Pushing your opponent off their draw.

[elonkra]

Let's say you're a co-chipleader in a tourney that is down to three players (bubble time). You're in the big blind holding 39off, and the flop comes 369, with two diamonds on the board. There is $60 in the pot when the flop comes, you bet $70 and get a caller ($200 in the pot when the turn brings another random non-diamond). You have nearly $1500 chips left, as does your opponent. I bet $300. Should I have pushed all in? I don't want to for fear that he might have the unlikely trips, but I'm playing low-limit SNG's with really bad players that will pay to draw at flushes. Any input?

[willperkins]

I would not overbet the pot by pushing. I would bet about t150 on the turn. That would give him the incorrect odds if he is trying to draw the flush. If he calls you, then he is making a mistake. If he gets lucky and hits his flush on the river, so be it. Fold you hand and get him on the next hand. IMHO.

[microbet]

It is a bit of an unusual situation because:
Most of the SNG's pay 3 people so the bubble is with 4, but I know there are 6 player SNG's and they probably pay 2 so this might be one of them.
The BB is only 30 and you are on the bubble? That seems unusual.
Aside from that, I like your play if you think he is on a flush draw. He has some implied odds because you will probably call a very small bet even if the flush hits and you don't necessarily want to just barely make it incorrect for him to call on a draw. Plus, if he's a sucker and is willing to give you a little extra, you should take it.

I certainly don't see any reason to push $1500 into a $200 pot.

[elonkra]

[ QUOTE ]
It is a bit of an unusual situation because:
Most of the SNG's pay 3 people so the bubble is with 4, but I know there are 6 player SNG's and they probably pay 2 so this might be one of them.
The BB is only 30 and you are on the bubble? That seems unusual.
Aside from that, I like your play if you think he is on a flush draw. He has some implied odds because you will probably call a very small bet even if the flush hits and you don't necessarily want to just barely make it incorrect for him to call on a draw. Plus, if he's a sucker and is willing to give you a little extra, you should take it.

I certainly don't see any reason to push $1500 into a $200 pot.

[/ QUOTE ]

You would not believe how bad the players are at americascardroom.com

That's why the big blind was $30 at bubble time (and yes, this was a 6player tourney). And that's why I sometimes overbet the pot (these guys will chase with anything -- I just had a guy call my TPTK turn all-in with bottom pair a minute ago [he caught a 3rd 7 on the river, of course]).

Thanks for the input guys.

[microbet]

What was the buy-in?

[slydeni]

Even still...
You wanna put a bet out there that makes their call incorrect money wise. If he is on a draw...fine - put him in a spot where has to make a bad call (Bad call: calling a bet that pays less than the odds of hitting the hand). If you can do this over and over, the you will win at this game.

There is no reason to go all in. It sounds like yer saying they will call anything so you wanna scare them off. Fine...give them an opportunity to make a mistake.

BUT -- if you go all in... you may get beat her- then what?
Yer dead. Its about survival. Survive- survive- survive /images/graemlins/smile.gif

sly

[elonkra]

[ QUOTE ]
What was the buy-in?

[/ QUOTE ]

$3 + $0.30, but the bad play is not restricted to the low level SNG's by any means. Plenty of fish at the $5, $10, $15, and $20 SNG's too. Now that I say that, I realize these are all low level SNG's for you guys, so nevermind lol.

[elonkra]

[ QUOTE ]
Even still...
You wanna put a bet out there that makes their call incorrect money wise. If he is on a draw...fine - put him in a spot where has to make a bad call (Bad call: calling a bet that pays less than the odds of hitting the hand). If you can do this over and over, the you will win at this game.

There is no reason to go all in. It sounds like yer saying they will call anything so you wanna scare them off. Fine...give them an opportunity to make a mistake.

BUT -- if you go all in... you may get beat her- then what?
Yer dead. Its about survival. Survive- survive- survive /images/graemlins/smile.gif

sly

[/ QUOTE ]

Here's the problem. The only poker books I've read are extremely basic (McEvoy), or extremely bad (Helmuth). I don't know the first thing about odds, and I'm sure the subject is a little too broad for anyone to quickly explain, but I don't know what sized bet makes a drawer incorrect to call. I've been playing it all by ear, unfortunately. But several people on this site have been nice enough to suggest some beginner's reading for me to get started with.

[willperkins]

Read Harrington on Holdem. He does an excellent job of explaining the correct bets in realtion to pot odds. He also explains "continuation bets" and "probe bets". I have read probably 12 books and this is right up there with the best of them.