How should I play this hand for max value? I am rather short stacked.


Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 1.1 Tournament, 50/100 Blinds (8 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t14260)
UTG (t3165)
UTG+1 (t8630)
MP1 (t4360)
MP2 (t2280)
CO (t5250)
Button (t7635)
Hero (SB) (t2810)

Hero's M: 18.73

Preflop: Hero is SB with 10, A
3 folds, MP2 calls t100, 1 fold, Button bets t300, Hero calls t250, BB calls t200, MP2 calls t200

Flop: (t1200) 8, 10, A (4 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, MP2 checks, Button checks

Turn: (t1200) A (4 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, MP2 bets t200, 1 fold, Hero raises to t700, 1 fold, MP2 calls t500

River: (t2600) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets t700, 1 fold

Total pot: t2600

THE FLOP: 4-Handed I lead the flop, I would likely make a small donk-bet of a little less than 1/2 the pot and hope he gets nutty with AQ, or calls/raises with KT or some other nonsense. If he has an Ace he's raising or at least calling, and if he doesn't have an Ace it's unlikely he'll c-Bet into 3 other players, so you're giving a free card to 3 players when your opponents are drawing, and missing value when you're way ahead.

Your hand is really strong but any 7,9,J,Q,K is a bad card for you with 3 opponents still in the hand, and their hand ranges really wide.

What was your plan if the button c-bets, to check-raise or to flat?

THE TURN (as played): Now you have to lead, you have to get some value from this hand and a check-raise totally polarizes your range here, and you'll lose anyone without at least a Ten or JJ/QQ/KK.

I think by leading out on the turn you keep your hand fairly well disguised as you could be doing this with an 8, a 10,or an Ace, or as a stone cold bluff based on the flop action, so you're more likely to get called by a medium strength hand, or raised by another Ace or even a Ten.

THE RIVER (as played): Precisely when are you going to get value from flopping top 2 and turning a boat? You need to make a near pot-sized bet here since he's folding any missed draw or 8 to almost any bet you make, and if he's going to call 700 with a Ten or possibly a hand like Ax than he'll call 1,800+ with it too.

With 1,200 in the pot and 6,400ish behind I'm thinking all-in by the river. Bet 500 on the flop (hope for a re-raise), but even if you just get called in 1 spot you can bet 1,400 on the turn (pot 2,200ish), and shove the river for your remaining 4,500 (pot 5,000ish) --- or something along those lines.

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I've noticed from other posts you play a lot of hands out of position and try to play them tricky/passively. You're allowing your opponents to control the size of the pot, as well as for them to retain the betting lead (which better disguises their hand range). If you're going to play out of position you need to take control of these hands where you flop good, so you're not missing value.

Playing OOP puts you at a disadvantage to begin with, so don't make it worse by playing into your opponent's strengths (his position and your narrow hand-range). Seriously, can you put the MP2 (who limped and made a pot odds call of a standard raise) on any hand-range at this point? And since you can't how can you know how to size your bets properly?

May I suggest a book called No Limits by Chris "Fox" Wallace. I think it would be particularly helpful for your game.

Ill look up the book.

I agree that I play too many pots OOP. Lately two trends have been occuring... I have 9 high on Button(70%) , and anytime I raise from the button one of the blinds shoves(40%). This causes me to play more hands from MP, and I play too many hands from BB and SB because everyone limps in .01/.02.

I know that my game needs much improvement, so I appreciate the suggestions.

here is a link to a review of the book I wrote (mods can decide if this is spam or not) Book review: No Limits by Chris 'Fox' Wallace and Adam Stemple - National Online Poker | Examiner.com

you can only get the book on his website as it is self-published No Limits: the Fundamentals of No-Limit Holdem by Chris "Fox" Wallace and Adam Stemple

Being out of work and still waiting on my check from Full Tilt (I requested a month ago) Ill have to wait before throwing down any money on anything at the moment.

Being in early position, and 3 callers. I would have bet out the flop because the original raiser atleast would still be in. Turn I would have checked hoping for a check raise, or possibly cold call to a large bet on the river. Most hands you want to be HU anyway, why want other to draw out on you? In this case you got the nuts, so I suppose you want more callers. In most cases, big pots aren't good because theres a lot of risk.