Pocket Jacks tourney spot (1 Viewer)

[Chippy McChiperson]

Fairly simple tournament spot I suppose. Playing in the monthly league, and the rebuy period has just ended. Blinds are 200/400, and our table is seven handed. Hero is in the hijack with 9100, with average stack around 12k. UTG villain, (his first time playing at this league) who has been pretty aggressive pre and post flop raises to 1300, and it fold around to hero. Please vote on what would you do, and if you’d like to elaborate please post your reasoning.

 

[Kain8]

You're not 3 betting for half your stack and then folding, so may as well!

 

[Jimulacrum]

Against a guy who's been aggressive preflop, you gotta jam here. Too strong to fold and not enough implied odds to set-mine it. If he's raising a lot preflop, JJ is way ahead of his range. It's a high-variance spot, but that's how it goes sometimes.

I could see calling to try to play it sneaky post-flop if there were fewer (or ideally no) players behind, but this hand is too vulnerable to invite others to come along.

 

[Highli99]

I think I call to see the flop. Plan is to check raise the flop unless its super ugly.

 

[BGinGA]

I typically jam here, but there's sonething to be said for a larger-than-normal 3-bet but less than your entire stack (say 6k-7k). It actually may look ~stronger~ to the villain than simply shoving all-in, getting some otherwise coin-flip hands to fold.

 

[Burke]

Are the guys behind you likely to call if you call?

 

[Pesto628]

I agree that jamming is the right play

 

[Chippy McChiperson]

Are the guys behind you likely to call if you call?

Well the little blind for sure calls very light. The others are pretty solid players.

 

[krafticus]

Well the little blind for sure calls very light. The others are pretty solid players.

Who was the small blind? ( I can't remember everyone at the table except for you and the villain.)

I have a "funny" story for you as well about this... that you might not find that funny.. ???

 

[Jonesey07]

 

[DoubleEagle]

I tend to play more conservative in a league format because ladder climbing for points over the course of a season is important. In a standard tourney I would also say jam here. But because this is a league, I would be more inclined to call and hope for a dry board. If you are forced to fold after the flop you will still have 19 1/2 big blinds. Plenty to work with.

 

[Highli99]

I changed my mind.

 

[Chippy McChiperson]

Who was the small blind? ( I can't remember everyone at the table except for you and the villain.)

I have a "funny" story for you as well about this... that you might not find that funny.. ???

Steve T.

 

[gopherblue]

Choosy players choose Jif...

...I mean jam.

 

[kmccormick100]

I'm raising to 3300-3600 and folding to a jam from the UTG raiser. Still have just below average to pick another spot a

 

[k9dr]

Steve T.

Steve, the guy with the neck brace ? Shove

 

[krafticus]

Steve, the guy with the neck brace ? Shove

Different Steve. This Steve has roughly a 99.776% VPIP, and gets lucky 78.99876%

We have 3 Steve's in our monthly game. Had it been Steve K (neck Brace), I would advocate a shove there as well.

 

[Chippy McChiperson]

Krafty is correct about Steve T., but he wasn't the opener, he was in the small blind (Steve K. was the button actually) i was responding to the person who asked if anyone was likely to call if I limped.

 

[krafticus]

Krafty is correct about Steve T., but he wasn't the opener, he was in the small blind (Steve K. was the button actually) i was responding to the person who asked if anyone was likely to call if I limped.

Sorry for the derail there.
- Did the new player show cards with his aggression?
- Did he go to many showdowns?
- Did he call pre-flop and push action, or just usually open with a raise?
- Did he 3-bet or 4-bet at all prior?

I would think this would help make my decision. As played, I might raise to 3k at this point and see what his reaction is. Does he flat, or 4-bet. I would fold to a 4-bet. if he does flat, and open-shoves, I can find a fold. If the cards are J and under and he checks, I am jamming.

(this is more for my future benefit, since I wasn't at that table)

 

[Chippy McChiperson]

Not many of his hands went to showdown. The one that I remembered he opened A6ss abd double barreled a 975ss board and checked when the ace hit the river. He was mostly raising pre, and i don't remember him 3 or 4 betting.

 

[PAZ]

I can't comment on pocket Jacks....it's still too soon.

 

[Steve Birrer]

I'm raising to 3300-3600 and folding to a jam from the UTG raiser. Still have just below average to pick another spot a

I think you either need to go back to junior high math or reread the OP. Hero has 9K. Average stack is 12K. If you bet 3300-3600 and fold to a shove you now have less than 6K or half the average.

I am jamming all day here. I can see a call perhaps but raise makes zero sense to me.

 

[kmccormick100]

I think you either need to go back to junior high math or reread the OP. Hero has 9K. Average stack is 12K. If you bet 3300-3600 and fold to a shove you now have less than 6K or half the average.

I am jamming all day here. I can see a call perhaps but raise makes zero sense to me.

I’m a little dyslexic sometimes, read the post and internalized hero’s stack as 12k and avg 9k. I revoke my raise vote. Against a fairly aggressive villain it’s a shove. You have some fold equity, if he has an overpair so be it, and if he wants to flip with AK/AQ so be it. Calling in position to evaluate after the flop 20+B.B. Effective isn’t terrible though.

 

[Highli99]

When do we find out what our hero does?

 

[Chippy McChiperson]

 

[Highli99]

But I’ve been refreshing this threads for 11 hours!!!

 

[JStew]

I’m trying to win a big pot here. Unless this guy is crazy a jam causes him to play perfect (call when you are crushed and fold with most opens). 4 big blinds is nothing to sneeze at but you are almost certainly ahead at this point. I raise to $3-3.5k to try to get this guy to put more money in the pot while you are ahead and put the pressure back on him.

 

[JustinInMN]

Sign me up for a jam, hopefully villian is overplaying 88 or you caught him with a weak ace. But realistically it probably will be a flip and occasionally you will run into QQ+.

Still this is too good a spot, you can't count on getting a better hand before losing to many chips to blinds and the aggro player is the right target.

 

[Steve Birrer]

There are a load of hands Villain could play and raise preflop. And Hero has most of those hands beat if not outright crushed.

 

[JustinInMN]

I typically jam here, but there's sonething to be said for a larger-than-normal 3-bet but less than your entire stack (say 6k-7k). It actually may look ~stronger~ to the villain than simply shoving all-in, getting some otherwise coin-flip hands to fold.

There is something to be said for this so long as hero we understand this is a stack committing raise, we are going with this hand if four bet.

That said, I'm not sure I concur it is to hero's advantage to "look stronger" here, if for the sake of argument we have a way to project this. (Through sizing, cues.) I think if villian has QQ+, AK, AQ, he's shipping no matter what. (Maybe not AQ.) As hero, what we really want is to get called by TT and lower or AJ and lower and if we know of a sizing that would make us appear weaker, that would be to our advantage. (Maybe even just min-3 bet hoping to induce a shove from the widest possible range, so long as we understand we are inducing this, not leaving ourselves a way to fold.) Appearing stronger would probably fold all but the the best of the range that's to our advantage.

But that's just a random thought. Really if I'm going to shove AK, AQ here (and I am against this sort of aggressive villain), I want to be shoving big pairs as well. Sometimes the simplest answer is the best.