$1.1 NL HE MTT: How to play two (low) pairs from BB?

[Andyreas]

Game

Hold'em

Game Format

No Limit

Table Format

MTT

Buy-in

1.1

Game Options

1. Turbo

Currency

$

Hey forum,

Sometimes I get sucked into tough spots from the Blinds, like this one here.

I do not have the HH since on mobile and I think BOL doesn't sent it to you upon request.

I have 64s on BB and call a standard open from UTG.

We are all very deep with 80-100 BBs.

I flop two pair on sort of a wet board:




So I donk-bet 1/3 of pot and he raises to 3x this amount. I figure I cannot be behind here, so I raise again to 3x. He jams, so I call.

Turns out he has TPTK, so my lead is solid with 75% but still fragile and only hold until turn. 🤣



So my question is:
How you'd have played the hand. I think I would adapt my game but I'm curious about your opinion.

 

[fundiver199]

You have bottom two pair, but the composition of the board is very important, because normally people dont open J6 or J4 from UTG. Or even from BTN for that matter, but from UTG we can completely remove those hands from his range. Which mean, you only lose to 5 combos of sets. Which is pretty much the same as flopping bottom set, where you lose to 6 combos of sets. This mean, that you should be completely happy to stack off with this hand, and the only question is, which way to best do it.

The more traditional line would be to go for a check-raise, but I dont hate your decision to donk out into him. A small donk like this can look weak and induce a spazz raise, which could be an argument for just calling and letting him barrel off on turn and river. But you are out of position, and a lot of cards are bad for bottom two pair. So I think, fastplaying is completely legit here, and you got it in good. Unfortunately he then drew out on you, but thats just poker

 

[eetenor]

Do not change how you played this hand. Bottom two should be fast played on the flop-you got the money in ahead that is all any of us can do in a spot like this-

 

[300HPGOD]

A couple of things. First, how aggressive is villain? If we know they c bet very frequently then I am definitely thinking to check raise vs lead. Another point Im thinking is how often do you personally donk lead Andyreas and are the player pools that you play against often the same people or do you find that most people you encounter at the tables you dont have many hands on and dont see often? I ask these questions because I am trying to find out if a donk lead by you here is really rare. Lets just replace the 6 of dimaonds in this hand with the 6 of hearts, do you donk lead then? I ask about the player pools you play in since if this is going to be the only rare time you lead and people play against you often enough then they will catch on to what your donk leads mean. Therefore I can't exactly tell you what I think is best since I dont know how often you do this in other spots and how much your villains know you.

Imo, default here would be to check raise against one single opponent. This is a spot, though, where I would highly consider leading against multiple opponents since the pre flop raiser in the hand will be/should be less likely to c bet due to going against more opponents. Here though, we are against one player and if that player c bets often then I think it is best to check raise here and guarantee we get one bet from them. As others have said, this is a hand we can be confident in and be prepared to go with 80-100BBs deep but really dont want to see another diamond.

When we get raised on the flop then villain falls into a narrow range of Jx (JJ included which would be an is what it is hand), diamonds, or garbage. If you just call here (which is a mistake I make sometimes) then you are letting him off the hook easy so as played, good re raise by you. The garbage will fold and you may not get anything more anyway from those hands while the diamonds hands will check back the turn after a turn check by you. Even Jx may/should slow down a little on the turn so very good for you to make them pay for being aggressive against you. Just didnt work as really in many ways the worse card in the deck comes on the turn that completes a flush, leaves the river open for 4 to a flush (if we played the hand out differently) and is an ace which is a card usually when we dont have in these spots then likely hits our opponent's opening range in some way(which is good most of the time with 2 pair but horrible here).

 

[Andyreas]

Thank you for your feedback, guys. 🤗

Happy that you agree on my play here (for the most part). I have seen the same situation work out with the bottom pair just yesterday and seems I was just unlucky.

I was thinking about to just call his reraise and evaluate again on turn but if the card was different/scared him as well, I might have not gotten more value out of the hand.

@300HPGOD :
Good thinking! On BOL, the player pool is rather small, so I am usually taking notes on the regular players but haven't met this one before, so no proper read. I haven't seen him in many hands, as I remember, so I'd put him in the TAG category.

I don't donk too often. Only when I assume I'm in a fragile or very serious lead on flop and I'm afraid I get drawn out. Even if a check-raise would bring more value, I am afraid they check back and turn ruins it for me. 😅

Although I agree this case here was kinda different and he definitely would have c-bet with his TPTK. 🤔

 

[eetenor]

Thank you for your feedback, guys. 🤗

Happy that you agree on my play here (for the most part). I have seen the same situation work out with the bottom pair just yesterday and seems I was just unlucky.

I was thinking about to just call his reraise and evaluate again on turn but if the card was different/scared him as well, I might have not gotten more value out of the hand.

@300HPGOD :
Good thinking! On BOL, the player pool is rather small, so I am usually taking notes on the regular players but haven't met this one before, so no proper read. I haven't seen him in many hands, as I remember, so I'd put him in the TAG category.

I don't donk too often. Only when I assume I'm in a fragile or very serious lead on flop and I'm afraid I get drawn out. Even if a check-raise would bring more value, I am afraid they check back and turn ruins it for me. 😅

Although I agree this case here was kinda different and he definitely would have c-bet with his TPTK. 🤔

I did not address the lead earlier---while your point about Villains checking most of range is valid the part of their range they are checking is the least dangerous to us. They are betting draws pairs and AK most often so we can check here to check raise even vs this player type. We would lead on boards that they would check back pot control- fold to turn bets ---boards like 764 turn 8 etc


If we do check and it is checked back we can lead turn for pot or pot + as we are targeting the range that improved or was pot controlling vs this villain type- not the bottom of their range-