Early tournament play?

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ssbn743

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Ok, so this hand happened to me in the recent HPT event in Colorado. It was early in the tournament and pretty much meaningless but it just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me and I wonder what the Internet has to say about the subject.

Blinds are 100 200 with no ante in the third level of play at the HPT main event. Starting stacks are 25K and I have about 25K, my opponent has more like 35K and has made some calls that I wouldn’t have made, but they worked out for him so far.

I’m on the button with the Ks 10c. There are 6 limpers in the pot, including the villain from middle position. I raise to 1K with my K 10 and position. Everyone folds except for the villain. Flop Qs Js 4s and he checks it to me. I bet 3K, he quickly calls. The turn is the Kd and he checks again so I follow suit and check, both in the effort of keeping the pot small and getting a free card. The river is the 6h and he suddenly decides to bet 4K.

Now he does have my head all tied up in knots – Q J is the only thing I think he could have the beats my King. I’m literally trying to figure out how I’m beat because I have a suspicion that I am beat but I can’t possibly explain how – Q J, set of 6’s? Or did he miss with the ace of spades? I call the 4K and the villain flips over JJ showing a set of Jacks – wow!

With 5 limpers he didn’t raise pre-flop but instead chose to call check, twice, giving me two free shots at Broadway, a King hit the turn which completes several Broadway draws a fact to which he is apparently oblivious and it was a suited flop. Or, he played it well – I don’t think he did but what do you think?
 
duggs

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he butchered it, i dont like your cbet sizing or your turn check
 
Raymund2468

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i really don't like raising KT offsuit which is very risky on this part,
it's still in early phase of the tournament to make an action here though.

just a thought. :)
 
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ssbn743

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he butchered it, i dont like your cbet sizing or your turn check

Yeah, looking back on it there are many things I wish I had done different, of course that’s all in hindsight.

That’s actually a typo from my OP, my Cbet was 2K not 3K, but I’m guessing that you still don’t like that. That Cbet sizing is something I like to do early in tournaments when stacks are deep, I prefer pot sized Cbets to my normal 50% to 60% pot size Cbets, and considering my opponent here, I really thought he would fold, JJ is the last hand I put him on. So in that regard he played it well because it was totally disguised. I wish I could have put him on a set, I may have shoved the river, especially if another spade came out – but that’s just wishful thinking after the fact and this guy probably would have called anyway.

Just out of curiosity though, why do you disagree with the turn check? It’s still early and I have no desire to get stacked. I really don’t like the King all that much, though, in my opinion, it is largely ahead of his range at that point but I’m already starting to feel like I got in over my head. I mean obviously we know now that he wouldn’t have folded to pretty much anything but what would you suggest; 3500 - 4000?
 
vegasjj

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I am extremely inexperienced in live play, so I am voicing an opinion not because it is a "valid point" more because I hope to also learn something - as I find this real interesting situation.
Myself most likely would have limpled along - was cheap to do so, pot was good size for the that participation. Although have position, I would not trust the hand to be able to steal from so many limpers (someone will call I think...)
I am certainly surprised and would have been totally blind to the villan's JJ :(
 
TEG2300

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This is interesting limped a middle pair in middle position then flats a 10x raise. That is a hard one to see. You are saying that he was making some pretty loose calls earlier on to me that says you may be dealing with a loose passive here so a may have been suspect bet on the end as he is typically betting only hands that beat one pair here. Dunno just my opinion.
 
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I am extremely inexperienced in live play, so I am voicing an opinion not because it is a "valid point" more because I hope to also learn something - as I find this real interesting situation.
Myself most likely would have limpled along - was cheap to do so, pot was good size for the that participation. Although have position, I would not trust the hand to be able to steal from so many limpers (someone will call I think...)
I am certainly surprised and would have been totally blind to the villan's JJ

The limp there is probably not the correct choice. Consider the fact that the majority of the favorable flops you will see with this hand will pair your King, but against six limpers you’re most likely beat with KJ KQ or Kings up with another board pair. The point is that limping is setting yourself up to lose a lot of chips and at the very least make a tough decision. Yes you have position, but it’s not that valuable – remember in such a case the pot would also be unraised – a situation in which a fold would be the correct choice to many choices presented to you – so why play in the first place?

Folding is probably the best option, both in hindsight and foresight, mainly because it’s so early. But, if you can raise and narrow the field down to 2 callers at most – which is exactly what I wanted to do – your hand becomes much better. I’m not trying to steal; really I’m just trying to narrow the field.

Unless you know you’re going to flop Broadway, limping along is probably not the best choice; although that could certainly have its’ time and place.
 
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