blonde poker forum

First posting on PHA, so please bear with me. This is a hand I feel I played badly.

Live £75 MTT at Luton, 40 runners, 20 left, top 7 paid, 30 minute clock.

Average stack 16,000, my stack 18,000 (UTG +2) villain (UTG +4) has me covered (table chip leader)

I'm fairly new to the table, so little history this tourney. Villain has called me a rock in the past, although the last hand we played together (a previous tourney); he caught me bluffing on the river.

At 300/600 and 25 ante, I open for 1,800 with Ace Ten.  Villain flat calls, no other callers.  Pot is 4,725

Flop is Q 10 x rainbow.   I c-bet (I don't remember exact amount, but let's say 2,500). Villain calls.   Pot is 9,725

Turn is a king (now there are 2 to a flush).   I check and villain bets 3,500. After a long think, I call.  Pot is 16,725

River is a blank.  I check again and villain bets 5,500.

What do you think of the play to date?

What hand or range would you put villain on?

What should I do now?

I think if he views you as tight and is betting river again he most likely has you beat. I think I would probably play pre and flop same and bet fold turn with your image.

Id open smaller, i would cbet the same amount, i would check fold the turn. Problem is the K coordinates so many hands he has to be purely floating too much of the time to make it profitable. Factor in that he thinks ur tight and his calling flop and betting turn range tightens too.

I think you're putting a lot of your stack in without giving yourself much chance to win. I don't like c-calling the turn at all and think you should prob c-jam the turn if you want to win it based on your tight image and how much money is in the pot. Or c-fold the turn if you want to give up. That 3.5k spent on the turn is a waste imo.

I think if we bet turn again and get any resistance we are totally toast. But if he thinks we are tight to the point of not barrelling much and easy to move off with floats then when the K comes and we check unless we have like AJ and are checking we haven't got much no?

I'd open to 1500 - with antes ur standard open should be 2.5x.

C-betting the flop is fine, around half pot seems good but I'm check folding turn unless I've added a flush draw etc too as we're now losing to pretty much everything he calls on flop with apart from random floats.

is the c-bet 100% standard here or does anyone ever c/c the flop?

as it turns out the turn card is pretty eugh and i shut down from here.

can't see what exactly he floats/bluffs you with here that makes calling turn and river correct

Thanks  for comments so far guys.

I'll wait for a few more before replying or adding what happened.

I would be thinking about if this villain has some sort of read on you since hes already caught you bluffing on the river (previous tourney).

If the villain thinks your a rock (mind games or truth that's what you need to work out)

Going on the rock status then i would try a check raise on the flop, try and represent the set of 10s or set of Queens then see what villain does

After reading the hand to the end he could be holding J9 , KQ, or perhaps AQ

Am folding on the river

normally I'd agree but 300/600/25 is such a strange blind level, one I don't think I've ever seen before, that the antes make a lot less difference to how we play than normal so nothing wrong with the 3x here

I might just open fold AT here and go to the bar

I might have got the antes wrong.  It could have been 300/600 /50

i fold pre here... but once you open the flop play is ok... check fold the turn...

open less yo like 1525 imo, folding pre is pretty tez as well you've got an ACE and a TEN in a live tournament - if you check call the turn surely your calling the river bet??

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

I think the two recurring themes are that I should raise less (1,500 or 2.5x is better than 1,800 / 3x).  Point taken.

Secondly, calling the turn is a waste of chips. Either fold or jam here - or call with the intention of calling the river. His river  bet had seemed fairly small , like it was wanting a call - this helped me decide to fold!

I felt I played it badly, by calling the turn and folding to his bet on the river. I guess I called the turn , hoping he'd check the river if he didn't improve.

I lost the pot and felt I'd been outplayed.

He told me later that he had pocket nines. He went on to win the tourney & I bust out shortly afterwards.

(Had a good result on the cash table though, so still a good nights work!).

doubt he had 99, prob just annoyed you folded and wanted to steam you.

My thoughts exactly.

Maybe.  But when I folded someone else asked if I'd been on a flush draw and I said "no, I had  a piece of the board." Villain seemed surprised, but we left it at that.

It was only after the tournament was over that I asked what he had, so no tilt value to him at that point (unless he's playing the long game, thinking about next time!), so no real reason to disbelieve him.