$Freeroll NLHE MTT Turbo: MoneyMaker Freeroll, Bad beat or Donk Jam?

[BlackThunder]

Stacks are shallow in the MoneyMaker freeroll Turbo on ACR. I have 18.54 bb and am 27 of 62 in the 8 max tournament. The action folds to me and I have in the cutoff. I raise it to 2 bb, the button folds (there was no small blind at the table) and bb calls with a 51.89 bb stack.

The flop comes and bb checks. I check it back.
(I checked because I don't have the or to block my opponents flush draw and I figure the smaller cards are better for my opponents range than mine.)

The turn comes an Ace of Diamonds. bb checks and I bet 2.75 bb into a 5 bb pot. bb raises to 9.36 bb and I jam all in.
(I bet because I think I have the best hand with top pair and good kicker, I want to charge my opponent if they have a straight or flush draw on this board. When My opponent raises on this draw heavy board I think they usually have a draw so when I jam all in over their raise I usually have the best hand.)

bb reveals and the river comes an so I get stacked.

Usually in these freerolls people do like to rip it all in but on the other hand usually people who have made it that deep are playing better poker. Any guidance or another perspective on this hand would be greatly appreciated. I think I played the hand OK and it was just a bad beat but if it's not the conclusion you come to please let me know why so I can learn about where I went wrong in this spot. Thanks!

 

[fundiver199]

With an SPR of just a little over 3, I am totally happy to stack off TPTK on the turn, when no draws have yet completed. Sometimes we are going to run into a set or two pair, but it just is, what it is. You had outs as well. Any K, 9 or 8 on the river, and you would have scooped the pot.

 

[300HPGOD]

With 18 BBs and AK I would just rip it all in there. There is not a lot of maneuverability post flop with that short of stack and when you min raise here you are pretty sure you are going to get called in at least one spot. Then if you dont flop anything you have to play a guessing game because the board will have lower cards (since you didnt hit your A or K) and BB is the one to most likely call and their range is wide. Jamming is better and you might get called by hands you are beating up and the times they do wake up with a pair (as long as its not AA or KK which you block) you are not in that bad of shape.

As played I would have played it exactly as you did. I think checking that flop is correct since BB has the range advantage and also will usually check to the raiser so their check there means nothing. On the turn I would definitely bet as you did when we get top pair and would go with it as you did. Plenty of worse aces could be doing this (although 3 of those worse aces are now 2 pair). If this were deeper then you can find a fold in these spots depending on the villain but starting the hand with 18 BBs and having AK we should be looking to get it in if we hit a pair if we didnt jam it pre to begin with.

 

[Badday94]

I don't know know if it's the right move, but I would have done the same as you did. You just can't fold top pair with top kicker with your stack so low. You jam and hope for the best

 

[eetenor]

Stacks are shallow in the MoneyMaker freeroll Turbo on ACR. I have 18.54 bb and am 27 of 62 in the 8 max tournament. The action folds to me and I have in the cutoff. I raise it to 2 bb, the button folds (there was no small blind at the table) and bb calls with a 51.89 bb stack.

The flop comes and bb checks. I check it back.
(I checked because I don't have the or to block my opponents flush draw and I figure the smaller cards are better for my opponents range than mine.)

The turn comes an Ace of Diamonds. bb checks and I bet 2.75 bb into a 5 bb pot. bb raises to 9.36 bb and I jam all in.
(I bet because I think I have the best hand with top pair and good kicker, I want to charge my opponent if they have a straight or flush draw on this board. When My opponent raises on this draw heavy board I think they usually have a draw so when I jam all in over their raise I usually have the best hand.)

bb reveals and the river comes an so I get stacked.

Usually in these freerolls people do like to rip it all in but on the other hand usually people who have made it that deep are playing better poker. Any guidance or another perspective on this hand would be greatly appreciated. I think I played the hand OK and it was just a bad beat but if it's not the conclusion you come to please let me know why so I can learn about where I went wrong in this spot. Thanks!

Thank you for posting.

The type of tournament this is requires you not jam the turn. As you are trying to get points and 1st pays only 1 point more than 2nd etc we do not have to stack off when V shows agg on our card on the turn. We score 73 points if we finish 27 but only 38 to finish now.

Why try to get thin value on that board in this type of tournie? The big stack is never folding draws for that sizing and we cannot call a river lead after we bet turn if called-on any heart on a 5 T J Q 8 9 7 and as we saw V was already ahead with A3 or A8 or A9 or 89 or 88 or 99 or 33.

As to what you are being raised by in this spot.
We can never know for sure but we must play the odds based on satty math not regular tournie math.

So what are the odds that a V in a freeroll satty with a final table size stack already is turning a low equity hand into a bluff here?
Good players know not to (satty math) - bad players do not have the skill set and fear doing it.. So what is the check raise - 90% value 95%? It is a check raise on an A that we bet after our check on flop says we should have an ace and the bet is so small vs V SPR it is an easy call with even just a pair for V to try to hit 2 pair while protecting their stack for chances to score big points in this satty. Losing 18bb here is terrible for the big stack -so by satty math they should have 2 pair min to check raise here.

Also they did not check raise jam they 3x your bet when a 3x your bet bluff is just risking valuable satty chips and a thin value 3x raise makes 0 sense. Every piece of data regarding this action by V screams your AK is behind. It is true the V could be out of line but think about this if the V has AhXh they still have 27% to knock us out and cost us valuable points but why would they check raise it? Why would they check raise any Ax no pair when it reopens the betting and apparently even good players would incorrectly jam here in your spot. (satty math=no turn bet= no rejam)

If we are 27 of 62 with 18bb there is going to be a lot of players busting giving us free points. 5 scores of 60 points might get us in to the finals- 40th place pays 60. 62 pays 38 points - it is a score we need to dump to get our average score up to qualify it is not ok to lose here. Sure if you are 58-62 get all-in but not 27th.

In this hybrid satty tourny we need to survive longer not just go for the win as first pays so much less than normal and 20th is so valuable to us.

So no do not shove pre -do not bet turn- thin value river small or check or call V small lead -board dependent.

Hope this helps

 

[Sidetracked]

The important thing in this hand is the very small Stack to Pot Ratio. Top pair top kicker is plenty to get it in on that turn.

You got unlucky, but I think your play was correct.