Live Borgata $340 hand

UMTerp · #1 07-30-2007, 02:34 PM

I know this forum is supposed to be for $500+ buy-ins live, but this it's pretty close to that, and it's an uncommon enough spot that hopefully it can stay. If not, I won't be offended if a mod moves it to the "regular" MTT strategy forum.

The Setting: Saturday Borgata $340 Tournament. 18 tables started, so 160-some players. We start with 10K stacks, and this is the 4th half-hour level, which is 100/200/25. Probably ~120 players left; maybe even a few more than that.

Relevant reads: UTG+1 is a ~40-year-old player I'd seen before, which probably means he's at least a weekend regular. Seems good, and he's far and away the chip leader at the table. He has 37K to start the hand. He had gotten in with TT against shorter stack's AA on a 876 flop not too long ago, and hit to get a good chunk of his stack. Button seems terrible and scared money. He has 4K to start the hand. Generally passive, but bet-folded occasionally in spots where he obviously shouldn't have. I was the small blind, and probably looked semi-disinterested/loose/reckless. I was taking a break from a $40/$80 limit game, showed up in the middle of the second level, and had just ordered my second Corona when this hand started. I had fluctuated quite a bit, was anywhere from 8K to 15K for most of the tournament, and had made smallish reraises and c-bets quite often that won some pots. I had only shown down one hand, and won a good-sized pot with top two pair.

Preflop: UTG+1 limps, MP limps, button limps, I raise to 900 with A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], BB folds, UTG+1 calls, MP folds, button calls. ~3000 in the pot, and I have 10K behind.

Flop: K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 4[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. Ugh. I'm thinking about what to do/bet, and the button throws in one of his three remaining 1K chips out of turn. He'll be obligated to bet this 1K if it's checked to him. UTG+1 and I kinda exchange a "what a donkey" look.

How to proceed?

2005 · #2 07-30-2007, 02:38 PM

I'd bet 200-2500 here. Your bet looks stronger because you could have easily have check-raised to put maximum pressure on the guy in between. He may fold a pretty big hand in between. If the button has you beat, he has you beat.

ZJ123 · #3 07-30-2007, 03:16 PM

I agree with gavin, i like that line a lot, because you now can pretty much easily fold if UTG+1 raises.

Also i think i bigger raise preflop would be ideal, with 3 limpers/antes/and being OOP, i would have made it 1100-1200, maybe more.

adanthar · #4 07-30-2007, 03:16 PM

We have 10K left. Why not just CR? The third guy would have to have a pretty specific range of hands to make a bet better.

ZJ123 · #5 07-30-2007, 03:19 PM

[ QUOTE ]
We have 10K left. Why not just CR? The third guy would have to have a pretty specific range of hands to make a bet better.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is ok, its just if UTG+1 is huge here, then he will be c/r as well, and we could lose a lot.

adanthar · #6 07-30-2007, 03:23 PM

Well, the other option is to bet/fold (to UTG+1), and if he's smart enough to just call a big hand and let the button shove or something, we're screwed anyway. Except I hate bet/folding this because the board is not quite hitting his limp/calling range hard enough to avoid stacking off.

The only thing we are ahead of but would probably prefer him to fold is something like KxQc/QJ with a club, and we're better off CR'ing him than betting into him in that case.