May 22, 2012

Daily Hand Quiz

DailyHandQuiz

Game type: Large field online MTT
Stage of tourney: ITM, 110 / 7112 remain
Avg stack: 600k
Your image: A little aggressive
Opponent’s image: No strong read
Your hand: J♠T♠

The setup: You’re getting a little short deep in the money of a major online MTT. This hand you’re folded to in the CO and you make it a little shy of 3x to go. Button folds, the SB calls and the BB folds. You flop middle pair and not much else:

5♣Q♥T♥

SB leads for 50k into about 190k.

What’s your play?

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6 COMMENTS  (Jump to comment form)

Groundhog day


Without a read I am calling here. Will prob fold if v fires again unless I improve. V could have 2 pair or small set and trying to build the pot without scaring me off or could be on a draw and blocking.

[Reply]

Morat


One of my worst leaks is handling donkbets, esp. w/o a read. Our hand and the depth makes it even worse. If we call now we have less than a pot behind – would we fold on a brick turn?

His bet seems to be a probe bet w/ air, draws, or weak hands; but it could be a trap as well. Unfortunately we don’t have more room to find out.

We beat more than half of his range, so folding seems to be a mistake. Calling now and folding on a safe turn is an even bigger mistake IMO, since he’ll more likely to bet the range we beat (air, draws), than what beats us (Qs, stronger Ts). So the two options are calling down unless a draw hits, or raising right here.

Calling is more likely to keep us alive but we are pretty vulnarable to bluffs, and we probably loose if we are able to check it down. Raising however puts the pressure on draws, and have the chance to fold out a lot of better hands at this point. Too bad it costs our stack if V was trapping.

I prefer raising anyway. The decisive factors are that 1) we’re in the money, and probably there’s no remarkable increase in payment until top 18; 2) we have about 1/2 of the average stack; 3) we’ll have 12 BBs if we fold (10 if we call and fold), so there’s not much room to play poker later.

[Reply]

Pirate21


Folding seems pretty weak (and sends a pretty bad message to the table).
Calling is just begging V to make an aggressive bet on the turn and makes for an even tougher decision.
I’d raise now and try to take it down. If we shove, we’re repping a pretty strong hand after the p/f raise and he’d have trouble calling most of his stack without at least 2pr.
Unfortunately, our aggressive image doesn’t really help us, but options are limited right now.

[Reply]

samo


I’d RAI.

V could be trapping however I think a set would likely CR most of the time. Hero has a 10, so somewhat less likely V has Q10. If they had a Q, I’d expect more heat than 50k. I also think AhQx would likely 3-bet pre-flop.

This is a nice pot to play in terms of risk/return. Hero is already ITM; a win gets us back in the hunt. Our mid-pr may be good, and I think the shove folds most of their hands. Calling on the other hand leaves Hero more vulnerable to potential bluffs, and pricing-in V on later streets.

Folding in this spot seems weak – H raises p/f and folds to 25% pot lead by oop player on the flop.

[Reply]

MasterTemple


A lot of time, the donk lead here is; hey, I flatted you preflop with a PP, 10x or some weird draw, and I want see if you have any of that flop. This is where I think I tell him, yeah, I do, and just shove before you can let a turn card peel off that makes you fold what could be the best hand. He can be dinking with a silly wide range here; xxhh, J9, 66, 108s, etc, and a lot of turn cards are just ugly for your hand; any heart, and any A/K/8 are really difficult to see. I just ship my extra 250k over this raise and expect to be best a significant portion of the time; 80% plus.

[Reply]

Julian


I guess it’s really cool to be superaggressive….even in situations which don’t seem to warrent it.

I call here, let go on the turn if I don’t improve.

Folding seems ridiculously weak, especially awesome pot odds.

There are problems with calling…notably he can improve to where he beats us, and we really don’t know where we stand. If he bets the turn again, we have a decision to make, but I’ll go with folding.
Most players don’t have the fortitude to fire multiple bullets with air, on wetter boards. If he fires again, most of the time he has the best hand, (or, unfortanitly, made the best hand on the turn). Keep in mind, you do have position on him, and he has to worry that you might have someone you just arn’t giving up.

A lot of the time the tiny bet is just an inexperienced player trying not to scare you off with his monster, or a good player trying to make like he has a weaker hand. Who really bluffs giving you those awesome pot odds. Bluffs are almost always 1/2 pot or more?

He may be betting a 5, but if that’s the case, you’re going to be ahead most of the time on the turn, so just call.

That be said, there is a major problem with calling. That is, what you don’t improve, but he gives you the same sucker bet on the turn? Are you going to call again, and call on the river?

As to why I don’t raise? The answer is a lot of the time he really does have a good hand, and for whatever reason has just chosen a really light bet. Sure it is hard to make a hand, and you miss the flop 67 percent of the time, but two things make it more probable that he does have something. 1. He called your pfr. 2. He donked into you.

This spot to me seems about 50/50. A lot of the time here you will shove, a fold out A10, air, or get called by the strait draw and feel brilliant. But the rest of the time he’ll snap call with a flopped two pair, tank for a while, and then call with top pair no kicker (because you’re dreaming if you think a halfway decent player folds top pair this late in the tourney w no stack), then you’ll feel like an idiot.

So, wait till you find a better spot.

[Reply]

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