$.25 NLHE MTT Rebuy: Too big PF with KK?

[tzuriel]

Pretty deep in this tournament and I have been the chip leader for quite a while. I get KK in EP with the blinds at 150/300 and raise like 7.5 BB hoping some of the small stacks will shove and everyone folds. Did I raise too big?


NL Holdem $0.25+$0.02 (300.00BB)
HJ ($6505)
CO ($8970)
BTN ($17962)
SB ($6619)
BB ($7639)
HERO ($70606)
EP ($4890)
MP1 ($9105)
MP2 ($21938)

Dealt to Hero: K♥ K♣

HERO Raises To $2285, EP Folds, MP1 Folds, MP2 Folds, HJ Folds, CO Folds, BTN Folds, SB Folds, BB Folds

Spoiler

HERO wins: $1065

 

[fundiver199]

Unless your opponents are really bad, you should raise to the same size preflop with all the hands, you want to play. What you did is called staggered bet sizing, and apparently even in this 0,25$ event nobody fell for it. Which mean it was probably a bad idea

 

[tzuriel]

Unless your opponents are really bad, you should raise to the same size preflop with all the hands, you want to play. What you did is called staggered bet sizing, and apparently even in this 0,25$ event nobody fell for it. Which mean it was probably a bad idea

LOL. Nope. Nobody! Thanks for the advice. I just started doing that heading towards the FT of this .25 MTT and it's working better for sure!

 

[Collin Moshman]

There can be merit exploitively to make very large bets/raises with premium hands when stacks are deep. For example, shoving with AA early in a rebuy tourney or betting 3x pot with the nuts.

But in this spot, stacks are shallow. You seem to have a massive chip lead here which is great The effective stack with most of your opponents is only around 30bb though. So you're more likely to get action with a small raise, including both shoves as well as people who call and then commit to the flop with second-best hands.

 

[tzuriel]

There can be merit exploitively to make very large bets/raises with premium hands when stacks are deep. For example, shoving with AA early in a rebuy tourney or betting 3x pot with the nuts.

But in this spot, stacks are shallow. You seem to have a massive chip lead here which is great The effective stack with most of your opponents is only around 30bb though. So you're more likely to get action with a small raise, including both shoves as well as people who call and then commit to the flop with second-best hands.

Thanks for taking the time to comment Collin! Almost as soon as I bet, I realized I might have made the wrong decision. But I ended up on the final table in this one going out in 6th on a 44%/56% flip and that was my biggest cash yet so I was pretty pleased overall with my play.

 

[Sidetracked]

Given all the stack sizes, I think a standard 2.5 or 3X open would have been better.

 

[fundiver199]

But in this spot, stacks are shallow. You seem to have a massive chip lead here which is great The effective stack with most of your opponents is only around 30bb though. So you're more likely to get action with a small raise, including both shoves as well as people who call and then commit to the flop with second-best hands.

Also with 30BB its very easy to get stacks in postflop, so there is no need for using a very large size preflop to build the pot.

 

[kkonicke]

When stacks are this depth, I usually go with either the 2.2 or 2.5 BB button all dependent on the players. I think in a $0.25 tournament, i'd be inclined to go 2.5 with the bigger hand. As another player noted above, you really only want to raise as large as you did if table trends indicate the exploitative play might pay off. If someone is going to call or raise with AJ off anyways, well then yeah you might as well get more money in preflop with a 2 to 1 edge.

 

[tzuriel]

All good guidance!