TT in 6-seater vs. block bet (?)

[ChuckTs]

TT in the BB:
I'd raised a few limped pots in the last few hands so I may have had a loose image, though I was playing tight hand selection as usual in the early/middle stages of these tourneys (though my opponents may think Im LAG at this point?).

Caller is fairly tight, and I think he might be getting sick of me raising, and wants to see a flop with his hand.

fulltiltpoker Game #1170804529: $20 + $2 Sit & Go (8030787), Table 1 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 13:52:16 ET - 2006/10/30
Seat 2: CaptainGibby (3,580)
Seat 3: Dave1948 (1,430)
Seat 4: Bluedice725 (1,790)
Seat 5: ChuckTs (1,615)
Seat 6: stonedonkey (585)
Bluedice725 posts the small blind of 25
ChuckTs posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ChuckTs [Tc Ts]
stonedonkey calls 50
CaptainGibby folds
Dave1948 folds
Bluedice725 calls 25
ChuckTs raises to 250
stonedonkey folds
Bluedice725 calls 200
*** FLOP *** [Jh 5h 3d]
Bluedice725 bets 550
ChuckTs ...

What to do, what to do?

 

[Lo-Dog]

You say he is fairly tight so he may have been trying to limp with a small PP. (weird its my large PP that makes me limp ) And as you said is sick of your raising and decided to call. Something like JK or trips is a possibility here.

Its seems he won't be letting go of this hand so I would most likely be folding here. Interested to know how it played out. He could be blocking you but how do you know? I hate this situation so this one will be helpful to me.

 

[gord962]

This is definitely a tough one. He could have overcards, larger PP, hit his J or even on a straight/flush draw with A-4s or A-2s. A re-raise here would basically put you all-in, and calling would be pointless IMO. That leaves your choices to either fold or push and I think I would personally lay this one down in this particular situation. Without the background or if he was LAG, I would push. It looks too much like a trap PF and I think he has a high PP.If I have paid full attention to Chuck's posts and his tedancies, I would say that I see a push here from our hero

 

[F Paulsson]

Given the stacksizes and that the pot is ~1k after his bet on the flop, you're effectively committing the rest of your stack - and therefore the rest of the SnG - on your decision here. The sucky part about this situation is that even if he's just sick and tired of you and leading out with K-5o he still has outs, whereas if you're behind, you hardly do.

However, it's worth pointing out that if you're gut-feeling of him being sick and tired of you raising him is right, then he should be much more inclined to checkraise with top pair than betting the pot, shouldn't he? I'll add something else to gord's range: He could well have lower pocket pairs, too.

What would I do? I'd roll my "Yes/No/Maybe" die that Tenbob sent me and cross my fingers.

 

[blankoblanco]

I run into these situations constantly. It really is tough. It's just got to come down to your read and how comfortable you are with it. More often than not, barring uber confidence in a read suggesting otherwise, I'll lay this down. Like FP said, even if you have the best hand, it's nearly certain that villain has a decent number of outs, whereas if you're wrong and behind you're practically dead. I'm confident enough in my playing ability that I usually can fold this feeling that I can find better chances to accumulate chips later on without taking such a risk of already being dead.

 

[ChuckTs]

Nice analyses guys

First off, I had a gut feeling this was just a "PLZ FOLD" bet, and I pushed. I agree with you guys that this cannot be a call; it has to be push or fold. If he's drawing, then I have to make him pay to do so. The thing that I realized was wrong with a push, though, (and as FP mentioned) is that he'll still have lots of outs with say QKh (hed be the favourite) or even AK. With 1 over and a flush draw it's still only a coinflip. As it turned out, my opponent held AK with the backdoor nut flush draw, and called my push:

FullTiltPoker Game #1170804529: $20 + $2 Sit & Go (8030787), Table 1 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 13:52:16 ET - 2006/10/30
Seat 2: CaptainGibby (3,580)
Seat 3: Dave1948 (1,430)
Seat 4: Bluedice725 (1,790)
Seat 5: ChuckTs (1,615)
Seat 6: stonedonkey (585)
Bluedice725 posts the small blind of 25
ChuckTs posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ChuckTs [Tc Ts]
stonedonkey calls 50
CaptainGibby folds
Dave1948 folds
Bluedice725 calls 25
ChuckTs raises to 250
stonedonkey folds
Bluedice725 calls 200
*** FLOP *** [Jh 5h 3d]
Bluedice725 bets 550
ChuckTs raises to 1,365, and is all in
Bluedice725 calls 815
ChuckTs shows [Tc Ts]
Bluedice725 shows [Ks Ah]
*** TURN *** [Jh 5h 3d] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [Jh 5h 3d 3s] [2c]
ChuckTs shows two pair, Tens and Threes
Bluedice725 shows a pair of Threes
ChuckTs wins the pot (3,280) with two pair, Tens and Threes
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,280 | Rake 0
Board: [Jh 5h 3d 3s 2c]
Seat 2: CaptainGibby didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Dave1948 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Bluedice725 (small blind) showed [Ks Ah] and lost with a pair of Threes
Seat 5: ChuckTs (big blind) showed [Tc Ts] and won (3,280) with two pair, Tens and Threes
Seat 6: stonedonkey folded before the Flop

I won the hand, but it was a very risky one; I could easily have busted with something as measly as QJ with a bad read.

I put him on 99 and under or just two big cards trying to push me out. A flush draw also crossed my mind. I really didn't think he held the jack though, which is why I pushed.

Dorkus recently analyzed my PT stats, and let me know that I'm actually losing with my one-pair hands. I think that one of the reasons for this is situations like the above; my reads are right, but I don't realize that I actually might not be the favourite in a hand, or I might be putting my whole tourney life on a coinflip which I HATE to do. Not only that, but when I win hands like this it makes me think that my play was proper; my read was right that I was ahead, I pushed, and won. Though maybe I'm thinking a fold might have been better here? :/

Another thing I think I should add that always factors into my decisions is maintaining my table image. I always set a SUPER tight image in the first few blind levels, and then I start to steal blinds and pots when the blinds are big enough to be significant and worth stealing. When I make a 5BB raise like this, and then fold to a bet, I feel like it ruins my image and it'll make my game 10X harder in the later stages with a smaller stack and a looser table image.

 

[t1riel]

Limping in with AK?!!! What was this donk thinking? I can see how you can have the advantage by slowplaying AK.

 

[hypnotx]

OK. Newbie question here:

Limping in with AK?!!! What was this donk thinking?

I limp with AK every once in a while. Not every time it is available to me but I do it from time to time if I am early and I think I will get a raise or a couple of callers behind me. I want to re-raise and get heads up. So far I have been pretty good about sniffing out when this is going to work but every once in a while it dosn't and every one checks around. If I miss the flop I let it go as I cant cont. bet because I didn't raise up front.

My question is this: Is this considered a bad play?

btw: if this is a thread hijack I apologize just wanted to know if I am making a play that does not make sense. thx.

 

[blankoblanco]

Limping with AK isn't always a bad play... you'll see pros do it on high stakes poker now and then. The way you describe it can be a profitable play and make it hard to put you on that hand. However in this case at a shorthanded table in the small blind when one player has called, I think it's usually a bad play.

 

[Dingodaddy23]

good read... i probably would have folded because, as FP said, the whole SNG basically comes down to this decision, i mean its not like you are pot committed, you still have a workable stack to play with