$2.20 NLHE MTT Deep Stacked: Folding Bottom Set

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your consideration. Last night I was playing in the $1500 GTD on ACR (2.2 BI) and had run up a nice stack (around 385k). Around 15 people are left in the tournament so we are playing 5 handed. I get dealt pocket 3s and flop a set against a draw heavy board. I am just curious if I am over playing bottom set here, or if this is a time where playing conservative is necessary against the chip leader into a hugely bloated pot.


Winning Poker Network (Yatahay) - 6000/12000 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

yunghm (BTN): 26.65 BB
Jaybird502 (SB): 30.83 BB (VPIP: 23.68, PFR: 12.12, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, hands: 38)
racefeva (BB): 113.94 BB (VPIP: 32.93, PFR: 17.72, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 84)
Clos6969 (UTG): 30.97 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 7.14, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 44)
Davey_Flopit (CO): 12.19 BB (VPIP: 16.98, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 10.53, Hands: 107)

5 players post ante of 0.13 BB, Jaybird502 posts SB 0.5 BB, racefeva posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.12 BB) yunghm has 3d 3h
Clos6969 calls 1 BB, fold, yunghm calls 1 BB, Jaybird502 calls 0.5 BB, racefeva raises to 3 BB, Clos6969 calls 2 BB, yunghm calls 2 BB, Jaybird502 calls 2 BB

Flop : (12.62 BB, 4 players) Kh 9h 3c
Jaybird502 checks, racefeva bets 3 BB, Clos6969 calls 3 BB, yunghm raises to 6 BB, fold, racefeva calls 3 BB, Clos6969 calls 3 BB

Turn : (30.62 BB, 3 players) Td
racefeva checks, Clos6969 checks, yunghm bets 17.52 BB and is all-in, racefeva calls 17.52 BB, fold

River : (65.67 BB, 2 players) 7h

yunghm shows 3d 3h (Three of a Kind, Threes)
(Pre 48%, Flop 66%, Turn 20%)

racefeva shows Qh Jh (Flush, King High)
(Pre 52%, Flop 34%, Turn 80%)

racefeva wins 65.67 BB

That is a tough spot there. My play would be to raise all in on the flop, after the bet and call due to your stack. The other way I might play this, if I am being cautious, is to flat the flop, and hope the turn is a blank. That leaves you room to fold if necessary. But I think either way stacks are going in. Best of luck to you.

Yea, I wanted to jam the flop but going 4 ways i figured i could extract the most value from multiple players by putting in a min raise...Didn't catch a heart on the turn so I jammed, didn't even consider the straight possibilities... thanks for your input man

This spot is suspicious from the beginning. UTG call big blind, next bet to 3bb, and again UTG call, pocket threes is weak here in my opinion. Ok you decided to call and you are on the flop, you have a set and probably the best hand now, Your made 3-bet, unfortunately for me is too small, 6bb to 18bb? of course that they call. Pot odds to flush or OESD are very good and here I see the biggest mistake in this spot, but you have to ask yourself, how often will he fold? If never when he has big implied odds. On the turn falls Td and prospective straight is done now. Here you should be even more careful, certainly not all-in! check-fold for me.

Thanks for your thoughts. would you consider jamming the flop to get your money in good then or always play defensively with the final table approaching?

I would raise more on the flop or maybe just ship it ... turn seems standard

This should just have been folded preflop. Setmining from the SB is generally not very profitable, because being out of position makes it more difficult to get paid. And with these stacks sizes you were not deep enough to setmine, even if you had been in position. These baby pairs are some of the most overvalued hands. They look pretty, but in reality they tend to play like junk and should often just be folded.

As played its just a cooler. With these stack sizes noone in the world fold either a set or a huge combo draw, so its just a wash in the long run. When he have the set, and you have the draw, he is also losing all his chips to you. Your raise size is to small though. You can go to around 12BB here, but its also totally fine to just ship it on the flop. It can look bluffy, and especially the chip leader is surely not going to fold, if he has a hand like top pair.

yunghm said:

Thanks for your thoughts. would you consider jamming the flop to get your money in good then or always play defensively with the final table approaching?

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1.) i don't like the limp/call preflop. i would rather raise, shove or fold then limp call. shoving seems too aggressive, folding too tight, so raise from the button 3-4bb.
2.) i don't like the check minreraise OTF. there are 30bb in the pot and you have 15 behind. your SPR is <1 so your only Option OTT is shoving or calling an all-in. therefor i would rather check raise all-in on this flop where we are ahead 99%. i don't see a reason slowplaying here

fundiver199 said:

This should just have been folded preflop. Setmining from the SB is generally not very profitable, because being out of position makes it more difficult to get paid.

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Hero is at the Button though, so we can Play 33 in the best Position with 27bb

Veritas said:

Hero is at the Button though, so we can Play 33 in the best Position with 27bb

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Sorry I got preflop messed up with another hand. Hero limped behind on BTN and then called a small raise from BB. I have no problem with that preflop line.

I got postflop messed up with another hand. You limped behind and then put in another 2 BB with the best position at the table, and I think, this is fine. Postflop just a standard cooler, as I already said. With these two hands, someone has to go broke, and this time it was you.