Hand from Party Multi $30/3 for review

[Colby818]

I didn't download hand history, so this is all from memory, but my memory is quite clear here. I'm just posting pre-flop and flop, because I want to hear other's thoughts.

12 players left in Party $30/3 NL 3 table - Blinds are T100/200

Hero is SB with ~3100(4th at table and 5th overall)
Hero is dealt 88

UTG folds
UTG+1(~3300) raises to 400
UTG+1 hadn't been playing many hands, so I didn't have a great read, but seemed to play the pots he was in well.
UTG+2, CO fold
Hero calls
BB folds

flop came J-8-Q(rainbow)

Hero checks
UTG+1 raises to T600
Hero raises to T1800
UTG+1 pushes all-in

I thought for a moment. It didn't seem to me that this player would play QQ or JJ for a minimum raise pre-flop. I also expected that if he did have one of those that he might slow play it. I put him on either KK AA AK or AQ.

I called the all-in.


What do you guys think? Would you have laid down the trips here? That would have only left me with ~1400, though I did feel I had a chance of building back up if I lost it. But, I felt that if I hit it, I had a substantial chance of a win or a top 3 finish.

I'll post results later.

[Jason Strasser]

Colby!

I have to admit, I have played one multi sng on party, and well I lost right away. But I will give this a shot...

Everything here seems to say that you are ahead. This player could have AQ, QJ, etc. There is a small chance the person raised the min with QQ or JJ, but that is very rare and very tricky. Most players will reserve that for AA and KK, which you are killing at the moment.

If by the odd chance your opponent has a straight, you have plenty of outs. I think there is only one way to play this hand, and that is the way you played it. Solid betting and raising amounts IMO.

Good job.

[deacsoft]

If the guy hasn't played many hands yet you DO have a read! He's a tight player who probably comes in with monster hands, and in addition to that, you said he plays well post flop. MUCK IT PREFLOP. I've seen very good players lay down more than 8-8 preflop due a "rock" openraising from EP.

Since you did play it you have to push-in now. You hit the hand you were looking to hit so why wouldn't you? If you thought he had A-A or K-K why did you call preflop? I don't like anything about this hand.

[Jason Strasser]

Your logic is way off. If the player in question has AA or KK only, and I know it, then I would call with all sorts of hands preflop. For instance, 22. Or 67s. If I was 100% sure, I'd call with anything that didnt have an ace or a king with it. Of course, you can never be 100% really...

You're really saying you'd fold 88 here preflop to a minimum raise? Thats a horrible, horrible, horrible fold. And its horrible for the reasons you mentioned... Your opponent has a monster!

[Colby818]

Thanks for both replies Jason. As I've said in the past, I value your advice. And I especially appreciate your defense of my play. I consider myself very good at getting away from hands after the flop if things don't feel right, but I was afraid I played too aggressively because I had been on a bit of a hot streak and tried to get fancy.

Because he was playing tight, like I said, I thought he was on AA, KK, AK. I was more than happy to donate T400 to him and fold if I didn't improve or if we both improved. Even if the board flopped AAK, putting me in big trouble against my read, I'd have still had ~2000 chips, would have still made the final table and still had some chance of winning money.

I will grant that if he had AK, he would have had 4 outs to beat me, but if he were on AA or KK, he was down to 3. And if he was on AQ or AJ he was down to 2. By every hand I could imagine him playing to a min raise at that position, I was ahead.


For what's it worth, the one hand I didn't envision being played this way was TJo. He flopped a straight on me, and bet it like TPTK. I hated his preflop play, but loved his postflop play, though if I hadn't caught a piece of the flop, I'd have been out of this hand, so maybe he should have waited for me to make the first bet. I presume he was content to just take it down though, or to force me to play big to play back at him.

[Sam T.]

Looks good to me. My guess is he's got AA or KK, perhaps AQ, and likes his chances with TPTK and a backdoor str8 draw.

Out of curiosity, what is your impression of the three-table tourneys? I rarely have the time for full multi-tables, and these seem like a nice middle ground. (And how long do they last?)

Hope the hand worked out for you...

[Sam T.]

Do you mean T9o? TJ would give him a pair of jacks, not a straight.

[Jason Strasser]

No problem Colby. I like how you went with your read. Here is a part of a PM Tommy Angelo sent me about trusting "tells". It has to do with live poker and such, but the way he trusts his reads and tells are what I admire:

"The only way I play poker is sitting around a table with breathing people. I don't think that "winning poker" "is" some percentage tells and some percentage other. I think it is all tells. 100%. Everything every opponents ever does or does not do, whether they choose to raise, or fold, slowly or quickly, with a remark or not, every possible thing, including their betting, is just one more piece of information that I process, or not, use, or not. It's stuff that tells me what they have. I don't know how to define the word "tell" in a meaningful way that doesn't include a bet as a tell, since every bet I ever see is done is some particular fashion that might or might not give me information about what the opponent has. "

It doesn't directly apply to anything here, except to have full confidence in your reads and to follow through. Gluck.

[Phil Van Sexton]

You start with 3100, call 400 pre-flop, so that leaves you with 2700.... and then you raise T1800 on the flop?

I'm suprised that strassa agreed with this bet size. I would always push rather than bet 66% of my stack. Is there a reason not to push here?

[Jason Strasser]

That's very true... I wasn't following stack sizes as closely as I should've. This is probably a push spot. Although in this case, it seems like this chips are going in regardless--however Phil is absolutely right. Thanks for catching me.