I don't think this hand was played very well at all. Comments welcome please

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Blinds-Antes(2000/4000-100)

MP2 (141847)
CO (65285)
Button (58085)
SB (113532)
BB (154369)
Hero (124990)
MP1 (100354)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Q , J .
Hero raises to 12000, 4 folds, SB calls 10000, BB calls 8000.

Flop: (30000) 3 , T , K (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets 4000, Hero raises to 20000, SB folds, BB calls 16000.

Turn: (70000) T (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.

River: (70000) 9 (2 players)
BB bets 32159, Hero raises all-in to 92890, BB calls t60731.

Final Pot: 162890

I can call this river.


I'm not sure how often a naked ten (without an ace kicker) calls your all-in here. If you think a ten will call most of the time then the all-in is fine.

First of all, I don't like the raise UTG with QJs. It's simply not a playable hand from that position at this stage of the tournament, with the chips you have. Why gamble with a hand that could be easily dominated when you are in such a comfortable position? If anything, I'd limp, but I strongly suggest folding here in the future. I like your aggression thru-out the pot, but I put the BB on trips, and you lucked out here. In any event, it worked out..nh sir.

ghandi's right - you DONT raise utg with qjs...thats a whack move....it was a scrubby play overall and he got lucky on the riv. case closed

Ok i agree raising UTG with QJs is dodgy however he are my thoughts for the rest of the hand

BB min bets on flop and my draw is quite good so i raised which would put him off alot of hands. Turn hit abit of a scare card for me and he checked. I think he was after a check raise here so i checked with him getting a free card and putting him on trips. Should i have bet here or got the free card? River card hits the draw I'm after giving me nut straight. Now when he bets the river what would everyone say he had? should i just call or was i right to raise? I dont think i can fold.

Likely holdings:

33
TT
T9
TJ
TQ
TK
TA
sneaky KK

maybe T8...as well as another QJ.

Yeah, he could have other weak hands like KQ, KJ, AK, QQ, 88, or even total air, but I think he folds to a river raise every time with those.

So, the question is, does he call your reraise with TJ, TQ or T8.

If he folds those hands most of the time there is no value to your raise here.

You're only getting called by hands that beat you (and you're never making a better hand fold).

That's why I call this river rather than raise it.

He probably has T9.

Short of the initial UTG raise, you played the hand brilliantly. On the flop BB was showing aggression with a piece of the board (arguably the ten), which is why he didn't re-raise your re-raise, he flat called (possibly putting you on a K). The turn is his money card, and I believe as you did that he was going for the CR, taking a free card here is perfect, a bet would have been horrible. The way you played the hand, there is no way he put you on the nut straight when the nine peeled the river. For him to bet out this much on the river, I am confident he had a 10 (right?), in this case your all-in will get called, and gg to tbe BB

Actually, looking back, the BB could have played 33 like this. That would have been a very good play. Just a thought, in which case..that was a badd badd river, what was the result?

I think you should just call the river, after failing to fold preflop. The only hands that you beat which might call your all-in are AT or maybe a donkish AK, KQ. Depending on the player, you may have to be worried about T9 or even KT from the BB. With 33 (or even 99), that's a lot of FH combos to worry about.

Also: Calling and losing to a FH still leaves you with a somewhat playable 60,000ish chips. Calling and winning against trips puts you at ~190,000 as the chip leader. Going all-in and winning gives you ~250,000, which may allow you to bully more, but you can still bully a fair amount with 190,000. Going all-in and losing = busto. I guess I see the upside of going all-in and winning as minimal, while the downside is the worst possible outcome.

Table 7 handed.

Nothing that wrong with preflop.
Pretty much Raise/Fold/Limp who cares..close enough..depends on table dynamics which were not provided.

I want:

Buy In.
Read on Villain
Payouts
Status in Tourney, Ave Stack ,# left etc.

to help on River decisions.
Lots of Trips call this river push.
Any two pair / set is raising the flop bgger after we show we likey.
Big Pot we'll get called enough..
however, against solid player or bigger buyins, I'd be inclined to call the river.

Nice turn check.

And: Do not include the action of the villain after you raise river. It can bias opinions. We now know he likes his hand enough to call

2,4,5,6,7,8,J,Q,A kickers you beat

3,9,T,K you don't

Of the ones you beat, against a typical player, how many of those is he likely to have by the river, and how many of those do you think call a push?

Even if he somehow does have T4, T6, I think most players fold a push here - but maybe I'm wrong.

AT probably calls every time.

I think T8 folds quite often....TJ and TQ fold a lot, depending on the player.

Add that to all the possible hands that beat you and I'd have to see a lot of consistently horrible play to raise here thinking he might call with QK or a counterfeited K9, not realizing his three pair is irrelevent.

in a pot this big, every T calls in all the $20's I play.
I want to know buy in.
a lot of Kx call as well.
Like I said, I call bet too, but would like more info and can raise as well.
In real life I'm prety careful on the river and would call being cautious, overly so.


BB had excellent odds to see a flop.
Flop raise was fine for any Tx to call.
So he gets to the river quite easily with any 10.

I think QJs gets underrated as a hand, so I don't hate the preflop raise if you're willing to play it aggressivley after the flop. That said, a fold here preflop is fine too of course.

I like your flop action...he tested the waters, you try to convince him you have it. Once he calls though, I think we have to slow down. Given the flop, he's only calling us with Kx, T<decent> (let's say T9 and above), 33, and 2 clubs.

He checks the turn, which to me indicates either two clubs or something big. I think we can elimiate Kx after this check because he'd lead again to push you off a club draw, no? At this point I'm worried about 33 or Tx mainly.

River makes our straight...he can't really put us on it because you probably didn't raise with QJ (typically) UTG. He leads, so either he has a T a 33 or whiffed. The question then becomes what does he call us with that we beat? It's been discussed, but obviously he calls us with AT...as Actuary pointed out, if it's a low buyin, he probably calls you with QT and JT as well. KT and T9 are bad for us obviously. And I have some trouble believing a T8 or less (aside from a ragged T3) calls us. So yeah, I think we just need to call the river. That said, I think one of my biggest weaknesses is getting paid off on monsters on the river. I think the all-in is dependent almost exclusively on reads and on tournament position...if this is the FT, it's different than if it's 10 tables left.

I was writing-up my reply and I decided that it basically looked EXACTLY like Actuary's.

Two pair or better *should* push this flop to your raise.
I only call the river at non-micro-limits.

I like everything up to the raise on the river...depending on the level of play, limit, reads etc., I expect to get called only by a hand that beats me. I call the river, not raise...

Well firstly wow guys thanks for all the response. Glad to see some people don't think i completely mucked the hand up and I've taken some pointers from what people said.

Looking back at the hand I should really have looked more closely at the stage in the tournament we were at. Was a $500 prizepool, 100 party points buy-in (so free really) 700 odd people starting with only top 15 getting paid. There were 22 people left in the game on this hand.

I noticed alot of people advised i should realy have just called the river and tbh looking back i think i should have. Would have still left me with some chips but live and learn suppose. Don't really play many tournaments or NL for that fact so still finding my way.

Anyway i'll post the result now,



BB shows [ Ts, 9h ] a full house, Tens full of nines.

Gutted, one of the few hands i didn't want to see. The main reason I posted this hand was too make sure i wasn't a complete donk in my play. Thanks again

I wouldnt be surprised if this hand was split.

Preflop: Fold, or at most limp. Youre committing too many chips without implied odds imo.

Flop: the 4k bet looks like a defensive bet to me, hes got a draw of some kind. Any made hand is going to be betting more to protect against draws and 2 overcards. The flop raise is either too small or it shouldnt have been raised at all. The only purpose for a flop raise here is to represent a K and appear to be pricing out a draw. 20k isnt enough to do that. Its giving nearly 4:1 immediate odds and plenty of implied odds. Either check for the free card or raise to 30k.

Turn: ok

River: cant complain about getting it all in. If hes got the boat you were destined to die on the hand anyway (unless you folded preflop)

Edit: a raise to 30k on the flop is also tough for him to call, with what he has to believe is at best a 5 outer at that point. If hes that loose THEN you were destined to die on the hand anyway unless you folded preflop.

Fold preflop. Otherwise, nh.

fold pf ..pffft..

pf is fine

If this was a high buy-in tourney, I could see you thinking that the weak lead was probably either a draw or a set and smooth-calling the river (although I'd still raise it against most players).

As is, you played it perfectly. QJs is a perfectly fine blind-stealing hand 7-handed, even UTG. You made a good raise when the BB showed weakness on the flop, showed discipline by checking the turn, and then made a good value raise on the river when you were beating trips more often than you were losing to a boat. The fact that you happened to lose was just bad luck. Don't be biased by the results.

I do feel kind of bad for you, playing that long in one of those shitty freerolls, and then beating yourself up because you got cold-decked and bubbled, missing out on a $5 prize. If I hadn't had my -$9K week, and I was up $20K or so the last month and a half (which is about where I should be right now), I'd send you $50 for the hell of it.

I like my preflop raise even if not everyone does. One of the reasons was a read on the table in that even small raises (even some min raises) were consistently stealing blinds. Raising UTG instantly makes people think i've got a better hand than i have, i hope, and also makes anyone with a smaller stack less likely to play and risk being knocked out near the bubble. Plus my name is Wavid "danger" Powers

Perhaps as copernicus says my raise on the flop wasn't enough. The pot had around 40k in it. I'm guessing his flop bet is to see where he stands so a bigger raise would be giving him the wrong odds to call.

Ah well live and learn, as iggy says was only a silly freeroll. Just thought i was gonna get on the last table which would have been a first and made me rather chuffed