$1.50 NLHE STT: Defending the big blind with weak draws, play aggressively or passively?

[EnigmaTTO]

$1.50 NLHE STT: Defending the big blind with weak draws, play aggressively or passively?

Ran into this spot in a microstakes SnG today and wasn't sure if I played this right. Firstly, I'm never really completely sure how wide I should be calling when defending my big blind unless I actually look at some kind of chart, but I figured could call with the plan of folding unless I connected since it was a min-raise from the button.

At the flop, I'm thinking that I may have bet too small and that if I'm going to bet out like this I should probably bet bigger. Should I just be checking here and calling most reasonable sized bets? check-raising even?

At the turn, I'm wondering if I gave up too easily. I didn't feel like my bottom pair was really worth considering and felt like I'd rather preserve my stack than hope I hit my draw. Should I be calling here since I technically have the 2 extra outs to hit a set?

Thanks

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker Tracking Software

NL Holdem $1.50+$0.15 (80.00BB)
UTG ($2840) [VPIP: 44.2% | PFR: 1.3% | AGG: 19.6% | hands: 77]
EP ($2519) [VPIP: 20.7% | PFR: 19.5% | AGG: 35.3% | Hands: 87]
MP ($1674) [VPIP: 24.8% | PFR: 19.3% | AGG: 35.3% | Hands: 111]
HJ ($964) [VPIP: 19.8% | PFR: 12.8% | AGG: 19.2% | Hands: 192]
CO ($1467) [VPIP: 17.1% | PFR: 8.5% | AGG: 34.5% | Hands: 129]
BTN ($4486) [VPIP: 24.5% | PFR: 20.6% | AGG: 41.9% | Flop Agg: 56.3% | Turn Agg: 30% | 3-Bet: 0% | 4-Bet: 50% | Hands: 107]
SB ($2036) [VPIP: 11.4% | PFR: 10.8% | AGG: 23.3% | Hands: 168]
HERO ($2014) [VPIP: 28.1% | PFR: 17.2% | AGG: 30% | Flop Agg: 37.7% | Turn Agg: 26.7% | 3-Bet: 6.2% | 4-Bet: 14.8% | Cold Call: 14.1% | Hands: 14079]

Dealt to Hero: 2♣ 9♣

UTG Folds, EP Folds, MP Folds, HJ Folds, CO Folds, BTN Raises To $168, SB Folds, HERO Calls $80

Hero SPR on Flop: [4.35 effective]
Flop ($424): J♣ 6♣ 2♠
HERO Bets $200 (Rem. Stack: $1646), BTN Raises To $640 (Rem. Stack: $3678), HERO Calls $440 (Rem. Stack: $1206)

Turn ($1704): J♣ 6♣ 2♠ 4♥
HERO Checks, BTN Bets $652 (Rem. Stack: $3026), HERO Folds

Spoiler

BTN wins: $1704

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
I think, its fine to defend any suited hand against a min-raise from BTN. Maybe against a tight player you can fold the absolutely worst ones like this, but its no big deal either way.

Flop
I dont hate your donk bet, but I would go for a check-raise instead. I think, people tend to over C-bet, especially in a situation like this BTN vs. BB, and the best way to exploit that is to let him put out his C-bet and then apply pressure with a check-raise. This also allow you to continue your story by jamming all turns, and your hand is strong enough to call it off, if he 3-bet jams on you. As played I like just calling, when he raise. At this point I dont think, you have any fold equity, so if you jam now, you are just getting it in flipping or behind.

Turn
This fold is way to nitty. He is giving you 4:1, so you are basically getting direct odds to draw. Even hitting a 9 or 2 will often give you the best hand, so you have up to 14 outs, and you cant fold for this price.

 

[EnigmaTTO]

Oof yea, definitely didn't count my outs for the 9. Fold on the turn definitely feels way too nitty now. Rookie mistake I guess...

 

[Coinuss]

I see your 3-bet stat is 6.2% but he has 50% 4-bet.
I like bluff 3-bet 2.5x preflop and fold after 2.5-3x 4-bet, or C-bet 2/3 pot and call his allin with weak A high or K high.

 

[fundiver199]

I see your 3-bet stat is 6.2% but he has 50% 4-bet.

You need way more than 107 hands, before you can begin to look at a stat like 4-bet. That 50% is most likely 1 out of 2, so it only tells us, that he does sometimes 4-bet, which is hardly a big surprice. His 3-bet is also zero, so there is nothing to really indicate, that this player is out of line preflop.

The only thing, I read from these data, is, that we are dealing with a reasonably good player. He has a small gap between VPIP and PFR, and the numbers are a bit on the high site for full ring. So either he is more of a LAG type of player, or we have played shorthanded with him, or he was running card hot over 107 hands. All in all this is someone, I would take completely standard lines against, since we really dont have enough information to do anything else.

 

[fundiver199]

Oof yea, definitely didn't count my outs for the 9. Fold on the turn definitely feels way too nitty now. Rookie mistake I guess...

Yeah I guess so. He can also have some bluffs in his range like AX of clubs, KX of clubs, QX of clubs, and you actually beat those hands. So having that bottom pair makes your hand a lot stronger than, if you had for instance 87 of clubs, which would just be a naked flushdraw. Pot was around 1.700 on the turn, and you had around 1.200 left. For this price even if he had moved you all in, the best decision would still have been to call. This was still very early in the SnG, and at this stage its completely fine to gamble it up a bit and try to build a big stack.

 

[eetenor]

Ran into this spot in a microstakes SnG today and wasn't sure if I played this right. Firstly, I'm never really completely sure how wide I should be calling when defending my big blind unless I actually look at some kind of chart, but I figured could call with the plan of folding unless I connected since it was a min-raise from the button.

At the flop, I'm thinking that I may have bet too small and that if I'm going to bet out like this I should probably bet bigger. Should I just be checking here and calling most reasonable sized bets? check-raising even?

At the turn, I'm wondering if I gave up too easily. I didn't feel like my bottom pair was really worth considering and felt like I'd rather preserve my stack than hope I hit my draw. Should I be calling here since I technically have the 2 extra outs to hit a set?

Thanks

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker Tracking Software

NL Holdem $1.50+$0.15 (80.00BB)
UTG ($2840) [VPIP: 44.2% | PFR: 1.3% | AGG: 19.6% | Hands: 77]
EP ($2519) [VPIP: 20.7% | PFR: 19.5% | AGG: 35.3% | Hands: 87]
MP ($1674) [VPIP: 24.8% | PFR: 19.3% | AGG: 35.3% | Hands: 111]
HJ ($964) [VPIP: 19.8% | PFR: 12.8% | AGG: 19.2% | Hands: 192]
CO ($1467) [VPIP: 17.1% | PFR: 8.5% | AGG: 34.5% | Hands: 129]
BTN ($4486) [VPIP: 24.5% | PFR: 20.6% | AGG: 41.9% | Flop Agg: 56.3% | Turn Agg: 30% | 3-Bet: 0% | 4-Bet: 50% | Hands: 107]
SB ($2036) [VPIP: 11.4% | PFR: 10.8% | AGG: 23.3% | Hands: 168]
HERO ($2014) [VPIP: 28.1% | PFR: 17.2% | AGG: 30% | Flop Agg: 37.7% | Turn Agg: 26.7% | 3-Bet: 6.2% | 4-Bet: 14.8% | Cold Call: 14.1% | Hands: 14079]

Dealt to Hero: 2♣ 9♣

UTG Folds, EP Folds, MP Folds, HJ Folds, CO Folds, BTN Raises To $168, SB Folds, HERO Calls $80

Hero SPR on Flop: [4.35 effective]
Flop ($424): J♣ 6♣ 2♠
HERO Bets $200 (Rem. Stack: $1646), BTN Raises To $640 (Rem. Stack: $3678), HERO Calls $440 (Rem. Stack: $1206)

Turn ($1704): J♣ 6♣ 2♠ 4♥
HERO Checks, BTN Bets $652 (Rem. Stack: $3026), HERO Folds

Spoiler

BTN wins: $1704

Thank U 4 Posting.

GTO says the 92 is a call.
How close to GTO is the button playing?
Our V may be bluffing here?? Not likely in microstakes which means our V is not playing GTO button ranges which means we are not calling GTO BB ranges.
We can often fold 92s 83s hands versus tighter than GTO ranges.
74s has 3% more equity vs AA than 92s so limiting your calls to possible straight combos is a good idea for your range.
Especially when we are not sure what the highest equity play post flop is.

When we hit pair plus flush draw what was your 3 street plan when you lead versus this villain?

If we were going to play our hand as see the turn and decide which you did then we should not be leading. So we have to have a better plan when we lead bet. All we did in this spot is make it a larger chunk of our stack to see the turn.

If you use the cardschat odds calculator and give the V a pair -AJ AA etc it is 50% equity for you on the flop.
That means if we lead and get raised we should stack off with this hand. If we know we can stack off versus a large part of the V's range then we could check shove this flop more often than bet shove it as we get the added benefit of some folds versus a lot of floating for pot control.
We have 0 reason to not want a check back on this flop as well so the lead loses that advantage over checking and calling or check raising all-in.

You may be concerned about the all-in check raise size but we should have some 2x pot shoves in our game. Versus micro players especially who would trap call sets here and raise single pairs and flush draws and overs more often.

Also the V has more bluffs in their C-bet range than their raise the lead range so you are keeping the V's range wider when you check raise.

We also want to be more aware of our stack size here when we lead for 200 we have 1740 left and have to call 440 that is 25% of our stack. That is the shove or fold line -very few calls- in a tournament sub 30BB stack size.

Hope this helps

 

[eetenor]

Quick note -if you fold then there is no spoiler unless V showed their hand or you got to see the river card somehow.
Have a great day