confirm that youre advocating I actually play tighter as a bigstack than a midstack?

You're a relative big stack but you only have, what 35 ish bb? I'd be folding this pre from this position. We can't call a 3bet and we usually hate being called by anyone but the blinds unless we flop a set.

As played I would probably bet the flop, but now he calls I'm shutting down for sure. He doesn't have 44-99, so I give up trying to make him fold. The turn bet is horrible imo, for the simple reason that it forces us to put him in on river. He can easily be playing an ace carefully vs an utg open, but I doubt he folds it at river due to having most his stack in. I wouldn't want to be trying to push top pair off here.

This is precisely why I don't really want to be playing small pairs oop unless implied odds are a lot better than what we have here, such as earlier blind levels of the game.

I think you're overplaying your "big" stack. This is a fold pre imo, not close. I want 50bb+ to be opening this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OngBonga

We can't call a 3bet and we usually hate being called by anyone but the blinds unless we flop a set.

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I wanted calls actually, table was mostly tight weak and I'm taking a ton of flops with a cbet. Easy to let this hand go to a 3bet pre but 85% of the time that's not happening. I was playing the table more than my cards, but 33 was better than ATC because there were some flops & villains where it might have gone to showdown and I didn't want to be showing super duper crap hands if that happened.

Yeah, bigger cbet otf and give up if called would def have been better, gj that the river was a blank. He snap folded river fwiw so a busted FD/SD most likely but I felt like I'd been pushing my luck, hence the mark for review

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Luco

I want to respond to that but first can you confirm that youre advocating I actually play tighter as a bigstack than a midstack?

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I did not compare your stack to other players. I evaluated your stack to be worth ~11 orbits, or over 10 M. This is a very common spot to be in any tournament, but it's not big enough to really bully anyone. It's basically the floor of comfort for most people, as I understand it.

Less than 10M is a difficult range to play well. It is more LAG than you normally want to be in a 9-handed game. You gotta start trying to steal something every orbit at some point. It's trickier.

I feel like you're going to open yourself up to a lot of bad plays if you drive through aggressively with your bluff-catchers.

Really, though it all comes down to you PUTTING VILLAIN ON A RANGE at each decision point.

Quote:

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I was playing the table more than my cards, but 33 was better than ATC because there were some flops & villains where it might have gone to showdown and I didn't want to be showing super duper crap hands if that happened.

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There's tons of stuff that plays better post flop than this. You say you don't want to show up with crap, but 33 is crap. It's a setmining hand, and we're clearly not getting the right odds to setmine. I'd be bringing TJo into my utg range before this.

I think you're lucky here, and probably ahead anyway. It kinda feels like he's at the bottom of his call/call/fold range, like T9s, or something else he really should just fucking shove. Maybe he found a fold with some bottom pair combo, idk.

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad you raped this muppet. His play is weak and he deserves to lose. At least your play is strong. I just think it's too optimistic, that we're overplaying our stack.

I raped the whole table for almost 90 minutes, including one poor bastard who finally caught top pair and pushed back just as my TT flopped a set. He was not a happy bunny

I eventually got moved to a tougher table where people were raising and reraising with impunity and I had to buckle down, this 33 hand I guess I just got caugjt up in the moment and got lucky that it worked.

Moving from one table to another can be really dangerous, especially in this spot. I mean you move from a loose fishy table of short stacks where your 35bb stack is king, and then you move to a competent table where there's proper big stacks. You need to adjust quickly or get lucky. I feel like I've bust out many times quickly after moving from a comfortable table.

I kinda hate this hand tbh, for reasons already stated. You have soooooooooo many better hands to do this with and have so little equity to barrel turns that this is just a muck in EP. If you wanna play speculative hands in this spot make it Axs suited broadways or T9 or something, not 33.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by baudib

I kinda hate this hand tbh, for reasons already stated. You have soooooooooo many better hands to do this with and have so little equity to barrel turns that this is just a muck in EP. If you wanna play speculative hands in this spot make it Axs suited broadways or T9 or something, not 33.

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Would you play something like 56s - 78s UTG?

Sometimes, but probably not in this spot. some suited Kx and Qx and most suited broadways, sure.

In a $2 tourney especially and most tourneys in general this should be a fold pre. At a nitty table, I am fine with the open and the line you took.

You are playing a $2.20 tournament and you say villain is kind of loose fish. Chances are villain is a bad player and calls with weak hands, so i'll choose another spot.

I would check turn and check-fold river.

I think that you've put yourself in a tough spot with 2nd barreling. Bad spot to play pocket 3s, I would definitely check/fold on turn, its safer. You cant win every pot...