Top pair against a tilting player, multi table tournament

Game type: No limit multi table tournament
Your image: You have shown down strong hands
Stage of tourney: Middle, 130 of 230 remain
Avg stack: 2700
Misc notes: Your opponent is potentially on tilt
Your hand: A♠K♥

The Setup: Player B, who just lost half his stack a hand ago when his AK ran into AA, raises preflop to 300. You decide to just call, and the rest of the table folds. The flop helps you out:

K♦T♥4♣

… and Player B quickly leads out for 500. The board looks safe, so you just call. The turn brings a fairly harmless 3♣ and now Player B checks.

There’s 1750 in the middle and it’s your action. What’s your play?

7 COMMENTS (Jump to comment form)

Sam

Imho, it doesn’t seem that your opponent is on tilt the way he played the hand. He actually made very classic moves : raise 3x the BB, continuation bet of 3/4 of the pot and a check on the turn when he saw that you were calling. I put him on AJ, AQ or medium pair and I think he’s aware that you have a strong hand.
Therefore, I would bet like half pot. If he feels he’s beaten, you’re not going to get more money from him on the river, and if he has a medium pair, he might call. And if he’s really on tilt, maybe he’s going to check raise you !

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DHQ Addict

pot is too big to leave it orphaned out there. Only real draw for him is straight, or maybe some back door flush (less likely) Either way cahrge the max and hopefully take the pot right here

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Bill

Bet small and hope he shoves all-in.

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Dude

I like what Bill said, bet small and act weak hoping he think he can bully you out of the pot. If he is really on tilt he is not goint to want to fold any type of hand here, and even if he calls another bet on the river can build more of a pot.

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Mary

i bet small, maybe 500 continuing the last bet. I will want some more information from him here. I hope to be able to see if maybe he hit a K-4 or 10-3. I would need a read on him to call his all-in. If he’s tilting, I think I would be throwing the 500 in as he checked to get my read. I can still fold here after I feel out the 500.

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Mary

I Just read staff’s opinion. I think staff gets the information I sought without risking the 500, although giving another card. Halfway through the tournament, I could defend either play. I am comfortable playing the short stack and I stand by my move to take it down now.

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Dan L

I’m not buying the DHQ analysis here. In general it’s easier to get a tilter to bet at you than call you down, but tilters make big river bets when they have absolutely nothing, and the board is such that even if your opponent was out of line preflop and on the flop, he could very well have a small piece. Consider this range of hands: K-9, KJ, KQ,10-8, 10-9, J-10, Q-10, Q-J and up, A-J, A-Q, 77, 88, 99, JJ, QQ, A-x of clubs.

All of these hands make sense for a kind of tilting guy to raise preflop, then bet as he has so far. Betting is a big advantage aganst any of the drawing hands over checking. If he has one of the paired hands, say you bet 400-600 on the turn, I think you’re much more likely getting some chips with two small bets than luring him into one big river bet.

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