$30 NLHE MTT: AA Pre-flop: All-in, or Raise for Less?

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AlexTheOwl

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Winning Poker Network (Yatahay) - 400/800 NL - Holdem - 7 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP: 7.35 BB (VPIP: 22.94, PFR: 15.14, 3Bet Preflop: 4.46, hands: 778)
Hero (CO): 33.17 BB
BTN: 19.79 BB (VPIP: 6.98, PFR: 7.32, 3Bet Preflop: 11.76, Hands: 44)
SB: 44.99 BB (VPIP: 21.88, PFR: 5.08, 3Bet Preflop: 5.26, Hands: 65)
BB: 29.97 BB (VPIP: 17.65, PFR: 14.56, 3Bet Preflop: 5.56, Hands: 173)
UTG: 29.3 BB (VPIP: 12.50, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
UTG+1: 16.54 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 20.73, 3Bet Preflop: 2.94, Hands: 89)

7 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.37 BB) Hero has A♣A♠

UTG raises to 2.3 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 3.61 BB, fold, SB raises to 11.86 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 20.11 BB, SB calls 8.25 BB

$30 Satellite on ACR. Fifty players win a $250 + $15 Ticket. Approximately 230 players remain.

Villain
AFq: 50
WTSD: 65
FTS: 86
Fold to 3-Bet: 60

We want to get as much money in the pot as we can with our Aces, and we don't want villain to fold. Sometimes I shove these spots, sometimes I just raise. Which strategy is best here?

P.S. I don't play many MTTs, and I don't usually play tourneys higher than $10 online. I got into this game by winning a $4 super-satellite.
 
393700

393700

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I today won with a pair of sixes in a man with a pair of ankles. it is worthwhile to think several times before putting everything.
 
393700

393700

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today i have won with a pair of sixes of a man with a pair of aces. it is worthwhile to think several times before putting everything.
 
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AviCKter

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SHOVE. He can't really fold much there.

GG, btw. Will try to satellite into MDS or transfer some money and buy-in directly, off course depending on my mood. So hopefully, will see you there.

On the side note, why are you 3-betting so small?
 
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AlexTheOwl

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SHOVE. He can't really fold much there.

That's what I'm thinking now too. With deeper stacks it would be a different story.

GG, btw. Will try to satellite into MDS or transfer some money and buy-in directly, off course depending on my mood. So hopefully, will see you there.

Thanks. I expect to be below average in skills in that field, but maybe variance will swing my way. Hope to see you there, what's your WPN username?

On the side note, why are you 3-betting so small?

I desperately want to keep him in this hand.
A big win here puts me in excellent position to win a ticket.
The gap between his VPIP and PFR, and his WTSD, make him look like a calling station who will pay me off with a weak hand post-flop.
I'd 3-bet larger in a cash game, or in a tournament where taking first place mattered.

Result:
I went all-in on the flop.
He had KQs (terrible pre-flop play by him, I am far from a maniac), and hit top pair on the flop.
He called the flop, my AA held up, and I eventually won the ticket.
 
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AviCKter

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UTG raises to 2.3 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 3.61 BB

^ This one. You min 3-bet here. You have to make it around 2.5x irrespective of the result, you have the perfect stack for it. UTG isn't a passive player, he seems TAGish and his UTG range being strong would have to pay you off. But it worked out for you in the end with SB being so adamant with his hand, KQs isn't a 4-bet in most scenario, let alone UTG Raise/UTG+1 3-bet.

Its "AKshan.in", will start a rail thread if I decide to play. Have been testing the software by playing this-and-that, and one observation was it disconnects so frequently, you've to close the table and "Take your seat" again & again.:eek:
 
naruto_miu

naruto_miu

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As for basing anything on stats (You have 8 hands on UTG) so lets not really put much Into It.

That being said (I still hate the fact that you) "Min Click It back as a 3bet".

You stated this was/Is a satty correct? The point of Sats are survival (Up to a point) and just win that ticket. Now your "Min C.I.B play as a 3bet" Isn't really a winning play (No disrespect to you). If SB wasn't such a terrible player and just "Smooth called with KQs rather than 4 piece with It, lol, that than leads to UTG also calling you. Now AA doesn't really play well vs 2 players+ (It doesn't play bad either) but that really depends on the "Texture of the flops correct". Now vs SB (You really aren't worried) as that player (As you stated seems rather loose/passive). Yet UTG (Seems legit/Tagish), now UTG could've had a small pair-Mid pair, correct? So If we assume that UTG Is only opening small-mid pairs(With the limited hands we got on them)+98s+JQs+J10s+A10s, than we still have to deal with SB (Had they not 4 bet KQs), so now we're gonna be playing vs 2 players with AA.

Now also take Into consideration that had you not hit an Ace "Giving you the top set", all the ugly different board textures that could've happened with 2 players In the hand with you. Even If for a moment the board "Didn't give you a set", but came out rags, could you really fold? Even If you can fold the AA on a rag board (As the action dictates on folding), would you be happy with the manner In which you played your AA preflop?

Congrats on winning the ticket, but really don't like this play at all, as you were basically at the mercy of the SB spazzing out (Which they did do) but for the future not all players spazz out as the SB did In this hand.

Now had your plan actually been towards the SB and that "By Min Clicking It back as a 3bet" you knew for like "70+% chance that SB would In-fact 4 piece" (seeing your weak 3 piece as being weak/rather than strength), than that's different/questionable but understandable. Now when you 5bet and SB called, the rest Is history as I'm never folding vs 1 player on any flop (Unless the player's like 2/2 over 500+hands with 0 Donk+0% flop+0% turn+100% aggression river and they'd have to have like 80% win rate by river to make me fold AA.

Yet you didn't have to worry about all of that In this case.

Good luck In the $215
 
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AlexTheOwl

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Have been testing the software by playing this-and-that, and one observation was it disconnects so frequently, you've to close the table and "Take your seat" again & again.:eek:

That's not my usual recent day-to-day experience with ACR. I usually have more trouble with ignition tables freezing.
They focus on the USA and I'm an American player. Maybe they aren't set up so well for traffic from the rest of the world.

There is a history of DDOS attacks against ACR during their million dollar tourneys that renders the site unplayable for everyone, leading them to pause the tournament. So budget plenty of time, just in case.
 
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trent32la

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Preflop sizings are a mess.

Your 3B sizing is very exploitable because you have zero 3B bluffs to this sizing and give your opponent incredible odds to flat his entire opening range off a stack where he never should. Unless you're up against some drooling whale, and even if you are, I can't see any reason why we would ever min 3B here.

3B to 8bb w/ your entire 3Bing range here or just flat call. The reason for such a large 3B sizing is because parts of our 3Bing range have to fold to resistance vs a cold 4bet (which off 33bb we can 3B/fold) and this doesn't allow the opener to flat call w/ speculative hands he opens with.

When you get cold 4bet here, just tank shove instead of trying to get cute and CiB. The cold 4bettor is pretty much never 4B/folding here.

Play your range, not your hand.
 
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AlexTheOwl

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Thanks for your responses everyone.

I posted this hand because I thought that I made a mistake by not shoving with the 5-bet, and that is the consensus.

But Avi, naruto, and trent are all clearly correct that my 3-bet was too small. There is every reason to believe that a player who looks tight in a small sample size, who raises under the gun, has a strong hand and will call a bigger bet.

trent, you make excellent points about exploitability. At the micros I don't worry too much about balancing my ranges, because players are generally not going to exploit an unbalanced range. But it is much more of a concern at this buy-in.
 
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