Bodog $25k Guaranteed (6-handed)

CO T13,112
Cobalt T12,410

Blinds 100/200, Avg. Stack 9,400, 214 left (45 pay)

Cobalt is BB w/ A 9 . I just got moved to the table, so no reads.

Pre-flop:
2 folds, CO raises to T620, 2 folds, Cobalt calls

Flop (T1,340): 5 2 8 (2 players)
Cobalt checks, CO bets T800, Cobalt raises to T2,900, CO re-raises to T6,320, Cobalt folds/pushes ?

I have T8,890 left. If I go all-in, there will be ~T20k in the pot and he'll have to call T4,670. Does the fact that he typed 'kk' into the chat affect your decision?

Youre on a coinflip even against KK, so you clearly have pot odds to call. Your raise is questionable though on the principle "Dont reopen the betting if you are going to hate a reraise." clearly you hate this reraise.

(the KK in the chat might very well be real, intending to tell someone watching what he had in a side chat, but typed it there instead)

I think it's a push here. This far from the money, I think you need to take gambles like this and try to build a stack to make a run. I agree about the KK in the chatbox, I know I have accidentally typed things in the chat box before. Never my hand though.

I understand the principle, but nothing to be said for trying to fold better aces/small pairs with an aggressive check-raise semi-bluff? My problem with my raise and the stack sizes is that it puts me in a sticky spot. If I'd raised less, I think I could fold. If I'd raised more, I'd certainly have to go with it. I put myself somewhat on the fence.

I ended up pushing and he called, showing TT. I failed to improve. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't playing badly in being willing to take the gamble in this spot.

If you semi-bluff with a board that clearly cant have a made hand yet, the caller includes your semi-bluff hands in his assesment of your range. Lets say he puts you on Ax of spades down to 7, AJ+, TT+,KQ, plus a "Harrington10% pure bluff margin".

That makes TT and any smaller pair thats not already a set a 55:45 favorite, and the small Aces that arent paired about 2:1 dogs. Overall the range of hands you are trying to get to fold sees themselves as a 55:45 dog (including the 10% bluff possibility) . His immediate odds are 1.8:1 and his all-in implied odds are 1.3:1. You have very little chance of chasing the hands that you mentioned even with a push.

Overall I would actually have put you as a 1.5:1 favorite, so a push might have had a chance for success, but anything else would almost certainly be called.

I think you should have waited for the turn card if youre going to gamble at all.

The problem that I see with just calling the flop is that if I blank the turn, my equity is likely to go to hell...which makes it a worse spot to gamble. And I know you're saying that if he's putting me on a range, his play of TT is reasonable. I don't disagree with that. The problem is that I don't know that he's got TT. If I did, I think check/calling is clearly the best play. The problem is that based on his pre-flop raise and c-bet, I've got him on a ~34% hand range...something along the lines of:

22+,A2s+,K8s+,Q9s+,J9s+,T8s+,98s,87s,76s,A2o+,K9o+,QTo+,J9o+,T9o,98o

Against such a range, my equity is something around 68%...which is why I stuck in the raise. I figure that I've also got FE against some hands that have me beat which should balance out some of the time that I'm in somewhat bad shape against calling hands.

I wasnt looking at it from his seat knowing he had TT, I was looking at it from his seat with a range of hands, though that range was quite a bit tighter than yours.

I assume by "my equity goes to hell" you mean youve lost half of your equity because you only have one more draw if you flat call? Thats true...but with your raise your investment has gone up by a factor of 6, so you are paying a steep price to secure that additional equity plus you open yourself up to the reraise.

I still think its push or call, not raise....results oriented because I know he pushed back? possibly...but "dont raise if you'll hate a reraise" is the one piece of advice from THFAP thats hurt me most when I violate it.

What does that mean?

I get it all in here. Since you're far away from the money, and this is a massive pot, it could put you in a great position to finish first, considering you're a very knowledgable player.

c/r push.

hate the flop raise.

Texas Hold 'Em For Advanced Players

Why do you hate the reraise here? You're in a great spot to gamble where you're pretty much guaranteed to be almost a coinflip. The only thing that you should really hate in this spot is getting smooth-called since you'll be in a bad spot on the turn if you miss. This is the kind of gamble you have to win occasionally if you're going to take down a MTT.

If he hadn't stated KK, you'd be in a worse spot since you only have 9 clean outs, but I'm pretty sure he's not going to be trying to induce a call by representing kings, so what he's saying means he has KK or worse. Against that range, you have at least 12 outs against any possible holding.

I don't like the amount of his first raise.
I'd push or c/c.
Probably c/c.

Hate was too strong of a word.
Cobalt can play better post flop than I.
For me, it seems to get me in to a pickle.
Although I don't mind getting it all in here anyway.

so..yeah.. ignore me

I don't like the amount of my raise either...that's mostly why I posted it. I like to play draws aggressively. For some reason, it kills me to play them as "straight-forward" as a check/call, even though I know it's appropriate in certain spots.