$0 NL HE MTT: PT Bronze FT Decision – River dilemma (4/5 in chips, 5 hours of play fatigue)

mardi1987

mardi1987

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Platinum Level
Awards
6
RS
Poker Chips
913
Casino Coins
0
Game
Hold'em
Game Format
No Limit
Table Format
MTT
Buy-in
0
VP$IP
36
Freeroll
  1. Freeroll
PFR
15
Currency
$
Hi everyone,
I recently came back to poker after a break. After playing a few free forum events, I wanted to test how long I could maintain a high level of play, so I registered for the WPT Bronze tournament.
I managed to reach the Final Table. With 5 players left, I was sitting 4th in chips on the BB. At this point, I had been playing for over 5 hours and was feeling very tired, which definitely impacted my decision-making.
The exact hand history, stacks, and action are in the screenshot below.
75WPT1791754201533
My thought process during the hand:
On the river, I felt I was playing for my tournament life. I assumed his range was stronger and that he had me beat. Looking back, I was wondering if I should have shoved the flop instead, but given his massive stack size, I didn't think he would ever fold, meaning I had zero fold equity.
Aside from the fact that I was exhausted and ready to call it a night after 5 hours, what is the correct play here from an ICM perspective? Given my 4/5 chip position, was a fold the right move, or did fatigue just make me play it poorly?


Looking forward to your analysis and feedback!
 
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I'd have shoved the turn. You had a straight with 4.7bb behind and 3.1 in the pot, and against his AT the four 9s were the only rivers that beat you.
River you're calling 3.6 to win 8.9, which is about 29% on chips. With those payouts and the 3.3bb stack still at the table, ICM pushes that up to around 42%.
 
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Pre
I would have opened that. We're heads-up with the UtG limper. Open min. If he calls, he calls. We're the PFR so we can bluff post-flop a little easier if we have to. His UtG limp with ATo is stupid. Attack this fish. We have isolation.

Flop
2nd pair and gut. He limped, so the chances that he has a pocket pair higher than 8 is very low. It would have to be an AA or KK trap and we can't be afraid of that or we would fold everything. So the only way that he's ahead of us right now is with an 8. Yes, he might have that but he has everything better than say 52o. He probably has the middle 80% of all hands, so bet. Protect our hand from overcards and draws. There is a club draw here that threatens even our straight equity. Make him pay to improve. Or make him fold and we win an icm pot with 75o, haha! He's limping ATo UtG, so he can't be that sticky. He's a scaredy-cat. Attack! bet 2/3rd, or even pot. There's hardly anything here ahead of us. It's pretty safe to bet a little larger.

Turn
If he's still around on the turn, we hit our straight. Rip it in his face! If he's trying to complete clubs, force him to show down. If we open pre and lead all streets strong, he can put us on overpair, set, etc. Who cares if he folds? We've already gotten value on the flop.

River
Just a cooler, but if he calls all of our strong bets and a turn jam to hit that river gut he's a lucky idiot and it's not really a cooler but a suckout.

As played, we let him hit his cooler. Aggressive poker is winning poker. ; )

Congratz on running deep in a big field, tho. Good job.
 
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Preflop
Your hand is to weak to jam over a limp, so taking a free flop is the correct play.

Flop
You flopped second pair, and against just a single opponent this stand to be the best hand most of the time. You also have a gutshot to give you some equity, if you are still behind. You only have 5,7BB behind, and the pot is 3,1BB. Personally I would run a stop-and-go here, which mean open jamming the flop after just calling (or in this case checking) preflop. If he fold, thats fine, and if he call it off, thats fine as well. Obviously I would not be thrilled to see a flushdraw with two overs, but you might also get called by just two overs with no draw, so this is a fine jam for value and protection.

Turn
Now you made a straight, so now your focus should be to get value. I would not jam now, because then I think, he just fold a lot of hands, that are drawing dead. But I would bet for value and then obviously get it in, if he raise.

River
This was a pretty bad river card, not only because the flush got there, but more importantly TX also got there, so you are playing the dummy end of the straight now. Since no chips went in on the earlier streets, maybe this is still good enough for a small bet for value, but then you need to fold, when he raise. Or you could take a check-evaluate line instead.

I think, its a pretty significant mistake to call it off here. The guy has shown no aggression at all until now, so you have no reason to think, he is bluffing, and its a pretty big ICM punt to go broke before BTN, who is sitting with 3,3 BB and will get hit by the blinds before you. As this point your main goal is to outlast BTN, since you are way behind any of the other 3 opponents.
 
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fundiver199 said:
if you are still behind. You only have 5,7BB behind, and the pot is 3,1BB.
Click to expand...

Oh, that changes things. I saw that the pot was 52bb so I assumed that Hero had 20ish bb.

75o not good enough to jam and we're not opening with that stack. Could probably even fold pre.
 
Semprini said:
75o not good enough to jam and we're not opening with that stack. Could probably even fold pre.
Click to expand...
That would not be a good play, since it was a limped pot. Some sites will even warn us, if we try to fold, when it is free to check.
 
fundiver199 said:
That would not be a good play, since it was a limped pot. Some sites will even warn us, if we try to fold, when it is free to check.
Click to expand...

Oh BB of course, sorry been a few hours since I read the hand, forgot it was BB vs UtG, thought it was SB vs BB.
 
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Semprini said:
Oh, that changes things. I saw that the pot was 52bb so I assumed that Hero had 20ish bb.

75o not good enough to jam and we're not opening with that stack. Could probably even fold pre.
Click to expand...
The WPT has no way to show the hand converted so that confused you. I didn't get to reply to both of you, but thank you. As @fundiver199 wrote, stop and go was an option that I normally use, the reason why I didn't do it is that the same player called with Ax several times when he missed everything. The turn was good for a trap, but the river was already a check fold option for me, but I gave up more on purpose (I went in purely to test how my long game is going). I could try that $1.5 add an bankroll and then try with any 2 to double up.
Thank you once again when I start playing regularly I should remember this situation
 
Another deviation from my game I never play slow here as a short I decided to try to pull all in from BB and double up but karma 😀 position 5 again
KKKO
1791834029204
 
mardi1987 said:
The WPT has no way to show the hand converted so that confused you. I didn't get to reply to both of you, but thank you. As @fundiver199 wrote, stop and go was an option that I normally use, the reason why I didn't do it is that the same player called with Ax several times when he missed everything. The turn was good for a trap, but the river was already a check fold option for me, but I gave up more on purpose (I went in purely to test how my long game is going). I could try that $1.5 add an bankroll and then try with any 2 to double up.
Thank you once again when I start playing regularly I should remember this situation
Click to expand...
Your stack size on this table configuration requires you to take risks to win pots. Which means if you think the big stack calls off wide on flop you lead all-in. On turn if you still think they call you -lead all-in. Vs the V type you suggested both of those actions have you bust out which is fine. Busting out by taking action is always better than calling off the river when the nuts change drastically.

🤔🤓
 
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mardi1987 said:
Another deviation from my game I never play slow here as a short I decided to try to pull all in from BB and double up but karma 😀 position 5 again
View attachment 418695
View attachment 418694
Click to expand...

I actually like this one. I rarely trap but in this case since it folds to us on SB (isolation) trap is okay. I still would probably open min, give myself a chance to steal pre just in case the flop ends up gross and if he jams overtop we obviously call (which we did). If I'm gonna trap short, this is it. And he fell for it. Then he buttlucked a 2-outer on the turn. You got him. Good job. I know that it's small consolation.
 
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In the KK hand its to limp in from SB, if you can induce the opponent to ship it with a lot of hands, that would have folded to a jam. Stacks are much to short to raise to any size other than all-in. The result is, what it is. We cant get emotionally hung up with bad beats.
 
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Semprini said:
I actually like this one. I rarely trap but in this case since it folds to us on SB (isolation) trap is okay. I still would probably open min, give myself a chance to steal pre just in case the flop ends up gross and if he jams overtop we obviously call (which we did). If I'm gonna trap short, this is it. And he fell for it. Then he buttlucked a 2-outer on the turn. You got him. Good job. I know that it's small consolation.
Click to expand...
It happens, I managed to cash 5-6 free tournaments in a row before that the variance was crazy. It is important that I played most hands well and read my opponents . At the end of the two finals is a good result, I have time until the winter to prepare and build a bankroll for some better games.
 
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