$11 NL HE MTT: 89S

It was a smooth $11 MTT!


Preflop Raise OK


Flop Cbet OK, could have been a little bigger


Turn According to GTO, 100% call here, but would a re-raise have been better?


R worst card comes, 2 cards beat us, but we were close to ITM, I didn't want to put all my chips in, how would you have played?

888Poker, $10 + $1 - Hold'em No Limit - 1,500/3,000 (375 ante) - 7 players
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UTG: 47,280 (16 bb)
MP: 40,340 (13 bb)
MP+1: 81,260 (27 bb)
CO (Hero): 89,691 (30 bb)
BU: 189,510 (63 bb)
SB: 47,341 (16 bb)
BB: 163,001 (54 bb)

Pre-Flop: (7,125) Hero is CO with 9♥ 8♥
3 players fold, Hero raises to 6,000, 2 players fold, BB calls 3,000

Flop: (16,125) Q♣ 4♥ K♥ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 6,000, BB calls 6,000

Turn: (28,125) A♥ (2 players)
BB bets 14,062, Hero calls 14,062

River: (56,249) T♥ (2 players)
BB bets 136,564 (all-in), CO (Hero) folds

Calling feels safe, but it creates difficult river decisions and lowers your EV compared to raising
Raising is better because: 1)You get value from worse hands (two pair, sets, maybe even weaker hearts 56s for example).
2)You protect against paired boards and scary rivers. 3)You take control of the hand and often commit stacks on your terms
Best line: Raise turn (~2.2–2.5x his bet) and plan to jam most rivers.

Preflop
Standard open.

Flop
Standard C-bet. Maybe you can size up a little bit.

Turn
Now the hand get interesting, because you make a flush, but you also face a donk bet, which is essentially your opponent saying, that he also improved. To start with the obvious, I dont think, we can ever fold here. There are many worse hands, that improved, including JT, A4 and worse flushes. Or maybe 44 slowplayed the flop but dont want you to check back now. You have a little more than a pot sized bet left, and even though another heart could potentially be an action killer, you also dont want to make hands like JT or A4 fold. So I do lean towards just making the call and then play the river.

River
Obviously not the card or action, you wanted to see. I will say though, that I dont think, many hands with the naked Q or J of hearts play like this. QhX was third pair on the turn, and it would be kind of unusual to lead out with that hand and turn it into a bluff. And JhX would mostly be JhT, that turned a straight and rivered a flush.

On the other hand its pretty clear, that no worse hand is valuebetting now. And what are the bluffs, when every single draw got there? He would need to turn something like two pair into a bluff, which generally dont happen all that much. You are also not getting a good price facing an overbet (even though you are the effective stack), so overall I am ok giving him credit and letting this one go.

I think you have to call the jam. Only two higher possible flushes here and the texture of the board is good for bluffs.

This is a CO vs. BB situation and CO (Hero) is playing pretty passively after an initial strong open, which makes BB think he can bluff hero off - or maybe he has a straight or a set.