Too Passive??

[bruce]

Live Event.

I am in big blind with T1000, and UTG with T2000, raises my T50
big blind to T100. The rest of the table fold including the small blind. He is somewhat aggressive and he has made
it to one final table at the Commerce's tournament so far. I have 56s and I call.

Flop comes Ah 6c 2h. I have middle pair with a flush draw.

I check and he bets T100. I call. I consider making a play at the pot
but his cheap bet enticed me to call.

Turn Ah 6c 2h Ad

Check, Check.

River brings Qs

I check and he bets T300 and I call.

How's my play?
Comments appreciated.

Bruce

[Lloyd]

Is he UTG or in the SB?

[bruce]

UTG

[Lloyd]

Ok. You left out your initial check on the flop so I wasn't sure.

I definitely like the call on the flop as you've got one of those hands that can win a huge pot if the flop hits you. On the flop, with middle pair and a flush draw, you've got 14 outs against anything other than a set or Aces up. That means your virtually a conflip.

Before you check the flop you need to figure out a game plan. You have four choices. You can lead out with a bet. You can check with the intention of raising, calling, or folding. You're shortstacked so I think if you decide to play this hand you need to commit your entire stack. You might have the best hand right now and there's a good chance that if you don't you'll improve. Add that to your read of him being somewhat aggressive and my inclination is to play for all my chips. The question is the best way of doing that.

This rules out check - folding for sure. If you check - call his bet and the turn is a blank, then what. Now, you only have one card to come and you're about a 2-1 dog if he has a pair higher than 6. Since we've committed to putting all of your chips in the pot do we want to do that on the turn as a 2-1 dog, or on the flop as a coinflip. Clearly on the flop. This rules out check - call.

So now we need to decide between check - raising and leading out with a bet. And the best course of action is the one that let's us get our chips in the middle without it being too much of an overbet and with some folding equity.

Looking at the check - raise first: you check and he bets 100. There is now T350 in the pot and you've got T950 behind you (I'm assuming that you having T1000 was after posting, if not it doesn't make a huge difference). A normal raise would be to around T450 so betting T950 is a bit of an overbet but I don't think it will look too funny since you're shortstacked. You certainly have enough folding equity to get him to muck what could be the best hand right now like a bigger pair. And I think if you do check he will in fact make a bet since you've categorized him as being somewhat aggressive and that would be the norm. If in fact he checked behind I'd put him on a real big hand and that would impact my turn decision greatly.

If you lead out for half the pot(T125): you might win it right then if he was on a bluff. If he has a decent hand and wants to raise, a normal raise would be to T500. My guess is he should know that you're pot committed at that point so he would probably push instead.

So we're faced with a decision of either check - raising all-in which would be a bit of an overbet (and also gives him a free card if he wants one) or betting and be faced with calling an all-in. I think I'd prefer check - raising all-in.

[THATWACOKID]

I'm a little rusty with tournaments, and when I did play tournaments I didn't have as much poker knowledge as I have now. If he's a good opponent, my thoughts are if you lead then he may get away from a hand like A-10 or maybe even A-J depending on your image.= (maybe not a bad thing?). He's also most likely going to put you on an ace. If you check he's going to bet a lot of hands w/o an ace in it, and when you push he would be very bad to call without an ace. I really like a check-raise over the lead. Again, I am pretty much re-learning tournaments so take this with a grain. Let me know if any of this sounds off. Any other thoughts?