$235 6 Man: TP-Mediocre Kicker Vs Bad Big Stack On Bubble

[JSH06]

65/35 payouts. Villain is a bad player

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (3 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: 2+2 Forums)

SB (t2125)
BB (t3475)
Hero (t3400)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
<font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t500</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, BB calls t300.

Flop: (t1100) T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
BB checks, <font color="#CC3333">Hero bets t600</font>, BB calls t600.

Turn: (t2300) J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
BB checks, <font color="#CC3333">Hero?

[Slim Pickens]

Am I crazy for wanting to check the flop and bet the turn? You have one live card and I don't know which one it is.

[Oubliette]

To be honest i'm not very familiar with the 3 man bubble, but i guess extrapolating from a 4 man bubble, he would have shoved preflop with hands like AK and AQ i would think, maybe even as far down as AJ and AT. My feeling with this hand is that he has a marginal ace or a decent ten that wants to see showdown/test a cbet. I think id shove the turn since he can fold and still be in decent shape in the bubble picture, and it doesnt look like his hand is super strong to me.

[suzzer99]

My instinct would be to check behind turn and either call river or value bet if he checks and the river isn't too scary. You're really only going to get much value out of Ax by betting the turn here and that's IF you get a low river. Much more chance of downside to betting if he's sandbagging some kind of monster than upside of stacking Ax IMO. Also since villian sucks, he may have something like JJ-KK here that he won't call a turn bet but might call a river bet.

[Eagles]

I'm pushing

[Oubliette]

Yeah, i guess that makes more sense, i just dont see this situation a ton to be honest. I would think that if villian in betting river its going to be a shove, and i wonder how often we're going to want to call.

You're really only going to get much value out of Ax by betting the turn here and that's IF you get a low river.

can you explain this?

[MikeMcQ1]

Check turn. And I would definitely c-bet as you did. Slim, you crazeh. If you did check the flop, you might not get a chance to keep the impetus (sp?).

[Slim Pickens]

My experience is that people, especially bad players, rarely re-shove with AK/AQ there. They re-shove hands like TT-KK where they're scared to see a flop. As soon as I get called preflop and get a fairly-innocuous ace-high flop, I want a showdown like a 15-year-old Star Trek fan wants a BJ from the prom queen.

[suzzer99]

Bad players smoothcall KK/QQ preflop, even JJ, then poop their pants when an ace comes. And will almost never let it go to just one bet. Not saying I know that's what he has. But you see that all the time.

I don't see what's wrong with taking the slow road here and trying to survive if he's sandbagging with a monster on the fairly draw fee flop. Only advantage to playing fast as I see it is stacking Ax. And even that isn't guaranteed if the river doesn't help.

[Slim Pickens]

Why do you want to drive the betting? No better hands are folding. Pretty much everything else is drawing thin, so free cards aren't hurting you much. Worse hands bluff later if you check where they fold to a bet.