blonde poker forum

DTD Live satellite for the UKIPT. 24 players left, 10 seats, 11 paid. Blinds are 1k/2k/300(?), average stack about 30k (I think, not 100% on this). We have about 45k to start the hand, villain just covers.

We open  Ahrt Qd in the hijack for 4k, button folds, small blind folds, bb calls.

Flop  Ad Ts 2h.

BB checks, we bet 4.5k, he makes it 10k. Thoughts?

History with villain - have played together a few times, seems like a reg on the tournament circuit. Will flick it in from the blinds reasonably wide, and has shown down a few bluffs today, most notably vs MC who called a reasonable river bet with bottom pair. Would not consider him a sicko.

Feel like given the satellite structure that this is a very tough situation. I don't really want to flat, because there aren't really that many bad turn cards for our hand, so we're committing ourselves to calling off at least two streets, and I feel it's unlikely that this is going to get checked from the villain. Obviously, there is no big draw on this board.

I don't really know how we would be perceived by said villain in this hand. We have not got out of line at all, and have been frankly nittylicious for the entire tournament so far. However, this table is reasonably newly formed, and previous history with the villain would suggest that I'm pretty loose and he knows it.

Also probably worth pointing out that the average stack is very, very skewed by this point. A few people have the absolute lot, leaving an awful lot of sub 10bb stacks knocking around. This particular table is pretty short, 60k probably being the biggest stack, but again most people are getting very short.

what do the other stacks have behind? maybe we can shove pre?

Definitely considered that, obvs effective stack is what's important. BB covered us playing 50-55k, SB had 15-20k and BTN had just over 30k. Everything about this hand just seemed really awkward :p

Probably just fold. Agreed it's really horrible but were in a sat we don't need to win and we need to survive move on and take our 16 bigs to the next hand. If we call I think we have to go with it. With 16 bb we still have a very good stack for shipping and re shipping etc

MC - Slammed.

I really struggle to see what we lose to here.  Given the fact he's been at it before it sounds like he's trying to put people in a box?  Probably gonna eyeball.

erm.... im a fish but i just either peel another card (people bluff right? especially this guy?) or stick it in his eye as Tomsom says i don't see what we lose to apart from A10 which he may also raise pre, AK definitely does 10's fo show raise pre so i would just go with it here guessing if we win this hand we lock up a seat basically?

possibly a set of those quacking things?

check flop anyone?

Yeh it's the best IMO because

1- we don't really intend to go for 3 streets
2- we define his range if he checks turn a little better and can go for bigger bets thus more value
3- obv we allow him to bluff
4- not turn cards we get squeamish over

Spot on from Stato... checking for pot control vs villain at this stage...
especially based on this "previous history with the villain would suggest that I'm pretty loose and he knows it."

Surely we have to bet our good hands on the flop as well as our bluffs, and we are going to be bluffing a lot because of the ICM situation. In other words, if we only bet all of our junk and sets/2pairs, aren't we going to be easy to play against?

I don't think balancing is an issue in a live sat against people youve never played before.

Interesting responses. I'm not sure whether I'm being results orientated, but I do wish I'd checked this flop. My thinking at the time was as simple as "I have good hand, I've hit this flop, I'm getting value from worse Ax hands, a bunch of 10s, maybe even the odd 2, and I'll happily just take this pot and add to my stack." Then he raised, and I did a cry. I ended up folding the flop like the ridiculous nit I am, and got shown an A, as if that makes some difference. Kinda feel like I almost certainly folded the best hand, but the fact that this was a satellite made it kinda interesting, since vs said villain in pretty much any other format I'm calling this bet and happily getting it in on the turn. Just felt like the format of the comp made this one kinda interesting.