3Betting OOP Without a Solid Plan

26 February 10 - I feel compelled to post something poker-specific as I've been apathetic about generating poker content lately. Anyway, here's a spot in a low-stakes donkament where I 3bet without much of a plan and found myself in an interesting/weird spot.

Poker Stars $8.00+$0.80 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t50/t100 Blinds + t10 - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

SB: t2310 M = 9.62
Hero (BB): t3465 M = 14.44
UTG: t4700 M = 19.58
UTG+1: t11320 M = 47.17
UTG+2: t2455 M = 10.23
MP1: t6050 M = 25.21
MP2: t1308 M = 5.45
CO: t13505 M = 56.27
BTN: t2590 M = 10.79

Pre Flop: (t240) Hero is BB with T T
UTG calls t100, 5 folds, BTN raises to t300, 1 fold, Hero raises to t1075, UTG raises to t4690 all in, BTN calls t2280 all in

I 3bet here with the intention of calling the UTG shove, or just executing a go/go if I got called. Maybe I should just be shoving here? I wasn't really concerned with the button because his range is probably super-wide here; though if he's a good player, since his stack is short, it might tighten up his overall range meaning that there would be no disparity in the range that he opens and the range that he calls a shove with since his stack is less than 25bbs. But we can't know that for sure, so we're not going to assume it.

At any rate, I found myself conflicted after the 4bet shove/call sequence in front of me. There are several considerations here, but most important is that I've invested 1/3 of my stack with a hand as strong as TT. Secondly, and equally important, is my equity at this point. I'm getting a huge price to call - over 2.6:1, which means I need just a bit less than 28% equity to make the right decision.

So against the ranges below, which are most likely too tight, this is what my equity looks like. Again, factoring tighter ranges will give us an equity snapshot in the worst case scenario if I call:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 27.984% 27.86% 00.12% 5224834152 22665864.00 { TT }

Hand 1: 36.008% 33.42% 02.59% 6266175192 486032160.00 { JJ+, AQs+, AQo+ }

Hand 2: 36.008% 33.42% 02.59% 6266175192 486032160.00 { JJ+, AQs+, AQo+ }

So obviously, I should be calling here. If you widen those ranges in just the least bit, it's a simple decision.

In retrospect, the two factors in this hand are: 1) how to best play TT in this exact scenario pre-flop; 2) now that I've made my pre-flop decision--optimal or not--what's the best decision now?

Both answers seem pretty obvious now. #1) shove pre: shove b/c I can increase my stack by almost 20% if I just scoop the pot pre-flop; shove b/c my hand is strong, but flop-vulnerable and b/c I'm out of position; shove pre b/c of my stack size. And #2) call now. even though it looks gross, and the dude UTG is repping AA/KK/AK and the button called, I have too much equity against their ranges to fold. Also remember that I've invested 1/3 of my stack, and folding now with a hand as strong as TT, is basically atrocious. Especially in a low-stakes donkament.

Thanks for reading. Hope this was helpful.