MTT question, help needed.

Tikay10

You'll probably be surprised to hear that some folks who know of me from the days of Sky Poker TV still write to me seeking poker advice. I certainly am. I do my best to reply, but poker has changed & I've probably gone at the game. So maybe you guys can help on this one.

Here's the situation.

Hero is quite experienced at the £1 & £2 MTT level & does OK, and in fact won a decent Comp in the last week. Flushed with success & a good few bob in the account, they decide to have a go in the Mini, which is a step up in class for Hero.

Early days Hero bosses the table & soon has an above average stack. Life is good.

Them Hero gets a table move. Similar stacks to 4 of them, but a huge stack to immediate left, & every time we open Villain 3 bets.

Soon Hero realises they are probably being exploited & pushed around.

What options does Hero have now?

FWIW - probably not much - my advice was;




1) Shut up shop, or at least tighten up for a while, until we can better see the lie of the land.

2) Watch the table very closely, & try to get an idea of what hand strengths he is playing when he gets to showdown or busts someone & you get to see his cards.

3) Wait & hope for a table move for you or him. It's a big field & table balancing & table moves happen very frequently.

4) These guys tend to play weak hands very strongly. You might raise into him with, say, A-10 & he'll re-raise you with something like A-4. Our hand is not really strong enough to play back, but eventually we may have to.

5) PATIENCE is key, too. It's the nut worst seat, so hang in there for a bit & watch tricks. And the thing with Tournament Poker is that sometimes we have to just put our tournament life on the line & follow through. It's often the case we are miles ahead.



So, what would your advice be? Hero is no fool, but lacks confidence at poker, particularly at the £5 level.


TIA

hhyftrftdr

I'll go for option 6 please Anthony.

6) It depends.

StayOrGo

My tuppence worth as follows.

Firstly, he should appreciate that there is an overly aggressive big stack to his left at the table who is probably going to play sub optimally because of the stack dynamics.

So psychologically he should look at it as a good thing, not negative. It's a great opportunity to double up!

Clearly it's important to get all the info you can especially when villain goes to show down, but even when he doesn't, note things like how often he raises and how often he three bets and is he mainly doing it in late position or also early.

Does he three bet regularly against UTG raises as well as button raises for example?

Also it is VERY IMPORTANT to see how villain reacts when someone three bets HIM. Is he peeling 3bets, Folding or 4 betting. Often in this scenario, the villain will open loads of hands but fold to three bets a lot, so that is a mega important statistic to observe, especially for those to his left.

Then your hero should react according to the information gleaned, which will usually mean tightening up his opening range from late position but WIDENING his 4-betting range against the villain.

For example, AT would be a defo 4bet if hero was on the button or in the small blind, and villain were to 3bet. Probably the 4bet would be a shove unless really deep, certainly 40 BB's or less should be a 4bet shove. I'd probably 4bet A7s+, A9o+, KQ, KJs and 55+, from the button and considerably wider if it was blind on blind. The important thing is fold equity, so when making these 4bet moves with marginal hands, hero should be doing it in spots when he feels he has at least 60-70% fold equity (chance of villain folding to the 4bet). If he feels the fold equity is less than 60-70% then wait for a better hand and crush him when he calls it.

Important not to play fearfully in these spots, otherwise he'll get walked all over. He needs to send a message to the big stack to pick another victim.

People often cringe when a big stack comes to the table, but really one should relish the opportunity of finding good spots to 3bet and 4bet them.

Maybe slightly different if on the tournament cash bubble or on the FT bubble, but until then, ICM is less of a factor. In fact with the money usually being up top, ICM considerations would usually advocate the hero being more aggressive, with the stack dynamics involved in this scenario.

With the table positions hero probably won't be 3betting villain too much as the only time he can do that is when villain is UTG, however if the positions were reversed then hero should 3betting much wider than normal when villain open raises.

The one thing I personally wouldn't do much of, is calling, but that comes down to playing styles.

Hope this helps.

G

grantorino

Not much to add really to the excellent StayorGo post above. Hero should read that over and over. What I am going to write is probably mostly covered better above

1. It is a tricky position, but enjoy it and use it to develop your game. Think about how to beat this player. Go to war with him, learn from it. Just because it is a little higher than you usually play does not mean villain is better than you (and even if he is then hero has to improve to be better than him)

2. Try construct a range and tendencies for him as much as possible. Use showdowns. Does he 3b/f often/ever? When he opens how does he react to 3bets. How does he play on flop in 3b pots? (Beware small sample size here !)

3. Adjust your own range accordingly, as above narrow your opening range and widen your range that continues to 3bets. In a tournament that should prob be a 4b when we continue oop (and often a shove), if deep though I would have a calling range and also a 4b/f range of some hands not strong enough to call a 3b with. If hero inexperienced would lean strongly towards 4b oop rather than calling and certainly do not call and play fit or fold if he is aggressive on the flop. If you KNOW he literally 3bets your opens 100% then IN THEORY you should not open any hand you are folding to a 3bet.


Formulate your plan and stick to it. Don't (like I sometimes do) open 57s cause you havent played a hand in a while and curse when you get raised. This is setting money on fire in this situation. Also don't chicken out when you decide A8 (or whatever) is good enough to 4b with, given the dynamic, get it in, if you run into a big hand doesnt mean the play was wrong. Getting it in lightish should also discourage him and others from being over aggro with hero in future as well