$11 - KK in the money

[Feynman]

Is there any way I get away from this hand?

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t80/t160
3 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
Button: t4530
Hero: t4115
BB: t4855

Pre-flop: (3 players) Hero is SB with K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]
Button folds, <font color="#cc0000">Hero raises to t420</font>, BB calls t260 <font color="aaaaaa">(pot was t500)</font>.

Flop: 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (t840, 2 players)
<font color="#cc0000">Hero bets t460</font>, BB calls t460 <font color="aaaaaa">(pot was t1300)</font>.

Turn: 3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (t1760, 2 players)
<font color="#cc0000">Hero bets t1060</font>, <font color="#cc0000">BB raises all-in t3975</font>, <font color="#cc0000">Hero calls all-in t2175</font>.
Uncalled bets: t740 returned to BB.

River: J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (t8230, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t8230)


Results:
Final pot: t8230

[jonwanchalk]

If you get away here you either are a losing player or have an unreal read. You gotta play this.

[Cair Paravel]

Bet closer to the pot on the flop; that will let you push the turn.

And don't ever fold here.

[ymu]

No, you can't get away from it.

I'd make a slightly bigger raise preflop. If this is your standard opener it's fine - but I think 3x is better generally, especially ITM where we should be ramping up the aggression a bit more.

I'd lead the flop a lot stronger - if he has anything he can call with, he will and you're all pretty deep so he has implied odds to call a decent-sized flop bet with a strong draw (say a flush draw with a pair or a gutshot/OESD).

Once he's called the flop bet, I'm betting the turn aggressively - 3/4 pot, or a push if the pot is close to my remaining stack size. He has something, so I want to make him pay to see if it's any good/draw out on me whilst denying him the implied odds to hit.

[Warteen]

Hey guys, I'm newish to tourneys, so forgive me if this is a dumb question: How much does being in the money make a difference here? Are we finding a fold if it's a bubble situation?

[Feynman]

Thanks all, I needed to be sure I wasn't a total donk. I got a sick feeling when he went all-in, and of course I lost to pocket 8's. I started second guessing whether I should have just folded to make the money, but I couldn't get help but think his push range had to be big enough to make this play +EV. He's probably pushing any two overcards, maybe even A-8. Always possible he's on a stone bluff. Anyway, thanks again.

[ymu]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey guys, I'm newish to tourneys, so forgive me if this is a dumb question: How much does being in the money make a difference here? Are we finding a fold if it's a bubble situation?

[/ QUOTE ]
Not a dumb question at all - quite an interesting one for this hand. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

60% of the prize money is decided when it's down to the last 3, so you're playing to get ITM first and foremost. Once you're ITM you are playing for first, which means taking risks to get chips. A good finish distribution over a large sample of tourneys should show more 1sts and 3rds than 2nds.

When there are still 4 left, your equity loss for bubbling is enormous (0 vs 20%+ of the prize pool) - so you need to play very tight.

You probably could find a fold here on the bubble if you had a good read on your opponent (ie wouldn't do this on the bubble with a hand that didn't beat an overpair). However, it would probably play out very differently on the bubble - he probably wouldn't be calling preflop with 7s9s or T8 or whatever he had - and if he has TT the chips would likely be in preflop, or he would have folded to our raise preflop.