mini step 3 hand

[schwza]

this is a hand my brother played. no reads.

9th pays $2, 7/8 step 1 ($6), 5/6 step 2 ($22), 3/4 step 3 ($55), 1/2 step 4 ($165)

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (9 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

MP2 (t902)
MP3 (t470)
CO (t794)
Button (t1150)
Hero (t765)
BB (t1610)
UTG (t825)
UTG+1 (t2441)
MP1 (t1043)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 3/images/graemlins/club.gif.
<font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, MP1 calls t100, <font color="#666666">4 folds</font>, Hero completes, BB checks.

Flop: (t300) J/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 7/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 6/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
Hero checks, BB checks, MP1 checks.

Turn: (t300) 2/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
Hero checks, BB checks, MP1 checks.

River: (t300) 4/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets t150</font>, BB folds, MP1 folds.

Final Pot: t450

[jcm4ccc]

I think this is terrible, in so many ways. A3 is a dog, and completing this for 50 chips is just spewing chips. Your flop play was good, because this is crap and you don't want to try to bluff into 2 people, especially when they have you covered. Your turn play was good, because again you did nothing. Your river play was horrendous. A weak bet against 2 players, on a crappy board. Nobody would fall for that bluff. You just got lucky that they didn't pair their hands.

[Sam T.]

Your "brother" probably should have folded this pre-flop. Calling off almost 10% of your stack for the privilege of playing a bad hand out of position has got to be -EV. If he doesn't hit two pair or better, the hand is unplayable.

I don't even like the river bet. The big stack doesn't need much to call (a weak jack ought to do the trick), and against an unraised blind he may well run into a really odd two pair or set (64, 74, 44 etc.). Then your brother has just lost 1/3 of his stack with A3o. Yeeeks.

Sam

[schwza]

here's "the" advice that "i" emailed to my "brother"

i would not bet the river here. the reason is that you’re not going to get called by a worse hand, and you won’t make many better hands fold. you might fold out a better A high from the limper, but that’s about it. you want to just check here and hope you have the best hand. the only good argument in favor of betting is to prevent one of the other guys from bluffing you out, but that is not outweighed by the times that somebody will call your river bet with a 6 or pocket 8’s or something. in general, you want to bet you strong hands and your horrible hands on the river. i would like a bet a lot with 98 here since you have almost no chance to win by checking.

if you’re going to bet this pot, i think you should do it on the turn – then you’re denying them one more chance to make a pair.

calling is not too bad, but i would lean towards folding pre-flop. if you do flop an A, it will be hard to avoid either going broke with TPNK (that’s top pair no kicker) or getting pushed off the best hand. and since moving up the payscale one spot is valuable, i’d just dump it and save the chips.

this is an interesting hand despite the lack of fireworks.

[AliasMrJones]

I wouldn't play it like this. A3o is not a good hand. You're not in desparation mode here, but will be getting there when the blinds go up next. You're at a point in the tourney where I'm looking for steal/double-up opportunities. Calling away 50 more chips with a mediocre hand out of position doesn't look like a good way to do either. I'd generally prefer to save the 50 for better opportunities.


Why not try to steal on the turn? I think it is more difficult to try a steal on the river after a second blank hit when you didn't bet after the 2 fell on the turn. Making a straight with that board means you had to have completed with real crap which seems unlikely given your stack size and the blinds so it is hard to think anyone is going believe you hit the straight. (In this case you completed with merely mediocre crap.) I think the 1/2 pot bet on the river is fine if you're going for the steal.

[The Student]

I don't like the completion by the SB because there is almost nothing that will hit your hand that you can feel safe about. If an ace drops and you bet, and get at least one caller, you have to shut down, but you'll be so short-chipped by then that you're going to be tempted to see any ace all the way down.

However, if you did have some read on the MP1 player (say that he called PF with suited connectors a lot, and raised with any strong aces) then the bet on the river is not horrible, but it should be bigger (I would say 225) so it doesn't look so much like a steal.

That being said, I still think the worst play here is by the MP1 player - what is he calling with PF that he can't bet out at least on the turn against 2 random hands that have shown they don't like their hands by checking on the flop and turn? MP1 just donated 1/10 of his stack for no good reason.

Was there anything else that you were wanting feedback on in particular, Schwza?

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