On the bubble at $10 + $1 20 person PP tourney - What to do?

[Kazlic]

Hello all, this is my first post at the twoplustwo forums. I can't get the hand convertor to work so I did this by hand, any help would be appreciated:

It was late in a 20 person $10 + $1 tourney at Party poker. We were 5 handed (Top 4 get money), and my chiplead had just been surpassed by a tight player who was starting to get aggressive. He is "Big Blind" in the following hand:

NL Texas Hold'em Trny:19037235 Level:7 Blinds (100/200) - Monday, January 09, 04:53:31 EDT 2006
Table 2 - Table(568342) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 1: UTG ( $2515 )
Seat 2: Cut off ( $4990 )
Seat 5: Hero ( $4090 )
Seat 7: Small Blind ( $2130 )
Seat 8: Big Blind ( $6275 )
Trny:19037235 Level:7
Blinds (100/200)
Starting pot: 300
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ K [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] T [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] ]
UTG folds.
Cut off folds.
Hero raises [550].
Small Blind folds.
Big Blind calls [350].
Pot: 1,200
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] , 4 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] , 5 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] ]
Big Blind checks.
Hero bets [700].
Big Blind calls [700].
Pot: 2,600
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] ]
Big Blind bets [1300].
Pot: 3,900

(I have 2840 left in chips)

I'd like to know what I should have done at this point. In about 24 hours (maybe more, maybe less) I'll post the results - for now I'd like to know what YOU would have done.

Thanks all for your help,
Kazlic

[seke2]

Fold.

Even if he's bluffing with ace high, he's ahead of you. If you are going to bluff, you have to push back now. However, you can't deny him the odds to call if he has any sort of pair, straight draw, or flush draw. He might even call with something like AK/AQ here, even without the clubs.

Bad situation. Your preflop raise is fine but a little ballsy with the chip leader in the BB. I like the flop cbet. But if this player has been mostly tight, there's no reason to doubt that he has something better than KT here. Once he calls that and then leads the turn, I'm done with the hand. You'll still be ahead of 2 players after the hand.

[A_PLUS]

I think taking the free card here is fine of the flop. Usually in this spot, I will really tighten up and let the other 4 bang it out for a while. I have no problem with a steal here, but I am going to try to avoid putting more chips in the pot without a pair.

2800 chips is a fine stack here. No need to be worried about a chip lead. The blinds are still pretty small, and no one is in any real danger. Fold and move on. Once the BB is > 10% of your stack, you will need to get aggressive, and your only move should be pushing.

Patience is very important in a situation like this

[OatmealJoe]

I would have checked behind on the flop and take the free card. I'd fold to a turn bet unimproved.

[Fireball_AA]

Your PF raise is fine, I would maybe raise a little more against a CL because he may be loose and I am not looking for a call with K10s.

Flop : Against a low-stack I would put him all-in or under normal circumstances I would do a CB as you did, but against the CL with a marginal hand on the bubble, I will check this down.

My plan was to take it down PF, it failed so if I don't hit I check-fold.

You have to FOLD 100% of the time after his bet on the turn.

[tytygoodnuts]

Welcome to the forum, big guy. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] Definitely fold the turn. You have shown a lot of strength in this hand and he still has decided to bet into you on the turn, so your king-high can't be good. I like the preflop and flop play though. Now is a great time to be aggressive. Everyone else at the table is going to be looking to sneak into the money so take advantage of their tightness. Also the big chip stacks are deceiving, the blinds will be eating the timids up very quickly, a savvy aggressive player has a huge advantage in this situation.

[thesnowman22]

fold preflop

[seke2]

[ QUOTE ]
fold preflop

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not folding KTs on the button 5-handed if it's folded to me. I'm raising and hoping to take it down with a cbet if I'm called. Especially not when I have enough chips to even scare the chipleader (who doesn't have a big lead) in the BB off a loose call.

[Kazlic]

Thanks to everybody who posted their advice. I think (almost) everybody agreed the preflop raise was the right thing to do. After the flop, both the continuation bet and the free card seem to make sense, I just happened to go with the cbet. Here's what happened after he bet into me on the turn:

** Dealing Turn ** [ 7 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] ]
Big Blind bets [1300].
Hero is all-In [2840]
Big Blind calls [1540].
** Dealing River ** [ J [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] ]
Big Blind shows [ Q [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] , A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] ] a pair of fives.
Hero shows [ K [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] , T [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] ] a pair of fives.
Big Blind wins 8280 chips from the main pot with a pair of fives with ace kicker.
Player Hero finished in 5 place
Hero has left the table.

I really thought he was making a move on me, but I didn't even realize that I didn't have enough chips to push him out of the pot. My all-in raise is only 240 more than a min-raise. After I went all-in the pot was 6740 and it cost him 1540 to call. That's nearly 4.5:1, so it doesn't cost him much to see if his A high is good (and if not he at least has 6 outs). Furthermore, even if he loses the pot he still has 2,185 in chips. So my all-in push was very folley, since he is getting a nice price to call, and he has already shown that he has a decent hand from his flop call and his turn bet.

The best solution would have been to drop the hand after the turn - thanks to everybody for helping me realize my big mistake! Seke2 especially nailed it - sure enough, he had AQ and called!