$3.30 NLHE MTT Bounty: Playing top pair on a wet board at awkward stack size

[Satiivas]

Hi,
what is your preferred line in this spot? I felt really insecure with my TP at this stack depth against the BB on a board he should be smashing.

pokerstars, $2.94 + $0.36 - Hold'em No Limit - 800/1,600 (240 ante) - 9 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 34,530 (22 bb)
UTG+1: 16,219 (10 bb)
MP: 32,130 (20 bb)
MP+1 (Hero): 47,830 (30 bb)
LP: 55,934 (35 bb)
CO: 5,645 (4 bb)
BU: 53,298 (33 bb)
SB: 7,182 (4 bb)
BB: 30,061 (19 bb)

Pre-Flop: (4,560) Hero is MP+1 with K♥ T♥
3 players fold, Hero raises to 4,000, 4 players fold, BB calls 2,400

Flop: (10,960) 8♥ 7♣ T♣ (2 players)
BB checks, HERO???

 

[fundiver199]

The SPR in this hand was a little under 3, and normally I would be totally happy to stack off with top pair good kicker on the flop. But on this particular board texture, I am not thrilled about it, so I prefer to check back for pot control. And also to get more information about his hand. Right now he has just naturally checked to you, but if you check back flop, his turn action will help you narrow his range. Its also a situation, where you kind of want to see a safe turn card, because that will increase your equity against his range.

Some people go into kind of panic mode, when they see a board like this and want to bet "for protection". But thats a flawed way of thinking, because any decent draw is not going to fold, and those hands, that do fold, like small pocket pairs or small suited connectors, are drawing close to dead anyway. So betting this flop with KT does not accomplish all that much, and especially not if you go for a big sizing. Then you could go small, but that still reopen the betting, and its not a fun spot to be check-raised on a board as wet as this, when you only have top pair and a backdoor flushdraw.

 

[300HPGOD]

What do you know about villain this hand, are they good or not? That is a key question to me because villain has a shove stack here pre but they elected to just call. Is this because they do not know they have a shove stack or are they are god player that knows they have a shove stack but are on a strong hand that does not want you to fold. I would have that in mind going to the flop here. I will also say your sizing is as large as I would make it pre on this stack size. The sizing is fine dont get me wrong but I do think a little smaller is a little better and that little difference will affect sizing on every street as well.

As far as the hand goes I am not loving this flop but it does it hit us which we have to be somewhat happy about it. This is a hand already that I want to get to showdown somewhat cheaply if possible so we have to figure out the best way to do that. In my opinion since we are in position I like to bet the flop here to try to control the turn action from the OOP villain. I would bet something like 4500 here with the hope that villain just calls this bet and then checks the turn. My plan then would be checking the turn behind for pot control and then getting to the river for only one bet of 40% pot. You can certainly check behind on the flop but then I think you will see a lot of leads from villain that could vary in sizing and also not know where you are in the hand as the lead could be a bluff or a value bet. If Im betting the flop and get raised then its a little bit of a decision but I would lead towards fold since these middling cards kind of hit the defend range of villain (also depends on what I said earlier on whether I thought they were a good player or not).

 

[kkonicke]

I think check back here. This guy has a range advantage on you, as he's far more likely to hit this flop than you. I prefer to play for pot control here. This guy isn't going to fold a hand like 98 to a 1/3 sizing. Check and see one more card and then make decisions