Should I have called this hand?

[skull89]

Fold is the best otion here, but call is fair too. 4-bet would be a mistake, because you would be pot commited in a hand with too much players paying the preflop bets.

 

[alipalip]

Call to set mine - not terrible but as already pointed out you could hit a T and still not have the best hand based on the pre-flop action if there is any AKQJ on the board. Also, crucially, the original raiser is still to act and may decide to jam with AA or KK!

 

[AtiFCOD]

I just returned from my first experience playing a WSOP Circuit Event at Cherokee. I played for Team CardsChat in the $500K guaranteed event on Saturday. I managed to last for almost 12 levels and was doing really good until I made a minor mistake and compounded it with a massive mistake - all in the same hand.

But that is not the hand that bothers me the most. I know I screwed up on it, so I'm over it. But a hand that was a lot earlier is the one that I still think about. I will set the scenario, and then you guys tell me what you would have done.

Second level, 75/150. My starting stack was 10k chips, and I'm down to about 9000 after my JJ lost to a 4-5 who hit a straight on the river. 10 players on the table. For this hand, I am the dealer.

UTG - raises to 300
UTG+1 - raises to 900
UTG+2 -folds
UTG+3 - calls
UTG+4 - calls
UTG+5 - folds
UTG+6 - folds
Dealer (me) - looks at my cards and sees 10-10.

So to sum it up, when it got to me, there had been a raise and a re-raise and two calls, and there were still 3 more people to act - the SB, BB and original raiser.

What would you have done?

It's a fold, unless you think the 3-bet guy is a light 3-bet guy...but it's 90% fold preflop IMO.

 

[thefwa]

I just returned from my first experience playing a WSOP Circuit Event at Cherokee. I played for Team CardsChat in the $500K guaranteed event on Saturday. I managed to last for almost 12 levels and was doing really good until I made a minor mistake and compounded it with a massive mistake - all in the same hand.

But that is not the hand that bothers me the most. I know I screwed up on it, so I'm over it. But a hand that was a lot earlier is the one that I still think about. I will set the scenario, and then you guys tell me what you would have done.

Second level, 75/150. My starting stack was 10k chips, and I'm down to about 9000 after my JJ lost to a 4-5 who hit a straight on the river. 10 players on the table. For this hand, I am the dealer.

UTG - raises to 300
UTG+1 - raises to 900
UTG+2 -folds
UTG+3 - calls
UTG+4 - calls
UTG+5 - folds
UTG+6 - folds
Dealer (me) - looks at my cards and sees 10-10.

So to sum it up, when it got to me, there had been a raise and a re-raise and two calls, and there were still 3 more people to act - the SB, BB and original raiser.

What would you have done?

I would have definitely called and seen a flop, at the blinds so low and the pot so bloated, I think you're giving yourself a good chance to set mine, if the flop comes all low cards (or cards that are good for you), I think I'd call at least one street (if he makes it cheap enough) to see if he bets again on any low card turn, if he does, odds are he has an over pair higher than yours in most cases (there are some people that just want to bet-bet-bet with air though) and you can comfortably fold.

If you call pre the board comes all high cards with no T, that makes it even easier of a fold and you can just get out of the way and not risk too too much of your stack.

At level 2 of the tourney there are a lot of people making plenty of mistakes and I would urge you to capitalize on playing more hands that play/flop decently well in position against these players.

 

[Tredine]

Yeah definitely a lot of good responses in here.

I like that so many people have the discipline to fold here. We're 60bbs deep so I understand why many would just flat and set mine. But you're right that you need to consider villains behind you who could potentially squeeze you out.

Given the many comments about the specific ranges the UTG and UTG+1 players could have, we could end up in trouble if we see a flop with community cards all under T.

I guess for me, I'm not sure if I'm a good enough player to be able to fold on a 582 rainbow board and I'm going broke to JJ or QQ here. I probably call if I feel like I can get away from my hand if I don't hit a ten. But at this juncture, I'm probably just folding pre to avoid a very tough decision.

I think you played fine man.

 

[Lofwyr]

Honestly, some amount of reads is pretty important here. The fact you perceived the 3 bettor as kind of nitty is very important, for instance. But what about the others? What had UTG done before? Were the people in your blinds really aggro? What about the two overcallers? (I'm assuming they were pretty fishy players).

Anyway, lot of nits in this thread it seems like. I'd say this is a call with the intention of set-mining. Your stack is still fine if you call/fold 6bb and will be for quite a few levels (I'm guessing circuit events have 60 minute levels and next level was 100/200). You have the button for postflop play. Seems like a fine spot. Second best option is folding and I don't think either raising or shoving will get you where you want to go. If we call and get 4bet/squeezed I'm a sad panda and probably fold (unless table spews off and I'm getting really sick odds to see a flop when action is back to me, e.g. UTG pops it to 1500 and the other 3 players call).

In terms of the pot odds, you're already getting appropriate pot odds + stack odds to set mine. The fact that you perceive at least one player as being very strong actually improves your implied odds because the chances you get paid off when you hit your 10 go up. Worrying too much about stacking off in a set-over-set scenario is one of the last things you should be worried about. If you call and flop your 10, just go broke with it...whether an A/K/Q show up or not...plenty of AK/AQs type hands in villains ranges as well. Set-over-set flops are like 1/100 when both players have a pocket pair.

The fact that you're so early in the tournament actually makes me want to do this even more. Stacks are going to remain deep for a while and an early double up positions you for success much more than trying to wait for perfect spots to grind things out.