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Bumping Into Big Pairs. 2 Hands

edited July 2012 in The Poker Clinic
I don't see the point in 3betting the first hand tbh when you 3bet so small. Obviously it's all going in on that flop once you've 3bet.

Hand number 2, I guess it's not the worst play in the world, and will work ALOT of the time (not when he has KK lol), but just seems like a bit of an unnecessary risk.

Comments

  • edited July 2012

    I'm losing a little bit of faith in my MTT play. I think these are fine but could benefit from an independent view:

    Hand 1: The UTG raiser has been extremely passive, limping in at almost every opportunity. When he makes this raise I decide to 3-bet to take control and fold to a 4-bet. The alternative seemed to be to check and hope to hit two-pair or better, or take a passive line with any one-pair. After he calls my raise, I think he's unlikely to have QQ, KK or AA so when I flop top-pair I think I'm up against a KJ, QJ or another AJ type hand. How's my logic here (Ignore that he actually had QQ). If I make it 200 pre-flop, how do you feel about folding for 1k more?

    PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalanceEBBERDON Small blind  20.00 20.00 3972.50 BorinLoner Big blind  40.00 60.00 2440.00  Your hole cards A J    Ramora Raise  80.00 140.00 1130.00 Farmboy Fold     Lee_Boy Fold     ryan1976 Call  80.00 220.00 4237.50 EBBERDON Fold     BorinLoner Raise  160.00 380.00 2280.00 Ramora Call  120.00 500.00 1010.00 ryan1976 Fold     Flop  2 J 2    BorinLoner Bet  250.00 750.00 2030.00 Ramora Raise  500.00 1250.00 510.00 BorinLoner All-in  2030.00 3280.00 0.00 Ramora All-in  510.00 3790.00 0.00 BorinLoner Unmatched bet  1270.00 2520.00 1270.00 BorinLoner Show A J    Ramora Show Q Q    Turn  9    River  9    Ramora Win Two Pairs, Queens and 9s 2520.00  2520.00

    The second hand is a little more straightforward:

    I'm in the Small Blind and the button has been opening a fair amount when folded to him. I decide to 3-bet here and figure that he needs to have a big hand to call and if he does, 9T isn't the worst hand to hold. That's alright, isn't it?
    PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalance
    BorinLoner Small blind  150.00 150.00 7980.00
    OCD_man Big blind  300.00 450.00 2635.00
     Your hole cards
    • 9
    • 10
       
    chapperman Fold     
    StringerB Fold     
    FENECH18 Fold     
    gav77714 Raise  650.00 1100.00 4425.00
    BorinLoner All-in  7980.00 9080.00 0.00
    OCD_man Fold     
    gav77714 All-in  4425.00 13505.00 0.00
    BorinLoner Unmatched bet  3055.00 10450.00 3055.00
    BorinLoner Show
    • 9
    • 10
       
    gav77714 Show
    • K
    • K
       
    Flop
      
    • A
    • Q
    • 9
       
    Turn
      
    • 2
       
    River
      
    • A
       
    gav77714 Win Two Pairs, Aces and Kings 10450.00  10450.00
  • edited July 2012
    In Response to Re: Mini-Primo: Bumping Into Big Pairs. 2 Hands:
    I don't see the point in 3betting the first hand tbh when you 3bet so small. Obviously it's all going in on that flop once you've 3bet.
     
    Hand number 2, I guess it's not the worst play in the world, and will work ALOT of the time (not when he has KK lol), but just seems like a bit of an unnecessary risk.
    Posted by Lambert180
    Well, I wanted to 3-bet but if I 3-bet much more than that it kind of feels like a waste of chips. I'd expect to be 4-bet with the big pairs whether I make it 200 or 300 so I wanted to keep it cheap. Should have mentioned that the UTG fellow had been folding to c-bets alot so getting called isn't a scarey thing for me. I'd c-bet most flops whether it goes heads-up or three-handed to a flop, so keeping it small makes sense there too as I can make a smaller c-bet.

    Can't argue with it not being necessary to shove with the 9T but I've got to do it sometime and I saw an opportunity. It has to be +EV, doesn't it?

    You see, all this sounds rational but I'm not having great results at the moment. I'm not playing huge volume either but I just want to see if people think my logic is wrong or I'm just on a small blip of run-bad.
  • edited July 2012
    Hand 1

    I think calling his raise is optimal here. We have a good hand and we're in position.
    By raising we fold out all the weak ace rag hands etc that we're beating.
    How do we like our hand when he 4 bets?
    Such early stages in competition we just don't need to be going broke with tptk hands

    Hand 2

    Obviously hard without knowing table dynamics
    Surely just a simple fold pre flop though?
    We have 26 bb's and we're not under any pressure.
    If we feel he's getting ool with button raising then we can make this 1750 for example and get the result we want when he passes.
    We don't need to risk our tourney life in this position.

    We all make these plays and clearly you're thinking about the game and say in hand 2 it's great when it comes off but the reality is we are only adding 1100 to our stack at the risk of busting and i don't think it can be a +ev play.

    Sidenote, run better! walked into monsters!
  • edited July 2012
    hand 1, 3 bet is too small, doubt oppo is raising flop with KJ :S prefer a call when oppo raises but oppo got so little  behind we never folding

    hand 2. don't think it's worth shoving with your stack, findbetterspots.com
    don't think it's a re steal stack
  • edited July 2012
    In Response to Re: Mini-Primo: Bumping Into Big Pairs. 2 Hands:
    hand 1, 3 bet is too small, doubt oppo is raising flop with KJ :S prefer a call when oppo raises but oppo got so little  behind we never folding hand 2. don't think it's worth shoving with your stack, findbetterspots.com don't think it's a re steal stack
    Posted by rancid
    Not a re-steal stack? The effective stack is 15BB after his 2.17x raise. Surely that's perfect?
  • edited July 2012
    On the second hand, the logic for thinking it's +EV is:

    Over 100 hands:

    He folds 80% of the time: I win 88000
    He calls 10% of the time with overcards, so roughly 40/60: I lose 8050
    He calls 10% of the time with an overpair, so roughly 20/80: I lose 28650
    Expected Value: +51300

    I'm not convinced I'm working that out correctly. My brain turns to mush at this hour. However, if those numbers are correct, the EV of the shove works out at +513 if he calls 20% of the time. Is it unrealistic to think he folds 8/10 times if he's opening alot?

    If the numbers are 70/20/10 then the EV is +322.5. At 60/25/15 it's +29.

    As I say, I make no guarantees about those numbers. They're simplified odds but as a guideline they're reasonable. If he needs to call more than 40% of the time for this to be -EV then surely this shove is +EV against a player with a wide stealing range.

    If those numbers are wrong, somebody tell me. It wouldn't surprise me since I'm so tired I've done it five times and come up with three different answers, lol.

    Bed time FTW.

    EDIT: Revised the numbers a little to reflect the Small Blind already paid. Now I'm fairly sure they're correct, although they overlook the possiblities of races against underpairs and 30/70 shots against AT and 99.
  • edited July 2012
    Hand 1: Don' t reraise pre this early, you shouldn't be playing for stacks this early in the tournament pre flop with marginal hands. If you are 3 betting out of your stack then 3 bet bigger, as noone is folding to that size 3 bet with posistion. (If they are, then they are super super light or not very confident in there post flop game)

    Hand 2: Is a fold tbh, you are getting called by way too many hands that have you crushed and if any two called you arestill basically flipping. You can peel out of your stack aswell (although I think this is a fold pre) there are far better spots than this tbh, and you need to preserve your tournament life.
  • edited July 2012

    Hand 2 is fine imo. 

    Don't like hand 1. You say the alternative is to peel which is what I would do.

    I think just folding is better than click 3 betting though. 

    Post flop fine 
  • edited July 2012
    hand 1 just call preflop

    hand 2 i would call these kinda hands are good to see a flop with
  • edited July 2012
    I have to admit that I'm surprised by some of the reactions to the 9T hand. It's demonstrably +EV against even a fairly tight opening range. Only overpairs are crushing me and he's got to be calling with a huge proportion of his range to make it -EV. The only criticism I can accept is that there may be better spots but adding 1100 at a potential risk of 4925 against a player with a wide stealing range seems right to me. I doubted it last night, now I can't see why. I think a tournament is all about finding 3-bet-shoving spots when your stack is around this size. I think this was perfectly fine to be honest.


    Hand 1; I agree that I can peel. The thing I didn't want to do was peel, hit a piece of my hand and then lose a bundle. By making this small 3-bet (though it's not actually a min-raise, it is pretty small) I felt that I'd be able to get away from the UTG raiser if he 4-bet and I didn't think he could afford to just call with those big pairs with a player to act behind him. Given that, I didn't see the need for a large 3-bet as I think I get the same answer for less. When he calls, yes I'll be out of position, but he's been folding to almost any c-bet on the flop. Obviously I was wrong about what he'd do with a big pair on this ocassion but generally speaking, doesn't that make sense?

    On reflection I think it probably would be better to peel because of the player on the button. Any 3-bet I make that's called by the UTG player is likely to bring in the button. I was happy to play a flop against either of the two of them, though against both it's obviously much higher variance. I fancy a c-bet gets through enough to be profitable, even three-handed, but it's going to be fairly thin. I won't be able to fire a second street if I'm called so I'll be very vulnerable to being floated, too. Saying that a c-bet is likely to be profitable is also dependent on having accurate reads on the fellow UTG... which it turns out I didn't.

    So I'm saying that I like my plan IF I have the correct reads on these two opponents and IF I can get the c-bet through enough of the time. I was probably really lucky to get it heads-up to the flop and then really unlucky to hit the Jack. On this flop I don't think it matters whether or not the button calls pre-flop, I'd still get the lot in. I couldn't put either of them on JJ or better so I'd just be looking at 22 beating me.

    I could have folded pre-flop. Wish I'd done that, lol.
  • edited July 2012
    In Response to Re: Mini-Primo: Bumping Into Big Pairs. 2 Hands:
    hand 1 just call preflop

    hand 2 i would call these kinda hands are good to see a flop with
    Posted by IDONKCALLU
    I don't like the idea of calling pre-flop with the 9T. It's another 500 to call and makes the pot 1600 while the button has 4425 back. That means the pot is 5.3BB and the button has 14.5BB back. If I call pre-flop, I've got to be willing to get it all-in with anything on the flop. How often am I going to like getting it in on the flop with just a pair of nines with a ten kicker, for example? When I miss, I have to check-fold and give up that extra 500. I think calling with these stacks is just frittering away chips.


    I'm not sure that Jac35 actually read the text in the original post: In the first hand I wasn't in position, I said I intended to fold to a 4-bet and hitting top-pair top kicker might as well have been the nuts given the opponents perceived range. I wasn't at risk in either hand.

    The suggestion of making it 1750 pre-flop on hand 2 seems bad to me. I can't imagine making it 1750 with the intention of folding getting odds of 7125/3325; significantly better than 2/1. I think I might call, given those odds, and hope to see overcards or an underpair. Either way, making it 1750 seems bad: Raise-fold seems bad. Raise-call seems bad.

    It's got to be shove or fold with these stacks.
  • edited July 2012
    In Response to Re: Mini-Primo: Bumping Into Big Pairs. 2 Hands:
    In Response to Re: Mini-Primo: Bumping Into Big Pairs. 2 Hands : I don't like the idea of calling pre-flop with the 9T. It's another 500 to call and makes the pot 1600 while the button has 4425 back. That means the pot is 5.3BB and the button has 14.5BB back. If I call pre-flop, I've got to be willing to get it all-in with anything on the flop. How often am I going to like getting it in on the flop with just a pair of nines with a ten kicker, for example? When I miss, I have to check-fold and give up that extra 500. I think calling with these stacks is just frittering away chips. I'm not sure that Jac35 actually read the text in the original post: In the first hand I wasn't in position, I said I intended to fold to a 4-bet and hitting top-pair top kicker might as well have been the nuts given the opponents perceived range. I wasn't at risk in either hand. The suggestion of making it 1750 pre-flop on hand 2 seems bad to me. I can't imagine making it 1750 with the intention of folding getting odds of 7125/3325; significantly better than 2/1. I think I might call, given those odds, and hope to see overcards or an underpair. Either way, making it 1750 seems bad: Raise-fold seems bad. Raise-call seems bad. It's got to be shove or fold with these stacks.
    Posted by BorinLoner
    Hi

    Oops!
    Yeah, you're right, i didn't look at the hand history properly on either one, Tired, excuse

    Jut looking back now i still go with peeling hand one. You say it's all going in regardless when you see flop? I think this is just too aggressive early on. Hate getting it all in with one pair hands at these stages. We should only everr be getting called by better.
    Hand 2 i didn't see other players stack, becomes even more of a fold
  • edited July 2012
    In Response to Re: Mini-Primo: Bumping Into Big Pairs. 2 Hands:
    In Response to Re: Mini-Primo: Bumping Into Big Pairs. 2 Hands : Hi Oops! Yeah, you're right, i didn't look at the hand history properly on either one, Tired, excuse Jut looking back now i still go with peeling hand one. You say it's all going in regardless when you see flop? I think this is just too aggressive early on. Hate getting it all in with one pair hands at these stages. We should only everr be getting called by better. Hand 2 i didn't see other players stack, becomes even more of a fold
    Posted by Jac35
    I'm not saying I get it in regardless of the board but on this board, I don't think I could avoid it. Given the action pre-flop, I ruled out JJ, QQ, KK or AA and therefore only one hand beats my AJ on this flop and that's an unlikely 22. So, although it's only one pair, there shouldn't be a hand out there to beat me. My opponent made a very atypical call with the QQ pre-flop, which I couldn't predict. It's not unreasonable to think that if he had called pre-flop with KJ, QJ or JT, then he would be willing to get it all-in on this flop. I don't think there's much doubt that calling my pre-flop 3-bet with the QQ was a mistake and it was a mistake I wasn't expecting him to make.

    Basically, I was crushing his perceived range. As yet, nobody has said anything to convince me that I could or should have got away on this flop.

    I do agree that I probably should have peeled pre-flop in this hand, though I don't think my line is necessarily bad. Just calling would have been better, though.
  • edited July 2012
    even though hand 2 is +EV - doesn't mean i like it )

    seriously by shoving do you really think your folding out what ? May aswell hold up a sign over your head saying you have nothing )

    do we really have to be making these moves on SKY with no antes, holding a very playable stack.

    do we need 3bb that badly, not sure I love the logic of all this - it only has to not work once for you to feel a bit stooopid )

    but hey I am very passive and like to ladder, so..........meh
  • edited July 2012
    In Response to Re: Mini-Primo: Bumping Into Big Pairs. 2 Hands:
    even though hand 2 is +EV - doesn't mean i like it )

    seriously by shoving do you really think your folding out what ? May aswell hold up a sign over your head saying you have nothing )

    do we really have to be making these moves on SKY with no antes, holding a very playable stack.

    do we need 3bb that badly, not sure I love the logic of all this - it only has to not work once for you to feel a bit stooopid )

    but hey I am very passive and like to ladder, so..........meh
    Posted by rancid
    Well, given the stack sizes here I would be shoving with QQ, JJ, TT, AK, AQ as well as the more bluffy hands like this 9T. It's hardly saying I've got nothing. I might peel with AA or KK then look to check-raise all-in on a flop if I think he c-bets alot but I might even shove with these hands too against some players: I know how to balance my range. I imagine the shove folds out all his KJ, KT, QJ, QT, 78, 22, 33, etc... All the rubbish that we all steal with.

    It's not that the 3.6BB are going to be hugely important but it is 14% of my stack, near enough. I only feel stupid about it not working if it stops working on a regular basis. If you're asking how often it gets through, I fancy it's probably around 7/10 or 8/10 times against this sort of player. It's not just +EV, it's pretty heavily +EV... and if it goes wrong I've got 10BB back.

    I realise I'm making a robust defence of my play but I only want to be convinced I'm making mistakes if I actually am making mistakes. In the first hand, I'm happy to admit that I have. In the second, none of the arguments so far have convinced me. In fact I'm more certain than I was before that it's good. Which serves a purpose in itself, of course.
  • edited July 2012

    Don’t think it’s bad at all Borin, abso fine –

     

    Very player/table dependant so if you feel it’s good versus this oppo then no problem ) If oppo is abusing position/btn then punish

     

    Obviously more they open the wider they must be right until they have a hand, bad timing :(

     

    In a vacuum, just hate the move :! Because surely you have to be making this move a lot right to make it worthwhile )

    Is there really a point saying if we do this 100 times it’s +EV, how often are we doing this :s

     

    Let’s face it Borin if your btn and you open a lot and someone shoves on you once in a blue moon how easy is it to either call or fold.

    For the amounts of times they have opened uncontested, it’s totally +EV for them and the dynamic they have set up means your shoving is like Christmas when they have a hand.

     

    I remain unconvinced it’s a move we can make repeatedly

  • edited July 2012
    It's not a move we can make repeatedly in one tournament against the same players, though it probably works two or three times.

    You can do it repeatedly in the same tournament after you're moved as it's not hugely player dependent, really. You just need to know that players are stealing from the button alot, which in MTT's most players will be. It only takes two or three orbits to work out who are the guys you want to be 3-betting.

    I'm not saying this is "standard" or that you should do this every time it's raised by the button to your Small Blind but it's going to be heavily profitable in the long-term to do it ocassionally. Of course, doing it with 9T allows you to get paid when you do it with AA because "you can't have it every time". You've just got to be aware of your image at the table, as well as your opponents ranges... and don't run into the top of their range because that will be bad. :'(
  • edited July 2012
    Hand 2 is +ev but it is pointless if you can outplay players post at your table. A short stack is calling you with underpairs and some King high hands which are ahead, plus all ace high hands and hands which could essentially have both your cards in it. A9 AT KT TT 99. Its an uneeded risk with a perfectly playable stack. If you was on the same as the villain or up to 18 bigs its fine, but you could be losing 50% of your chips with this hand.

    EDIT: Are you doing eactly the same if you get dealt aces there??
  • edited July 2012
    In Response to Re: Mini-Primo: Bumping Into Big Pairs. 2 Hands:
    Hand 2 is +ev but it is pointless if you can outplay players post at your table. A short stack is calling you with underpairs and some King high hands which are ahead, plus all ace high hands and hands which could essentially have both your cards in it. A9 AT KT TT 99. Its an uneeded risk with a perfectly playable stack. If you was on the same as the villain or up to 18 bigs its fine, but you could be losing 50% of your chips with this hand. EDIT: Are you doing eactly the same if you get dealt aces there??
    Posted by Batkin88
    kinda agree that having 15-20bb stack make it a a more playable 3 bet shove, which keeps you o so balanced and you gain more much needed chips in spots like these.
    But with oppo only having 18bb effective, does this change anything.
    Well I think it does, because with 27bb your not in a postion where you need to be making these moves to gain chips.
    Effectiviely we are using fold equity to make shoves like this profitbale, when we need to pick up the dead chips from a btn warrior. Makes it a bit more intresting to get called by AJ and still swim with 40%.

    Do we prefer shoving in thse spots with <20bb or />20bb, where is the limit 50.60 bb and versus what effective stack.
    Are we still making this move if btn has 40bb ?
    Is it a betetr move if oppo is />20bb, makes our FE look good :S

    Is it just a move we like doing versus shorties 15-20bb stacks, because we cover them :S
    Do we have less FE versus shorties because they call wider than a 40bb stack.

  • edited July 2012
    I don't agree that this guy is a short stack. If he had 5BB fewer, then I'd expect to be called alot wider but with 15BB I'd be astonished to be called by KT or A9. I think he folds alot more of his range than that.

    As for what size stack I'd usually be 3-bet shoving with; I consider it around 15BB-25BB and only against stacks that can fold. This is the stack size that I stop looking for spots to open the betting. JT, KJ, KQ, 22-77, etc. are now hands that you can't afford to open with because bet-folding out of this stack loses you so much of your 3-bet fold equity. If you're on 25BB, when you open the betting then c-bet once, you lose a huge chunk of your 3-bet fold equity... So I stop considering these hands as playable, unless it's with a 3-bet.

    Since you don't get many big hands, if you're looking mainly to be entering with a 3-bet, you're forced to do the same with your really big hands to balance your range. Though AA and KK can, as I said, be played a little more trickily under some circumstances, usually it's best to just 3-bet jam with those too... If you don't 3-bet with weaker hands, then whenever you do it you will be telegraphing that you have a big one.

    Obviously there are exceptions; if there are weak players in the blinds, I'd be opening from late position, etc... but that's my general policy in MTT's when my stack hits this level. It's nicer to 3-bet 25BB if your opponent has opened to 3x but even with a 2x raise there's always going to be at least 3.5BB in there (14% of a 25BB stack). The other way to look at it is that if you get it through 4/5 times, you'll win 14BB without a showdown and still have your chance against those overs when you are called. Even without antes, it's still hugely profitable.

    When it goes wrong you'll look silly but if you're picking your opponents well, it won't go wrong that often.
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