$150 NLHE MTT: Top two pair in tricky spot

[Rajten]

11 level, we have avarage stack 33bb

Co raises 2bb (56bb stack), Bu folds, sb calls (69bb) hero BB with KsJd calls (33bb)

flop Js Kh Ts (7bb)

3x checks

Turn Js Kh Ts 7c (7bb)

sb bets 3,5bb, hero raises 11bb, Co folds, sb all in, hero calls 22bb

I am not sure, fold on turn would be nit fold, even when straight are possible. I am beaten by Q9s, 98s, and 77, I beat everything else. But question is, raise on flop is good? I wonder about call instead of raise to let him bluff or river and value bet worse hands and to protect my tournament live, but on such boards I prefer to play strong hands in fast way, when there are so many terrible cards on river. What do you think?

Player on sb, is aggresive and rather loose player.

 

[Tigroslav]

Oh this is very sick. Feels like a bad beat in the works.
I've busted in spots like these so many times.
Hard to say whats the best way to play here.
A lot depends on the other two players profiles.
All that in mind I do think most often a big bet
is the way to go. I got a custom button bet size for
these spots and its 146% pot bet.

 

[IADaveMark]

Preflop, since the original raise was only 2bb and was called, I might think about 3-betting here. (e.g. 6bb). You are going to be OOP against the original raiser and a raise to 2bb isn't very confident. Also, you might chase out the SB pre.
Multi-way, I wouldn't have been so interested in slow-playing top 2. Heads up, that's fine but I'm still wary of it with the 2x spades out there. Yeah, you are in EP but a donk bet here (perhaps 1/3 pot) might just take it down or at least get one to fold.

In a way, the 7c on the turn felt safer, though. Better than if a spade hit the board.

You forgot a could of hands you were beaten by, though. KK and JJ. SB would likely have 3-bet KK but not necessarily JJ OOP.

Another possibility here is shoving the turn rather than simply raising. You are putting in 1/3 of your stack with one more street to come. And, as you know, you opened it up for a re-raise. The shove here carries a bunch of fold equity, prices out draws, and ends up in pretty much the same place. If not on the turn, you were likely pot-committed on the river regardless.

As played, I agree with calling the shove because dropping from 33 to 22bb is a big hit. That said, calling a shove is worse than shoving first (as mentioned above) because there is no more fold equity. However top 2 is a damn good hand at this point and you might already be ahead. Sure, Villain might be on a draw that could come through but that's poker.

So again, my only changes would be maybe 3-betting pre, maybe donk-betting the flop, and raising all in on the turn.

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
You could squeeze here, but calling is clearly fine as well.

Flop
You could lead, but even though you flopped top two, this is not exactly the nuts, when AQ and Q9 already has a straight, and many other hands have some sort of straightdraw. So I dont think, this is a default stack-off spot, and for that reason its better to check and basically see, what happens.

Turn
I lean towards just calling this bet from SB. You say, you only lose to Q9s, 98s and 77, but SB can easily have AQ or TT as well and play it like this. AQ in particular is important, because it can be all 16 combos of it, so it really reduce the value of two pair. You do raise though, and now he jam on you, and here we are.

His jam is for a bit less than pot, so you need something like 30% equity to profitably call it off. If you are behind to a set or straight, you have 4 outs, which is less than 10% equity. Its not likely, he is doing this for value with a hand worse than yours. So you basically have a bluff catcher, and then it all comes down to, how often you think, he is bluffing, and where in your range this hand is. Since raising was somewhat thin in my opinion, I honestly dont hate a fold as played.

The main thing here is, how often do people actually 3-bet as a bluff expecting you to raise-fold? Even in high stakes games it seems to me, this is most likely an underbluffed line. But more importantly I would just have called to control the size of the pot and basically see, what happen on the river. When you are in position, its not to your advantage to get the chips in early, and you should do much less raising in general.