$10 Buy-In Real Life Tourney

[holdenthefuries]

Have a question about a few hands, long time reader first time poster all help would be appreciated. Tourney went well! Ended up winning but had a few problem spots that I have been pondering.

Started with 1,000 chips between 8 people, I folded probably my first thirty hands getting reads and waiting for a hand in position. The players were pretty casual players and some could be considered bad. Saw mass limping, AA and AK got limped in as did KK and quite a bit of min-betting. It was sort of like playing the microstakes online so I kept tight waiting for a hand I liked in position.

SB - 1,200 chips
BB - 1,500 chips
Seat 3 - ~800 chips
Seat 4 ~800 chips
Seat 5 ~ 1,250 chips
Hero ~ 970 chips
Button ~ 1,000 chips

Blinds are 10/25, Seats three and four fold, semi-tight aggro from seat 5 calls, button has been folding, I raise k10x to 3 bb, button folds. SB calls, big blind folds, seat 5 calls so pot is now 250.

Flop comes 10 4 2 rainbow, action is checked to me, I bet into the pot two hundred to try and take the pot, SB who I've identified as a not very serious player (texting, not watching the game) says: "I think he's just trying to buy the pot," and calls, seat five folds (he has been paying attention and this is the first hand I've played). Turn comes 3 and I begin to worry about this person playing from SB with an ace, so I bet 300 into my ten again to try and protect, and he again calls. I now have only 370 chips left and he has about 500.

King comes river and I push and he calls with 55. Good result, but I am wondering if I overplayed the hand considering it was only about third or fourth level of tournament. I made my decision basically because he had "you don't have shit" syndrome so I thought it was alright, but what do you think?

Second question: On bubble as chip leader with two others, I have about 3,500 chips, semi-tight aggro on my right has 1,200 semi-tight aggro on my left has about 1,500 chips. Blinds are 100/200.

I am BB, button folds, SB calls and I raise with A6 suited hearts to 3x bb, SB calls... pot is now 1200.

Flop comes Q 9 3 with 2 of them as hearts, action is checked to me from SB. I am guessing that with a set he bets hard into it trying to get action on that flop, so I bet half the pot figuring if he calls I have a 46ish percent chance of either hitting a heart or an ace by the river, as such I bet 500 into the 1200 pot and he reraises up to all in and I call.

Result is good, he had 77 and the heart comes @ the river, basically it was a coinflip slightly favoring him. But I am wondering if this is a remotely intelligent play while on the bubble and chip leader. What are your thoughts?

[fulksy]

when the blinds are that big, compared to opponents stack just shove A6 from the BB, you 3x bet commits you to the pot. so just shove your ahead of his calling range.

[Fielmann]

Hi and welcome to FTR.

1st hand you played well. Against that kind of opponent top pair is generally good enough to commit all your chips. (Be careful with verbal tells though. "He's just trying to buy the pot" is something a bad player might say with a very good hand too.)

2nd hand: As a chip leader, you can (and are supposed to) play aggressively on the bubble, because your opponents will fold easily, in hopes that they can outlast the other one. In this case your opponent has so few chips left that making a "normal-sized" raise is pointless. You're better off pushing all-in right away. Alternatively, if you think that preflop he doesn't fold often enough, but postflop he can be forced out, you can just check and let your positional advantage work for you.
On flop you may just as well push it all-in yourself. If he calls your 500 bet, he'll have like 100 chips left, so he'll essentially be all-in anyway.

[taipan168]

Hi and welcome to FTR, great to have you here.

First hand: I don't bother with KTo from the CO this early in the game with a semi-tight player limping in front of you. If it was folded to you I could see a 3x BB raise to steal the blinds but I don't think raising is worth it with the limper.

As played, your flop bet is fine but on the turn there are 750 chips in the pot and you have 670 behind, I'd just shove it right here.

Second hand: I agree with the others, just put SB all in and be done with it, you can't raise half his stack then think about folding when he (almost) inevitably shoves the flop.