$5.5 NLHE MTT: CO-hero (t25BB) vs 3bet AI from SB (t15BB) final table

Deepstack MTT t600/t1,200; 10% ante; 5 players remaining. Final table


15 minutes levels
Table is somehow looser because blinds are going up and people stack decreases compared the blinds. Button is somehow really carefully picking the spots and avoiding to get in huge pots and lately flatting a lot to standard t2BB bets. Hero image is somehow LAG at that point. UTG just lost most of his chips to Button and has going AI past 2 hands. Basically nobody wants to finish before UTG. Standard bet is between t2BB mostly up to t2.5BB. SB basically has been playing AI and fold game preflop last 30 minutes.


Button t48BB
SB t15BB
BB t29BB
UTG t8BB
Hero (CO) t25BB


PREFLOP:
UTG (t8BB) folds
Hero (CO t25BB) looks holecards A5o and decide to bet t3BB
Button folds
SB decided to go AI (t15BB)
BB folds


How would you play this hand based on information and why?

There's no good reason to risk most of your stack with A5o here.

You don't mention how tight the SB has been playing, just that he has been AIOF lately. Assuming there are different payouts for 4th and 5th place, he should be shoving with a fairly tight range.

22.5BB in the pot and it's 13BB for you to call, so 13/(22.5+13) = you need 36% equity to call if we ignore ICM.

You might have enough equity against his range to call if this was a cash game, but not by much. We can't calculate a true ICM solution without having the payout structure and a good estimate of how tight the SB is playing, but ICM almost certainly dictates a fold.

there are not so many hands in the small blinds jamming range which are worse than your holding I'm my option. you perhaps tried a blind steal with an ace and just got caught. I don't think the sb was ultra strong with a huge holding as he would have probably 3bet for value and one other player to act.

AlexTheOwl said:

There's no good reason to risk most of your stack with A5o here.

You don't mention how tight the SB has been playing, just that he has been AIOF lately. Assuming there are different payouts for 4th and 5th place, he should be shoving with a fairly tight range.

22.5BB in the pot and it's 13BB for you to call, so 13/(22.5+13) = you need 36% equity to call if we ignore ICM.

You might have enough equity against his range to call if this was a cash game, but not by much. We can't calculate a true ICM solution without having the payout structure and a good estimate of how tight the SB is playing, but ICM almost certainly dictates a fold.

Click to expand...

Appreciate your time and effort. It was pretty hard to make ongoing analyse and was not sure what would be the best play here. Seems that hero are missing some equity here overall to justify the bet/call on preflop. imo


I do not know how tight SB is, because i do not use any poker program which helps to track statistic. All i can remember SB did not flat on preflop last 30 minutes of play. I remember SB went AI aprox. 1 time per 10 hands played average, rough estimation would be 10% of hands SB was going AI based on half hour. But what i remember i was 3bet/folding (preflop) vs him earlier OP.

Id raise smaller pre, 2.3x at largest.

Vs their shove we have to call very tight due to icm: 99+/AJs+/AQo+

You analyzed pretty good this table yourself and in that point you should tag this bet of yours as a “good try”, it really is a good try, it’s short handed table and this is how this hands like A5 should be played, especially against a guy who seems to be playing all in pre flop game. It’s clear here that you are behind, this guy must be having a better kicker in his hand or even a pockets. So if you folded to this guy, i belive you did well