PAHWM: Heads up in a NLHE tournament (1 Viewer)

[grebe]

Why so small? Because the board is wet?

I would bet this as preflop aggressor whether we hit or not. Our range is better than his. This would be my standard action as stated previously, except on flops that do not favor me as raiser. This flop is definitely in our wheelhouse. Also, a small bet on a mototone board can very likely take this pot down right now if he doesn't have a club. If he does have a club, he will feel obligated to call....which is a good thing.

-I am not folding to a raise here, as he would do this with any decent club....and we would be way ahead. If he happens to already have the flush, gg sir. If he calls and has a bigger A, that's the breaks, but maybe our 3c would be live. Remember, this is short stacks head's up poker....variance is way high and aggression is the name of the game.
-If he calls, on any non-club turn, I will probably just open shove, as the SPR's will be in the range of 1.
-If he folds, this is good for us, too.

The only way I am folding this hand is if a club comes on the turn, and he bets turn or river. Then, you just have to decide how often this particular player would bluff here and make your decision from that.

 

[grebe]

Why so small? Because the board is wet?

I guess I really didnt end up answering "why so small?"

Because our stack size is small, basically. The pot is 30K, a 12K bet represents about a 30% pot bet, and we want to be able to bet this a bunch. We only have 8 more bigs behind. How many more bigs do you want to bet here? If we get a call, the pot will give us an SPR of about 1 on the turn, so we can reasonably jam here when we want. If we don't have it and he jams on us, we can fold and preserve a decent push/fold stack when it doesn't go our way.

 

[WedgeRock]

I was shamed last night for slow-rolling this reveal. I thought 24 hours per decision was a standard pace. In any event, spoiler alert, there were only two decisions...pre-flop and flop, so if I revealed too quickly, I wouldn't have gotten any feedback.

Stacks: about 13xBB effective, Villain has hero covered.

We're in the SB with on the button. We raise to 15k and villain flat calls.

Pot: 30k, hero has about 60-65k behind.

Flop:

Villain checks.

So in the moment, as hero contemplates his flip action, it was bet or shove, no check back. I figured I may be ahead with my aces, and unless he has a big club, he has to fold. I didn't think I had enough to bet-fold, so if I was going to bet, I was committing my stack. And I figured I had more fold equity with a shove. So that's what I chose to do.

Spoiler: Results

Villain insta-called and turned over Q8cc for a flopped flush. Actually, I think he flipped J8cc, which means there wasn't a Jc on the board. In any event, he flopped 2nd or 3rd nut flush. I wasn't dead, as I had runner-runner outs to a boat. I did make two pair but Villain's flush held.

I talked about the action with Villain after the hand. He was also of the opinion that I should open small (2ishxBB) and could fold, but agreed I probably have to call a jam, so action didn't really matter much. His reasoning for the smallish cbet was because the board was wet.

I think a jam gets all hands to fold that aren't "good club with a pair" or better. That's probably erroneous thinking, because most of the hands with better equity are calling.

After he called and I saw his hand, I thought I was okay because I thought I had the Ac... But that was on the board, and I had the As.

For those advocating a small flop c-bet (@grebe, @JMC9389), results notwithstanding, how do you react to a min raise or shove? How do you play a flop flat by Villain if you open small?

 

[grebe]

For those advocating a small flop c-bet (@grebe, @JMC9389), results notwithstanding, how do you react to a min raise or shove? How do you play a flop flat by Villain if you open small?

You had 12 bbs, you are head's up and a pair that cannot be bested. You do not fold ever.