Do you make this call?/rate this call/rate this play.

$1.10 45 player turbo sit and go on stars.


Blinds are up to 100/200, table has tightened up and I'm playing pretty LAG and picking up quite a few blinds.




PokerStars Game #18260445502: Tournament #92742128, $1.00+$0.10 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2008/06/20 - 09:57:59 (ET)
Table '92742128 1' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: comtomama (2960 in chips)
Seat 3: LirvA (4405 in chips)
Seat 4: marcosmetall (1535 in chips)
Seat 5: MBuzzAA (4530 in chips)
Seat 6: sulu3000 (4709 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 8: danielebg (4865 in chips)
Seat 9: Spyro23 (1248 in chips)
marcosmetall: posts small blind 100
MBuzzAA: posts big blind 200



I had been stealing blinds because everyone was playing a lot tighter preflop. I was basically the only player going after blinds at this point. I get dealt Ac5c on the button, it's folded to me, I make a standard p.f. raise, and the villian in the BB defends.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LirvA [Ac 5c]
sulu3000: folds
danielebg: folds
Spyro23: folds
comtomama: folds
LirvA: raises 400 to 600
marcosmetall: folds
sulu3000 has returned
MBuzzAA: calls 400


The villian had been pretty TAG. He had isolated a couple limpers from the button with a preflop raise a bit earlier, and took the pot down on the flop with a c-bet. No showdown that hand. He wasn't a total donk like you find in these micro's, but he was playing kinda nitty, folding a lot and not being very aggressive. As said, I was being aggressive, stealing blinds, and he definitely picked up on that and after I raised, he thought a bit and decided to defend his blind.

At this point, I didn't put him on anything too big. I didn't think he had any pocket pair cause I felt like he would have reraised me. Same with AK AQ AJ even KQ,KJ, and maybe QJ, I just didn't think he had that good of hand.

Maybe something like Q-10, Q-9,8,7, J-10,9,8,7, maybe a suited connector. Maybe a really weak K. I think he might have reraised me with any A, so I didn't think he had an A.


*** FLOP *** [4h 3c 3h]
MBuzzAA: checks
LirvA: bets 1000


The flop is pretty decent for my hand, I flop a gutshot straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. He checks, I bet 1000 hoping to just win the pot uncontested.

I was pretty confident I had the best hand at this point, mainly because of my preflop read. I didn't think he would be defending with a 3 or 4 in his hand.

After I c-bet the flop, he starts thinking a bit and I have a feeling he's gonna try to bluff me out of it, because I was being so aggressive and he thought I was just stealing. He pondered, and I immediatly thought "might snap call here"



MBuzzAA: raises 2930 to 3930 and is all-in
LirvA: calls 2805 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (125) returned to MBuzzAA


He pushes all in, and I snap call with A high, because I'm very confident I have the best hand at this point, and have 10 outs and if a club hits the turn I'll have even more. I didn't put him on a flush draw or straight draw, just a total bluff.




Do you make this call? Rate this call. Rate my overall play in the hand.


I'll post results after some responses.

I'm not really a fan of hte call personally. I'd rather find a better spot.

Also in a $1 sng, I doubt they are playing back at you that hard... besides a hand like 66 has you crushed. It's ugly imo.

The post is written in such a way that call becomes the obvious choice because of all the selling done that you have the best hand. So a fold would be the wrong answer.

If I didn't have the same read on his starting hands and were looking just at this information:

Seat 1: comtomama (2960 in chips)
Seat 3: LirvA (4405 in chips)
Seat 4: marcosmetall (1535 in chips)
Seat 5: MBuzzAA (4530 in chips)
Seat 6: sulu3000 (4709 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 8: danielebg (4865 in chips)
Seat 9: Spyro23 (1248 in chips)
marcosmetall: posts small blind 100
MBuzzAA: posts big blind 200

You guys are both well stacked.

I'm ussually going to do one of two things here:

1) put in a small bet of 600-800, and fold if i get much resistance.
2) take the free card

#2 sounds so weak as a type it, but if you continuation bet 100% of the time its not effective - against this player you described as not very agressive you might face a small bet on the turn and then have it checked to you on the river where you can decide from there if its a value bet or not.

Perhaps I'm way off with #2 because the more I type it the weaker it feels - but i still think i might sometimes that the card here and play a small pot against the other big stack.

If I do #1 and he check raises me then I usually will fold here.
If I do #2 and don't improve and he bets a lot I fold, if I do pick up a draw and he bets small then I flat call.. if the river hits having looked so weak so far might be able to induce a bigger bluff from hm on the final street.

I'm such a situational player though, and not really all that great in responding to hands, and again based on what you sold and your thought process call seemed obvious and the real question was whether or not the though process was correct.

Originally Posted by Leviathan101

I'm not really a fan of hte call personally. I'd rather find a better spot.

Also in a $1 sng, I doubt they are playing back at you that hard... besides a hand like 66 has you crushed. It's ugly imo.

In turbos if you think you have the best hand, which his post indicates. then calling is usually correct because in these there is not all that much time to find better spots. Players stat taking their time to advance tournament clock and the blind get out of control fast after this level.
I agree with your post though if the other info wasn't present, but based on his strong belief he has the best hand then I toss those chips in and see what happens. You need 9Kish chips to cash in one of these and even when you have it you're usually not safe to cash.

A bit off topic: In 45 man turbos imo the optimal strategy is to play first for the money and the to play for first. I've been short stacked and won so many of these because late in the tournament it becomes much like a flipament. This is the $60 ones though, perhaps there are less players haging around late in the $1 one or the blinds might even be different, not sure.

Results:




PokerStars Game #18260445502: Tournament #92742128, $1.00+$0.10 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2008/06/20 - 09:57:59 (ET)
Table '92742128 1' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: comtomama (2960 in chips)
Seat 3: LirvA (4405 in chips)
Seat 4: marcosmetall (1535 in chips)
Seat 5: MBuzzAA (4530 in chips)
Seat 6: sulu3000 (4709 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 8: danielebg (4865 in chips)
Seat 9: Spyro23 (1248 in chips)
marcosmetall: posts small blind 100
MBuzzAA: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LirvA [Ac 5c]
sulu3000: folds
danielebg: folds
Spyro23: folds
comtomama: folds
LirvA: raises 400 to 600
marcosmetall: folds
sulu3000 has returned
MBuzzAA: calls 400
*** FLOP *** [4h 3c 3h]
MBuzzAA: checks
LirvA: bets 1000
MBuzzAA: raises 2930 to 3930 and is all-in
LirvA: calls 2805 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (125) returned to MBuzzAA
*** TURN *** [4h 3c 3h] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [4h 3c 3h Td] [7c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MBuzzAA: shows [7h Jh] (two pair, Sevens and Threes)
LirvA: shows [Ac 5c] (a pair of Threes)
MBuzzAA collected 8910 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 8910 | Rake 0
Board [4h 3c 3h Td 7c]
Seat 1: comtomama folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: LirvA (button) showed [Ac 5c] and lost with a pair of Threes
Seat 4: marcosmetall (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: MBuzzAA (big blind) showed [7h Jh] and won (8910) with two pair, Sevens and Threes
Seat 6: sulu3000 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: danielebg folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Spyro23 folded before Flop (didn't bet)


I ended up only having 7 outs on the flop as he did have the flush draw. But I was right, in that I had the best hand on the flop. I was pretty confident snap calling here.

I think on the flop we were both about even here, he might have been a bit of a favorite at 52/48 maybe, but I was fine with calling off all my chips here.

it's pretty much a coinflip here (51/49) so your call is correct in theory.. however, there's a few things I don't like about the hand. 100/200 is an awkward level in these sng's, the blinds are just starting to become significant, yet there's still no ante. If you've built up a LAG image, I like slowing down a bit in this level.. you're almost expected to raise every time it's folded around to you on the button and a5 suited can look like a decent hand in this situation, but you're risking 600 to win 300 in a spot where your hand really needs to hit a perfect flop in order to continue with confidence.. personally, I fold the a5 here if I've already been raising a lot. I'd much rather be holding any connecting cards, suited or not, from 7-8 on up. the 1k flop bet seems a bit high as well, you can accomplish the same thing betting something like 800 as you can with 1k.

at this particular level, with your stack and a LAG image..I dump the a5 and look for hand that has a better chance of hitting the flop hard. I also hate raising on the button when I feel like everyone's expecting me to.. maybe fold here and raise from the cutoff or cutoff+1 just to make them a bit more cautious of a real hand.