I suck with stacks between 20 and 80 BBs

[Ansky]

looks good to me

[Superfluous Man]

[ QUOTE ]

The turn check is a good idea, but you can bet also so you won't have to pay a big river and the draw will likely fold. You must fold to a CR.


[/ QUOTE ]
This is why I really hated betting the turn then, and still kind of do now. I don't want to get 28%+ of my stack in the pot and then not see a showdown, especially when I could very well have the best hand (or the 30% or so equity I'd need to make a breakeven call). The solution would, of course, be to call the c/r; however, without a solid read on this guy, that would be tough to do.

[ QUOTE ]

Don't raise just to steal blinds, raise to build a stack. I don't like to raise with a hand I feel I'll have to give up everytime I get some resistance.


[/ QUOTE ]
I don't really understand this. Doesn't the requirement stated in your second sentence eliminate all but big PPs and hands that happen to hit the flop? And, with the big antes on FTP, isn't stealing a pretty integral part of building a stack?

[ QUOTE ]

You could go build your confidence at lower levels, this might help.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not a bad idea, but I prefer to either play bigger buyin tournaments or cash games. Hourly rate, or something. Or, maybe I am just a degenerate.

[Superfluous Man]

[ QUOTE ]

nath, you indicated in another recent post that you like raising >3x with antes like this, interested to hear you talk more about this vs reducing your raise size to more like 2.5x.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm not Nath, but I have been experimenting with raising smaller amounts (even with these huge antes) because when people pass up the huge immediate odds I'm offering them, they're making a huge mistake. 2.5x isn't a minraise, so it won't get auto-called, but I'm risking slightly less to win the same amount I would win by raising 3x or more.

The problem is, I guess, that some people will call a 2.5x raise more than they will call a 3x raise. In essence, I'm "getting greedy;" hoping that the players in the blinds will make a big mistake by folding to a 2.5x raise, instead of making the somewhat smaller mistake of folding to a 3x raise, even if they'll do the latter more often.

This is rambling, maybe I'll think of a better way to express this later.

[TroutMaskReplica]

[ QUOTE ]


This is rambling, maybe I'll think of a better way to express this later.

[/ QUOTE ]

no, this is what i'm getting at, thanks

[nath]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Oh raise more PF

[/ QUOTE ]

nath, you indicated in another recent post that you like raising >3x with antes like this, interested to hear you talk more about this vs reducing your raise size to more like 2.5x.

[/ QUOTE ]
In the hand in OP our hero is giving the BB 3.5:1 immediate odds to call. If he's at all worth a damn and has a hand that isn't total garbage he should be calling. And a good player can make your life difficult, even OOP, or at the least, won't fold, which is obviously what you want here.

When stacks are shallower you can raise smaller because people won't be able to take the pot odds because it's too much of their stack. Here I would make it 2500 and sometimes more.

[TheNewf]

I'd play it the same postflop. With those antes and the generally tougher compeition in the 1K my standard raise is bigger though like nath said.

[Cornell Fiji]

the hand was played fine IMO.

If you're playing it, I like raising to 2.5bbs here but obviously the argument for 3bb raise also has a lot of merit.

[stealthmunk]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Oh raise more PF

[/ QUOTE ]

nath, you indicated in another recent post that you like raising >3x with antes like this, interested to hear you talk more about this vs reducing your raise size to more like 2.5x.

[/ QUOTE ]
In the hand in OP our hero is giving the BB 3.5:1 immediate odds to call. If he's at all worth a damn and has a hand that isn't total garbage he should be calling. And a good player can make your life difficult, even OOP, or at the least, won't fold, which is obviously what you want here.

When stacks are shallower you can raise smaller because people won't be able to take the pot odds because it's too much of their stack. Here I would make it 2500 and sometimes more.

[/ QUOTE ]

You are wrong.

You underestimate the power of positional advantage and overestimate the level you think your opponent is on. 2.5xing or 3xit or 3.5xing it, your opponent is not going to be changing his defending reraising range at all probably, definitely not enough to negate the potcontrol/chips you save when button jams, etc.

[Hercules]

Anybody betting 5000ish on the turn for a free showdown?
The reason for that is, that our hand is not more than a bluff catcher and can`t even beat many thin vbets.
So this is definitely not a hand i like to call a bet with on the river. As played Hero has a call, but betting 5000ish on the turn charges draws and makes your river decision easier (=fold to any substantial bet, unless Villain is overtricky/overaggro).

[Nate.]

All --

I'm the guy who thinks that Superfluous Man should bet the turn. I think that flop donk is a weak made hand very often. Q5 is ahead of Villain's range here. Furthermore, I don't think the fold to a checkraise is all that painful. For it to be uncomfortable, Villain would have to:

-Lead the flop and then checkraise the turn with garbage or air. As good as a play as this can be, I don't think you'll see it often.

-Do that with a flush draw. This is a definite possibility, but (a) Villain would have to have a flush draw and (b) Villain would have to play it exactly that way. (Contrast with various Q's and (especially) 5's, and 3's, which many Villains will play this way almost every time.)

I think that if Superfluous Man gets checkraised here, he's cooked very often and shouldn't mind folding. Yes, he put in X% of his stack without a showdown, but that's a reasonable part of your stack to lose when you flop a pair of queens and they aren't good.

Meanwhile, that K is a pretty obvious scare card and a card that Villain is unlikely to have. (These are also reasons a turn CR bluff is unlikely.) A bet from Hero should seem pretty mechanical and might get called light. And if Villain folds a worse hand, that's not the end of the world, despite the dryish board.

I'm a bit surprised to see so many good players describing flop and turn as "totally standard." (I agree that they're standard, in a sense, but I don't think they're good.) Really, with the bigger tournaments playing the way they are these days, stacks wouldn't have to be much shorter before I'd think that raising the flop and calling all-in would be clearly superior to just calling the flop.

--Nate