$3.3 NL HE STT: Top pair facing pressure on low board

[fundiver199]

Game

Hold'em

Game Format

No Limit

Table Format

STT

Buy-in

3.3

Game Options

1. Turbo

Currency

$

Another hand from a 8-man SnG on ACR Poker, this time a microstakes game though. These tend to be a bit softer, because the leaderboard grinding regs dont play them much. Down to 5 players, and since we are the two big stacks, there is quite a bit of ICM-pressure on both of us. With that in mind would you fold here? And how about the earlier streets? No particular info on the Villain.

Winning Poker, Hold'em No Limit - 100/200 (25 ante) - 5 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat - https://www.cardschat.com/hand-converter.php

luushux (UTG): 2,846 (14 bb)
cassell (CO): 5,084 (25 bb)
Scrip88 (BU): 2,294 (11 bb)
kamione (SB): 841 (4 bb)
fundiver199 (BB): 4,935 (25 bb)

Pre-Flop: (425) Hero (fundiver199) is BB with 7♣ T♦
1 fold, cassell (CO) raises to 400, 2 players fold, fundiver199 (BB) calls 200

Flop: (1,025) 7♥ 2♦ 4♠ (2 players)
fundiver199 (BB) checks, cassell (CO) bets 769, fundiver199 (BB) calls 769

Turn: (2,563) 6♦ (2 players)
fundiver199 (BB) checks, cassell (CO) bets 3,890 (all-in), fundiver199?

 

[puzzlefish]

This is a problem I find with blind defending with marginal hands. So now you hit top pair but you have no idea how good it is versus your villains' range. Can you fold a top pair questionable kicker on the flop?

Anyway, I would fold this but have called in the past only to see JJ or K7s or something similar that has me dominated.

 

[primrose]

I don't think I'm folding. We're not at the top of our range here but we're pretty high up, and there's a lot of hands your opponent could do this with that are weaker. I don't see why I should respect my opponent's range enough to fold top pair here when they've just minraised on the CO. We could definitely be beat, it's probably close to 50/50, but 50% is good enough to call.

But also, this is yet another hand where you just call the flop when I think a raise is probably the stronger play. You have a top pair that's about a coinflip away from not being top pair anymore on the next street; I'd be getting the money in now. Especially out of position.

... on the other hand, the sizing is pretty big on the flop and of course on the turn; that's one reason for both calling the Flop and folding the Turn. And if it's also a weaker field, maybe my first instinct was wrong and you should give up.

Just argue both sides and you can't be wrong!

 

[fundiver199]

Can you fold a top pair questionable kicker on the flop?

Thats a good question. I actually wanted to fold because of his sizing, which was unusually large for a C-bet in these games. I felt, that he probably had an overpair, which he wanted to protect. But then I went into kind of GTO mode and thought, that nah... it cant be right to flop top pair and then just straight out fold to a single bet. But maybe the more correct way to think of the situation is, that we have a pair of 7´s with a 10 kicker, which is basically just a weak pair. Yes its top pair right now, but any future card, thats not a 7 or 10, will either be an overcard to our pair, pair the board or complete some kind of straightdraw.

 

[Geo90]

I would fold, you are in a good position in the tournament, I wouldn't risk my chips with a 107, I might have folded preflop, this one can get me out of the tournament with ellef, he might have a set,A7,K7,overpair but he might just be playing a flush draw

 

[fundiver199]

Thanks for the comments. I folded so no point in showing the replay. There is however a reveal, because the opponent was kind enough to show his cards, even though he won without showdown. He had 99.

 

[fundiver199]

This is a problem I find with blind defending with marginal hands. So now you hit top pair but you have no idea how good it is versus your villains' range. Can you fold a top pair questionable kicker on the flop?

Yeah I often get a feeling, that do I really need to do this, can I not just fold preflop? Here the issue was a very large C-bet, where right away top pair questionable kicker is already no more than a bluff catcher. In other cases you face a small C-bet, and then if you just call, you allow your opponent to potentially suck out on you and bink a higher pair. But if you take the aggressive route and raise, you are usually behind, when you get action. For instance this is how, an 8-man SnG ended for me today:

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But a bit later in the session I defended the exact same hand in an MTT, and that went rather well:

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So I guess, we just need to accept, that poker is a long term game.