20k UKOPS £110 BH what should I do? Approaching cash bubble

rancid

Note: Bounty Hunter and players are decent. Sitting 11th out of 30 and 23 get paid.

Start hand
SB 30bb
BB 25bb
LJ 5bb £100 Bounty
HJ 36bb Hero W/AQo
CO 13bb
BTN 15bb

Action
LJ shoves first to act
Pot is 6.5bb
What should hero do and why?


A. Flat
B. 3 bet
C. All in

Any opinions welcome

Asho28

Personally, I go all-in.

I don't like flatting as AQ is too strong to just flat, especially with a bounty at stake and with us being the biggest stack at the table. Could end up encouraging one of the other stacks to see a flop, or even shove themselves.

I also don't like a 3-bet non-all in, given the stack sizes at the table. If we were to 3-bet to say 11BBs, would we really be able to fold if someone shoves from later position? With the stack sizes at the table, we would surely have to call off anyway.

Still several spots away from the bubble, so personally wouldn't be too focused on cashing as yet, especially with us having a decent stack.

My bounty hunter skills are far from brilliant though, so happy to be corrected.

SDarks

All in, if blinds wake up then UL.

jordz16

Shoving is the simplest solution and is +EV but when you are in a position where you can’t fold out any hands that have you dominated then flatting is fine as you can certainly induce some hands you dominate to shove on you when there is a bounty at stake and you are approaching the bubble, it’s certainly higher variance but I’d expect it to be a more profitable long term play. If the BB and SB are good players as you suggest then they are unlikely to be flat calling much of a range at all, and a big part of that range would be hands you dominate which is great. Only downside is getting shoved on by small pairs and having to flip for a big stack but those spots will be inevitable at some point.

LARSON7

Jamming is the easiest way to play it and totally fine and good.

Calling is really reasonable too. Twitcher/ you tuber Espen, UhlenPoker, former high stakes cash/ current MTT crusher had a similar spot recently on stream and he flatted explaining he doesn't really have a raising range in that spot.

His reasoning was similar to what Jordz mentioned in his insightful post.

rancid

Thanks people

Did jam but after thought flat would be better

bryngreen9

I genuinely think A B and C are all fine in their own rights. Reasoning being at this level the flatting imo shows strength not weakness, but then it's possible you're going to end up in a sticky situation, it's purely opponent dependent, 3betting also shows strength but with both A/B you're opening yourself up to being shoved on and therefore not the aggressor.

In all likelihood you're probably miles ahead unless they've woken up with a monster.

I'd rather not take the A/B route and open myself up to being shoved on by a worse hand reducing my chances vs shorty, because ultimately what you're gunning for here is to isolate shorty, stack him and get that bounty and one closer to cash, so the C route of jamming it, ideal situation just isolate with no mess and take him on HU, if someone else calls you off it's either going to be AK or a flip unless the doom button is against you, so MOST of the time you're good here. I don't think anything 99 or less can call your shove unless they have a solid read on you and want to take the flip, and even then they probably wouldn't see max value in it because you're not covered for your bounty.

BHs are very weird in how the dynamic of a hand changes in situations like this, and I've found myself in your position many times and you'll lose to K10 or KJ because people are only eyeing the bounty and not the bigger picture and its infuriating but ultimately you've got to be happy you've got it in good, plus I play 5.50s not 110s so that explains that haha I don't think anyone is calling you off with K10 or KJ here

tldr: shove to isolate personal best route, small 3bet if you think it will be respected 2nd, flat worst of the 3 but only marginal vs 3bet option

Swog

i don't really like flatting much because we incentivise BB to overcall a wide range. Maybe we could have a small range of AA/KK and some bottom of shove/top of fold range stuff that flats.

I don't really like 3bnai at this stack depth tbh. Maybe if effective stack was 30/35BB+ then we can incorporate a range that 3bets to 10BB (which would be similar to the flat range in this spot - i.e. top/bottom of range type hands).

I think it's also worth noting that we cover those left to act, so i think we want to have less of a 'trap' range and mostly do the shoving ourself (we would expect those left to act to reshove wider if they covered us).

In short, i think AQo is a fist pump jam.