What is your Move here?

[Poker Jon]

Hey All,

Just wanted to know what you would do in this situation.

History of the tourney:

Stars $20 PLHE
280 Runners
36 paid - real money on the final table etc etc
40 runners left
I have T85,000 (approx 1/4 chips in play and 3 times as many as the second placed person)

I have been at the table for about 45 minutes (quite a long time online).

I haven't been bullying the table, but have caught some nice cards and been playing my A game to accumulate chips - nearly every time I have shown down, I have had a pretty good hand. I 'think' I have a tight table image.

OK so here is the hand.

Opponent in question is in the big blind and has a reasonable stack of about 23k. Seems a solid player, who plays with average aggresiveness. I haven't had any heads up pots with him yet?

Big Blind is 2k

I am in the CO and look down as QJo. Folded to me, I call, button call, SB completes and BB checks.

Flop

K 10 2 rainbow.

SB checks
BB bets pot of 8k leaving him with about 13k left

Your move??

What would you do?

Results posted later.

Cheers,

Jon

[Smasharoo]

Fold. What are you doing calling the blind with QJo??

You don't have the best hand now. Or at least it's staggeringly unlikely you have the best hand now. You're 40/60 to complete the straight if neither of them has an A.

I don't think you get anywhere but a 40/60 shot for 1/4 of your chips if you put him all in.

[salty]

Id say fold,if he had bet the minimum you could draw cheaply but seing as he is betting a third of his stack in EP into the big stack he seems not to be afraid of a bit of action.You can afford to fold here and keep your chip advantage healthy.

[steeser]

I would say fold in this situation, but why call from the cutoff?? You have a decent hand a tight image, as well as a huge stack. You should use that to steal some blinds. Raise to about 6K, and you can fold to an all-in.

[Poker Jon]

I thought about this long and hard. I put BB on a K with a low kicker, and with his tight image, I decided to re-raise him all in and try and push him off his top pair.

I also looked at the amount of runners left and decided he would have a tough decision with just 4 left for the money and he was lying in about 5th or 6th place at the time.

The other two players folded and he went into the tank. He let the time run down and called eventually and flipped over K8.

I didn't catch my straight and he doubled up.

I agree with stesser that I should have raised to 6k and try to steal the blinds, but on the flop, I made the correct read on a king with poor kicker, but not that he would call.

I don't know about you guys but if I were in the BB position, I would be more than inclined to fold to the all in re-raise, with TPLK. Especially with only 4 people left until the money?? He wasn't totally pot committed IMO.

What do you reckon?

Cheers Jon

[steeser]

When he bet out nearly 40% of his stack on the flop, I think that should have screamed at you that he was gonna play this hand no matter what. If his bet were smaller, I may have been more inclined to make the move that you made.

Definitely definitely definitely raise PF though. I don't think he will call a 3 BB open with that hand. I will never just call in this situation, unless I had AA and thought someone would raise after I limped in. Even then I don't like it.

[Tosh]

[ QUOTE ]

I agree with stesser that I should have raised to 6k and try to steal the blinds, but on the flop, I made the correct read on a king with poor kicker, but not that he would call.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very few people will fold there that play these games, you should know that by now and yes definitely raise preflop if you will play the hand.

[fnurt]

In a nutshell, this comes down to the fact that you cannot bluff a bad player. More specifically, this guy obviously knew you might have him beat, but wasn't sharp enough to figure out what hand you might be representing, so he got confused and called.

As it turns out, you made a great read of his cards, just not of the player. If you're that good at figuring out what people have, you can afford to wait for a favorable situation, rather than trying to bluff people off a made hand.

And yes, opening with a raise from the cutoff is mandatory here.

[Poker Jon]

Yeah you are both right!!

When he bet out 8k, I knew it would be tough to get him to lay it down, but I have seen it before.

My error was definitely preflop. With a big stack and no limpers QJo is a defo raising hand in my book. I don't know why I didn't - I paid the price unfortunately.

I am still not sure I like his call. I could have KQ, KJ, K10 or K9 and have limped preflop with any of these hands. I know that he doesn't put me on AK or I would have raised.

I think I thought to myself on the flop,

'I've decided to play QJo in late position, I have a nice flop, lets see what the gods are going to bring [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]'

[Poker Jon]

On reflection, everything you say in this post is 100% correct.

Cheers for the feedback everyone.

If any cares, I took down 8th place on the final table, after making one of the most horrendous bluffs I have ever made.

1st hand at the final table

My stack T70000
SB T40000

Blinds 3-6k

I am on the button.

Folded to me, I look down at A4o and min raise to 12k. SB folds, BB completes.

Flop KJ7. BB checks, I bet 6k, BB calls.
Turn Q. BB checks, I bet 12k, he raises for an extra 10k, and I kick the table, scream out loud, reach for the Magnum in my side draw and hit the call button. He flips over 77 and my straight draw didnt hit!!!

I am a complete moron [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Oh well - it was fun while it lasted!! [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]