My $2k WSOP hands vs aggro boy

[ShawnHoo]

I played in Saturday's $2K WSOP limit event and managed to cash. I was pleasantly surprised that I seemed to know where I was at against most folks, including some "names".

However, there was one particularly aggressive player that I ran into late in the tournament that gave me lots of trouble. He was one seat away on my left and would raise/3-bet very liberally at times, but he wasn't the classic crazy bad chip-spewing maniac. His post-flop decisions were usually pretty decent.

Anyway, these hands came up with around 40-50% of the remaining players about to finish in the money. I'm fuzzy on the order in which these hands happened, but both the villain and I had somewhere between 12-20 BBs left at the time. I'm probably seen as pretty tight by Villain, and I've seen how aggro he is. Comments appreciated.

Hand #1:

I have QQ on the button. Folded to me, I raise. SB (tight player/2+2er) folds, Villain 3-bets, I 4-bet, Villain calls.

Flop: AK5 with two spades

Villain checks, I bet, Villain raises, I ???

Hand #2:

I have AJo in the SB. Villain raises UTG. I call. (Bad?) Tight BB folds.

Flop: Kxx

I check, Villain bets, I ???

Hand #3:

Villain raises UTG, a young guy who seems way over his head 3-bets (he's two to Villain's left and has about 4BB in front of him), folded to me in the SB. I have QQ and call.

Flop: QT4 with two diamonds

I ???

[DeezNutz3]

I was in this tourney and cashed also so if you PMed me with who it is I might be able to help more.

[danderso8]

I was there--gave it a shot (Somehow, i thought the amazing success i've had over the last 3 months in the higher online limits would translate into decent performance. I was sorely mistaken, but that's another story.)

Anyhow, I watched J--and I guess you too--play for a while.

hand 1, without a spade I don't like it. Not sure though whether i would lay down or press a little harder and see if he means it. Probably lay down & wait for better chance.

Hand 2, Agro Boy could certainly be raising with less than AJ here, so I don't see how the call could be bad. Maybe a case could be made for a raise, but I like the call. When the K comes on the flop, I guess I choose from three lines: a) bet out, b) chk, call, CR turn, or c) call down. I can see I need some advice myself in this situation. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Hand 3, the kid was at my table in the first rounds. He mentioned during one of the breaks that he was 3rd in the Party Poker million tourney recently, so he's probably not awful. (For what it's worth, he busted me when I had QQ vs his AA on a T hi flop...I hope your QQ fared better.) I would put him on a pretty big hand here, cause I don't think he woulda been too desparate quite yet. Probably pockets down to about J or maybe 9, or AK/AQ. He was fairly new to your table, but had probably been there long enough to notice Agro Boy, so that may have loosened his 3 bet standards a bit. Assuming Agro also called the 3 bet, I would check the flop. One of them will bet it for you, and you can smooth call, CR any turn.

Interesting to see what J says about these.


EDIT: btw, do you know if Agro Boy cashed?

--Dan

[Josh W]

There wasn't actually a tight 2+2er next to you. There was a carddead 2+2er...and with hyper aggressive on my immediate right (especially since he had postflop skills), I had to pick my spots...

I was tourny chipleader with 170 players left just before 6:00...and never won another pot. I think that's gotta be some sort of record.

With hand #1, he checked blind, and if I remember right, you bet blind. When he checked blind, I immediately put him on a biggish ace, smaller than AK, cuz I thought he'd 5-bet AK preflop.

So he checked blind, and whether or not you bet blind is irrelevant. I woulda 'smooth checked' behind on the flop.

See, if he had a big pocket pair (TT, maybe JJ or bigger), he'd 5-bet preflop. With a small pair, he'd want to be able to bet on a 973 or some such flop, instead of giving a free turn to overcards.

I don't remember hand #2 that well, so I'm thinking you folded and it didn't get to showdown. I'd likely fold, even though you have a pretty hand. Against hyper aggressive opponents, I like to keep pots small out of position until I have something. Yeah, he may have 9-high or something, but I'll save my bullets to fight another day in this tourny (in a ringgame, I may play it differently).

In hand #3, I likely lead...there's a good chance that you'll get to threebet and lose an opponent along the way. This is a tournament where pot odds aren't as important. You aren't worried so much about the 'price' you are laying your opponents...you wanna win the pot. It's huge, and primed to get bigger. If aggro raises, it puts heat on the three-bettor (if he has a AK like hand). If aggro doesn't raise, there's a good chance late guy does, you can threebet, and squeeze aggro out. Those bullets you saved on hand #2, use them here.

I believe aggro's name is "Peter". A few high-limit players I know know him, and he supposedly plays high limit side games like he's driving a bulldozer. I scanned the results, but I didn't see anybody named Peter. He had 14k at the dinner break, 35K half an hour later, and was down to 16k when I busted out.

Congrats, and well played. Nice to re-meet you.

Josh

[catlover]

Hand 1 -- what's wrong with checking behind on the flop, then calling down on the turn and river? Check behind on the turn again if checked to there. Bet the river if he checks a third time.

Hand 2 -- I would check call the flop and checkfold the turn if no help.

Hand 3 -- I think you lead it. Villian is aggro so maybe he will raise to try to knock out the 3rd guy.

The problem is that if you check raise, you are now facing villain with two bets cold and you don't want to do that.