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Open Raising Range

    • Jeero
      Jeero
      Bronze
      Joined: 23.04.2009 Posts: 114
      Hi,

      I'm pretty new to MTT's but I have had some success due to what I believe to be an ocean of fish. I think that I am still very much a noob at MTT's but by just playing good hands I seem to almost always go deep and cash in more than half the tournaments I enter. However, I have never won an MTT and I have only final tabled on a couple of occasions.

      I played in a tournament today for over 5 hours and busted out in 85th place. I felt really terrible about the hand that I busted out on. It made me feel so confused whether I made the right play or not. I had about 20bb, the big blind had me covered, but by not that much, maybe 25-30bb's. Unfortunately I neglected to record the hand. But it went something like this; I open raised 3x the bb from the button with 87 of diamonds. The flop came T84, with two hearts. The big blind checked to me and I raised about half the pot. The big blind min-raises me. I figured if I am going to call I should shove so that's what I did. The big blind showed T5 of spades.

      I felt terrible after this hand because I had no idea what I should have done right from the start. I was playing super tight so when I raised from the button I thought I would get more respect than what I got. Although I now think that most players may not even notice,... Was 87suited a reasonable open raise? On such a board I found that contibets are often raised,... should I have folded to a raise HU with middle pair? Should I have checked behind with a two-flush on the board (I would be surprised if I was supposed to check behind)?
  • 3 replies
    • wquinn636
      wquinn636
      Bronze
      Joined: 16.10.2009 Posts: 64
      • 21.12.2009, 12:19
      • This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by wquinn636: 21.12.2009 12:20.
      It's easy to say in hindsight that you should have raised tighter. If someone's calling with air and shoving over the top with a weak top pair you'll get much better chances to take their money (or in this case, tourney chips) than with 87s. It's all about the reads.
    • spit22
      spit22
      Bronze
      Joined: 03.11.2008 Posts: 309
      • 21.12.2009, 15:59
      • This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by spit22: 21.12.2009 15:59.
      ok since you are expecting a raise on such a board , you are better of checking behind except if u don't mind going broke on your middle pair weak kicker hand.
      btw , no read = fold. you stand more chance surviving like this. if you do the same play against uknown everytime you will hardly get any final tables.

      just my opinion.

      edit: the raise preflop was fine..
    • Jeero
      Jeero
      Bronze
      Joined: 23.04.2009 Posts: 114
      Thanks for the replies! I think I was upset because it cost me the tournament. As I said, I'm not used to tournaments. If this were a cash game I'd simply just rebuy and keep playing.

      No read = fold. It's easy for me to forget this underlying concept a lot of the time. If villain raised he either has me beat or is bluffing or is playing really poorly with the few hands that I am ahead of. With no read I should be folding regardless,... because I should be assuming that villain bluffs or has a worse hand a very negligible amount of time. Is this correct reasoning? I kept thinking that I would be in such weak shape, chip wise, if I fold. But in a tournament being wrong means busting

      I thought about checking behind after the fact,... I do agree that it might be a better play. However, I had it in my head that whenever I have to decide between checking and betting, I always go on the side of aggression. This has served me well in cash games, but perhaps I should err more on the side of conservativeness in a tournament?

      Although I lost, this is good experience and I'm now a better poker player because of it. Thanks again for the discussion!