You have $3900. Opponent has $3400. Blinds are 50-100. You are UTG+1 with TT.

Opponent is UTG, an older white guy (probably 60s), opening a LOT of pots pre-flop, but doesn't seem to be making a lot of crazy moves postflop.

He opens for 250.

You make it 750. Folds back to him. He calls.

Flop JJ5 rainbow.

He checks. You have $3150 left, and make it 1k.

He goes all-in rather quickly.

You will be down to a very crippled $500 if you lose, but will be up to about $7500 if you win.

You are highly likely to be 2 outs to win or lose here (depending upon his hand), unless he's bluffing.

If you fold, you have $2150. Starting stacks in this tournament were $4500, and it's level 3.

Call or fold?

I fold because he is white. If he was an older black guy I call.

He has pocket 8. Ship.

Do you put him on the ability to flat aa or kk in this spot? Is he so weak that he won't 4 bet pre and only flat with qq here? Does he really insta shove with trips? I think alarm bells would have gone off in your head if he had aa or kk because these guys can't resist Hollywooding. Also a trips flop = more Hollywooding.

People like the one you described don't bother putting their opponents on hands. He instead looks at a jj5 flop as a favorable flop for a mid pair.

I'm convinced you made the wrong fold.

Check back on the flop.

he's opening a lot of pots, and slowing down on flops. he's playing atc. obv fold ,you call and it's

Tough spot here.

As played, I'd fold as AJ/QQ/KK is def in his raise->3bet flat UTG range (esp for older white dude). If this old dude is raising UTG, and raising more than most, his range I think still is polarized in the early levels enough to warrant a fold with TT.

The quick check-shove is tough though b/c he could be shoving 88 or 99 thinking he's check-raising an AK/AQ cbet (as well as turning it into a bluff).

I don't like playing big pots with TT early in these donkaments (unless it's OTB v Blinds/BvB) until I get less than 20 BBs deep. You have 39 BBs. If you think you are a better player (and you obv are), I like smooth calling here when the stack-to-pot ratios are small in the early levels. I'm not comfortable playing a big pot with TT when the SPR is still disproportionate with a standard 3bet.

People call reraises early in these things like it is no ones fuckin' biz. It's akin to the shit I used to see in $4.00 180 mans on Stars. You are better off taking a pot control line with TT (most of the time, you have to mix it up and you can get some value from REAL lagtards), as well as try to lure others in to get even more value when you flop a set of tens.

For example, I played a $350 Venetian recently. Blinds 50/100. My image is aggressive and running good, hand before I flopped set of Deuces and milked 3K out of a guy, no showdown. Another player, who has been tight (stacked off with AA>QQ) but active (a tagtard with baseball hat, collared shirt), makes it 300 to go from the HJ. I flat with TT in the SB, BB calls (old white guy), we see a flop.

Flop Kh Ts 2c

Pretty good fuckin' flop. I check, BB checks, our tagtard makes it 600. I c/r to 2375. The BB ship 3-bets for 52 BBs, tagtard folds, I call and ship versus set of Deuces. If I had re-raised, I lose the action from the Deuces as fish and loose aggressive sharks alike will often call mild PF 3bets, but rarely strong 4bets (unless HU).

I feel you'll win more of those big pots more often with that line, rather than 4betting strong with TT, flop 772, he checks, you 2/3, and he ships (never mind the times he outflops you). Then WTFDUDO?

I call PF to keep the pot small to either a) evaluate and see if I am good on flop or turn and lose less with smaller probe bets as the pot is smaller and b) to trap this guy if he is an older lagtard.

this is an instant call for me. it's the 3rd level, so you've played with this guy for maybe an hour, hour and a half? which is probably 60 hands max? how many of those 60 hands has he played, let alone seen a flop on? so to say "he doesn't seem to be making a lot of crazy moves postflop", i doubt you really have the sort of information you need to make that read. this is also a good board for almost any pocket pair, and based on your bet size the only two moves he has are fold or shove (calling would be idiotic). also, does trip jacks shove instantly? wouldn't he want to do a little hollywooding? and why would he raise utg and then call a 3bet out of position for 750 when he only has 3400 in chips with AJ? i'd guess he has 77 to 99 here, with the slight possibility he has QQ (though from the sounds of it, he'd just shove pre with that hand). if he has a jack, just chalk it up to him being horrible and you getting unlucky.

these tournaments sound as if they are structured in a way where you must make moves early. it's only level 3 and a starting stack only has 30bbs. i think folding is playing way too cautious.

also, i assumed you 3-bet with 10's against the utg raiser to find out where you were (both with the initial raiser and the people behind you), assuming he shoves with hands that beat you preflop. once he just calls, i'm guessing you now put him on a weaker holding than 10's (smaller pp or AK/AQ, possibly JJ, but that is out of the question on this flop). it's hard to put him on a utg raise with a Jack, let alone a 3bet call for so much of his stack size (possible, but that just makes him horrible, thus increasing the chances that you have the best hand after his shove because bad players would shove with worse holdings than your tens on this flop).

Either/or. its a 50/50 spot where if u were put in that spot 100 times both plays would have about the same EV. Yer play depends on yer goals for the tourney. Online I would call here cause i dont care if I bust from an online tourney, but live I think I would usually fold.

The problem is that this guy loved to play hands pre-flop. He was in a ton of hands pre, often cold-calling UTG raises, etc. He was doing it way too often to just be getting a lot of good hands. He would open-raise if nobody raised yet, would usually isolate limpers, and would cold-call if others raised. However, as I said, I didn't see him going nuts POST flop. At that point he seemed reasonable.

I re-raised him pre because I thought he likely had crap, and I didn't want to play a multi-way pot with TT anyway.

One problem is that a jack (QJ/KJ/AJ/JT) is very much in his range here, and he didn't have enough chips to realistically check-call me. He had 2650 left, and I made it 1k on the flop. I think he believed I was going to call his all-in, so that's what made me think he really had it, rather than just trying to force me off the hand. I will concede it's possible that he had something like 77-99 and just spazzed out.

I decided to let the hand go and take my chances with the remaining 2150 I had, which didn't end up working out.

The other problem was that he did it so quickly, it was like he didn't have any hesitation about getting his chips in.

I thought he also might have KK/AA in that spot, and was just waiting for me to bet the flop and pounce (that is, he decided that before flatting my raise pre).

Oh well.. guess I'll never know.

I told Micon and he hates my fold.

Alot of times when someone raises that quickly they are bluffing in that spot. You have to call there and if you're beat that's the way it goes. If he had a jack there why would he snap shove instead of trying to get max value. AA KK QQ usually would reraise preflop there. But lets say he was trying to be sneaky with AA, why would he insta shove the flop in a spot when he is either way ahead or way behind. Seems highly unlikely that he would choose to be sneaky preflop with AA KK QQ but then decide not to be sneaky anymore on a safe flop such as that.

If we came into this with effective stacks of 7k instead of 3300, I'd agree with you.

However, I think he saw the situation as there being enough chips in the pot to commit me once I c-bet (unless I just have overcards), so why not just wait and let me hang myself.

This whole thing bothers me because I keep going back and forth between believing I did the right thing and thinking I fucked up.

well, it's not the worst fold in the world. also, you weren't exactly deep in the tournament, so who knows what the outcome would have been had you won the hand (you still would have had a long way to go). so i wouldn't beat myself up about it.

just try not to play so nitty.

Aren't we supposed to be the ones asking the questions in this forum?

I call off here - looks like an under pair to me, but I guess QQ is also possible.

it's NL, he's a fish out of water.

Older white guys (him) tend to assume other older white guys (Druff) are 3-betting UTG with QQ+, especially if you hadn't been doing it alot. He probably didnt know you were Todd "Dandruff" Wittilis, bracelet winner. He checked the flop knowing you would bet your overpair. His shove was for value not to get you to fold. Pot was about 3600, about 2k for you to call? He could beat your hand.

I dont look a druff and think old guy. And we all know he wears that bracelet everywhere.

If it bothers you that much if you made the right or wrong play the next time you are in that situation say to hell with isolation and just set mine 1010. Call on favorable flops or bet the turn if checked to you. If someone 3 bets huge after you call 1010 pre it's an easy fold unless he's a loose cannon. When you play it the way you did you really have to call unless you have an overwhelmingly strong read.