FullTilt 10+1 final table hand

Hey everyone, this is my first post here, I wasn't sure whether to put it in the MTT section or here so I'm taking my chances. Unfortunately I closed the program before I had a chance to save the HH, but I remember it fairly distinctly.

We were down to 4 people after starting with 160ish, and I had been extremely aggressive, betting almost every flop that I stayed in for and raising about 2/3 of the time preflop. I had the chip lead with about 80k, and the other three people had about 60k, 30k, and 20k. The blinds were 2400/4800 with a 125 ante.

I was dealt A8o in the big blind. It was folded to the small blind, who raised it just under 2xBB. I called, and the flop came a89 with 2 spades. I bet about 1/5 of the pot (I had been betting small amounts like this, and people were mostly folding the pot to me, so I figured it would help me get a read on his hand). He called quickly, so I put him on a draw. The turn was a blank, so rather than give him another cheap card to hit his draw, I bet half the pot (15k into a 30k pot), and he thought for quite awhile then called. The river came the 2 of spades, I checked it to him, and he pushed for 18k, and I called despite being fairly sure he had the flush because I thought I was committed.

I'm sorry if the numbers don't quite add up, this was at about 3 in the morning, but the general gist of the hand is right, so I'm just wondering if anyone would have played this differently regarding the small bet on the flop or just pushing on the turn, forcing him to go all in to hit his draw.

If players were folding to your 1/5th pot bets, they are probably pretty bad. Betting 1/5th of the pot gives them odds to chase any draw, so you need to bump it up a lot. Once the turn was a blank, I would have put the other guy all in (I would have probably done this on the flop already though. I'm assuming he flipped a flush? Calling the river when he wakes up and pushes once 3 of a suit are on the board probably indicates his made hand.

No, they weren't great by any stretch, but I was mostly using the 1/5 bets when the flop had high cards, so they weren't likely to have any draws, including overcards, and a few times they tried to raise me in what I read as them trying to put me off a bluff, so if I had any sort of a hand I reraised and they threw it away, so they didn't particularly want to get in a hand with me without cards.

I don't see that putting him all in on the flop is the best play, since at this point I have virtually no idea if he has a draw, and he could be holding just about any ace at all or even 89, in which case he'd put a raise on me, where if I pushed (a play that would've been very different from my past play) and he was holding ace-rag, he probably would've given it up without giving me any more money.

As for the turn, I think you're right, that was probably the place to push, but a half pot bet is definitely giving him the wrong odds to call. He did indeed flip over the flush, and I was fairly sure he had it, but I have a bad habit of making a few too many calls hoping people are bluffing; I definitely should've hrown away the hand there.

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he could be holding just about any ace at all or even 89, in which case he'd put a raise on me, where if I pushed (a play that would've been very different from my past play) and he was holding ace-rag, he probably would've given it up without giving me any more money.



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If he is holding 89 two pair he will not fold to a push, it he has A good kicker, he will probly make the overcall with just top pair, as you said he is a bad player. If he has on draw, make him pay to draw at it. Give him a chance to make a mistake by calling, and even if he doesn't you still win when he folds.