P
ph_il
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Silver Level
I honestly don't know is this is a well known play in MTT's but I've done this a few times in a few different games with success and I'm wondering if it's a good play. I guess you can say it's very similar to an UTG steal, but it's done from the small blind and after the flop instead of post-flop. You're still buying from a first to act position.
I'm not going to go digging through past hands for examples so I'll just make-one up. Lets say blinds are 75/150 and You're small blind with K8s. It's folded to button who just calls, you complete and the BB checks.
The flop is 2s, 5h, 9d
Now, I tend to believe this is a great flop for your hand even if you've comepletely missed everything. Why? Because it's very unlikely your opponents have hit anything on this flop either. So, at a flop like this, I would throw out a little over a 1/2 pot bet to try and buy the pot right then on there knowing that it's possible my opponents have nothing either. With 3 players in a hand and this flop, it's unlikely anyone has a 9, has hit anything on the flop, or is holding an over pair. BB is checking a huge range of hands and button calling with a decent range, it's very likely that it's going to be checked down to the turn on a dry flop like this. And I don't want to see a turn if I think I can this flop now for 1 main reason:
There are too many turn cards that can hit that'll ruin my chances of taking this pot. Any over card that hits, straight card, or flush card is very likely to entice action if I attempt to steal. So, now I'll be forced to check and hope to go to maybe get lucky at a showdown. Very unlikely I'll win the hand if that happens. So, why give up an easy pot up for grabs by checking and being likely forced into a check-fold situation when I can easily win a decent pot uncontested.
This is a 'who can pull the trigger first?' sort of play.
Of course this works best on dry, uncoordinated flops and would depend on your opponents. Though, I might make the play with a 'scare' card showing. Maybe a board of 5, 7, J for example. But never on a board like QsAs5c.
...So, hmmm...a good play to add to the MTT arsenal or will I just be spewing chips?
I'm not going to go digging through past hands for examples so I'll just make-one up. Lets say blinds are 75/150 and You're small blind with K8s. It's folded to button who just calls, you complete and the BB checks.
The flop is 2s, 5h, 9d
Now, I tend to believe this is a great flop for your hand even if you've comepletely missed everything. Why? Because it's very unlikely your opponents have hit anything on this flop either. So, at a flop like this, I would throw out a little over a 1/2 pot bet to try and buy the pot right then on there knowing that it's possible my opponents have nothing either. With 3 players in a hand and this flop, it's unlikely anyone has a 9, has hit anything on the flop, or is holding an over pair. BB is checking a huge range of hands and button calling with a decent range, it's very likely that it's going to be checked down to the turn on a dry flop like this. And I don't want to see a turn if I think I can this flop now for 1 main reason:
There are too many turn cards that can hit that'll ruin my chances of taking this pot. Any over card that hits, straight card, or flush card is very likely to entice action if I attempt to steal. So, now I'll be forced to check and hope to go to maybe get lucky at a showdown. Very unlikely I'll win the hand if that happens. So, why give up an easy pot up for grabs by checking and being likely forced into a check-fold situation when I can easily win a decent pot uncontested.
This is a 'who can pull the trigger first?' sort of play.
Of course this works best on dry, uncoordinated flops and would depend on your opponents. Though, I might make the play with a 'scare' card showing. Maybe a board of 5, 7, J for example. But never on a board like QsAs5c.
...So, hmmm...a good play to add to the MTT arsenal or will I just be spewing chips?
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