Here's a hand from Stars's nightly $3 rebuy, $10k guaranteed. The play has been pretty decent from some of the players, including the two villains in this hand. Hero is about 150th with 400 remaining out of a field of ~ 1400. Top 135 money, but most of the money is at the final table of course. 10% payout schedule.
CO is a huge LAG. He has been opening 2-3 pots per orbit, rarely showing down a hand but playing reasonably postflop. He won many small pots preflop and won several pots with a continuation bet.
Button here is a decent TAG. I have been at his table since the start of the tournament and he has played a pretty tight-aggressive game.
If anyone's paying attention, Hero has a pretty tight image, having folded most of his hands and rarely showing down a marginal or weak hand. He was not raising frequently and not defending his big blind rather liberally.
To the hand.
Preflop: CO makes his standard open raise and Button cold-calls. I hold 55 in the BB and complete. Standard? Folding is too weak, especially with a 50 bb stack and only 2 bb to call. What about raising? A squeeze play doesn't seem to work here, IMO. The two villains are a LAG and a TAG. The LAG would likely fold his marginal holding but the TAG likely has a legitimate hand and was either trapping the LAG or hoping to flop a decent hand. So, Hero calls.
Flop: Here is where I believe Hero misplayed his hand. What are we representing by leading the flop? 4x and 22-99, no? Marginal/weak holdings that we can be easily pushed off of. Qx rarely leads against a LAGgy PFR and a TAG cold-caller. If CO is a thinking player, he can float the bet and raise any turn or bet any turn when checked to. We do not have a queen, and would likely fold to any resistance. Also, if we lead the flop, we will have to commit too much of our stack to turn/river bets.
Other lines our Hero could take: check/call flop, lead turn; check/raise flop, lead turn; check/call flop, check/call turn; lead river. A queen would take any of these lines and any of these lines have a better chance of folding out the villain.
If we check the flop, CO bets here 100% of the time, and the Button will let us know if he has a strong hand. If he gets out of the way, we are HU with the CO and can proceed. If the button sticks around, we have a pretty easy fold.
Whether we raise CO's flop bet or call it and lead turn is a matter of personal preference, I believe. Is this the best line?
Opinions?
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t600 (9 handed)
converter
CO (t57369)
Button (t24186)
SB (t22345)
Hero (t30477)
UTG (t16775)
UTG+1 (t13095)
MP1 (t74460)
MP2 (t61690)
MP3 (t33054)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 5[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">
5 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">CO raises to t1800</font>, Button calls t1800, <font color="#666666">
1 fold</font>, Hero calls t1200.
Flop: (t5200) 4[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets t3700</font>, CO calls t3700, Button folds.
Turn: (t12600) T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="#CC3333">CO bets t4200</font>, Hero folds.
Final Pot: t16800