I played a MTT online recently and I'm just curious as to if I took the correct line here.
Stakes are 100/200

UTG limps and it folds around to me on the button.
I hold 87d and decide to raise with a pot sized bet plus 3bb in an attempt to get everyone to fold and I pick up an easy pot.

SB folds BB calls and the UTG limper folds.
Effective stack size is roughly 17K flop comes 8h9c8s
BB checks so I make a thin Value bet of 1/3 the pot.
BB then re-raise s me for all his chips.
Because of the passive action preflop with the BB flating my 2bet
I thought BB jammed with the top of his range something like 99+, AJ+,A8s+
I dismissed 9s from his range because he probably would have 3bet and if he did have 9s why would he check the flop?.. Maybe he saw me as an Agro who might Cbet a high % of flops.
Anyways I tank for a while a decide to call here because I beat a large % of hand in his range excepts for pocket 9s.
Bb shows Queens and I'm feeling good about my choice to call.
The Turn is 10c
Even better I think to myself he would need 1of four Jacks to beat me now.
River card was one of those jacks. Lol

My question is.
Did I do anything wrong?
My initial evaluation was that I was a bit to Agro with 87s and probably should have laid it down however I feel that's too tight playing on the BTN.
any help will be appreciated.
Thanks.

As played looks fine, folding trips button vs big blind is a huge no-no. Main critique is the pre-flop raise, what is a pot sized bet plus three big blinds? Sounds like 6+bb raise on the button which is too much IMO, no reason to exceed 4bb

Hey so it looks like you played the hand well and I like your range analysis of the button. If anything, I was a little confused by villain's jam with an overpair. I think the pre-flop bet was a bit too aggressive, but as you correctly deduced, villain flatted so generally means QQ+ or AK. It sounds like a bad beat on the river to be honest.

Originally Posted by rj_montana

As played looks fine, folding trips button vs big blind is a huge no-no. Main critique is the pre-flop raise, what is a pot sized bet plus three big blinds? Sounds like 6+bb raise on the button which is too much IMO, no reason to exceed 4bb

Thank you. Yes If remember correctly my pre flop raise was $1200. And after evaluation of my pre flop play I agree I bet too much. Sizing is what I need to work on.

I think your line and analysis were both good. As far as bet sizing goes, I'm gonna be contrarian and say that I like the amount. If your sole attempt was to take it down preflop, then a standard 3-4bb raise isn't going to get an UTG limper to fold. As it played out, opening for 6bb helped you define the range of the BB and you made a good call as a result. The cards just didn't fall your way.

It sounds goofy in poker to say not to be results oriented in poker. Results are kind of what matters. The preferred result is that we win the hand, take the pot and make money. Making money is the result strive for in poker. It's the prize and it's also how we keep score. So I'm not going to say not to be results oriented. But in poker, we look at results in the long term. In the short term, variance can kick you butt like it did in this hand. But if your opponents have to hit running cards to beat you, then you are making good decisions. And really, the best you can do is make good decisions and get your money in with the best of it. If you do, in the long term, the odds are going to hold up and you are going to achieve your desired results.

In this particular drawing, luck was not on your side.
But you were also let down by a too aggressive raise on the preflop, perhaps the opponent would have played 3 bet on a smaller bet and you would have dropped to the flop, without much loss, because the goal was to steal the blinds. Even more unlucky was the fact that you got trips on the flop and had to play to the end, unfortunately everything ended with a bad beat.

in situations when you get a bad beat, think about whether it was possible to avoid this draw of cards and remember such situations, because dispersio can do everything, of course the distance will return everything, but sometimes it is useful to play more carefully so that the crazy river does not decide your fate. Good luck!

Good play, and the raise against an opp limping his entire range is good imo. If you feel he's limp/calling with a ton of junk you'll win most c-bets and you've got good equity when he does decide to play.


I'm curious, would you have folded if he'd re--raised 2400 over your preflop raise?

Nope, sounds like you played it well. That wasn't too aggressive. I'm sure the sting of the loss is just making you question ever playing the hand. You just got unlucky.

The only thing out of the ordinary is the 6x BB raise. I understand you did flop trips so that by itself is wonders its just unfortunate you got beat by runner runner.

I myself have been beaten many times like that and always think why is it me that always get bad beats. Never can catch big break.

Well played IMHO.

Never change your good game as a result of a bad beat. Well played

I think you played just fine.