Critique?


The Venetian $550 NLHE MTT (10-handed)

Cobalt T9.9k
SB T14k
Others ~T10k

Blinds 25/50

Cobalt is BB w/ 9 5 . First level, several orbits in. Play has been pretty loose. MP3 seems to like making frequent small bets. SB has been known to limp/call suited connectors pre-flop in EP. He's also gotten caught donkbet bluffing scary boards.

Pre-flop:
UTG calls, 2 folds, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, MP3 calls, 1 fold, Button calls, SB calls, Cobalt checks

Flop (T350): 3 J 4 (7 players)
5 checks, MP3 bets T200, 1 fold, SB calls, Cobalt calls, 1 fold, MP1 calls, 1 fold

Turn (T1150): T (4 players)
SB bets T800, Cobalt raises to T2500, 2 folds, SB calls

River (T6550): 7 (2 players)
SB checks, Cobalt bets T5000

Looks pretty good to me. Looks like SB picked up a combo draw or maybe TPTK with the Ac on the turn. I might bet a little less on the river to give him better odds to call with his TP.

I think you played this well with your read. Way you have described, I say villain is on pair with the ace. Only fear I have is that he has a higher flush but with range he could have on the turn bet/call, you are way ahead most of the time. I think you bet is good as Jt, lower suited connectors and possibly tp/hk still call and other pairs with an ace kicker are going to fold anyway.

I think that I value bet around 3K on the river - with so many callers preflop and on the flop, villain has to fear a made flush so his call of your turn raise is a little disconcerting. I think 3k on the river is small enough that many worse hands call and if he has a higher flush (not Ac), he might just call fearing that you have the Ac and you still have 4.2k.

Looks pretty good.

Maybe make the river bet 4k instead of 5k, as I think it will be slightly more enticing to worse hands while better hands were calling/raising 5k anyway. Hard to believe you're beat here, though.

Yeah, I think you guys are right with going a little smaller on the river...in the 3k-4k range. I am reassured that most of you feel that betting here is correct and that we have the best hand.

Unfortunately, villain did call and flipped the Qc2c to beat me. My bet sizing on the end meant that I essentially crippled myself early. I kind of thought he could have a flush...I just thought it was slightly likely to be lower than mine.