PLO Pimpin'

What's up Degens?

Lately I've been working a bit on my NL tourney game, and I think it's coming along nicely. Even though this is mostly a PLO blog, that doesn't necessarily mean I can't post NL hands amirite? On Sunday, I placed 12th in the Sunday Brawl, which is my deepest run in a Sunday major so far. It's addicting getting so close a big score, so I'm definitely going to be playing more Sunday tourneys in the future. Here's a couple of hands that I thought were interesting from it. To all of the MTT pros out there: How're my lines?

Limper and BB are both pretty big fish. I think isolating and gay-betting flops is hugely profitable in tournaments. You have so much leverage with c-bets, and picking up the dead money is crucial to going deep. 3b'ing and gay betting works pretty well too, especially against fish. Fortunately I'd seen this player use similar sizing in a previous hand when he was blocker betting the river, and since I did't have any SDV I think the turn is an easy raise. I considered floating turn and raising river, but it's harder for me to rep anything and he might just say fuck it and ship his stack in, which would suck for obvious reasons..

Full Tilt Poker The Sunday Brawl No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t6000/t12000 Blinds + t1500 - 8 players - View hand 1107486
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: t1172994 M = 39.10
BB: t525651 M = 17.52
UTG: t65400 M = 2.18
UTG+1: t411322 M = 13.71
MP1: t541055 M = 18.04
MP2: t204556 M = 6.82
CO: t984128 M = 32.80
Hero (BTN): t292514 M = 9.75

Pre Flop: (t30000) Hero is BTN with Q T
2 folds, MP1 calls t12000, 2 folds, Hero raises to t28000, 1 fold, BB calls t16000, MP1 calls t16000

Flop: (t102000) 2 3 8(3 players)
BB checks, MP1 checks, Hero bets t18900, BB calls t18900, MP1 folds

Turn: (t139800) 5(2 players)
BB bets t24000, Hero raises to t59990, BB calls t35990

River: (t259780) J(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t184124 all in, BB folds

Final Pot: t259780
Hero wins t259780

I thought this was a really interesting hand. SB is the fish from the previous hand, and BB is a wearing an FTOPS jersey and seems solid. Normally I'd c-bet this flop but I have poor relative position, and it seems like a way ahead/behind type of board for me, which means that I get some value from air on the turn and can get away from my hand or confidently value bet depending on what the turn is. My thinking on the turn was that the SB basically can't have shit, and since BB is solid he should know this, which means that I can't give his raise much credit. Given all of this, how's my turn line? Am I crazy or should I just muck this?

Full Tilt Poker The Sunday Brawl No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t8000/t16000 Blinds + t2000 - 6 players - View hand 1107491
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: t1168394 M = 32.46
SB: t474811 M = 13.19
BB: t321381 M = 8.93
UTG: t742849 M = 20.63
MP: t1488612 M = 41.35
Hero (CO): t379954 M = 10.55

Pre Flop: (t36000) Hero is CO with T Q
2 folds, Hero raises to t34500, 1 fold, SB calls t26500, BB calls t18500

Flop: (t115500) Q 5 7(3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (t115500) 8(3 players)
SB bets t16000, BB raises to t48000, Hero requests TIME, Hero raises to t84550, SB calls t68550, BB calls t36550

River: (t369150) 3(3 players)
SB bets t128000, BB folds, Hero folds

Final Pot: t369150
SB wins t369150

Same fish from the previous two hands here. I think I'm supposed to bet the turn, but I thought I may have some SDV since I bet so small on the flop. Given the sizing tell I have on him, I felt like he was betting for value on the river, and I don't think I can beat many hands in his vb'ing range. The other times he had trash or weak hands, he bet like 1/4 or less but here he bet close to half pot, which looks very "valuey". I'm not sure though, I think I'm supposed to call.. I'm also not too sure about my turn check. What do y'all think?

Full Tilt Poker The Sunday Brawl No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t6000/t12000 Blinds + t1500 - 7 players - View hand 1107496
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: t1213894 M = 42.59
BB: t394761 M = 13.85
UTG: t376881 M = 13.22
UTG+1: t361394 M = 12.68
MP: t512455 M = 17.98
CO: t1330112 M = 46.67
Hero (BTN): t386504 M = 13.56

Pre Flop: (t28500) Hero is BTN with Q 9
4 folds, Hero raises to t26600, 1 fold, BB calls t14600

Flop: (t69700) 4 J J(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t12450, BB calls t12450

Turn: (t94600) A(2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (t94600) Q(2 players)
BB bets t42000, Hero requests TIME, Hero folds

Final Pot: t94600
BB wins t94600

I'd just moved to this table, and since we're 8 handed I figured I'd get some respect for opening UTG. Stacks seems ok for stealing as well. This is a spot where my experience playing some shallow/cap PLO comes in handy. In shallow/cap, you need to find creative ways to turn 40bb's into a 3-street game, and in NL tourneys, most hands are 1 or 2 street games, so if you're bluffing (especially barreling in position), it's all about picking correct bet sizes that give you the opportunity to fire 3 barrels and put your opponents to a tough decision as many times as you can. I was fortunate to have equity on all streets here, but it's a concept I've found to work really well in tourneys, particularly coming down the stretch where many players aren't willing to make big river call downs for their tournament life. Build up big pots for them to give up on imo.

Full Tilt Poker The Sunday Brawl No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t2500/t5000 Blinds + t600 - 8 players - View hand 1107500
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

UTG+1: t54686 M = 4.45
MP1: t66772 M = 5.43
MP2: t99568 M = 8.09
CO: t70811 M = 5.76
BTN: t73252 M = 5.96
SB: t98503 M = 8.01
BB: t102976 M = 8.37
Hero (UTG): t210277 M = 17.10

Pre Flop: (t12300) Hero is UTG with 4 Q
Hero raises to t10650, 6 folds, BB calls t5650

Flop: (t28600) 9 J T(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t9890, BB calls t9890

Turn: (t48380) 5(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t16080, BB requests TIME, BB calls t16080

River: (t80540) 6(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t173057 all in, BB folds

Final Pot: t80540
Hero wins t80540