QJs facing a 3 bet, $11 Pokerstars bounty tourney

When was IT?

What stage of the tournament is this?

I think, situation dependent, all three options are viable. You don't have a read yet but the numbers say he's 3-bet 50% of hands so far?

Sorry, we are early in the money. Its true he has high VPIP and 3 bet, but it is only after 6 hands so I am reluctant to read much in to it.

He hasn't shown down any of those hands, then, I presume.

All three options are viable depending on the tournament stage and what you think about the villain's range here. Noting that this is a bounty, I think he's 3-betting wider than usual to try to isolate and win the bounty, but it really depends on how wide you think he's doing that since that reduces the likelihood you have fold equity. So unfortunately he may not be doing it much with hands you're ahead of-- like KQs in this spot I'd just get it in and hope he has his own Broadway cards and not an ace or pair. But at the same time, as wide as he is, you could take a flop and get it in, even donk it in in some cases, on anything reasonably favorable (gutshot with an over+; it may even be profitable with a gutshot or second pair if he's 3-betting wide enough).

Tricky spot:

Folding is the safe play,
Playing a flop might allow you the best chance to get it in good but could also cost you a lot of your stack,
And jamming likely means you're roughly on the wrong side of a flip, but he may be wide enough that you're actually ahead in some cases, and since you just made the money, this might improve your overall tournament EV because if you win it then you'll have a stack to win bounties.

Is it a regular KO or PKO? In a PKO I might have just talked myself into a 4-bet jam and hoping he's wide enough for it to be profitable with the future-game considerations. (Especially if I have a bigger bounty, because the bigger my bounty is, the wider he should be willing to gamble for it.)

My inclination when people 3-bet at 2.5x is either they have a monster or they 3-bet very wide and don't want to be risking large amounts each time they do it. In some cases if the player varies their 3-bet sizing it could mean they have a marginal semi bluff type hand (like A5s or a SC). You didn't mention if Villain's 3-bet sizing was always 2.5x.

Here though we have a short stack. Typically I would call this 3-bet sizing with QJs when I have > 30 blinds. I am tempted to call because we are short stacked and already in the money. The increase in winnings is probably low right now so this might be a great hand to give it a shot to double up.

The issue here is that because Villain seems to be wide we could be in a 30% spot preflop (like he could have AQ/AJ/KQ/KJ type hands). But in theory we could also be in a 70% spot (like he could have QTs/JTs).

Because the 3-bet size was 2.5x I think I call and play a stop and go type scenario if I have like a gutter and two overcards, a straight draw and/or a flush draw. Even if I have 2 overcards and a BDFD I would likely just jam. If I hit the Q or J I probably look to c/r all in on the flop.

Why being the second shortest stack on the table, presumably below the AVG stack, already in the money, why the fock we cant just jam here. QJs is like a nuts to shove pre here imo

Open shove I meant

If the current blinds level Has just started then ok it's debatable but when it's less than 1 minute for the blinds to rise then im jamming and crying to see KK or AA

Because its a mystery bounty we are going to get called by a lot of hands that are better than us but that wouldn't call in a non-bounty type tournament. With 17.6 blinds we don't have to jam preflop and it makes it easy for us to fold to a jam.

Here though it's tough because the 3-bet raise size was so small. So it could be a monster looking to get us all in by the end.

I think once you get to the river this way you probably can't fold. It looks like you're beaten a lot but you're getting, what, 5:1 on your remaining money?

Bounty, mistery bounty, pkos - online poker Has evolved during my 15y break from IT. We used to jam here before pronouns

He had AKo?

I know your posts and i respect your advice so kindly bare with me here - we open and either have to fold to a higher 3bet or we get flatted, miss the flop and have to fold to a bet. That leaves US with 15bb, which in couple of rounds, after blinds rise, is coing to be like 12-13bb, then were the shortest stack on the flop and forced to jam **** to survive. or am I an idiot? I might be, tell me if so

If we get flatted by a player that makes us OOP postflop then we may have to check/fold on the flop. But if the flop has an A and/or K I would cbet (because t crushes our range) especially if we have a BDFD (or a flush draw) and/or a gutter.

If we get flatted by SB or BB (or both) and miss the flop we can check it back and see a turn which could be a card that would inspire a bet if it was checked to us.

We can end up with 12 bb's to 15 bb's if we are forced to fold or choose to let go after the flop if we are called. But that is life. We can also gain 2.5 bb's if everyone folds or we can gain close to 5 bb's if we win the hand.

I made a similar mistake with QJs when we were down to 3 players in a tournament at Foxwoods that paid only 2. I was on the button and jammed with QJs with about 17 blinds. I got called by both the SB and BB who had bigger stacks than me and one of them had AK and won. They had checked it down and then chopped when the hand was over. Now that is different in the sense that I would always have position if I had min raised and been called but the lesson for me was to never go all in with >15 bb's near the bubble (OK maybe in the SB I still do).

I don't despair with 12-13bb, that is quite a bit more than 'a chip and a chair'. This stack size is not a reason to panic.

Indeed

That was the decision I ended up with on the river - I called versus spew. I'm not sure we are winning even a sixth of the time against a thinking player, it's difficult to think of hands we beat that would play this way.

Thank you for your memoir, second already (44 on 456). I felt your pain on both and I'll remember both loses like my own, hence I'll "learn some" 😉

First I agree, second is highly dependable on the type of a tournament. It's only comfortable on hypers, borderline ok on turbos and in deep stack ones, unless you get lucky, you're pretty much already out as you have to win 2-3 flips in a row to Reach the AVG stack size