Top pair vs steamed opponent, NL MTT

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?

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7 COMMENTS (Jump to comment form)

Waste_Of_Paint

It’s a shame we didn’t 3bet pre, but as played I bet small here to try and induce a shove. If we bet about 500-600 it will look a bit like we floated the flop in position and are now looking to take it down with a bet that doesn’t totally commit us. There are lots of draws out there so I don’t want to let a free card cone off. If he shoves over our tempter bet, great, and if he just calls it sets us up nicely to get it in on the river.

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Groundhog day

I don’t mind the call pf. Voted raise but now looking more closel at the stack sizes I’m thinking the best way to get more money in the pot might be to check here and let v take a shot at the river.

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b1aze

Dont mind the flat pre at all. I dont think were going to get much value from anything other than something that beats us or QJ, so checking behind OTT isn’t the worst thing in the world. If he spikes a best-case 7 outer OTR, sucks and we help him rebuild a bit but i think were going to show down another winning hand if he checks OTR also.

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Rogier

There is a nice amount in the pot already. I would move with a large raise. He can either call to hope for this final card to fall his way. But I would like to scare him away and take what’s in the pot.

If he calls, you have a pretty good chance to win. Unless he has pocket KK’s, which is pretty unlikely imo.

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Pirate21

V made a standard raise pre and standard c-bet post – then checked the turn.
Since the 3 didn’t really change anything either he has a monster (set?) or he’s scared of the K. Seems like a strange line for a set unless its 3s, so I’d lower that likelihood a little.
Most likely options seem like Ax, broadway cards or PPs that missed. We’re way ahead most of the time V is drawing dead a significant amount of the time with Ax – plus our hand is well disguised, so we need to extract value.
I say we make a smallish bet now while he still thinks the river can help him. Once the river comes, there’s much less chance we get him to donate unless it hits him.

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Villain’s line looks like he whiffed to me. I think if he paired the K with a good to decent kicker, he’d be more concerned about scaring us away on the flop.
If he paired the T he may call a modest bet here, but I don’t think he’ll ship. He might if he has QJ, but again a check on the flop would’ve been more likely then.
On the other hand, since we’ve not shown any initiative yet, he should find it hard to resist throwing a river bluff if we check here.

On this dry a board we are basically in the same spot as when we’d have flopped a set. Since we have position I prefer to finish this the old-fashioned way and only reveal our strength in the very last instant, if only to maximize the annoyance factor.

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_CityBorn_

i like a check behind here. if hes tilted, he’s likely to bet the river with a lot of weaker hands which is most of his range. we should be able to stack him at that point. i dont love playing big pots with small hands (1 pair) but you play the situations, not the guidelines…this smells like we have the best of it and can get a lot of value.

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