$109, interesting AA hand lvl1 vs reg

[fjuanl]

Turn and river are more interesting, but I wanted people to focus on this first part before the madness happens. According to OPR, villain has a 35% roi with avg. buyin of $52 thru 2.2k MTTs (almost all in 2010). Before this hand I saw the BB limp some suited crap in EP.

- Thoughts on flatting my entire range pre?
- Flop raise would obviously be fine, but what other hands should I raise here? Should I ever bluff raise?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 109 Tournament, 10/20 Blinds (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t3075)
UTG (t2980)
UTG+1 (t3000)
MP1 (t2970)
MP2 (t2970)
MP3 (t3000)
CO (t3000)
Hero (Button) (t2995)
SB (t2980)

Hero's M: 99.83

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, A
UTG bets t40, 5 folds, Hero calls t40, 1 fold, BB calls t20

Flop: (t130) 7, J, 2 (3 players)
BB checks, UTG bets t80, Hero calls t80

[chardrian]

In general you shouldn't worry about "polarizing" your range as much in a MTT as you would in a cash game because you rarely are going to get the number of hands in versus a specific opponent where it matters.

You don't need to get tricky at the early levels of an MTT. We have AA, we want to bloat the pot, so bloat the pot and raise pre.

As played, you have the Ac blocker so obv raising is fine calling is fine too. As far as bluffing - sure you can bluff, but generally when you bluff early in a tourney you need to learn to surrender when you are called.

[fjuanl]

My concern was that a decent player is going to play pretty well when I 3bet pre because we're 150bbs deep and my range is almost face up as JJ+ AK (maybe even tighter). Maybe I get 1-2 streets from him if he flats and flops an overpair or TPTK, but I can't imagine getting much value postflop.

If I 3bet pre and the flop is Q86s and he c/r's me, do I just fold?
Should I 3bet QQ and AK?

[mcatdog]

My concern was that a decent player is going to play pretty well when I 3bet pre because we're 150bbs deep and my range is almost face up as JJ+ AK (maybe even tighter). Maybe I get 1-2 streets from him if he flats and flops an overpair or TPTK, but I can't imagine getting much value postflop.

Your range is face up as JJ+ AK when you 3-bet on the button vs. someone who minraised?

When a regular minraises at 10/20 that indicates to me that they are trying to play a lot of pots and I'd be 3-betting them way wider than that on the button.

[fjuanl]

Your range is face up as JJ+ AK when you 3-bet on the button vs. someone who minraised UTG

If he opened close to the BTN then 3betting seems much better because I could conceivably be bluffing or just 3betting a wider value range. Here I think it would just look really strong even tho I'm on the btn

[chardrian]

you have two issues going on - the first is that you think everyone thinks like you so therefore he must range you on JJ+/AK here and you won't get value postflop.

So you decide that flatting maximizes value, but that brings us to the second issue because you don't want to raise postflop and maximize value because you get scurred if you are c/r'd.

If that's the case then I guess your best line would be call/call/call. Or bet whenever checked to and fold to a c/r.

Definitely not the line I normally take.

[fjuanl]

I'll post the rest of the hand now but I don't think I was totally clear on explaining what I was thinking. I still haven't heard from anyone about what other hands I should 3b here, could be an interesting discussion.

ok..here's my last bit about pre and flop play. not saying i think its correct, just what i was thinking

- If I flat pre and its heads up, I'd be raising most flops trying to get 3 streets. Here I called bc there's still a fish in the pot and I have the Ac blocker. Not sure if I'm overvaluing keeping the fish in
- The part about me being worried about a c/r was only if I had 3bet pre

I think your probably right about me assuming there's not much value postflop...I'm imagining the insane postflop nittyness I'd resort to if I were UTG and got 3bet. However I don't think I'm far off about him ranging me much wider than JJ+ AK, or just getting him to think 'Oh that looks super strong'

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 109 Tournament, 10/20 Blinds (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t3075)
UTG (t2980)
UTG+1 (t3000)
MP1 (t2970)
MP2 (t2970)
MP3 (t3000)
CO (t3000)
Hero (Button) (t2995)
SB (t2980)

Hero's M: 99.83

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, A
UTG bets t40, 5 folds, Hero calls t40, 1 fold, BB calls t20

Flop: (t130) 7, J, 2 (3 players)
BB checks, UTG bets t80, Hero calls t80, 1 fold

Turn: (t290) K (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets t200, UTG raises to t800, Hero calls t600

River: (t1890) Q (2 players)
UTG bets t2060 (All-In), Hero ...

[chardrian]

In general I actually agree that most regs are no longer three betting wide pre at the early stages of a tourney so it does sort of turn your hand face-up..... But that probably means we need to start 3-bet bluffing a lot more in the early stages.

[sah_24]

In general I actually agree that most regs are no longer three betting wide pre at the early stages of a tourney so it does sort of turn your hand face-up..... But that probably means we need to start 3-bet bluffing a lot more in the early stages.

I <3 this discussion guys ..........smarter people than i plz continue !

[drmcboy]

I don't hate pre. The negative is your line here post after the call will look like you have a set so you end up feeling like you are over repped. I don't really think you can solve it short of already having a 3 bet heavy image, AA with 150BBs is not easy.

I'm raising most FDs on the flop.

I don't think fish will call with nothing and you want him to fold anything he's drawing to two pair with rather than call the 80 unless he'll totally go crazy with it.

I'd fold river.

[revolvingiris]

Couldn't we just widen our 3bet range PF? I also think you could make one of those 10xbb raises no one seems respect.

As far as balancing I think:

A) Call flop, check turn
B) Raise flop, lead turn

As played, I'm either 3bet jamming over or folding turn. I think you have to fold river ...