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  • When To Tighten Up On Final Tables

    Posted by monkiesystem on April 22, 2021 at 9:57 pm

    Here is the hand that knocked us out of the final table of an Americas Cardroom $16.50 50K Guaranteed event this past Sunday. A few of you were railing.

    Most people tighten up on finals with medium stacks, hoping to ladder up. But in the MonkieSystem, we release the Kraken.

    There are some exceptions where we keep the kraken in his cage. One is where we have a medium stack and numerous stacks are so short they could go out any time.

    The other is with a medium stack we avoid big pots in marginal spots. I may have screwed up on this one.

    My solver says that if I played purely GTO my destiny was to lose my stack here. I node locked other options in the solver but Villian was obviously never folding.

    But we don’t always play GTO on final tables. Do you think I should’ve pot controlled by making a blocking bet on the river? Should I have even called preflop? Or was finishing this tournament in 7th place simply in the stars?

    Yatahay Network – 450000/900000 NL (8 max) – Holdem – 7 players

    CO: 41.62 BB
    BTN: 38.56 BB
    SB: 14.94 BB
    Hero (BB): 23.49 BB
    UTG: 26.65 BB
    UTG+1: 50.39 BB
    MP: 14.18 BB

    7 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

    Pre Flop: (pot: 2.37 BB) Hero has 9h 6h
    fold, fold, fold, CO raises to 2.2 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.2 BB

    Flop : (5.77 BB, 2 players) 2d 6s 4d
    Hero checks, CO bets 2.31 BB, Hero calls 2.31 BB

    Turn : (10.39 BB, 2 players) 9d
    Hero checks, CO checks

    River : (10.39 BB, 2 players) Th
    Hero bets 18.85 BB and is all-in, CO calls 18.85 BB

    CO shows 2s 2h (Three of a Kind, Twos)
    (Pre 49%, Flop 97%, Turn 91%)

    Hero shows 9h 6h (Two Pair, Nines and Sixes)
    (Pre 51%, Flop 3%, Turn 9%)

    CO wins 48.1 BB

    sirgasleak replied 3 years, 2 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • taylormaas

    Member
    April 24, 2021 at 11:59 am

    Here’s how I view the hand: There a few shorter stacks than us, but not by a lot. Because of this, we should be valuing our tournament life but not becoming too tight at the same time.

    Preflop — totally fine to defend here, but you can make the case on the FT you should be tightening up when there is still 7 people left. I’m calling here 100% of the time but wouldn’t give anyone too hard of a time if the found a fold. 3-betting would be terrible.
    Flop — check-raising here isn’t a bad option, and would be one that I would probably take. Because of the stage of the tourney, I’d go small and c/r to 6.5-7.0 BBs with the intention of folding to a jam.

    Turn — we can definitely lead here as our hand will be disguised very well and we can stack off vs overpairs. This turn card is unlikely to be good for their range so I’d imagine we would see a lot of check backs.

    River — I don’t like the sizing due to the fact that we are on the FT. I think people bluff less on the FT and you are trying to represent a bluff. Any other situation and I love the jam sizings. But here, I worry you aren’t getting people trying to bluff catch you on this level of buy-in at this stage of the tourney.

    Unfortunate result that they had 22. Just one of those gross spots where you are gonna lose a bunch of chips. I was on the rail for this one and just wanted to let you know when you called the short stacks jam w 33 (or something like that), you really need to tighten up your calling all-in range in that spot. You’re gonna lose way more in those spots than you think.

    But great run, was fun to watch in play out and ended up with a really nice cash!

  • monkiesystem

    Member
    August 8, 2021 at 9:11 pm

    Thanks to the Rec’ ing crew for putting out a podcast regarding this situation.

    Upon further review, it was a bad idea to get into this hand with a stack that had me covered. Surviving past two villains who were pretty short would’ve maybe doubled my prize money. I should’ve just waited them out and then applied my short stack weapons.

    We have to manage our stack in these situations. Stay away from the guys that cover us unless it’s a hugely favorable spot. Stay away from big pots in marginal spots. Draws = No no.

    Does anyone else have any thoughts?

  • sirgasleak

    Member
    August 11, 2021 at 10:56 am

    I agree with Taylor.

    Flop I’m x/raising all day. It’s terrible for his range and you have a very vulnerable pair. Folding out all his overcard combos would be a great outcome. When I defend and hit a flop like this, I’m looking to take it down right away.

    River I don’t like the polarized sizing at all because it isn’t a spot that warrants a polarized sizing. You have a decent hand but there are still lots of hands that beat you, so when you bet so large you’re just folding out everything you beat and giving him a gift when he has you beat. In fact I might even be inclined to check river and hope to induce a bet from a big diamond or a cautiously played overpair. But I actually wouldn’t mind if he just checked behind on that river given this is a final table.

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