$0.50 NLHE MTT Turbo: Three of a Kind flushed on River

[PPT]

Checking BB I hit three of a kind on the river, but was getting raised by SB whom it turns out was chasing the flush. I let him bet into me thinking I could gain more chips if he kept betting into me, but then faced the conundrum of folding or not when the final heart was shown on the river. I didn't fold, it was the wrong call.

We both had almost the same amount of chips and I was eliminated 17th when 1-10 won the same ticket. I didn't have enough chips to be safe yet, winning this hand would have allowed me to play very safe until the end of the tournament. How should I have played it differently?

Hold'em No Limit - 1,250/2,500 (250 ante) - 8 players
Replay this hand on CardsChat

UTG: 16,020 (6 bb)
UTG+1: 31,938 (13 bb)
MP: 56,681 (23 bb)
MP+1: 32,028 (13 bb)
CO: 25,536 (10 bb)
BU: 54,786 (22 bb)
SB: 33,223 (13 bb)
BB (Hero): 32,998 (13 bb)

Pre-Flop: (5,750) Hero is BB with 5♠ 3♦
6 players fold, SB calls 1,250, Hero checks

Flop: (7,000) 5♦ 5♥ 7♥ (2 players)
SB bets 3,500, Hero calls 3,500

Turn: (14,000) J♦ (2 players)
SB bets 4,620, Hero raises to 9,240, SB calls 4,620

River: (32,480) 8♥ (2 players)
SB bets 17,733 (all-in), Hero calls 17,508 (all-in)

Total pot: 67,496

Showdown:
SB shows Q♥ J♥ (a flush, Queen high)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 66%, Flop: 25%, Turn: 23%, River: 100%)

BB (Hero) shows 5♠ 3♦ (three of a kind, Fives)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 34%, Flop: 75%, Turn: 77%, River: 0%)

SB wins 67,496

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
Its is actually an option to take a junky hand like this and jam it for 13BB to apply ICM pressure to him. That play however does depend on his ability to fold, and playing for less than a dollar, I would tend to shy away and just take a free flop.

Flop
Great flop obviously, and I prefer to raise him right out of the gate to make it a 2 street hand. Just put yourself in his shoes and imagine, you are semibluffing with some kind of draw. Then what would you not want to happen? You would not want to face a raise on the flop and a jam on the turn, because that would force you to either put your chips in behind or fold.

The rationale for slowplaying is, that we think, we make more chips by inducing bluffs, and I just dont think, that is the case on this level and in this situation. If he have air, he is taking a "one and done" stab, and he will not put in more chips later, unless he improve. His stack is simply to short for that, and you are to close to the money.

Turn
You do get another bet out of him, but its a rather small one. Even so I would go ahead with my plan of making it a 2 street hand and jam in the rest of my chips. A jam is only a little over pot, so its not that excessively large, and if he accidentally hit the J, he is not going to bet-fold top pair.

He is however going to fold his draws, and thats great, because it protects you from a lot of variance. When you only minraise, you give him around 7:1, which is more than enough odds to draw to a straight or flush. So this sizing is going to be my main issue with the hand. You want people to make a mathematical mistake, if they call you on the turn with a draw, and giving them 7:1 does not achieve that.

River
One of the worst cards in the deck, since it brings in not only frontdoor flush but also the 64 OESD. And of course we face a donk jam. You are getting around 3:1, so ignoring ICM you need to be good 1 in 4 times. I dont blame you for paying him off, but unless he is doing this with a J, you only beat a stone bluff, and typically people dont bluff, when all the draws got there. Maybe he can have busted diamonds, but thats pretty much it.

You also dont have a kicker, that play, so you lose or chop, if he has the last 5, you block busted diamonds, and you dont block hearts. So if there ever is a combo of trips to fold, it has to be this one. But my main advice is to get it in on the turn, so that you dont even have to face this decision.

 

[PPT]

That makes a lot of sense, thank you. So on the Flop in that scenario how much would you have raised? Min-raise the 3500 to 7000? Or 3x raise it to 10500?

Or something else?

Since he was SB he acted first with the 3500 bet so mine would have had to be a re-raise.

 

[fundiver199]

That makes a lot of sense, thank you. So on the Flop in that scenario how much would you have raised? Min-raise the 3500 to 7000? Or 3x raise it to 10500?

Somewhere around 10.500 seems fine. It sets it up for a less than pot sized jam on the turn with the pot being 28.000 and 20.000 left behind in the effective stack. As a small detail raise sizes should not be measured against the initial bet but against the total pot. So in this case 10.500 would be 7.000 more into a pot of 7.000 + 2 x 3.500 = 14.000, which is 50% pot. These are the odds, your are giving your opponent to call, and they are, what matter.