$ NL HE MTT: CC $300 Weekly Platinum

[mariussica88]

Game

Hold'em

Game Format

No Limit

Table Format

MTT

Freeroll

1. Freeroll

Currency

$

This is the first hand of the tournament. Do you guys think that I played it to aggressive? Can I call the river (hero call) ?

pokerstars, Hold'em No Limit - 10/20 - 8 players
Replay this hand on CardsChat

UTG: 3,000 (150 bb)
UTG+1: 3,000 (150 bb)
MP: 3,000 (150 bb)
MP+1: 3,000 (150 bb)
CO: 3,000 (150 bb)
BU: 3,000 (150 bb)
SB (Hero): 3,000 (150 bb)
BB: 3,000 (150 bb)

Pre-Flop: (30) Hero is SB with A♦ Q♦
2 players fold, MP raises to 60, 1 fold, CO calls 60, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets to 240, 1 fold, MP calls 180, CO calls 180

Flop: (740) 5♣ 5♥ 9♠ (3 players)
Hero bets 363, MP folds, CO calls 363

Turn: (1,466) J♦ (2 players)
Hero bets 718, CO calls 718

River: (2,902) J♣ (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets 1,679 (all-in), SB (Hero) folds

Total pot: 2,902
CO wins 2,902

 

[Andyreas]

Preflop:
I know we're super deep but to me, your 3-bet is a little large. 180-200 chips would do too, imo.

Flop:
Total miss, damn! I like the idea of c-betting here but also your c-bet is kinda large. Usually I go with 1/3 of pot. We get called.
So either the other person hit the flop, which is unlikely to me but since it's a freeroll, everything is possible. 😅
I would assume we might be against a medium PP.

Turn:
Still no hit and you also have no draw, so I see why you bet again to hopefully take it down. But another call. So the other person either feels you're bluffing or indeed has something.

River:
You obviously give up here and I'm not sure which worse hands might bet here. Of course it may be a huge float or bluff as well but I'd also fold here and find a better way to bring in my chips. Remember that there are all kinds of players in the freerolls, and especially in the early stage, they'll play a lot of hands, since they're so deep. So I wouldn't risk my chips for a shallow bluff catch.

Summary:
Your premium hand did not connect to the board at all. In my opinion, you could have saved some chips if you decided for a smaller 3-bet and c-bets.

 

[LemonadeJooe]

Pre-flop:
call is preferred as we dont know anything about our opps. opening ranges.
But 3-bet squeeze with AQs is also ok.

Flop:
We completely missed the flop and should just
check/call a small bet.

Turn:
Is diamond but doesnt change anything for us.
With only 6outs we should take the check/fold line.
Being OOP we don't know our equity and betting for CO we have no idea about his range.
Can be any two cards.
And any pair beats us.

River:
Considering the action we expect our opp to have the FH. Doesn't matter we need to fold here.

Conclusion:
Pre-flop 3-bet was ok as we were ok with opps.
either folding or calling.
When we completely missed the flop on a dry board and OOP we really shouldn't pure bluff and into multiple opps with no fold equity.
We are on defense with very little chance to make a hand, we need our opps. to take action to gain any idea what kind of hands they might be having.
Overvalued overcards crippled our stack and forced us to to take more risks to have a chance at comeback in the tourney.
Pure bluffing is not a good idea in freerols/micro/low stakes, as our opps. are just not folding that often.

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
I disagree with Andyreas here and think, your 3-bet is actually to small. 4X is the standard size out of position against a single opponent, but here there is a field caller, and then we usually want to add their chips, meaning we go 5X or 300. And yes thats large, but its still only 10% of our stack, and we dont want to price them in to call us with their entire range. This exact outcome, where they both call, is actually the worst possible one, and if we expect this to happen very often, because its a freeroll, and whatever, then we could also just call and play a smaller pot out of position.

Flop
Against a single opponent I would usually C-bet a low board like this, but against two opponents I kind of lean more towards checking with intention to simply give up. Its unlikely, they connected with the board, but its quite likely, at least one of them might have a pocket pair, and they are not folding a pocket pair on a board like this. You dont even have a BDFD, so if you want to mix up your strategy, then you can C-bet all the other AQs but check-fold this one. Not saying the C-bet is terrible, but I definitely dont think, its printing money either.

Turn
As played I like the dubble barrel more trying to get some hands like 66-88 to fold now.

River
Another J changes nothing, so I dont think, you have enough fold equity to empty the clip. Whatever he liked enough to call you on the turn, he likely still like enough to stack off now. I also dont think, there is any reason to check-call, since there are no busted draws, he might be bluffing with.

 

[eetenor]

This is the first hand of the tournament. Do you guys think that I played it to aggressive? Can I call the river (hero call) ?

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - 10/20 - 8 players
Replay this hand on CardsChat

UTG: 3,000 (150 bb)
UTG+1: 3,000 (150 bb)
MP: 3,000 (150 bb)
MP+1: 3,000 (150 bb)
CO: 3,000 (150 bb)
BU: 3,000 (150 bb)
SB (Hero): 3,000 (150 bb)
BB: 3,000 (150 bb)

Pre-Flop: (30) Hero is SB with A♦ Q♦
2 players fold, MP raises to 60, 1 fold, CO calls 60, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets to 240, 1 fold, MP calls 180, CO calls 180

Flop: (740) 5♣ 5♥ 9♠ (3 players)
Hero bets 363, MP folds, CO calls 363

Turn: (1,466) J♦ (2 players)
Hero bets 718, CO calls 718

River: (2,902) J♣ (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets 1,679 (all-in), SB (Hero) folds

Total pot: 2,902
CO wins 2,902

Watching replayer stopped at flop c-bet

We were 150bb deeps OOP so we could use larger sizing preflop vs 2 players- 4x +1 is a standard OOP raise size which would be 300 we could go larger than that at this stack depth to lower that post flop SPR vs 2 weaker ranges

Flop 3 way strategy is based on the player in the middle folding more of their range so standard is to use 33% pot not 50% pot with 40% of our *****3 bet range**** checking the rest.
The issue with leading large with the AQ no back doors is when called and we miss the turn -if we check the Villain has a large pot to grab and we cannot defend on most cards. We also do not want to be bloating the pot with just A high on such a dry board
BTN calls --turn you bet half pot again btn calls---
You check river and the V shoves you fold----using the smaller flop size is the best option here

 

[300HPGOD]

Pre flop: Read Fundiver's post if you havent already. Pre flop is spot on where this should be a larger sizing and also an excellent point that in freerolls, especially the first hand, no one is folding after vpiping very often so we either raise large as a value play against the likely worse hands or just call and make the pot large post when we want to and keep it small as best we can/fold when we want to.

Flop: I lean towards betting here as played. Firstly, I want to rep a big hand here like 1010+ (a good chunk of my perceived 3 bet range assuming villains even perceive a range) and would never check with a 1010+ hand. Secondly, the board is dry and we only have ace high so its a good spot to try to take it down now considering the board doesnt connect with much and I dont mind here if they fold their worse stuff due to equity denial and that we also got a street of value with the pre flop raise. My bet sizing would be 45% ish since I do want them to fold so I dont want to make it so small it invites a call but just to use some non weird amount that we would use for value betting as well. If I got called though, I would be done knowing this board is dry so villain likely has a pair of some sort or possibly Ax they we beat but should/could check it down with us. If we had just called pre then we check here and then have a decision to make (usually call depending on sizing) based on opponents actions after our check.

Turn: I mentioned above that if I got called I would shut it down so I would shut it down here and check. If we were playing a buyin tourney here then I think we can bet here targeting 9x (98, 109 could be there) and small pocket pairs but in a freeroll once they call a street then they are usually in it for the long haul so I check here hoping for a checkback. You bet close to half which is fine if are going to continue but I think in a freeroll this bet is a losing proposition so definitely when we get called here we are done unless we hit one of our cards on the river.

River: Another J which is pretty bad actually since there are now less value hands we can rep and also if villain were super sticky with something like A8 here then we only chop now anyway. This seems like there is no other sane way to play this other than check and hope they check back. When they bet its a fold and move on.

 

[fundiver199]

Pre flop: Read Fundiver's post if you havent already. Pre flop is spot on where this should be a larger sizing and also an excellent point that in freerolls, especially the first hand, no one is folding after vpiping very often so we either raise large as a value play against the likely worse hands or just call and make the pot large post when we want to and keep it small as best we can/fold when we want to.

I also think, its extremely important, that we are out of position. If Hero was BTN, then I am 3-betting this hand all day long. First of all when we are in position, they are out of position, which mean, they are more likely to fold both pre and post. Even recreational players usually have an intuitive understanding of the power of position, unless they are completely new to the game. And thats typically not the case in CC platinum freerolls.

So being in position we can 3-bet smaller and still get more folds. And postflop we can do this fantastic thing, which is called pot control or "taking a free card". We can check back this flop and basically give ourselfes a 4 card flop before deciding, if we want to invest any more chips. Or we can C-bet with more fold equity, and when they call, we can check back turn and get to see all 5 cards for the price of a single bet.

Here we took a very strong hand like AQs and basically ended up bluffing with it in an environment, where people likely dont do a lot of folding in general, and where we should be much more focused on value betting rather than bluffing. And I think, this is an important general concept. Whenever we are in the blinds and considering an aggressive non all-in action, we should always ask ourselfes, if we have fold equity. And if the answer is "probably not much", then we should strongly lean towards taking a passive or neutral action rather than an aggressive one. Unless of course we are happy when called, which usually require something even stronger than AQs in a 3-bet pot.

 

[Matt_Burns88]

There is some very good advice already here, so I won't just regurgitate it all, but what I will say is freerolls (even the CC ones) do not play the same as other MTT's. For this reason I much prefer a call pre-flop and play a smaller pot with a very under rep'd hand. That way, we can get away cheaply when we don't hit, but can still build a big pot when we do. Those same players that always call your bluffs are also going to struggle to fold to your value bets.