$2,2 NL HE MTT: how to play correctly this hand postflop?

[iwont20]

Game

Hold'em

Game Format

No Limit

Table Format

MTT

Buy-in

2,2

Currency

$

pokerstars, $1.96 + $0.24 - Hold'em No Limit - 30/60 (7 ante) - 7 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG (Hero): 2,859 (48 bb)
MP: 2,319 (39 bb)
MP+1: 3,804 (63 bb)
CO: 3,420 (57 bb)
BU: 2,578 (43 bb)
SB: 2,919 (49 bb)
BB: 3,003 (50 bb)

Pre-Flop: (139) Hero is UTG with 9♥ 7♥
Hero raises to 135, 1 fold, MP+1 calls 135, 2 players fold, SB calls 105, BB calls 75

Flop: (589) 8♥ J♦ T♥ (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets 390, 2 players fold, BB calls 390

Turn: (1,369) 6♠ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 1,020, BB calls 1,020

River: (3,409) 9♦ (2 players)
BB bets 1,451 (all-in)

The new table and I played with no stats, so no any additional info.

What should I do on the river and on other streets too, if there are suggestions.

Preflop is fine

Thanks

 

[300HPGOD]

Pre: We are really UTG +2 if we were at a 9 handed table so im folding 97 suited against a readless opponents. If they were bad players and I knew that or we were much deeper than 48 BBs effective than a better case can be made for opening but here I fold with what we are working with. Is it truly terrible to open, no, but I think folding is better in this spot.

Flop: We flop the straight and the straight flush gutter but we do not have the nut straight here. That does not deter me from betting but that is something that I think we should keep in our mind since we do not know at this point how tight or loose our opponents are. I think your sizing is too big for going against unknowns but you are against 3 opponents on a wet board so I think in the end the sizing is fine. I just would want to know here what kind of villains I am dealing with. If I knew they were sticky post then this is a great sizing or you could go bigger but we dont know that. All in all I think it should be a little smaller readless but not that much smaller that I think this is a mistake.

Turn: 6 is a good card since it changes nothing. We got one caller going big flop so you dont have to go big to get villain to draw against the odds but I like going big. I think in game I would detune it a bit from you what you did seeing villains stack remaining is 2400 ish. Although they may be bad enough to call turn with a draw and then fold river when missed but again we know nothing about them. I think I would have gone more like 700 or 750 which is bigger than I normally would go here but feel like if they called flop then they might also call turn. We do have to be thinking here what would they be calling the turn with for almost half their remaining stack? Seems like Q9 should just be shoving, draws should be folding and two pair type hands should probably be going as well so I would be confused here in game when they just call for 1020 when that only leaves them 1451 behind. I would be weary something is going on but the board is too wet from them to slowplay imo.

River: This is where it would be nice to have a read on the opponent and one of the reasons why I would have folded pre just because if I get into these river spots I know nothing about their calling or bluffing frequency. This could be a bluff due to the scare card (although bluffing this amount of the pot seems like a losing move by villain in the long run). I think your sizing on flop and turn commits you here and I would call but I would not be fist pumping by any means. Hate this spot and I think its one with our holding and knowing we were readless going into the hand that we could have avoided.

 

[rhoudini]

On the flop you can bet smaller, because it is against the big blind, he has so many hands that will fold against a small bet. Remember, in your range you also have hands that did not hit the flop, like AK, AQ, etc. He will fold most part of the time.

On turn, any bet size between 60% to 70% seems good.

The river is simply the worst possible card for you in terms of your decision. It is not easy. Not necessarily because he got a higher straight (again, his range is large, so it is difficult to know). But micro stakes tend to be quite straight-forward. His BB defending range may be a lot reduced, because in general micro stakes players don't defend the blinds too much with hands like 82s, T4s, or 87o, for example.

Unless we have some read on the player that justifies calling, it is time to just muck the hand. For me, without information, I just see him on KQ, QJ, QT, Q8 (or even the more unlikely, but not impossible Q9). Any other queen does not make much sense. AQ is unlikely by how he played, but everything is possible in micro stakes.
Without information, we need to treat everybody at least as "ok" player. Would a "ok" player shove without a Q here? I don't think so.

A solver will say that BB should go all-in with a Q or with busted flush draws draws like K2hh to K6hh, Q6hh, 65hh, etc.
But micro is very different from a GTO play. Micro players are far from going all-in in this spot with 65s.

Therefore, I believe it is time to muck and play the short stack game, trying to recover later. Not much we can do beyond that.

 

[puzzlefish]

You're either playing against slowplayed nuts or someone that can't read the board properly. Sometimes you're just going to see someone come along with Q9s from BB for that price. Sometimes someone will keep drawing with KQ. But sometimes they will also have a set here or other x7 hands here that give them the dumbest end of the straight. Plus possibilities like busted flush draws also make sense to play this way.

I do not know how important the $2.2 buy-in is for you but if it's not a huge deal then I would be calling here because there are more bluffs and worse "made" hands here than there are that beat you, and especially from someone playing from BB. Sure, sometimes it will be some Qx. But there has to be a balance when calling it off here and it can't be a 100% fold.

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
This definitely has to be the bottom of your opening range with 6 players left to act behind. Personally I fold this hand, and if you open any wider than this, you are starting to spew.

Flop
Great flop obviously with a flopped straight and a redraw to the flush. As others have said its not the nut straight, and you are not drawing to the nut flush either. But even so this is a spot, where you need to be happy to stack off on most runouts. If someone coolered you with Q9, then so be it. I think, your sizing is fine here. Small bet sizes are for dry static boards, and this is the exact opposite.

Turn
This card changed nothing, and if the effective stack was deeper, I would like going for a large bet now. Maybe even an overbet. However you always need to think about pot geometry, and this bet only leaves you around 1.300 behind, which is only around a 35% pot sized bet on the river. This mean, you have essentially committed yourself without jamming, and you can never bluff the river. And for that reason you need to bet smaller. Maybe around 700, which leaves you 1.600 behind, and the pot will then only be 3.000, leaving you a half pot sized bet behind.

River
Obviously the worst possible card and action, since you now lose to any hand with a Q, and he donk shoves into you. Its a womit spot, but its only 1.300 to call to win a pot of 4.850, so you are getting amazing odds. And maybe he could once in a while have some bluffs like the busted flushdraw. Or be doing it with another 7, because he dont want to check-call, and he dont want to check-fold, so almost out of frustration he jams it in.

Also if you fold here you only have 1.300 chips left, and presumably the starting stack was 3.000. And while we should by no means throw away our last chips, it is not the most effective use of time to hang on early in an MTT with a crippled stack. So if the spot is close, you should lean towards calling, and if you then bust, you can either reenter or play another one.

Finally if you want to defend "correctly", a 7 is way to high in your range to fold getting such a great price. When he bet this small, you are only "allowed" to fold around 30% of the time, and your range definitely does not consist of 70% hands with a Q in them. One might say, that this does not matter in the micros. But in theory, if you fold even a 7 to this donk bet, he can profitably take any of his one or two pair hands and turn them into bluffs on the scary river.

 

[iwont20]

Wow, thank you all so much for your detailed answers! 😍🙏🙏

yes, I agree 97s is loose and is not in my normal range. I thought I can afford opening it on this table, but alas.

Obviously I didn't find a fold in me and called.

The result is not shocking:



Thanks, I wanted to know whether it was inevitable or my calling tendencies are lying to me.

Thank you for noting again about my lack of thought about "pot geometry". It's my weak point, I need to teach myself this and think ahead like you guys do.

I loaded HUD and surprisingly my overall stats on this player are 4/4 for 23 hands I don't know why he called this much then. But then again,stats were not in my hands while I was playing, so it doesn't matter I guess..

 

[georgi krastev]

I don't know why he called this much then.

Because it's a donk-fish...

About the hand: was played in typical your style...very aggressively... I like it!

(With I wouldn't open in a tournament from UTG, in a cash maybe yes...)

💓

 

[eetenor]

Wow, thank you all so much for your detailed answers! 😍🙏🙏

yes, I agree 97s is loose and is not in my normal range. I thought I can afford opening it on this table, but alas.

Obviously I didn't find a fold in me and called.

The result is not shocking:

View attachment 339905

Thanks, I wanted to know whether it was inevitable or my calling tendencies are lying to me.

Thank you for noting again about my lack of thought about "pot geometry". It's my weak point, I need to teach myself this and think ahead like you guys do.

I loaded HUD and surprisingly my overall stats on this player are 4/4 for 23 hands I don't know why he called this much then. But then again,stats were not in my hands while I was playing, so it doesn't matter I guess..

The V might have been playing like this vs you thinking you are making too many large bets with too much of your range. We always want to think about our ranges and image as well
Not that you are only that it is good to know you are not doing it by reflecting on our recent past play