$1.1 NL HE MTT: Bluffcatching with A high only?

[dallam]

Game

Hold'em

Game Format

No Limit

Table Format

MTT

Buy-in

1.1

Currency

$

1.1 Big MTT, top 3 table. Villain sitted to our table moments ago, having bigger stack than us and he is on the Button.

The party went like I opened, he called, on flop 1/3 open and he snap called me. The board was kind of dry to see a snap call, but gave him credit, and I had only A high at this moment. So pretty intense Turn and River were coming, where even if I did not connected, I see the gap that maybe my opponent want to push my checks to defend his outs?

Well, I'm interested to know your point, that can we calling off with a relatively cheap prize by the possible missed draws?
What kind of hands snap-call me on Flop then doing this line?

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[fundiver199]

Preflop
A9o from UTG+1 is pretty marginal, and I prefer folding. To open from this seat I would need a suited ace or AJ.

Flop
Not the best flop for C-betting but not the worst either with only one high card, which you have more often than him.

Turn
You did not improve in any way, so I agree with checking. Against a large bet I would check-fold. But given that no draws have completed, and he goes so small, I guess its ok to defend.

River
Still no draws getting there, and another small 1/3 pot bet. Unfortunately you shared the results, which makes it difficult to not be at least a little bit results oriented. But ignoring the results your hand is a bad bluffcatcher, because you block both the flushdraw and the 98 OSED. Apparently this did not matter, because he floated and then barreled turn and river with complete air. But unless you had a note on him saying, he like to do this kind of thing, I dont love the way, this whole hand was played. And frankly the most important decision was preflop, where in my opinion this is just a fold.

 

[feisas7991]

didnt read any comments what you wrote so just assume my input is vs no info players
fold pre if early stage
check fold on the flop or be ready to triple right away. dunno what was your plan there
river is lighting money on fire. literally beat next to no hands by check calling
Hope this brief analysis helps and Good Luck!

 

[300HPGOD]

Pre flop: This hand in this spot is table dependent. I know villain just sat down but what about the rest of the table? If im feeling good and feeling better in general than the table then I think opening is fine and opening worse than this can be fine. If the table is tough or at least what I feel is on par with me then I think this is a fold or at least a fold should be highly considered. Against a tough table here folding some better than A9 off is a good play so it all comes down to table dynamics and where we believe we fit in.

Flop: This also comes down to villain but we know nothing about them so I can see it either way where a case can be made for betting or checking. I do think your sizing is too small here because in theory your sizing is correct but what does villain most likely think when they see this sizing? Are we betting Kx this sizing when we dont have a heart? Wouldnt we want to charge draws more (draw heavy board even though we have a 9 blocker) so I think if you are going to be betting here its to take it down and look like we have some strength so I like more towards half pot here in the 9500 to 10k range. Villain might get interested here and call with the sizing you used which is what winds up happening of course but much of the time we will get bluffed off this out of position when we dont hit.

Turn: This is a weird card since the two itself changes nothing but it double suits the board. Would we ever check Kx here on a double suited board? I dont think we would as we again would want to charge draws and lower pairs so when we bet 1/3rd flop and then check turn we are saying we have nothing as we would not slowplay a monster either when half the river cards (roughly) bring in a flush. So I think this is a hand where our flop action is very important since it dictates what we do on the turn when certain cards come. On this card, I think we have to continue a story a bet again. If the turn was say 10 of clubs or 4 of spades or something just brick then I think checking is definitely the way to go even with betting the flop but with this card producing this board I think this hand becomes a check the turn if we checked the flop and bet the turn if we bet the flop. As played this looks valuey to me but at the same time if villain has a hand of any strength why would they bet so small when we have so many draws so I hate their sizing and for that reason, if I am playing well I call.

River: River as played is tough because of the sizing. I would think villain would either check back some of their misses or check back their showdown value while betting large the rest of their misses and only betting this sizing when they are eager for you to call. I would not pin them on a missed draw with this sizing so I think here they get me and I would fold even though seeing the results I know that I would be wrong (not the first nor last time for that). Sizing is just weird, interesting, and possibly astute against certain players all at the same time so its definitely a hand where this villain would be getting multiple notes on what they did here.

 

[fundiver199]

Pre flop: This hand in this spot is table dependent. I know villain just sat down but what about the rest of the table? If im feeling good and feeling better in general than the table then I think opening is fine and opening worse than this can be fine.

With this being a 1,1$ MTT, most likely people are calling behind far more often, than they should. This mean, we are going to be playing out of position a lot and often multiway as well. And even if we think, we have a skill edge, is this really going to be profitable with a hand as bad as A9 offsuit?

 

[eetenor]

1.1 Big MTT, top 3 table. Villain sitted to our table moments ago, having bigger stack than us and he is on the Button.

The party went like I opened, he called, on flop 1/3 open and he snap called me. The board was kind of dry to see a snap call, but gave him credit, and I had only A high at this moment. So pretty intense Turn and River were coming, where even if I did not connected, I see the gap that maybe my opponent want to push my checks to defend his outs?

Well, I'm interested to know your point, that can we calling off with a relatively cheap prize by the possible missed draws?
What kind of hands snap-call me on Flop then doing this line?

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The call down based on missed draws and Villain sizing is fine- the turn size especially was so small that it just seems odd vs your range-
You may want to consider the fact you are blocking the nut backdoor flush draw and the 9 blocks the nut straight draw which we do not want to do- but that is more if the V uses a larger bet size on turn and/or river

 

[300HPGOD]

With this being a 1,1$ MTT, most likely people are calling behind far more often, than they should. This mean, we are going to be playing out of position a lot and often multiway as well. And even if we think, we have a skill edge, is this really going to be profitable with a hand as bad as A9 offsuit?

simply, yes if the table is that bad because the players that will call behind are probably the ones you want to call behind and the bigger aces will 3 bet you a chunk of the time with A10+ so you are semi protected from the dominated aces. My opinion and you dont have to agree but if you know there are players behind you that will call a raise with all low Ax and dont fold post flop when they should then yes I will get into these spots.

This is similar to being at a table in say the hijack and and people call behind way more often than they should and we have KJ off or Q10 suited. Are we folding these because we will be out of position a lot to cutoff and button which we think will call often? I understand the hand examples I used here have draw equity where A9 does not but I think when we get to some of these bad tables (I play micros and freerolls where you play at what people call low stakes $10 buy in give or take so we have a differing opinion of how bad a table can be. But some of the hands you have posted where people donk off their stacks to you... you dont want to get into hands with them just because you might be out of position?) we should not be scared to play. Also dont forget at the levels that I play at a good table (meaning bad players) is much better for me than a good table (bad players) at your stakes would be for you since a sh*tty micro stakes player should be worse than a sh*tty low stakes player. Just my thoughts and no one has to agree with them but Im sticking to what Im thinking on this hand and this spot pre flop.

 

[fundiver199]

simply, yes if the table is that bad because the players that will call behind are probably the ones you want to call behind and the bigger aces will 3 bet you a chunk of the time with A10+ so you are semi protected from the dominated aces.

People who cold call to much usually also call hands like AT, AJ, AQ and sometimes even AK, because they think, its hilarious to slowplay and trap. So if you are in there with A9 and see an A high board, you will regularly have the worse kicker even against fish.

This is similar to being at a table in say the hijack and and people call behind way more often than they should and we have KJ off or Q10 suited. Are we folding these because we will be out of position a lot to cutoff and button which we think will call often?

No we are not and for two reasons. KJo and QTs are both better hands than A9o. And also assuming, people are completely positionally unaware (an extreme assumption but lets just go with it), then in the HJ we have 50% chance of getting called by someone, who are out of position, whereas in UTG+1 the chance is only 33%. So opening from HJ is positionally neutral, whereas when we open from UTG+1 on a loose table, we are systematically choosing to play out of position. And even bad players gain an advantage, when they have position.

But some of the hands you have posted where people donk off their stacks to you... you dont want to get into hands with them just because you might be out of position?)

Sure. But those hands are also selected for their entertainment value. This is not, how 5-10$ games on pokerstars play most of the time.

we should not be scared to play. Also dont forget at the levels that I play at a good table (meaning bad players) is much better for me than a good table (bad players) at your stakes would be for you since a sh*tty micro stakes player should be worse than a sh*tty low stakes player. Just my thoughts and no one has to agree with them but Im sticking to what Im thinking on this hand and this spot pre flop.

I just think, A9o is a really bad hand. I think, it was James Stableton, who once called it "the gimp hand" because of, how much worse than AT it is, even they look similar. Maybe I could get on board with opening AT for the reasons, you outline, so we are not that far from each other

 

[AKQ]

1.1 Big MTT, top 3 table. Villain sitted to our table moments ago, having bigger stack than us and he is on the Button.

The party went like I opened, he called, on flop 1/3 open and he snap called me. The board was kind of dry to see a snap call, but gave him credit, and I had only A high at this moment. So pretty intense Turn and River were coming, where even if I did not connected, I see the gap that maybe my opponent want to push my checks to defend his outs?

Well, I'm interested to know your point, that can we calling off with a relatively cheap prize by the possible missed draws?
What kind of hands snap-call me on Flop then doing this line?

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he has a value hand like the king

You hold an ace, so less odds of an ace
He is big stack and has position on you ,so he is wider like kxs
its more likely he would only raise with 89s preflop rather than call your bet on the FT
he could have a set but lets talk common place
my gut is he has the king or less likely combos but viable he has AdXd

to me the quick call means I'm trying to scare you into thinking I have something or Your aggression means nothing to me. It is a statement

Do value hands need statements
or do draws and floats?

 

[AKQ]

So i make every action I do a statement

thats why i act so fast. well plus i want more hands dealt per hour

 

[AKQ]

and from my personal experience.
Always check the flop out of position . even if you are the preflop aggressor
If you had AK would you make the same action?
My play for both would be to check,
eevaluate his bet sizing or get a free card

From this point on we can decide game plans for our value hands and our white magic rebluffs ,which have ALOT of value
Allowing your opponent to bluff/make a mistake/ is #1 how we get chips, so allow him to bet in position and give us info and more chips in the pot
but you don't want to be capitalizing on that IF factor, calling all the chips with ace high on the river
when you could of had the same info and capitalized on it on the flop for far cheaper and far more successfully

You can try

 

[AKQ]

What you thought I was done?

Left brain time

The K67 flop misses alot of your ooponents range and we want to get value from all our opponents hands

The solver likes a min bet or a very small bet here
Why?

Cuz his range that will continue is wide and the percent to hit will be less than his increase in pot size to hit the turn

The solver checks the brick turn IN POSITION
Why?
to induce an out of position river bluff
in which the solver then snap calls with ace high

 

[AKQ]

but that solver computation was ran in position

but being out of position , I wonder if this would be a 3/4 + sizing on the turn, bet oop
or a check with opportunity to fold, if the turn was bad or oppoenents sizing gives new information we don't like

but this is solver talk

 

[AKQ]

I have been a very busy bee Dallam