My Title is Up for Grabs

14 thoughts on “My Title is Up for Grabs”

1. Wait, you called it off knowing you were pot committed in the last hand there?

   • That was a dumb question that doesn’t warrant a response? I’m just curious did you call hoping you had 7 outs, or 10 outs.

     • Sorry, Johnny, just missed it- nothing personal and certainly not a dumb question. To be honest, I didn’t even think about folding. At first I was thinking of just shoving, and then I thought that betting less than all in would look stronger, but since I was thinking of it as an alternative to shoving it never even occurred to me to bet-fold. Honestly even getting big odds I guess it’s pretty close.

2. The first hand – is the only hand you’re afraid of QQc? Since the Ac and Kc are already on the board, that eliminates a ton of his range with a club right?

   • I think AQc is a possibility as well, maybe even KQc depending on how light he’s 4-betting (not light, I think). You make a good point, though. I really didn’t even consider anything but folding, but perhaps I should have. I don’t think I ever have a good club here, unless I have two of them, like QcJc or something.

3. I’m really curious about your flop betsizing in hand 1.

   I know from a GTO perspective it’s good to bet small in 4-bet pots, b/c of the small SPR and the effectiveness it has as a bluff, esp with less than 100bbs eff.

   On this particular flop though, I really don’t see why we’d do that.

   Villains range to continue on this board is going to be an overpair, or the Ac/Kc. Since we don’t have the Ac ourselves, I’m not sure why we are betting so small. If he has red QQ/JJ, he can put us on the Ac and is likely calling 1 street, and if he has a club, he’s certainly calling 1 street, regardless of what you bet.

   Even though it’d be really imbalanced, I would bet at least 2/3 pot here. It doesn’t even matter that you’re never bluffing (how will he know that?) – his range is just too strong that he’s calling 1450+ with the same frequency he’s calling 777. I think this is a spot where, since we don’t have the Ac, his calling range isn’t going to be affected too much by your betsize.

   In my (albeit limited) experience, when the pot gets big MTT players sometimes spazz and will shove JJ-KK with a club here if you bet a pot committing amount, but get to play perfectly vs a small bet.

   • You make a lot of good points. I probably overdo it with the underbetting. For a while it was the favorite trick in my book, but I think I might be overdoing it these days.

     • In one of galfonds videos he discusses a hand btwn urindanger and i think smokey24, where urindanger 3-bets the BTN vs smokeys CO open and smokey flats.

       The flop is like K83r, and urindanger cbets like 1/3 pot vs smokeys check. Here underbetting plays well for reasons you know given smokeys range.

       In your example though, his range is just so strong (relatively speaking) that i think you just lose value from any hand that’s calling a big bet. He just doesn’t have weak hands in his range that warrant getting a light peel from – so might as well jack it up.

       I played a similar hand at 5/10 vs tim0thee, where i flatted his SQZ of a UTG open + my MP flat call from his SB with TT.

       Flop 922 and tim0thee cbet near pot. He knows my range is so heavily weighted towards pairs here, that it makes the most sense for him to bet big, as my continuing range is basically the same vs 1/2 pot and near pot for at least 1 street.

4. I think the river on the first hand is definitely very close to being a call… He has to have exactly QQc or AQc here to be ahead. He is not 4b’ing 90 bbs effective w/JJ or TT OOP here, unless he is bad. If there are only two combos of hands he can really have I think this is a very close call. I am also leaning towards the call because he just clicked pot on the river and did not put much thought into a bet size (this may be a level, but I think it plays a part esp if it is a random). He can chk call an overpair w/no clubs on this flop, but can not re-raise. On the flop and turn AcKx is definitely in his range and I suppose he can come along w/AxKc b/c of our small bet. Turn obviously eliminates AxKc, but still leaves AcKx and river eliminates both of those. Therefore we can eliminate AK from his range completely as no AKxx is coming along on this flop. Therefore his range is narrowed to AdQc (this may not even come along on the flop, but prob will b/c small cbet), KK, QQc so now that I really get down to it there are __ combos (AdQc and QdhsQc of these that are ahead of us and __ combos (KKdhs)that we are ahead of so it seems like a FOLD. nh

   • I’m calling in Hand 1.

     What can he show up with here besides QQ with the Q of clubs that we’re scared of? I mean I guess he can 4 bet other hands like a donk. I also don’t really see QQc playing this way postflop.

     TMay plays really snug but whatever in Hand 2… not folding KK on a 55bb stack there.

     Hand 3: Don’t like it at all.

   • Solid analysis, Mac. Against a better player, I would have given more thought to a call. The truth is that soooo many people don’t bluff nearly as much as they should at these chop pots. Like, when I look people up on like 56789 boards, I feel like I get shown a T 90% of the time, even in spots where I basically never beat the board and people ought to be bluffing constantly. The fact that I only get half the pot when I catch him in a bluff makes this a less attractive proposition, but I do like your reasoning against a good player.

   • I guess you’re Manny Pacquiao now with this “title defense” dick-waving nonsense. Well done. I predict that all this misguided machismo will have you speaking with Chris Hansen soon. Remember to leave the lube in the car. Less incriminating.

     • Sorry I’ve been bragging so much, I’ll try to tone it down.

     • lol, honestly?

       Unbiased statement – andrew is prob one of the LEAST ego mid/high stakes online players out there.

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