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Poker Stars $5.00+$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t100/t200 Blinds + t25 - 9 players - View hand 1817493
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): t20180 M = 38.44
SB: t15879 M = 30.25
BB: t14733 M = 28.06
UTG: t13989 M = 26.65
UTG+1: t3261 M = 6.21
UTG+2: t10066 M = 19.17
MP1: t7155 M = 13.63
MP2: t10371 M = 19.75
CO: t6679 M = 12.72

Pre Flop: (t525) Hero is BTN with K A
5 folds, CO raises to t477, Hero raises to t1070, 2 folds, CO calls t593

Flop: (t2665) 5 3 9 (2 players)
CO checks, Hero checks

Turn: (t2665) 6 (2 players)
CO bets t1277, Hero calls t1277

River: (t5219) 8 (2 players)
CO bets t4307 all in, Hero folds

Final Pot: t5219
CO wins t5219

Not sure why I don't cbet, was hoping to either get to showdown or ping the turn/river and value bet. Anyones thoughts on the hand would be appreciated.

Another interesting hand and v good call by me

Poker Stars $5.00+$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t150/t300 Blinds + t40 - 9 players - View hand 1817534
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

UTG+1: t12648 M = 15.61
UTG+2: t9373 M = 11.57
Hero (MP1): t21246 M = 26.23
MP2: t4744 M = 5.86
CO: t20708 M = 25.57
BTN: t17110 M = 21.12
SB: t12675 M = 15.65
BB: t16185 M = 19.98
UTG: t13034 M = 16.09

Pre Flop: (t810) Hero is MP1 with A 9
3 folds, Hero raises to t600, 3 folds, SB calls t450, 1 fold

Flop: (t1860) K Q Q (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t955, SB calls t955

Turn: (t3770) 7 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: (t3770) 2 (2 players)
SB bets t1800, Hero calls t1800

Final Pot: t7370
Hero shows A 9 (a pair of Queens - Ace kicker)
SB shows J T (a pair of Queens)
Hero wins t7370

Again, any thoughts appreciated.

I mean idk why no cbet on hand one either

Hand 2 he isn't repping much so good call but don't get in the habit of always hero calling

Hand one, i would like a 3bet a little bigger and obviously be happy to ship it pre to a 4bet,
Definitely c-bet the flop once he checks here, a lot of hands will fold here, and our ak is quite exposed, better to take it down now than see another heart or a queen ott

Second hand, agree with rrumsey he's not repping much but can only see jt as his bluffs here though, he could also turn up with 88 99 so I think it's borderline, remember not to be results orientated and think about his range there

2nd hand I don't like the check back on the turn at all. I guess my thinking (which may be wrong) is his turn check is polarized between a hand that crushes you and total air. Air/draws will check for a free card as would a Q and obviously on a brick turn like that and hands that beat you like middle pairs and K's HAVE to bet for thin value against a possible Ax hand. There's no way he thinks you have a Q, you bet 2/3 pot so I don't even think you have a K here. 1/2 pot would keep your possible range wider I think.

If he has a Q how is he playing the hand? He is check calling your flop C-bet for 2/3 pot (which was a bit big), and he's checking the turn and donking the river for half pot. So I don't see how the river call (which was a nice call) is so easy. What can you have here when you check back the turn?

I would bet out and if called he has a draw, if raised he has a Q, and the rest of his range folds. Instead you check, and then have to bluff pick the river which was a great call, but just not the easy way to play the hand. If you are planning on calling a river bet anyway, why not bet the turn for 1500? I think you can easily define his hand, take advantage of your fold equity and it makes the hand much easier to play imo.

edited: I mistakenly was reading his M for his BB's, didn't change anything other than the erroneous sizing.

Thanks guys...

arjunt - I cbet the same amount on that flop regardless of if I flop a monster or not. My bet is just over 1/2 pot there. I do that on that flop with all my made hands, draws and total air. Is this a mistake? I maybe check a Q, but only against someone who I haven't played many hands against, as a check back on that flop generally looks strong to me (maybe not to most folk at these stakes).

I agree his call on the flop does polarise his range to hands which crush me, and draws. People are not generally floating out of position there, but there are a hell of a lot of JT/AT/J9 type hands in this range, but less combos containing a K or Q in my opinion. A K I think raises the cbet on the flop.

In hindsight, I would barrel the turn. When checking back, I did plan to call a bet on a safe river, so I guess it was a semi-inducing check back. When the river falls a blank and he donks, I did tank for a while, but eventually called due to the number of missed draws he has there a LOT of the time. If the river was a T or 9, I would definitely have folded, and probably have grudgingly tank folded an A.





The AK hand was played horribly by me in hindsight.

Thanks guys...

arjunt - I cbet the same amount on that flop regardless of if I flop a monster or not. My bet is just over 1/2 pot there. I do that on that flop with all my made hands, draws and total air. Is this a mistake?

You C-bet 2/3 pot, 955 into 1500, I'm not saying that's wrong because people C-bet 1/2 to 2/3 all the time, but it was 2/3 and not half. One of my leaks is building pots by betting more than necessary, 750 is going to accomplish the same thing especially given your position so I just like to nit pick for my own edification (again someone can slap me around if this is a non-issue).

I agree his call on the flop does polarise his range to hands which crush me, and draws. People are not generally floating out of position there, but there are a hell of a lot of JT/AT/J9 type hands in this range, but less combos containing a K or Q in my opinion. A K I think raises the cbet on the flop.

I'll disagree that he is peeling 1 card for 2/3 pot with AT/J9 hands, on that board OOP that seems pretty awkward.

In hindsight, I would barrel the turn. When checking back, I did plan to call a bet on a safe river, so I guess it was a semi-inducing check back. When the river falls a blank and he donks, I did tank for a while, but eventually called due to the number of missed draws he has there a LOT of the time. If the river was a T or 9, I would definitely have folded, and probably have grudgingly tank folded an A.

So you are only looking to bluff pick the river? What is a safe card? If you are that committed to him having J10 then you have to dodge an A, a 9, a J, a 10, and not betting the turn is a giant mistake since the only way you win the hand at showdown is if he truly has nothing. I was reading Annie Duke's book "Decide to Play Great Poker" and one of the best concepts she talks about is making "easy decisions." Regardless of your hand or whether you should have barrelled the turn, betting the turn gives you a chance to win now, and since you have to fold the river to an A9J10, there's really no card that can even land giving you a value bet, on the river, so you are stuck with folding or making a tough bluff pick.

Hand 1 is fine, but just fold turn. It may seem weak, but not betting flop is fine (although betting has some merits as well) since it doesn't accomplish too much, almost no better hands are folding, and worse hands (i.e. draws) aren't calling often enough for your bet to be for "value" (plus worse hands that call all have pretty good equity vs. your hand anyway)

Hand 2 similar argument can be made for not betting flop, but betting is for sure fine. As played I would just check back turn and fold river to the bet. You say he has a lot of draws, but in reality he basically has JT for missed draws, possibly T9 (you gave us no info so I think it's fair to assume he will have T9, especially T9s at least sometimes given it's a random villain from a $5 MTT), but also AJ AT. People don't always understand why they are betting, and he will sometimes bet AT AJ like this too (thinking he is bluffing for the most part).

He def reps hands, Qx, KQ, Kx..

Poker Stars $8.00+$0.80 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t600/t1200 Blinds + t150 - 4 players - View hand 1822982
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

CO: t45941 M = 19.14
Hero (BTN): t34373 M = 14.32
SB: t33417 M = 13.92
BB: t63437 M = 26.43

Pre Flop: (t2400) Hero is BTN with 9 9
1 fold, Hero raises to t2400, SB calls t1800, BB calls t1200

Flop: (t7800) 9 8 J (3 players)
SB bets t3600, BB raises to t60887 all in, Hero calls t31823 all in, SB folds

Turn: (t75046) 5 (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: (t75046) 6 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: t75046
Hero shows 9 9 (three of a kind, Nines)
BB shows 3 2 (a flush, Jack high)
BB wins t75046


In the money here with 19 left. I'm sitting 9/19. When the BB shoved, I really was at a loss over what to do. I eventually called as I think he shoves with pair/nut FD type hands like AdJx etc even some combos with the Kd, and my thinking was even if he had flopped the flush/straight, I still have about 35% equity in the hand. In hindsight it might be easy to say, yeah I should be folding here, but at the time, it was pretty tough and I couldn't find the fold button. Another factor affecting my decision was that I'd be chipleader if I won the hand, with a real shot at going on to win the tournament.

When you have that much action on such a wet board I would consider a fold. Also you have the big stack in the BB so I think you need to raise a tad more if you are blind stealing, and in this case obviously you are raising a bit more for value against any hands that he will flat you with simply based on pot odds. Pretty tough spot though when you flop middle set =\

Get it in, he can for sure have worse hands like J9 98 TdX Qxd (especially if it's a pair too, like JsQd JsTd, etc). 88. Your equity is at worse around 1/3 (unless someone has JJ which is really unlikely because of preflop). But you also get pretty good pot odds (dead money from the pot)

Sucks when you run into a hand like this but I don't think you can fold here.