What Would You Have Done?

[jsagan77 0]

$80 buy in tourney, 8 players left out of 22, 4 get paid. The average stack is about 12k, small stack is 7k I had 2nd most chips with 20K. Blinds 500-1000, i'm in the big blind, tight passive player in middle position calls folds around small blind calls and I check with Q2 of spades. (My image is tight agressive) FlopKs 10h 4cChecks aroundTurn 6ssmall blind checks I lead out with a pot size bet of 3k, tight passive calls (I automatically think K10 suited)River 10sAgainst my better judgement I bet 5k at a 9k pot, the tight agressive guy postures, moves all in for 5400 more. Of course I call and he shows K10c. Breaks me down to 4k and basically leaves me crippled. In hind sight I should have changed gears and went with my initial read of K10 and saved a lot of money. I even said to myself "if the 10 of spades comes off you are releasing your hand." I know that I should have played this hand different and my only question is "Should I have folded after he postured and went all in knowing I was beat or do you call just for the sake of pot odds?" I think that I was a lot better player before I learned about Pot Odds simply for the fact that I would have folded there. Just wondering what you all think.

[FourFlusher 0]

I couldn't/wouldn't have laid it down...sometimes you just have to take the hit.

[etip 0]

I know you only asked about the river call but I just want to give my .02 about the whole hand.Turn bet:I would have bet $2k on the turn. This has the same effect that the $3k bet had, but it saves you $1k if you get called and miss. Then again if your betting patterns haven't been consistent with this then that might change things... I rarely make pot-sized bets, but that's just me - but it is for the same reason (saves me $$ in the long run, IMO)His call:If he is as tight-passive as you say (after all, you put him on a hand as strong as top two), I would have put him on a made hand OR a higher flush draw, and I would have been concerned about possibly drawing dead.The river:Once the spade hit and paired the board, I would have checked to him. Now he might move all-in and you can (maybe, hopefully) get away from the hand, or if he's smart he'll value-bet-"bluff" (pause a little and then make a value-bet that looks to you like a bluff) and you might have to pay off a bet of $5k or so.I'm trying not to be results-oriented in this evaluation but I'm sure I am to a degree.Anyway, when I am at a final table and I am involved in a hand, I usually try to have the nuts or nothing at all. This leads to easy decisions if I have one of my bets raised behind me. A Q-high flush on a paired board against a too-tight, easy-to-read opponent is a tough spot to be in at a final table when you are so close to the top few spots.Having said all that, in the heat of the moment I probably would have gone broke too, lol. Hope this was helpful in some way.

[etip 0]

my only question is "Should I have folded after he postured and went all in knowing I was beat or do you call just for the sake of pot odds?" I think that I was a lot better player before I learned about Pot Odds simply for the fact that I would have folded there.

To answer this question, I think you made the right call. At that point you have to think that even the tightest player might move in with three Tens here, or maybe he was a little out-of-character and decided to limp with a 7s6s -- there are enough hands that he could have that you still beat, and even though there is a slim chance for most of them, you were getting great pot odds like you said.

[jsagan77 0]

I know you only asked about the river call but I just want to give my .02 about the whole hand.Turn bet:I would have bet $2k on the turn. This has the same effect that the $3k bet had, but it saves you $1k if you get called and miss. Then again if your betting patterns haven't been consistent with this then that might change things... I rarely make pot-sized bets, but that's just me - but it is for the same reason (saves me $$ in the long run, IMO)His call:If he is as tight-passive as you say (after all, you put him on a hand as strong as top two), I would have put him on a made hand OR a higher flush draw, and I would have been concerned about possibly drawing dead.The river:Once the spade hit and paired the board, I would have checked to him. Now he might move all-in and you can (maybe, hopefully) get away from the hand, or if he's smart he'll value-bet-"bluff" (pause a little and then make a value-bet that looks to you like a bluff) and you might have to pay off a bet of $5k or so.I'm trying not to be results-oriented in this evaluation but I'm sure I am to a degree.Anyway, when I am at a final table and I am involved in a hand, I usually try to have the nuts or nothing at all. This leads to easy decisions if I have one of my bets raised behind me. A Q-high flush on a paired board against a too-tight, easy-to-read opponent is a tough spot to be in at a final table when you are so close to the top few spots.Having said all that, in the heat of the moment I probably would have gone broke too, lol. Hope this was helpful in some way.

I think you are exactly right. I should have checked because it could have saved me a lot of money. However, I believe that the blinds were very high at this point being 8 handed and it was still necessary to collect chips.

[Heraclitus_V 0]

I think you are exactly right. I should have checked because it could have saved me a lot of money. However, I believe that the blinds were very high at this point being 8 handed and it was still necessary to collect chips.

since he called your bet and you got a cursory read (he may have had a better flush draw) yes, the check was the correct play... but a river flush is difficult to check on a short table. I would like to think I could fold the Q flush to an all-in (if he had bet it)... but I've made that call too, just file it away for a later final table.