$ NL HE MTT: When the villain hides the strength of his hand.

[Gritz18]

Game

Hold'em

Game Format

No Limit

Table Format

MTT

Freeroll

1. Freeroll

Currency

$

I didn't have information on the villain, but I wasn't too surprised, as I see many players here on Cardschat making this type of move, and especially limping or just calling with AA, KK from early position, it's a risk you take.

That hand took place today in the $200 888Poker Freeroll.

But in this specific hand would you play differently?

888Poker, Hold'em No Limit - 125/250 (25 ante) - 9 players
Replay this hand on CardsChat

UTG (Hero): 5,250 (21 bb)
UTG+1: 4,858 (19 bb)
MP: 2,798 (11 bb)
MP+1: 4,967 (20 bb)
LP: 1,400 (6 bb)
CO: 7,584 (30 bb)
BU: 23,224 (93 bb)
SB: 4,859 (19 bb)
BB: 1,221 (5 bb)

Pre-Flop: (600) Hero is UTG with A♥ J♥
Hero raises to 500, 4 players fold, CO calls 500, 3 players fold

Flop: (1,600) J♣ T♣ 5♠ (2 players)
Hero bets 800, CO raises to 2,400, Hero raises to 4,725 (all-in), CO calls 2,325

Turn: (11,050) 8♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (11,050) 5♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: 11,050

Showdown:
UTG (Hero) shows A♥ J♥ (two pair, Jacks and Fives)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 32%, Flop: 20%, Turn: 11%, River: 0%)

CO shows Q♦ Q♠ (two pair, Queens and Fives)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 68%, Flop: 80%, Turn: 89%, River: 100%)

CO wins 11,050

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
Standard open.

Flop
C-betting is fine, and you definitely cant fold TPTK to a raise, when you only started the hand with 21 BB. If you call, pot will be 6.400, and you will only have 2.325 left behind. This mean, you cant really fold later, regardless which cards come, but he can potentially check down a draw and get to see two more cards for free. So the only play, which makes sense here, is to go all-in.

Results
So he had QQ, and obviously that was a very good flop for him, since it allowed you to catch up to a strong but still second best hand. I dont hate his "trap" here, because both players in the blinds are short enough to rejam. The main reason, why I might not do this is his spot, is to avoid getting called by BTN and having to play out of position against him.

 

[puzzlefish]

Was this against me in the freeroll? It's a pretty standard type of cooler hand that just plays itself unless you know enough about your opponent to confidently lay down your top pair top kicker on the raise. (If it was me you were playing against then please fold to all of my raises )

 

[DegenerateSheep]

Is that a standard raise size there for the CO from a theory perspective? I would think most players jam their strong draws (I would) leaving this non-all in raise more valueheavy. If it is a standard raise size which he also does with draws, then it's a tough spot indeed

 

[300HPGOD]

You played this hand the exact way I would have played it (so maybe that means you're screwed). We start the hand with 21 BBs so when we flop TPTK Im not really looking to fold. The board is draw heavy so we could easily be facing some draws that would raise over us here that we are ahead of. Plus, depending on villain they might be looking to get it in 21 BBs effective with a hand like KJ or QJ so I would do as you did and jam. No reason to ever just call this and I guess there would be some villains (not many) that I would ponder folding here based in what I know about them but outside of those very select few this is just a go with 21 BBs to start.

On a side note I would like villains play more with KK or AA then I do with QQ as the queens can be vulnerable especially since your range to them should look like its skewed towards big cards. To me its risking too much to do this with QQ but it did work for them since the flop was all unders with a wet texture to make you even more prone to calling raises. Nothing you can in this spot other than to play properly which imo you did by jamming.

 

[fundiver199]

Is that a standard raise size there for the CO from a theory perspective?

I am not a solver guy, but I would assume, maybe there are no flop raises in GTO play, when you have position, and the effective stack size is only 20BB? So already the fact, he is raising, seem to be a bit out to lunch. It is probably skewed towards value. But the issue is, Hero beat some of that value like KJ or QJ. Which are more likely hands for him to have after just calling preflop than an overpair. Plus its a freeroll, so sometimes people will be doing things, that makes little sense. So I think, it all boils down to fundamentals. We have TPTK, and then we should be willing to stack off for at least 30 BB or even more. Maybe if the board is really terrible like JT9 all clubs, we can consider to get away. But on JT5 only two clubs, there are a ton of draws and only a few logical hands, that beat us, with QQ not even being one of them.