$Freeroll NLHE MTT Deep Stacked: Did I play A5 too aggressive TWICE late in tournament?

$Freeroll NLHE MTT Deep Stacked: Did I play A5 too aggressive TWICE late in tournament?

These two hands are in the same tournament, only 4 HANDS APART.
(In the first hand I was in 5th place with 11 players left. In the second hand, I was in fifth place with 9 players left)


-------------------------HAND 1 ------------------------------------------------------------
Me(BTN) $38637

Pre Flop: Me(BTN) with [Ac,5c]
jaymfc420(UTG) folds, Sicklucking(CO) raises 6000, Me(BTN) calls 6000, ACDCZZTOP(SB) folds, TheMasterJ(BB) folds

Flop: (8d,4s,6s) (2 players)
Sicklucking(EP) bets 6000, Me(BTN) raises 12000, Sicklucking(EP) calls 6000

Turn: 9s (2 players)
Sicklucking(EP) checks, Me(BTN) checks

River: Jd (2 players)
Sicklucking(EP) bets 28271, Me(BTN) folds

Final:
Returns 28271 to Sicklucking(CO)
Sicklucking(CO) wins 40000



--------------------------------------------HAND 2-------------------------------------------------------
Me(BB) $23537

Pre Flop: Me(BB) with [As,5c]
ACDCZZTOP(UTG) folds, TheMasterJ(MP) folds, BriceNice(MP) folds,
nipoker(MP) folds, jaymfc420(LP) folds, Stevan96(CO) raises 5000, Sicklucking(BTN) folds, Chief talking bull(SB) folds, Me(BB) calls 2500

Flop: (5d,Ad,Jd) (2 players)
Me(BB) checks, Stevan96(LP) bets 6750, Me(BB) raises 18287, Stevan96(LP) calls 11537

River: 4c (2 players)


Final:
Me(BB) shows [As,5c]
Stevan96(CO) shows [Jc,Jh]
Stevan96(CO) wins 50074

In the first hand you had a straight draw, but that's not good enough to value bet. If you were trying to get a fold, 12k was not big enough, the opponent had already invested half of that and was getting good odds. If you really want to chase that straight, call the bet. If you just think that the opponent has a worse hand than you, raise more than that, maybe go all in.

The second hand is missing the Turn so it's harder to analyze. I see you like to reraise on the flop. This time your raise was big enough to get a fold if he had a bad hand. He called. That should at least give you the idea that he could be holding a better hand than yours. If not JJ, maybe AJ or even a flush.

The first hand just flat call the flop or shove and I'm leaning to flat calling. Your min raise is not for value and not going to work as a bluff. I would just flat call the flop and then continue as you did.

The second hand looks pretty standard and unlucky you had the worst of it this time.

Keep plugging away at them and good luck.

I agree w NHequals that the flop bet you made doesn't seem to be designed for anything specific. I would make a choice on what I want to accomplish and base my action on that. I'm not super comfy with risking an all-in w just the gut shot and a chance I might be ahead, so I would probably only call or fold here, mostly.

djasset said:

These two hands are in the same tournament, only 4 HANDS APART.
(In the first hand I was in 5th place with 11 players left. In the second hand, I was in fifth place with 9 players left)


-------------------------HAND 1 ------------------------------------------------------------
Me(BTN) $38637

Pre Flop: Me(BTN) with [Ac,5c]
jaymfc420(UTG) folds, Sicklucking(CO) raises 6000, Me(BTN) calls 6000, ACDCZZTOP(SB) folds, TheMasterJ(BB) folds

Flop: (8d,4s,6s) (2 players)
Sicklucking(EP) bets 6000, Me(BTN) raises 12000, Sicklucking(EP) calls 6000

Turn: 9s (2 players)
Sicklucking(EP) checks, Me(BTN) checks

River: Jd (2 players)
Sicklucking(EP) bets 28271, Me(BTN) folds

Final:
Returns 28271 to Sicklucking(CO)
Sicklucking(CO) wins 40000



--------------------------------------------HAND 2-------------------------------------------------------
Me(BB) $23537

Pre Flop: Me(BB) with [As,5c]
ACDCZZTOP(UTG) folds, TheMasterJ(MP) folds, BriceNice(MP) folds,
nipoker(MP) folds, jaymfc420(LP) folds, Stevan96(CO) raises 5000, Sicklucking(BTN) folds, Chief talking bull(SB) folds, Me(BB) calls 2500

Flop: (5d,Ad,Jd) (2 players)
Me(BB) checks, Stevan96(LP) bets 6750, Me(BB) raises 18287, Stevan96(LP) calls 11537

River: 4c (2 players)


Final:
Me(BB) shows [As,5c]
Stevan96(CO) shows [Jc,Jh]
Stevan96(CO) wins 50074

Click to expand...

The first hand you played too softly (for my style) and not aggressive enough. First, let me point out that you didn't say what the blinds were or how Sicklucking had been playing or what your read on him was. especially from late position like that. You also didn't mention his stack size. Depending on my read on him, I either fold preflop if he is a tight player that only raises with real hands, raise if he is someone who raises often from this position to steal the blinds (I love to steal from both UTG and CU because they are not standard plays like they are from the Button...although they are becoming more frequently used), or if I think he will call a re-raise, flat call him like you did so I can either hit a good flop to win or push him off a marginal hand later in the round.

You had two opportunities to do that but you missed them both. 8 4 6 does not hit a lot of the hands he is likely playing, there is some concern with the two spades, but not something that I would fret much over when he comes in with the small 6k bet (you have 12k plus the antes and blinds (which were likely 1000/2000) in the pot, so I would estimate that to be roughly a quarter to third size of the pot). To me, this is a blocker bet meant to keep me from raising or looking to get out of the hand cheap if you hit and re-raised (there are a few players who will use this tactic to entice a raise so that they can jam, but I don't get that feeling here.) You raised here, but not enough. You doubled his bet, which is a no brainer call for him because of the odds. If you make that 18-20k instead, then I would expect a fold from Sicklucking (again, depending on my read of him...he may be a guy who will play bottom pair to a big raise or chase after runner runner knowing that he may have other outs he can hit to win...also, depending on his stack size, if he has 100k in chips then he may feel like he can play a marginal hand just to see if he improves and he can felt you).

The other option would have been to call his CB and when he checks on the turn, then you put in the big raise (once again, depending on your read of the player, is this a player who CBs and if called shuts down? If so, you exploit that). Depending on the situation, I would have done one or the other, depending on my opponent, it wouldn't matter what the cards were. When you re-raised on the flop, you signaled that you had a hand, that is why he checked, by checking behind, you told him you were worried about the flush that came on the turn. He exploited that and dared you to hero call the river with ace high.

The second hand played out pretty much the way it should have unless the initial raiser was a tight player that and you should have known that he wasn't going to min raise without having a strong hand. Depending on my read of him, I may have re-raised from the BB to test his hand preflop. He min raised to 5k, so a raise to between 12-15k would have most likely made him push all in. You would have lost about a third of your stack but you would have been safe folding here and possibly finishing higher too. The tricky play would be if he had just flat called a re-raise, then it would have all gone in on the flop anyway. You just got unlucky to have a strong hand run into a stronger hand.

Remember that even though you are playing cards, you are playing the player. You need to study the habits of your opponents so you can learn to read their hands without seeing their cards. I have feeling that if you had done this, you would have played both of these hands differently and would have finished much higher.

On a related note, I see people catching the same hands over and over online, it's weird. I was recently knocked out of a tournament when I had QQ in consecutive hands and won one a few days later when I had 99 two hands in a row (I had AK twice in a row in that same tournament too)

Good luck!

RocwX said:

In the first hand you had a straight draw, but that's not good enough to value bet. If you were trying to get a fold, 12k was not big enough, the opponent had already invested half of that and was getting good odds. If you really want to chase that straight, call the bet. If you just think that the opponent has a worse hand than you, raise more than that, maybe go all in.

The second hand is missing the Turn so it's harder to analyze. I see you like to reraise on the flop. This time your raise was big enough to get a fold if he had a bad hand. He called. That should at least give you the idea that he could be holding a better hand than yours. If not JJ, maybe AJ or even a flush.

Click to expand...

I'm wondering if a preflop 3-bet would have created some fold equity after the flop in the first hand. The second hand is unlucky, but at the same time I think this poster's analysis is spot on.

The first hand is a pretty easy jam pre-flop. If you're not jamming here you're making a pretty big mistake. I wouldn't even consider another action. As played I prefer a call on the flop. I also prefer a jam on the flop to clicking it back. As played on flop I jam the turn.

Second hand is fine, just a cooler.