Hand from Cal State 1K

[unglee]

1500 chips to start, about 195 players. Into the third hour, still a lot of tables left. Hero was moved to this table about one rotation ago, and has yet to play a hand.

Hero has 1600 on the button, blinds at 25-50. Folded to him, he raises to 150 with red 88. SB folds, BB (Villian) calls.

Villian has played solid--he laid down an overpair on a 998 board earlier when someone came over the top. He's been folding to reraises in general, though complaining all the while. He has Hero covered.

Flop is T74, with two spades. He leads out for 300. You have 1450 left, and there is 325 in the pot.

What is your strategy at this point? And what do you put him on?

[KramerTM]

I think I fold here. He either has a 7 or two over spades, maybe a weak T. Either way, if you raise, you are only getting called by a hand that has you beat already or has a solid draw on you. Either way, I think a raise sets yourself up to win a small pot or lose a big pot.

It's actually a really good bet by Villain. It's a pretty harmless board that most likely didn't hit the PF raiser. Also, his bet is really putting you to a decision for all your chips (a raise nearly commits you).

[unglee]

Good point. On the surface, it's a pretty unremarkable situation, one that happens all the time, but his perfect sized bet really made my decision difficult. I considered all options--reraising, pushing, calling to try to take it away on the turn, using the flush as fake outs, etc--and couldn't figure out what the right line was.

[adanthar]

Push right now and represent jacks. A weak ten does fold sometimes.

[unglee]

I did, basically--I reraised to 800, which I thought would be "scarier" than a push. He went all in, and I called off my few remaining chips.

He had QT, no spades--I was a little surprised at how quickly he made his decision. I thought I made a good play at representing overpair at the time, but now I'm thinking that maybe this is the sort of marginal situation that one might easily let go of so early in the tournament.

[KramerTM]

[ QUOTE ]
I did, basically--I reraised to 800, which I thought would be "scarier" than a push. He went all in, and I called off my few remaining chips.

He had QT, no spades--I was a little surprised at how quickly he made his decision. I thought I made a good play at representing overpair at the time, but now I'm thinking that maybe this is the sort of marginal situation that one might easily let go of so early in the tournament.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is why I fold here. In retrospect, I make most of my chips in MTTS not by "representing overpairs" but by making these guys call with their same QT when I actually DO have an overpair. Once I can finally accept that that's the way to accumulate my chips, I think I'll be a much better MTTer.