$5 NL HE MTT: 99

888Poker, $5 + $0.50 - Hold'em No Limit - 500/1,000 (125 ante) - 8 players
Replay this hand on CardsChat

UTG: 17,000 (17 bb)
UTG+1: 41,820 (42 bb)
MP (Hero): 31,084 (31 bb)
MP+1: 42,722 (43 bb)
CO: 68,094 (68 bb)
BU: 4,800 (5 bb)
SB: 51,885 (52 bb)
BB: 34,047 (34 bb)

Pre-Flop: (2,500) Hero is MP with 9♣ 9♥
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to 2,500, Hero calls 2,500, 4 players fold, BB calls 1,500

Flop: (9,000) 2♠ 8♠ 6♣ (3 players)
BB bets 2,970, UTG+1 folds, Hero raises to 8,425, BB calls 5,455

Turn: (25,850) K♥ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (25,850) 3♠ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Bounty wasnt active

Preflop: It could have been 3 bets, but the call isn't bad either. Lately, I've been watching BencB's videos, and he rarely limps, 3-bets and squeezes in most preflop games, I've noticed. They fold a lot to 3-bets, so maybe I should incorporate that into my game.



Flop: I have an overpair, but the BB opens a smaller one. The BB has a wide range, so this flop could be good for him.

What could the BB range be?
Top pair A8s, K8s, Q8s, J8s, T8s, 98s, 85s+, A8o, K8o, 98o

Second pair: A6s, K6s, Q6s, J6s, T6s, 96s, 86s, 76s, A6o

Draw: ATs-A2s, K9s-K2s, Q9s-Q2s, J9s-J2s, T4s+, 95s+, 85s+, 75s+, 65s, 54s, 43s

I wouldn't think of an over pair

Set: 66 22 88

I think I have the advantage, the 3bet is small, it could have been 9-10k



Turn: I made a mistake here. BB passed after the previous open, I should have raised or jammed here, even with a half pot open I commit myself to the pot and then I can't fold, maybe jamming is the best solution here



River also passed, the many bluffers could have gotten there, I didn't want to call here anymore

What do you think?

Preflop
I would also call here. Folding is to tight, and stacks are awkward for 3-betting. You are to deep to 3-bet jam with a good risk-reward, and if you 3-bet small, you might face a 4-bet jam, where you dont like any of your options.

Flop
Against the preflop raiser I might just call here, but against a donk bettor I am totally on board with raising with intension to stack off. He rarely has an overpair, and most commonly this donk bet is going to be a draw or some kind of top pair hand, which you beat.

Turn
I would jam on this card. You have less than a pot sized bet left, and the K is a brick. Yes its an overcard, but it dont connect with the flop, so the only way, he has it, is if he has K8 or KX of spades. But other than this all his draws missed, and your hand still benefit from protection.

River
Now spades came in, and at this point I think, its to thin to jam 99 for value. You also cant really go small without committing yourself to the pot, so as played I agree with checking back.

Well 3-betting into an UTG+1 opener could be an option here.

Your range could look like this for the effective stack size around 30 BB:
green underlines are 50 % types
Red are 3-bet broke hands
blue are 3-bet fold hands



This could keep the BB out of this hand, makes it much easier to play.

On the 2♠ 8♠ 6♣ flop, and based on his line
(small donk‑bet → call your raise → check/check turn & river), the following hand types fit well:

• Sets

These are always in his range and always continue versus your raise:

• 66
• 88
• 22

They make perfect sense with his line:
A small donk can be a “range bet” or a disguised strong hand, and calling your raise keeps your bluffs and draws in.
The passive turn/river line is also common for players who fear the K♥ or the completed spade flush.

• Top pair / second pair + draws

Hands like 8x or 6x with additional equity:

• 87s, 76s, 98s, T9s
• Pairs with gutshots or backdoor draws

• Strong draws
Flush draws
Typical spade combos:

• A♠x♠
• K♠Q♠
• Q♠J♠
• J♠T♠
• T♠9♠

Combo draws

Mix of straight + flush equity:

• 9♠7♠
• 7♠5♠
• 5♠4♠

• Medium‑strength made hands

• 77, TT
• 99 (you block this)
• Occasionally JJ–QQ slow‑played

I would be cautious here with the BB unless you have some kind of tells about them, especially when they call your 3bet on the flop.

It could be a fish betting a pair of eights. It could be flush draw trying to build the pot with some overcards. It could be an overpair bigger than yours that played passively pre-flop.

Given the above, once you hit the turn I don't think it is unreasonable to slow it down as you did. Sometimes the K is a brick but sometimes you are playing against Kx. If you jam it in you are hoping you are up against a sticky player who will call a flush draw pretty much or maybe get hands like TT, JJ, QQ to fold because of the K.

fundiver199 said:

Preflop
I would also call here. Folding is to tight, and stacks are awkward for 3-betting. You are to deep to 3-bet jam with a good risk-reward, and if you 3-bet small, you might face a 4-bet jam, where you dont like any of your options.

Flop
Against the preflop raiser I might just call here, but against a donk bettor I am totally on board with raising with intension to stack off. He rarely has an overpair, and most commonly this donk bet is going to be a draw or some kind of top pair hand, which you beat.

Turn
I would jam on this card. You have less than a pot sized bet left, and the K is a brick. Yes its an overcard, but it dont connect with the flop, so the only way, he has it, is if he has K8 or KX of spades. But other than this all his draws missed, and your hand still benefit from protection.

River
Now spades came in, and at this point I think, its to thin to jam 99 for value. You also cant really go small without committing yourself to the pot, so as played I agree with checking back.

Click to expand...

Prfelop, okay, I understand.



Turn: Yes, that would have been the best move. The K fits few combinations, and I was scared of a bigger card. I didn't think it through. Somehow, I need to see through these situations and build the ranks in my head faster, because it can give me something on the flop.



Thank you.

Goggelheimer said:

Well 3-betting into an UTG+1 opener could be an option here.

Your range could look like this for the effective stack size around 30 BB:
green underlines are 50 % types
Red are 3-bet broke hands
blue are 3-bet fold hands

View attachment 401252

This could keep the BB out of this hand, makes it much easier to play.

On the 2♠ 8♠ 6♣ flop, and based on his line
(small donk‑bet → call your raise → check/check turn & river), the following hand types fit well:

• Sets

These are always in his range and always continue versus your raise:

• 66
• 88
• 22

They make perfect sense with his line:
A small donk can be a “range bet” or a disguised strong hand, and calling your raise keeps your bluffs and draws in.
The passive turn/river line is also common for players who fear the K♥ or the completed spade flush.

• Top pair / second pair + draws

8x or 6x with additional equity:

• 87s, 76s, 98s, T9s
• Pairs with gutshots or backdoor draws

• Strong draws
Flush draws
Typical spade combos:

• A♠x♠
• K♠Q♠
• Q♠J♠
• J♠T♠
• T♠9♠

Combo draws

Mix of straight + flush equity:

• 9♠7♠
• 7♠5♠
• 5♠4♠

• Medium‑strength made hands

• 77, TT
• 99 (you block this)
• Occasionally JJ–QQ slow‑played

Click to expand...

Thanks for the analysis.



Is this your own range?





I use it, but not entirely. I wouldn't think so in low-stakes games. A4S A6s A7s should be 3-bet, I understand that for balance it should be a 3-bet bluff, but in low-stakes games it may not pay off, they don't pay that much attention there.



Yes, that way I could have definitely pushed the BB out of the game, so I should 3-bet more often because anything can happen with the BB.



Why not continue raising with a set on the turn?



But even on the turn, I'm ahead of most of these ranges, so as I suggested in my previous post, Jam would have been the right move.






DeepL.com (free version)

Geo90 said:

Is this your own range?

Click to expand...

Merged from different sources including yours.

Geo90 said:

I use it, but not entirely. I wouldn't think so in low-stakes games. A4S A6s A7s should be 3-bet, I understand that for balance it should be a 3-bet bluff, but in low-stakes games it may not pay off, they don't pay that much attention there.

Click to expand...

The A6s and A7s I took out because their straight values is a bit low, I prefer wheel(A,2,3,4,5) hands more.
Balance is a GTO myth, as you from your source exploitative is the way to go, Low and Midstakes may not need balanced approaches.

Geo90 said:

Yes, that way I could have definitely pushed the BB out of the game, so I should 3-bet more often because anything can happen with the BB.

Why not continue raising with a set on the turn?

Click to expand...

The question is where do I get the better payout with my set on a board like this. Did you have a set on the turn???
bet flop, bet turn bet river, or bet flop, check turn, overbet river.

Goggelheimer said:

Merged from different sources including yours.


The A6s and A7s I took out because their straight values is a bit low, I prefer wheel(A,2,3,4,5) hands more.
Balance is a GTO myth, as you from your source exploitative is the way to go, Low and Midstakes may not need balanced approaches.



The question is where do I get the better payout with my set on a board like this. Did you have a set on the turn???
bet flop, bet turn bet river, or bet flop, check turn, overbet river.

Click to expand...

Bencb's scales are very good because they encourage play, they are more relaxed, although he often says that these ChipEv ranges and ICM ranges are much narrower, but I'm not confident post-flop either, so maybe I shouldn't open so wide, I'm pushing the drills now, I hope it will help a lot.


At higher stakes, it's definitely the right play to 3-bet A6s, I think because of the blocker effect.


Yes, because of the odds, those are better, I might do the same, I see K5S K6S 3-bets a lot, which might be too loose, even though he says in a video that K5S is better than JJ, my English isn't very good, I didn't understand everything.


So if I don't need to balance, can I skip the lower range of 3bets and 4bets with these hand ranges? Actually, micron, I don't think anyone would take that into account.


Thank you for your answer.

https://chatgpt.com/s/t_697a003a50ec81919cf3f4d7aaa347a9

Do you use Chat GPT for analysis?

Geo90 said:

https://chatgpt.com/s/t_697a003a50ec81919cf3f4d7aaa347a9

Do you use Chat GPT for analysis?

Click to expand...

I have a local LLM with Ollama that acts as coach.

Try to ask chat gpt how such a thing works, so you don´t have to give hands to train foreign LLMs.
If you heve a lot of RAM and a newer RTX Graphics card this is the way top go.

Goggelheimer said:

I have a local LLM with Ollama that acts as coach.

Try to ask chat gpt how such a thing works, so you don´t have to give hands to train foreign LLMs.
If you heve a lot of RAM and a newer RTX Graphics card this is the way top go.

Click to expand...

And why is this better than ChatGPT? Because it's your own, or because it knows more?



I have a weak laptop with 8GB of RAM, so I don't think it will work.



Do you use this?

Geo90 said:

And why is this better than ChatGPT? Because it's your own, or because it knows more?

Click to expand...

I don´t like giving my HH away. My personal view.

Geo90 said:

I have a weak laptop with 8GB of RAM, so I don't think it will work.



Do you use this?

Click to expand...

With that laptop it will not work.

Geo90 said:

Prfelop, okay, I understand.



Turn: Yes, that would have been the best move. The K fits few combinations, and I was scared of a bigger card. I didn't think it through. Somehow, I need to see through these situations and build the ranks in my head faster, because it can give me something on the flop.



Thank you.

Click to expand...

I 100% agree with fundiver's analysis of the hand... and actually wouldn't do anything differently than what he's described.