$1.10 NLHE MTT: Big $1.10 - Bluff catching late in MTT

[andrestc]

https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/524KHWrCs
Villan is 24/5/0 3bet over 40 hands

This is pretty deep in the tournament, probably last 50 (3.2k entrants)
I was one of the chip leaders and was trying to apply a lot of pressure
The hand is a bit weird right now. During the play it felt like my decisions make sense but trying to think about them now and I might have played this terribly bad. Specially since villan looks to be very weak passive (at least preflop)
Preflop:

• Raised to isolate the shortstack limper

Flop:

• We have a strong hand that needs some protection
• Decided to cbet, small

Turn

• I was cbetting lots of pots and taking down some pots
• Decided to check/call but started feeling bad

River:

• River did not change a thing in the hand
• I spent quite some time in the time bank on the river decision
• Decided to call as villan might have lots of busted FDs and SDs

 

[300HPGOD]

I think you played this hand very well. Raising pre flop is the right decision, maybe like going a bit bigger there but I think your sizing is more than fine. Sizing on the flop is good imo. I disagree on the turn as I am probably leading there but I dont know if that is a mistake on my part. I generally bet when I am not sure what I should be doing and sometimes I pay the price for it but I also dont hate check calling as you did. The river is tough. When I went through that hand myself on the replayer I was on on the fold side of things. You made what turned out to be a very good call and as you wrote in your post some of the bluffs that villain could have there which is what they wound up having. Well played

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
I definitely want to raise larger here to isolate the limper or simply pick it up. When you only go to 3BB, you invite a cascade of callers.

Flop
It is a multiway pot, which makes it more likely, someone might have hit trips. So even though its not the worst board for 99, you still have a fairly marginal made hand, which is only good for 1-2 streets of value. Its sort of fine to bet for protection, but the issue is, you are not really happy, if the guy behind you gives action. And when you are not happy to get action, then you are essentially already bluffing. So I might actually slightly prefer a check here and hope, he checks back.

Turn
Now there is another overcard to your pair, and while its now heads up, I am not thrilled about this spot at all. You are out of position with essentially third pair, and you only have 2 improvement cards. I honestly think, I just check-fold now, because even when he has a draw, he still have loads of equity.

River
The river did brick out, which is good, and you are also getting a decent price needing to be good only around 25% of the time, plus a little extra for ICM reasons. But I am not so sure, this kind of passive player is bluffing more than 25% of the time. Sure he can have some busted draws, but your hand has pretty bad removal. You block a lot of the gutshot draws, and you also block some of the flushdraw combos as well. So this is not really the ideal combo to call with, and if you call with this one, you are almost certainly overcalling in a spot, where the micro stakes poplulation is underbluffing.

Conclusion
I actually love, that you shared this hand, even you won it. So many people get results oriented and think, they played well, when they ended up winning and poorly, when they ended up losing. And in this one I think, you got to sticky and invested way to many chips with a marginal hand. You were pretty lucky in my opinion not only, that he bricked on all his outs, but also to get shown a bluff on the end.

 

[Collin Moshman]

I agree with Fundiver that it's a refreshing change of pace to see someone post a hand like this where the call turned out to be correct!

I like the flop bet for value/protection. At the turn/river, he's mainly just repping a T (less likely with two on board) or a J that would be kind of random after he calls flop. So great calldown here.

 

[andrestc]

Thanks for the comments. Yeah, after the hand finished I was quite happy with my call but when I reviewed my play afterwards I was not so sure.

One thing I remember was that some of my actions were taken due to the table dynamics. I was the CL and was cbetting a lot and felt like villan was starting to get annoyed and trying to fight back. I think this was the main reason I called this down.

 

[jaworek1405]

Hello, I agree in the large part with guys. I also think that you as a chipleader you can isolate pre flop more, for me 4x looks good. On the flop against two opponents is more possible is that somebody will have Tx, even so I think that we should bet one time on the flop for value and I prefer bet for at least 67%, because on the flop is draw to flush and I don't to give them cheaply to see the turn card. The turn and river card - if you have read that your opponent is a little nervous, I think that in this situation we can risk with this pocket 99 and call the turn card and later river card. This time you had good read and you won. NH, GL

 

[fundiver199]

One thing I remember was that some of my actions were taken due to the table dynamics. I was the CL and was cbetting a lot and felt like villan was starting to get annoyed and trying to fight back. I think this was the main reason I called this down.

And thats totally fine actually. There is nothing wrong with being a bit of a feel based player, and this time your feel was obviously correct