$109 NL HE MTT: How to extract the most value with AA out of position?

[Andyreas]

Game

Hold'em

Game Format

No Limit

Table Format

MTT

Buy-in

109

Currency

$

Hey forum,

the tournament is a $109 MTT with a small field.

We're not yet ITM but approaching the bubble and I have an ITM stack (even if I am pretty short) and therefore don't want to play an overly risky game.

Since my BR has grown over the last months, I am taking some short in those MTTs once a while and use some TM from sattelites to pay for it most of the time.

The field is usually quite polarized:

1. Some (mega)sharks with several ten thousands of winning,
2. Some donors with several (ten) thousands of losses (thank god they keep playing),
3. and also some new players or slightly winning/break even ones.

So pretty evident, that I am trying to target group 2 mainly, if possible.

The hand went as follows:

We (16.55 BBs) are on the Big Blind and get dealt: AdAh.

UTG folds
MP (27 BBs), player type 1, raises 2.1 BBs.
CO (50 BBs), player type 1, calls behind.
LJ folds
BN folds
SB folds
Hero?

Pot is already 6.5 BBs, so a relevant portion of my stack.

Questions:

• Would you just call and hope to extract more value later?
• Would you 3-bet jam due to pot size and hope for 1 call?
• Would you 3-bet a smaller size and then donk jam flop?

 

[primrose]

I would be shocked if GTO has a non-allin raising range at 16BB. If GTO doesn't make a play, then it's theoretically not good (i.e., if the opponent plays well, then it's a mistake). Therefore the only reason to ever make it is if you assume your opponents won't play well.

This describes a large chunk of things I do in poker, so it's not an unreasonable assumption in general. But you specified that both opponents are megasharks, so here it seems very unreasonable. In fact if they're both really good, then this seems like a situation to just consult a solver.

So yeah, there is no way you make a non-allin raise here. So it's flatting or jamming. I know that GTO sometimes slowplays AA in headsup pots. I don't know if it ever does it in 3way pots, and my guess would be no. So I think you should probably jam. This is a situation where, especially because of the flat, you can jam very wide, so a shark should know this and also call you wide. Should be pretty likely, maybe 40% or something, that you get called here.

 

[skaterick]

obvious allin reraise , and be quite content if you just win the 6.5bb already in the center .

 

[Station_Master]

I dont think slowplaying 3ways oop.makes too much sense here. Just shove and hope to get called. Note that many hand that may call off pre, may not stack off post depending on the flop, e.g. 99 on KJ7 or AQ on J94

 

[seiya1989]

I think that simply summarizing would be quite suspicious, since you told us that you had about 16 big blinds and that you were getting close to the bubble. That would indicate to me that you have a monstrous hand. Personally, I would go all-in directly.

 

[sandy358]

Hey forum,

the tournament is a $109 MTT with a small field.

We're not yet ITM but approaching the bubble and I have an ITM stack (even if I am pretty short) and therefore don't want to play an overly risky game.

Since my BR has grown over the last months, I am taking some short in those MTTs once a while and use some TM from sattelites to pay for it most of the time.

The field is usually quite polarized:

1. Some (mega)sharks with several ten thousands of winning,
2. Some donors with several (ten) thousands of losses (thank god they keep playing),
3. and also some new players or slightly winning/break even ones.

So pretty evident, that I am trying to target group 2 mainly, if possible.

The hand went as follows:

We (16.55 BBs) are on the Big Blind and get dealt: AdAh.

UTG folds
MP (27 BBs), player type 1, raises 2.1 BBs.
CO (50 BBs), player type 1, calls behind.
LJ folds
BN folds
SB folds
Hero?

Pot is already 6.5 BBs, so a relevant portion of my stack.

Questions:

• Would you just call and hope to extract more value later?
• Would you 3-bet jam due to pot size and hope for 1 call?
• Would you 3-bet a smaller size and then donk jam flop?

GTO-wise you should definitely squeeze here, surprisingly enough, without a rejam (AA balanced out by some occasional non-rejam bluffs somehow still exists at this stack level, though because it is a heavily mixed strategy designed just over AA, I don't think that rejamming here would be a big mistake), unless they are the donors and you have reads and want to go exploitative. In the second case it kinda depends:

Preflop scenario 1:
One of them is a preflop ultra-maniac or someone who has a personal grudge against you, in other words, someone who will 4bet you all of the time and will put a lot of chips into the pot for free.
In this case I would definitely 3-bet without a jam and induce them to basically give free chips in a hope to bluff you out of your hand.

Preflop scenario 2:
Both are habitual overfolders.
Then I would just call and try to extract value postflop.

Preflop scenario 3:
MP is a call-maniac, CO is a calling station or both. In this case it kinda depends on their elasticity. If they can fold to your rejam, I'd choose to 3-bet light to put extra chips without scaring them away. If they are both really inelastic (I hardly doubt these exist as high as 109$ MTTs, this kind of play would bankrupt a billionaire in two weeks, though some weak players from time to time kinda tend to underestimate rejams from people they cover) I could rejam expecting huge call(s).

Postflop scenario:
If one of them is a huge postflop overbluffing bully, aka the person who will start exploding in huge bluff bets the moment they'll notice that their opponent has shown weakness, I'd better start the setup preflop with a cold call, expecting to make huge call(s) with a possible free double up postflop. The fact that you are covered in this case is a huge plus, as an overbluffer would gladly shove over you just for the sake of leveraging their stack and putting you in a tough spot.

 

[sandy358]

GTO-wise you should definitely squeeze here, surprisingly enough, without a rejam (AA balanced out by some occasional non-rejam bluffs somehow still exists at this stack level, though because it is a heavily mixed strategy designed just over AA, I don't think that rejamming here would be a big mistake), unless they are the donors and you have reads and want to go exploitative. In the second case it kinda depends:

Preflop scenario 1:
One of them is a preflop ultra-maniac or someone who has a personal grudge against you, in other words, someone who will 4bet you all of the time and will put a lot of chips into the pot for free.
In this case I would definitely 3-bet without a jam and induce them to basically give free chips in a hope to bluff you out of your hand.

Preflop scenario 2:
Both are habitual overfolders.
Then I would just call and try to extract value postflop.

Preflop scenario 3:
MP is a call-maniac, CO is a calling station or both. In this case it kinda depends on their elasticity. If they can fold to your rejam, I'd choose to 3-bet light to put extra chips without scaring them away. If they are both really inelastic (I hardly doubt these exist as high as 109$ MTTs, this kind of play would bankrupt a billionaire in two weeks, though some weak players from time to time kinda tend to underestimate rejams from people they cover) I could rejam expecting huge call(s).

Postflop scenario:
If one of them is a huge postflop overbluffing bully, aka the person who will start exploding in huge bluff bets the moment they'll notice that their opponent has shown weakness, I'd better start the setup preflop with a cold call, expecting to make huge call(s) with a possible free double up postflop. The fact that you are covered in this case is a huge plus, as an overbluffer would gladly shove over you just for the sake of leveraging their stack and putting you in a tough spot.

UPD: Didn't notice the "player type 1" label, then it's just an easy GTO rejam or a 3bet if you love closely following ranges. Yikes, I need to learn to read properly before writing these manifestos.

 

[primrose]

GTO-wise you should definitely squeeze here, surprisingly enough, without a rejam

🤯
How much does GTO want to non-jam bet?

 

[pentazepam]

As you can see in most GTO-charts, when just one player raises, you just call with AA in BB when you have around your stack size. Both to trap and being able to call a lot af hands to a single raise to a good price.

BUT with two players in the pot and close to the money, I would be surprised if it's not an all-in jam 100%.

You are also too short to construct any 3-bet range, and it would look stronger than an all-in. Almost all players would call an all-in with nearly the same hands they would call a 3-bet raise with, with the added negative effect that some observant players can do exploitative folds with very strong hands if your line looks like: "I have AA or KK, please call me".

 

[sandy358]

🤯
How much does GTO want to non-jam bet?

Apparently to 5 bigs, though probably somewhat bigger in this scenario, as the ranges are for 2 bb raises not for 2.1

 

[Marshmalo1994]

Hey forum,

the tournament is a $109 MTT with a small field.

We're not yet ITM but approaching the bubble and I have an ITM stack (even if I am pretty short) and therefore don't want to play an overly risky game.

Since my BR has grown over the last months, I am taking some short in those MTTs once a while and use some TM from sattelites to pay for it most of the time.

The field is usually quite polarized:

1. Some (mega)sharks with several ten thousands of winning,
2. Some donors with several (ten) thousands of losses (thank god they keep playing),
3. and also some new players or slightly winning/break even ones.

So pretty evident, that I am trying to target group 2 mainly, if possible.

The hand went as follows:

We (16.55 BBs) are on the Big Blind and get dealt: AdAh.

UTG folds
MP (27 BBs), player type 1, raises 2.1 BBs.
CO (50 BBs), player type 1, calls behind.
LJ folds
BN folds
SB folds
Hero?

Pot is already 6.5 BBs, so a relevant portion of my stack.

Questions:

• Would you just call and hope to extract more value later?
• Would you 3-bet jam due to pot size and hope for 1 call?
• Would you 3-bet a smaller size and then donk jam flop?

I'd go all in.
Close to the bubble I wouldn't want to be surprised with an awful flop that leaves me on the edge of the money.

 

[fundiver199]

As others have said, 3-betting small would look extremely strong with your stack size, so I would rule that out. Just calling would be great against a single opponent, especially if its a good reg, whom we expect to apply pressure after the flop. However when someone else have already called (and with a bigger stack), the bluffing frequency will tend to go down, and there is also more in the pot already. So I think, I just make the easy play here and jam.

 

[eetenor]

Hey forum,

the tournament is a $109 MTT with a small field.

We're not yet ITM but approaching the bubble and I have an ITM stack (even if I am pretty short) and therefore don't want to play an overly risky game.

Since my BR has grown over the last months, I am taking some short in those MTTs once a while and use some TM from sattelites to pay for it most of the time.

The field is usually quite polarized:

1. Some (mega)sharks with several ten thousands of winning,
2. Some donors with several (ten) thousands of losses (thank god they keep playing),
3. and also some new players or slightly winning/break even ones.

So pretty evident, that I am trying to target group 2 mainly, if possible.

The hand went as follows:

We (16.55 BBs) are on the Big Blind and get dealt: AdAh.

UTG folds
MP (27 BBs), player type 1, raises 2.1 BBs.
CO (50 BBs), player type 1, calls behind.
LJ folds
BN folds
SB folds
Hero?

Pot is already 6.5 BBs, so a relevant portion of my stack.

Questions:

• Would you just call and hope to extract more value later?
• Would you 3-bet jam due to pot size and hope for 1 call?
• Would you 3-bet a smaller size and then donk jam flop?

You do not want to go multiway as a min cash is more important to you. The best way to protect your hand is to shove. the upside to the shove are numerous.
1 we win the pot preflop no risk we add 39% to our stack.
2 If we get 1 call we can double our stack and will be 80% fav to do so. If we let 3 players see the flop our equity could drop to 60% a 25% loss of victories at the money bubble. Which is important to you.
3 if we do get called when we shove 3 way, we may make our V play a tighter range of hands that makes our equity potentially 70% a ten % increase vs the easier call when we small 3 bet.

 

[Andyreas]

Thank you all for your feedback!

Indeed I did shove but no one called me. 🥺

 

[Fallenglory]

With one opponent you can consider flatting. Since you are near the bubble, under 20BBs and 3way in, all in seems the way.

 

[mariussica88]

With more then 1 opponent here I would Jam pre-flop and hope one of them call. If they do, lets hope AA hold.

 

[MTT Database Review]

With some ICM from being close the the money, you can have some non-ai squeezes, but it is basically AA and random mix of some bluffs. Here are 3 spots with 17bb and 25 % field left (15 % ITM). Random ones with different positions of opponents, because your post is not really clear, you got MP raise, CO flats and then LJ fold which doesnt make sense.