Big cards against a button raiser, no limit tournament

Game type: $50 No Limit hold’em multi
Your image: You’ve been a little active
Stage of tourney: The bubble is still a few tables away
Avg stack: About 18k
Misc notes: The raiser has had to lay down a few hands to raises in the last orbit
Your hand: K♠Q♣

The setup: You’re nearing the bubble in a $50 buy in tournament that started with about 300 people. You are fairly new to this table, but you have made a few plays at pots. You’ve folded to a re-raise and taken two pots without a showdown.

The table folds around to the button, who has bled off about 10k in chips the last 9 hands folding to raises and re-raises. This time he makes it 3200 to go, 4x the BB.

What’s your play with KQo?

8 COMMENTS (Jump to comment form)

John B.

…Or he may actually have a hand this time. I’ve got about an average stack and could be in the money if I don’t get all goofy now and make fancy moves out of position. I’ll wait until I have more control over the situation and have a better table read before I try to pull anything as the DHQ staff suggests.

[Reply]

He may have position, but getting to act first post flop in this scenario may be a good thing. I am calling and if I get the right flop 10, J, Q, or K as the top card and no scary draws – I push then.

[Reply]

Cristiano

I liked the analisys posted by the staff, thought i would just play safe and hope for a K, Q or good draw. If it hit me, I would make a reasonable bet; otherwise I might just check fold hoping get ITM with chips left.

[Reply]

Mary

If I were at the table, and had seen the last 10 hands or so (if I had a strong idea this was a button play), I might call and hope to hit top pair, and then bet out a pot-sized bet. But from here, listening to the story, I would surrender my big blind rather than play out of position.

[Reply]

tsifreak

It is really depending on how deep I am in the tournament and my stack size. With a big stack and good things going well call. middle of tourney with a medium stack I would fold here and get my chips in with a better hand with an agressive player like this. If they were suited yea I would play them but since there not I fold here.
I dont think a player even the button would put 4x the BB out there if they didnt have some kind of a hand they liked playing. Maybe Im playing to safe but I know I can come up with a better hand pre flop and you need that preimeum hand up against a pre flop raiser that plays agressively. You will have half your stack sucked in by the end of the turn so dont be suprised.

[Reply]

LadyMB

In this scenario, since I haven’t seen enough of how the raiser really plays, but I have a halfway decent hand I would call the raise, hoping to see a good flop.

[Reply]

Patrick Cherry

The button’s raise does seem like a weak bet, but he might actually have a hand here. (even though its very unlikely that he has A-A, K-K or even Q-Q; he could have A-Q or A-K in which case I will be dominated). K-Q is a very strong hand, so I will definitely play.

The question is should I raise? I think not. It is a disasterous move to raise here. The minimum raise I could make to get him out is about 10k, any smaller raise will juice up the pot and that’s not what I want to do against a guy who has position on me on latter stages. That means, if I raise 10k, I’ll have over half my chips in the middle, and will commit myself to the pot. Even if the flop comes something like A-Q-x, and I’m not sure he has an A or not, I will be committed to put all the chips in on the flop, and might lose the whole thing. So I don’t want to commit myself.

So why not just move in? Because of 2 main reasons.
1) he might actually have nothing, and might bluff on the flop, and if I flop a top pair, I can trap him.
2) He will only call with hands that has me dominated (ex. A-K). He might also call with 10-10 or J-J, in which case it will be a coinflip. I dont want to gamble. I am still not desperate.

So, if I can’t raise, or move in, the right move is to just call.
If I flop nothing, I’m out. I will not try to bluff. If I make top pair, I check, expecting a raise in the region of 6-7k at least, even if he flops nothing. By then the pot will be big enough for me to move-in. If an A flops, I’m out!

Raising here is a mistake many beginners make, when they get a good hand and the opponent “might be weak”, they just move in or commit themselves by raising. Well, if he is weak, you just won his raise 3.2k. If he is strong, you’re felted!!!

This is a very dangerous situation, and I will play it as cautiously as possible, but if I hit a flop, I make sure I maximize my profits!

[Reply]

BobbyJ

well, considering the circumstances, I would elect to call pre-flop, and in my mind I would be thinking to push in no matter what flops. Furthermore, if the flop helps me, then it’s all-in (even if i’m still on a draw) on the other hand if it’s a small flop, I still push, only because I still am under cover with my hand strength because I did not make any moves except call, which would put me on a pretty good size variety of cards, now as to missing the bubble, that really shouldn’t matter too much only because, if my opponent looks at his stack and figures that, a loss to me would put them at under 10k in chips left and then they would be a little concerned with “the bubble”. Now, let’s look at a few other advantages here;
a bluff from the BB is amazingly cunning in the sense that you are completely out of position,
and the fact that they have only left 1/7th of their stack out there at this point, and that isn’t too hard to let go of.

so call, and then push all-in on the flop, at least make it look like it took a little thought before pushing. there would be a few flops not to push in on though, mostly ragged.

[Reply]