Sick Spot and Folded

[Jordan Bailey]

I was playing in a tournament last night. Things were going pretty well. I had just moved to a new table and had a run of several good hands in a row, raising preflop, and taking nearly all of them down post flop. Most of the rest of the table was playing pretty tight to my raises. It was still early in the tournament and stacks where deep, blinds were 50/100, and I had about 9k. I’m UTG+1 and look down at 7/8dd. UTG limps, I had considered raising, but given my aggressive image at the table prior to this hand, decided to just limp. It folds around to the cutoff who raises 3x. Folds back around to UTG, he calls the 300 as do I. Pot is 1,050.

Flop comes KdQh4d. UTG checks, I bet into the raiser for 600. He calls and UTG calls. Pot is 2,880.

Turn is a 10d and I make the flush. UTG checks, I bet 1500. Cutoff thinks for a while and raises to 3000 total. UTG folds. I make the call.

River is a 2s and doesn’t change anything. I think for a while and given the reraise opt to check. He bets 3500. I tanked for a long while. He raised the turn and this bet seemed like he was going for value. If I call and he has the flush with a 9, J, Q, A of diamonds it takes me down to only 1500. If I win, it’s a huge pot. I fold face up. He rakes it in and shows a pair of sixes.

[hjk]

Sometimes you need to hang in and take the loss. In a tournament there is some wisdom for waiting until the proper time, but I find that this is only a way to stay in the hunt, not a way to win the tournament or make the money. I probably would have called looking to win it all.

Given the above, did you have a read on the other player? What about betting patterns? I have called off on a hunch that it was a bluff and won.

I was one time the first out of a big tournament. All in on the first hand holding top set when my opponent backed into a straight. I had the best hand when all in, but lost on the river. Boy, I hate the river! <hehehehehe>

[David Wibel]

Ok, so lets breakdown the hand from the beginning.

Pre-Flop: I don’t like the limp. I don’t like limping in general, I like it less from early position and even less with vulnerable hands. This hits all 3 of those things. I think folding 78s from UTG+1 is the best play long term and especially when playing with relatively short stacks (under 150BB). When 200+BB it may be worth a raise.

Flop: Leading into the pre-flop raiser is strange. I feel like this hits his range or the UTG limper’s range best (I don’t know what your UTG+1 limp range even looks like) You are trying to represent a K but I think you are most likely to have the worst King here. Again, the best play is either check fold or check raise. You have no showdown value and Cutoff can have KK and QQ.

Turn: you make the flush, great! Keep betting and 1/2 pot seems good. The min raise is really strange, especially on the turn. The only thing that can do that for value is the Ace high flush or maybe nut straight or sets trying to charge hands with single diamonds in them.

River: Complete blank. Considering you only need to win about 30% of the time I think a call is in order. You beat all sets, straights and 2 pair hands. only a small number of flushes beat you and there are a lot more set and 2 pair combinations that you beat. Even if you lose you have 16BB left, enough to try and get back in things.

[DeeKay]

I agree with David W on most points. But here’s how I think of it:
1) If you are going to play 8-7 suited, you need to raise. Though I do get your change of pace from your image, the reason we want to raise here is that if you make your hand, you need to have a big enough pot that you get the appropriate pay off. Making this hand should pay off nicely.
2) I can’t imagine why you would bet into the better. You are drawing so I would like the check call for two reasons. (a) you can’t get re-raised – pot control, and (b) The likelihood of this flop hitting your opponent is great. He’s going to call. So what was the purpose of your bet? Where you hoping for a semi-bluff and getting it through? I would give you credit if you were trying to build as big a pot as possible if you should make your flush, but that’s too much equity at risk with a limited tournament stack.
3) Now you made your flush and its time to go for value. You could lead out… no issues. Or you could check raise. If it checks through, you can still bet on the river.
4) Can’t see how you can fold the river. Your hand is strong and he can easily have two big cards. Likely have to think K-Q or A-K with his re-raise on the turn. Sometimes they raise in order to protect their hand against draws. But you should strong the whole way, so I would have to put you on AK, or KQ. Doesn’t make sense what the opponent was doing. Might be a tough call for your tournament at the main event, but otherwise I think you need to call here.

[gary]

I play a lot of tourneys and see this a lot , people limp with suited and semi suited connectors and fold at river to a bet. If you play them and then hit you can not then fold every time someone bets the river. Calling is the right play for me every time even if I am beat going down to 15bb is gonna be hard to get back from at this stage.

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