$1.10 NLHE MTT: Not so sure about my line on the flop

I'm OOP vs a fish who's showing a lot of aggresion, should that be enough reason to fold flop? would he/she do the same with a draw like JT (which I block because I have a T myself)? Is it a board that I should be betting or check calling against that kind of player? Sometimes on spots like that weaker players overplay their hands and could be doing that same move with Kx, KQ,KJ are for sure hands that would do that. Not so sure if I am being result-oriented or shouldn't be worryng that much on spots like that. I don't think my hand is good enough to go for 3 streets of value, so check-call might be the answer? once he/she shoves it feels tight to fold but I still had chips.

pokerstars - 60/120 Ante 15 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by Holdem Manager 3

CO: 4,229 (35.2 bb)
BTN: 6,195 (51.6 bb)
SB: 7,205 (60 bb)
BB: 5,405 (45 bb)
UTG: 2,624 (21.9 bb)
Hero (UTG+1): 3,539 (29.5 bb)
MP: 3,402 (28.4 bb)
MP+1: 10,908 (90.9 bb)
MP+2: 5,453 (45.4 bb)

9 players post ante of 15, SB posts 60, BB posts 120

Pre Flop: (pot: 315) Hero has
fold, Hero raises to 240, 3 folds, CO calls 240, fold, SB calls 180, fold

Flop: (975, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets 497, CO raises to 3,974 and is all-in, fold, Hero calls 2,787 and is all-in

Turn: (7,543, 2 players)

River: (7,543, 2 players)

Results: 7,543 pot (0 rake)
Final Board:

Hero shows : (Two Pair, Kings and Eights)
(Pre 69%, Flop 32%, Turn 32%)

CO shows : (Full House, Eights full of Kings)
(Pre 31%, Flop 68%, Turn 68%)

CO wins 7,543

I personally do not like the open with K10 suited UTG +1. I know you only have 29.5 BB but so what? With this stack size you are still more than in the game and dont have to make moves if you dont feel it is right. You can easily be patient (unless it is 3 min blinds turbo) and pick your spot. If you get down to 15 BBs or so then play push/fold. I think this hand should have ended right there pre flop with a fold.

As played though, I think betting out is correct with a sizing somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-45% pot. No need to go bigger because he is not folding his draws and we dont really want him to fold junk. I think you went too big here and a smaller bet will allow you to save chips when the villain jams as they did here and you choose to fold.

Once the villain jams I think you need to start ranging him. You mention some of this in your explanation but the range I got from your writing was a draw, which you do have a 10 blocker, and KQ or KJ. If that is the range you assign him then you must stay true to it and analyze the situation based on this range. Given that range you are not looking good as really J10 is the only thing we are happy about (don't think he is calling a raise with 67 but maybe he is). You are correct that this would be a snug fold and with SPR being 3 ish we dont want to be folding. However, fold seems like the logical choice to me. The times that he bluffs me off a hand our the times I just say "nice play". Have to go with the information you think at the time of the decision and that info to me says fold.

I reiterate again, you can avoid a lot of this by being very snug pre flop when EP. Otherwise you will run into these spots constantly and poker will be more of a headache then it needs to be.

A lot of people play only premium hands regardless of position of stack size making them sitting ducks - literally. By playing KTs from EP with 30bb stack you take advantage of their tight, predictable ranges. The villain plays rather lose with K8s from CO against EP, but that's his problem. However, you plan is to hit two pairs or better to play for stacks with that hand.

On the flop you have top pair, weak kicker against aggro lose player, you should check. Protection bet is against weak players or players under pressure. When he raises we have a weak hand we cannot call the all-in amount is too big and we need a strong hand (top two pairs or OESD + FD) sometimes TPTK if he's really bad.

On the turn you pick equity and if you haven't gone all in on the flop, it's all about pot odds. We are sometimes beat on the flop with our top pair you must evaluate your hand strength vs pot odds in all spots. If he checks behind the flop and bets 1/2 on turn, for example, you could call. Otherwise, if he bets like pot size, we fold.

tewwa94 said:

I'm OOP vs a fish who's showing a lot of aggresion, should that be enough reason to fold flop? would he/she do the same with a draw like JT (which I block because I have a T myself)? Is it a board that I should be betting or check calling against that kind of player? Sometimes on spots like that weaker players overplay their hands and could be doing that same move with Kx, KQ,KJ are for sure hands that would do that. Not so sure if I am being result-oriented or shouldn't be worryng that much on spots like that. I don't think my hand is good enough to go for 3 streets of value, so check-call might be the answer? once he/she shoves it feels tight to fold but I still had chips.

PokerStars - 60/120 Ante 15 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by Holdem Manager 3

CO: 4,229 (35.2 bb)
BTN: 6,195 (51.6 bb)
SB: 7,205 (60 bb)
BB: 5,405 (45 bb)
UTG: 2,624 (21.9 bb)
Hero (UTG+1): 3,539 (29.5 bb)
MP: 3,402 (28.4 bb)
MP+1: 10,908 (90.9 bb)
MP+2: 5,453 (45.4 bb)

9 players post ante of 15, SB posts 60, BB posts 120

Pre Flop: (pot: 315) Hero has
fold, Hero raises to 240, 3 folds, CO calls 240, fold, SB calls 180, fold

Flop: (975, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets 497, CO raises to 3,974 and is all-in, fold, Hero calls 2,787 and is all-in

Turn: (7,543, 2 players)

River: (7,543, 2 players)

Results: 7,543 pot (0 rake)
Final Board:

Hero shows : (Two Pair, Kings and Eights)
(Pre 69%, Flop 32%, Turn 32%)

CO shows : (Full House, Eights full of Kings)
(Pre 31%, Flop 68%, Turn 68%)

CO wins 7,543

Click to expand...

Ok, so I think the answer to your question is balance. You need to balance all your actions equally between call/raise/fold.

Opening KTs UTG is completely standard - and balance is the reason why.

From UTG, we're going to open the following hands:
77+, ATs+, A5s, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, AQo+

This is a standard gun range, and incorporates hands in all 3 categories. If we get raised, we know we're folding KTs, calling AQs, and 4betting AK+

Our opponent knows nothing other than that we could have all 3 - that's increasingly important as you move up in stakes.

At these stakes, it doesn't matter too much since our opponents are not thinking on higher levels (if it all in a lot of cases). So, you'll see players really nit down their UTG range to TT+ AK+. So, that's a viable strategy at these stakes, but I still prefer using these stakes to practice correct and competent play - it'll serve you well in the long run.

Case in point, the CO's overcall with K8s to a UTG open is, well, horrible.

On the flop, we still need to account for balance - that will guide us through post flop play. So, let's go back to our UTG range, and think about what we're going to do with all the hands we open.

Which hands are we going to place in which category:
Flop - K98r

Check/Fold - 77, AQs-ATs, A5s, QTs+, JTs, AQo
Call - QQ-TT, KTs+
Raise - KK+, 99-88, AKs, AKo

As I said, thinking about this will guide you through playing post flop. In this case our hand is in our call range - as a result, we don't want to bet because we won't be able to call a raise. If we had KK for example, which we totally could, we would bet and happily call a raise.

In this hand, it's looking like the CO would have moved all-in when we checked, and we would had to make a decision. We do have the T, which blocks a lot of straight combo's villain could have and we even lose to some of his kings - so it's a judgment call and I really can't fault either way. We definitely want to lean towards calling to protect our range, we need to broadcast to our villains that we still have all 3, but with the blockers to draw combo's like QT, JT - meaning that villain is just that much more likely to have K8 or 88, we may be able to find the fold button - but.... probably not.

Your KTs had most of its equity on the backdoor chances of making a King High flush, perhaps the ten hitting on the T or R.

Betting the flop for your top pair I think is the mistake, you really needed a free card, had you checked and two pair bet back at you, it would have made alot of sense to fold, calling light for the BDF or folding to a much stronger drawing hand. (potentially with the heart nut flush blocker too?)

Loads of reasons to fold.

tewwa94 said:

I'm OOP vs a fish who's showing a lot of aggresion, should that be enough reason to fold flop? would he/she do the same with a draw like JT (which I block because I have a T myself)? Is it a board that I should be betting or check calling against that kind of player? Sometimes on spots like that weaker players overplay their hands and could be doing that same move with Kx, KQ,KJ are for sure hands that would do that. Not so sure if I am being result-oriented or shouldn't be worryng that much on spots like that. I don't think my hand is good enough to go for 3 streets of value, so check-call might be the answer? once he/she shoves it feels tight to fold but I still had chips.

PokerStars - 60/120 Ante 15 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by Holdem Manager 3

CO: 4,229 (35.2 bb)
BTN: 6,195 (51.6 bb)
SB: 7,205 (60 bb)
BB: 5,405 (45 bb)
UTG: 2,624 (21.9 bb)
Hero (UTG+1): 3,539 (29.5 bb)
MP: 3,402 (28.4 bb)
MP+1: 10,908 (90.9 bb)
MP+2: 5,453 (45.4 bb)

9 players post ante of 15, SB posts 60, BB posts 120

Pre Flop: (pot: 315) Hero has
fold, Hero raises to 240, 3 folds, CO calls 240, fold, SB calls 180, fold

Flop: (975, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets 497, CO raises to 3,974 and is all-in, fold, Hero calls 2,787 and is all-in

Turn: (7,543, 2 players)

River: (7,543, 2 players)

Results: 7,543 pot (0 rake)
Final Board:

Hero shows : (Two Pair, Kings and Eights)
(Pre 69%, Flop 32%, Turn 32%)

CO shows : (Full House, Eights full of Kings)
(Pre 31%, Flop 68%, Turn 68%)

CO wins 7,543

Click to expand...

Open raise is ok but what did you expect betting 50% pot on flop.What were your thoughts to do it, I think even you play vs loose aggro player you should watch the board and here you dont have anough strength of your hand to do value bet.This hand is right to x/c play , you just burn chips making such bets . Calling rejam is a mistake.Dont look on bad play of your opponents, you r not allowed to do such moves at the table with fev fishes. Go on mate!Keep on working!No pain no gain!