When the Flop Hits Hard (2 Viewers)

[PlaidDragon]

Got to heads up in my Thursday league.

I have about 21 BB to the villain's 18 BB. Villain is a solid TAG.

On the line is a very similar amount of points plus the top two each session get a 60/40 payout of a portion of all the night's buy-ins.

I'm on the button with .

Your action?

 

[RagingAZN]

Raise it up!

 

[RagingAZN]

…but yes, HU OTB your raising range should be quite wide so this is a definite raise. Not calling a jam though this deep.

 

[JMC9389]

Raise to 2.5 BB.

 

[KHarp1]

I didn't realize we were talking about pre-flop action, I thought you wanted thoughts on what to do when the FLOP hit hard.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

I didn't realize we were talking about pre-flop action, I thought you wanted thoughts on what to do when the FLOP hit hard.

 

[DrStrange]

"flop hits hard" but playing 20bb deep with a SPR of 3. This shallow, "hits hard" means little better than top pair to me. Maybe top pair plus a gutter ball.

Mostly Hero is going to want to get it in if he hits the flop hard. Maybe we can find merits in finding folds on a board where villain open shoves. two pair on a board that wet isn't as good as it sounds.

Perhaps we will be surprised. -=- DrStrange

 

[PlaidDragon]

Hero raises 3x. Villain calls.

Flop:

Villain opens for 2x BB.

 

[JMC9389]

Jam. Top pair and open ended doesn't get much better. If they somehow show up with Q9 or a better Jack and they hold, GG, shit happens.

 

[Taghkanic]

If you just call there will be 10BB in the pot and you’ll only have 16BB behind, covering the villain at 13BB if my math is right.

Hard to imagine many turns where one of you doesn’t get it in.

Also hard to imagine many turns where you would fold to another donk bet by the villain. (Maybe only if an A or K comes.)

So I can see a case for raising him here, or even shoving. Even if you are behind you still have lots of ways to catch up.

And worst case scenario you still have 3BB left and have some slight chance of spinning that back up.

Plus the points and money don’t seem like such a big difference.

 

[Senzrock]

Hero raises 3x. Villain calls.

Flop:

Villain opens for 2x BB.

With villain so shallow after his (weak) lead, this is a standard jam all day! Hope you held up (though in my experience villain often folds his weak leads).

 

[PlaidDragon]

I go in the tank for a few seconds. Is he betting for value or is it a blocker bet?

He didn't 3-bet me pre-flop so I rule out overpairs, sets, and a chunk of the better Ax hands.

That leaves him with a fair range but given his tendencies I'm pretty sure he has a piece of it. I block 9's so ultimately settle on him having Qx, 8x, or 10x. Even 8,10 wouldn't be that bad given that'd pretty much be a coin toss. He also might have 3-bet pre-flop with KJ, QJ so those are likely out; even so, all the sets are in my range.

I shove.

He insta-calls and shows

A and 6 on the runout and my stack was crippled. Was out for 2nd shortly thereafter.

 

[JMC9389]

Gross. Nothing you could've done there differently.

 

[RagingAZN]

Pretty standard unfortunately. Considering there is minimal difference between first and second prize and the league points, not much else you can do there.

Even if there was a big pay jump or ICM considerations, I think you still played it as best as you can.

 

[springbox]

It sucks, but <20BB deep and we hit top pair with an OESD it's really hard to consider it a mistake to get it in.

 

[Senzrock]

I go in the tank for a few seconds. Is he betting for value or is it a blocker bet?

He didn't 3-bet me pre-flop so I rule out overpairs, sets, and a chunk of the better Ax hands.

That leaves him with a fair range but given his tendencies I'm pretty sure he has a piece of it. I block 9's so ultimately settle on him having Qx, 8x, or 10x. Even 8,10 wouldn't be that bad given that'd pretty much be a coin toss. He also might have 3-bet pre-flop with KJ, QJ so those are likely out; even so, all the sets are in my range.

I shove.

He insta-calls and shows

A and 6 on the runout and my stack was crippled. Was out for 2nd shortly thereafter.

Yeah that’s too bad but I think the most important thing to take away here is that you are mostly just posting a bad beat story not a strategy hand.

I say that half joking but also definitely half serious.

We need to really understand when there wasn’t anything else for us to do in spots where we get unlucky, because if we think we can “strategize” our way out of bad beats, it’s going to hamper our entire game.