Tournament hand of the week: 26th November

[Royal Flush]

Hello blonde poker! Tighty has asked me to take up the reigns of the Tournament Hand of the Week so here i am, this should be quite fun given i nearly always disagree with the majority of people on the PHA board about hands so hopefully we can spark some good discussions. So then i present to you my first HOTW:


The Tournament Details:

Event: EPT London Main Event £5000+£200

Starting Stack: 10,000

Prize Pool/Runners:  £1,960,000/392

Blinds: 200/400/50

Average Chips: ~18,000



Our Current Situation:

I have managed to find myself on 28,000 and chip leader on the table. This particular table is far weaker than the tournament average so i have been looking to take advantage, the 3 players to my right are all tight aggressive, the 3 players behind me are weak passive and the only good player is the last of the 8 seats, he is an active scandanavian but we have managed to avoid each other for the tournament so far. In general most pots are me or him vs someone else on the table.

For the last 30 minutes or so you have been smacked in the face by the deck, although you have gone to no showdowns so your table image is extremely active, you have raised and won 13 of the last 30 hands.


The hand itself:


You are UTG+1 and find   

Adam Heller limps UTG, he has been playing a very tight aggressive game up to this point but you know he is capable of doing a whole lot more. You and he have played a long session of PLO cash before although its likely to have escaped his mind due to the enjoyment of alcohol. During that session he showed he is capable of playing super loose aggressive.

He is playing a stack of 20,000.



I decided to raise to 1400, everyone else folds when it gets back to Adam he flat calls. Does anyone adopt a different line pre flop? How does your table image change your raising range in EP facing a UTG limp? What range of hands do you put Adam on?


The flop comes 


Adam checks the flop, what action do you take from here?

[kinboshi]

[boldie]

wb flushy....

OK...

first of all..he's playing Tight and didn't reraise you pre-flop even though he is OOP. He might have a very big hand and think that either you or the Scandyman is bound to raise it up but I'm thinking he has medium hand here. (we'll find out on the flop though if he realy does hold a monster) He probably wouldn't go set-mining against one player so that justabout rules out small pairs for me. As he is playing a tight game and has 2 LAG's on the table to act behind him he shouldn't be playing suited connectors from that position.

I'd put him on AQ (suited)+ or TT-QQ from the pre-flop action.

I raise on the flop especially because of my image..hell, it's what you've been raiing a lot for.
1400 is fine.

On the flop I continue to bet..2k-2.5k in this case.

btw..anyone wanna run a book on how long it will take Flushy to get banned after he gets frustrated with people posting stupid analysis (not unlike the one above) on here ?

[LuckyLloyd]

Given your image, I think this is a great spot to raise pre. Infact, I think not raising here would be pretty silly if your Vpip for the last three orbits is circa 43%.

In terms of a range of hands to put him on I think it really depends on the type of player he is; what kind of thought level he is on. On a very basic assessment, limp calling UTG from a stack of 50BBs seems pretty spewy irrespective of what hand he actually has. If he is not clueless, we shouldn't see many Ax hands here. Or suited connectors. My initial thought would be a pair, 22 - 99 or 1010. If he had limped JJ+ or AK (unlikely as it is) he would surely get the reraise in given your level of activity.

But people play bad and do silly things so he may turn up with a lot of stuff he technically shouldn't in this spot.

That flop is obv good for you. Again, your image should be such that he is going to have a hard time believing you. I would bet 2600 for value. And I would be reluctant to give up here if he checkraises.

[TightEnd]

welcome back Flushy

C-bet the flop 2,200 or so, not least because of the presence of two hearts.

Your image is active so he may be trying to trap but at this stage of the comp he really has no need to play it cute OOP pre or post flop

I think I'd rather put him on a medium pair than a monster starting hand at this point


You'll only have any clues to this if he chooses to check-raise you

[Graham C]

I'd make a bet on the flop of around 2.4k but it's difficult to say what matey may be on until we see how he reacts to the bet. 

Hopefully he is on a pair or AT+.

Preflop I'd have raised the same at this level. 

[MKKfish]

Hi James,
Preflop I play it as played.

So now we need to put him on a hand and dependant on that proceed...

(a) Given your A and the A on the board I'm removing him holding AA.

(b) His image and position makes me believe the only Ax holding he has would be AK or AQ, (not AJ).

(c) I think KK re-raises you preflop.

(d) Just slightly concerned that if he is AK/AQ he may have flopped the Flush draw.

So therefore put him on AK AQ QQ JJ TT 99 88.

On that basis I'm betting 3.2k and hoping that we don't see Q, J or T on the turn....if we get that far.

Question is what is his action to our 3.2k bet?

Well being the fish I am I have already decided that I'm ahead, (the 99 pocks if held will hurt), and that he has at best a 3 outer with AQ  and the outs for a flush draw.

If he repops you here I'm all in.

If he flat calls the 3.2k I'm really not wanting to see a Q, J, T on the turn. Btw the flat call means I'm not too bothered about a heart now because I think he would fired all in with the TP and nut flush draw on the flop.

*waits patiently for flop action by villian*



Edit: All this is without knowing at the time it was gonna turn into THOTW lol.... summats got get tricky!

[kinboshi]

If he's got anything on that flop is he going to be re-raising you, or will he look to be calling your bets assuming that you're just c-betting without necessarily having a great hand? 

If he's flopped a monster, he might be looking to check, let you lead out with a bet and just flat call you - expecting you to again bet out on the turn.  If he's hit the flop, but not massively or has a monster draw, then I think he'll be check-raising you.

At this stage his range for you must be fairly wide. 

Looking foward to part deux.

[Longy]

Welcome back Flushy.

Looks pretty standard thus far, raising preflop over the limper with this hand looks like the only standard way to play it, irrespective of image. 1400 is the least i would make it, i might make it 1600 or 1800 but this is nit picking really.

His range i think is biased toward pairs 22-AA, though i think the vunerable big pairs jj and qq are less likely as he probably would play them faster. Of course other hands are possible Ax, suited connectors.

On the flop i do c-bet even though i believe this flop is bad one for this range with the a on the board. I make it about 2.5k because of our image and his likely to disbelieve our bet and peel one off with a pair. Especially if it is kk-1010.

I feel this hand has some more interesting decisions to come but im already thinking of felting this irrespective of his action.

[Royal Flush]

Interesting....

Llyod says he continues in the face of a check raise, what line do you take against a check raise? Flat and call a turn push or 3 bet AI?

Tighty you allude to a check raise but what do you do if you get one, say he trebles your bet?

Sol says he jams to a check raise.

Longy, Kin, Silo and Boldie what do you do against a CR?

[kinboshi]

I think I've still got a good chance of being ahead of a check-raise.  Would be far more worried if he just called your bet on the flop.

Do you raise him, or just call and re-evaluate on the turn, with the benefit of position?

[MKKfish]

The more I think about this the more a horrible feeling is growing that if he CRs you that he is AK h's and is gonna be free rolling.....

[TightEnd]

Interesting....

Tighty you allude to a check raise but what do you do if you get one, say he trebles your bet?

well tbh I'm sort of expecting him to check raise here, it was what I thought when I first read it

Say you bet 2.5k and he makes it 7.5k

That's a tough spot as he could be contending that you are c-betting with air given your Vpip and general image.

If he does CR, calling isn't an option for me unless I commit to calling a big turn bet ( as you are unlikely to improve, and you'll see a lot of scare cards )

Faced with the choice of pushing (3 bet is all in in effect) or folding I'll widen his range here to reflect his view of your image and be prepared to go with it by pushing.

and probably stack off to  or something 

[snoopy1239]

He's back!!! 

[Dubai]

Extremely thinly disguised "I played a £5200 event" post