$0.25 NLHE MTT: $0.25 NLHE MTT:

PokerStars - 200/400 Ante 25 NL - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP+1: 8.14 BB
CO: 12.97 BB
BTN: 22.4 BB
SB: 20.71 BB
Hero (BB): 15.82 BB
UTG: 18.77 BB
UTG+1: 51.73 BB
MP: 18.19 BB

8 players post ante of 0.06 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2 BB) Hero has 9♣ K♣

fold, UTG+1 raises to 2.2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.2 BB

Flop: (5.4 BB, 2 players) 7♠ Q♣ 6♠
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets 1.78 BB, Hero raises to 6 BB,
So my thought was the following: we're on the bubble and it's risky. But I have a decent amount of Q, Ax, pairs, suited connectors,... things that can beat most of his range (he's the big stack bully on the bubble, so he's a bit wider). He might have a Q or a pair, but I think it's a decently small % of his range. And my check raise seems really strong, especially on the bubble! (we were 8 players, 7 get payed).

Was the reasoning ok or should I just fold pre or on the flop?

In my opinion I would just fold pre flop here as when I shove I want to be the first one in the pot for max fold equity and on our chip stack I dont like flatting a raise. I think this is a spot where it should be fold or jam. The jam would have to be a player dependent move that you have either known from the past or have seen something lately in his actions. UTG+1 is the big stack so he could just be trying to push the table around but I like waiting for a spot here where I can be the first to jam into the pot and not jamming over an initial raise.

On the bubble, I would fold this preflop. If you had a little more than 20bb then calling the raise is fine. I don’t like the raise that much unless you had a draw. You have backdoor outs so calling on the flop is ok as well. Lots of good turn cards can come.

I think your call preflop is loose vs an early position raise. If that open had come from late position, I think it would have been better.

standard defend preflop - we just have to be mindful of our relative hand strength and remember not to overplay a King if we were to hit one. We are probably looking for top pair of a 9, or 2 pair + when we defend K9s.

The board is definitely one I think our villan should be c-betting quite often even tho it does fit the BB defend range fairly well.

My opinion - and likely what I would do in game, is simply to just fold to the cbet. Lose the minimum and move on. When we do raise here (which i think is 2nd best) I think we can keep our sizing down and accomplish the same thing - we started the hand with 15bb - we called 2.2 - so we go to the flop with 13, we really don't want to be raise/folding for half of our stack...yeah its going to work some portion of the time, but when it doesn't we go from 13bb to 7bb...and that just socks. So, if we are to raise here I think a sizing of around 4.2 - 4.5 would accomplish the same thing vs a small cbet, and when we do get jammed on we still have 9bb to navigate the rough waters ahead.

Point is we can fold and still have a fighting chance vs when we raise we force our opponent to play perfect - meaning they call with better and fold worse.

One more time - I think the defense preflight is very standard - we just have to play properly post flop. We see a flop, we miss, we fold and preserve the rest of our stack. No need to get out of line in hopes of stealing one and risking half of your remaining stack.

Hope this helps!