This hand was from the Poker Stars $500 weekly. Villain is Roothlus, a very successful MTT pro who teaches at Poker X Factor and is sponsored by Ultimate Bet (but let’s not go there right now). He’s smart but definitely on the TAG/nitty side. He knows and respects me and probably has a good idea of how I expect him to play. MP is a random fish.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 530 Tournament, 100/200 Blinds (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t11755)
SB (t7968)
BB (t9775)
UTG (t28380)
UTG+1 (t7255)
Hero (MP1) (t21954)
MP2 (t8381)
MP3 (t11250)
CO (t6950)

Hero’s M: 73.18

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with A, K
2 folds, Hero bets t555, MP2 calls t555, MP3 raises to t2300, 4 folds, Hero calls t1745, 1 fold

Flop: (t5455) 7, 9, Q (2 players)
Hero bets t19654 (All-In), MP3 calls t8950 (All-In)

Turn: (t23355) Q (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t23355) 8 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t23355

Results:
Hero had A, K (one pair, Queens).
MP3 had 10, 9 (two pair, Queens and nines).
Outcome: MP3 won t23355

Clearly I was way off on his range, but for whatever reason I was near certain that Roothlus also had AK here. Stack sizes are all wrong for a traditional stop-and-go, plus there’s the problem of the third player in the pot. Here, though, I am not trying to fold out better hands post-flop, but rather fold out a chop. I have no problem with MP coming along, in fact anything he continues with when I call but would fold to a shove is probably to my benefit anyway.

Because it looks like I’m trying to drag MP along, my flat call has to look really strong to Roothlus. Not that AK isn’t strong, but I think it looks even stronger than that, like exactly KK/AA. Granted that’s not really consistent with open shoving the flop, but remember I’m only trying to get him off of AK here. I think it’s a tough hero call to make, and in fact he tanked for a really long time before calling with T9.

Still, I think it’s more effective to check the flop, maybe even check-raise all in. The risk there is that Roothlus bluff shoves or pot commits himself with something he would have folded. Really though, I think I just look too strong for him to bet even a pretty good hand like AQ, let alone a bluff. Checking flop and betting turn looks a lot more credible as a monster and is probably what I should have done.

More importantly, though, I should have just shoved pre-flop. If he’s showing up here with T9, I can’t afford to let him see a flop and I can’t afford to let him fold dominated hands like AJ when he whiffs the flop.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $200+$15 Tournament, 600/1200 Blinds 100 Ante (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t30683)
UTG (t23180)
UTG+1 (t69583)
MP1 (t45234)
MP2 (t42249)
MP3 (t22891)
CO (t38571)
Button (t32005)
SB (t14539)

Hero’s M: 11.36

Preflop: Hero is BB with 3, 5
5 folds, CO calls t1200, 2 folds, Hero checks

Flop: (t3900) 5, 9, 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets t2400, Hero calls t2400

Turn: (t8700) K (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

River: (t8700) J (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets t4800, Hero raises to t26983 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: t18300

Results:
Hero didn’t show 3, 5 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t18300

Hell, maybe I just had the best hand anyway.

There was also this:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $200+$15 Tournament, 1000/2000 Blinds 200 Ante (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t37483)
UTG (t57104)
UTG+1 (t76633)
MP1 (t92084)
MP2 (t57631)
MP3 (t36141)
CO (t25460)
Button (t28135)
SB (t20528)

Hero’s M: 7.81

Preflop: Hero is BB with 3, 3
5 folds, CO bets t6000, 2 folds, Hero calls t4000

Flop: (t14800) Q, 9, 6 (2 players)
Hero bets t31283 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: t14800

Results:

Hero didn’t show 3, 3 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t14800

I don’t use the stop-n-go very often, but this seemed like a good spot. The guy was almost certainly not folding pre-flop, and on a flop like this, he’s likely to fold a hand that he would not (or should not, anyway) if he could see my cards. Note that he’s only got like 18K behind.

I ended up going quite deep, making the top 200 (out of 8800), on a coin flip:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $200+$15 Tournament, 12500/25000 Blinds 2500 Ante (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t723763)
Hero (BB) (t515200)
UTG (t1486381)
UTG+1 (t618409)
MP1 (t264735)
MP2 (t489035)
MP3 (t337651)
CO (t1006328)
Button (t405851)

Hero’s M: 8.59

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, K
3 folds, MP2 bets t61000, 3 folds, SB raises to t721263 (All-In), Hero calls t487700 (All-In), 1 fold

Flop: (t1108900) 6, Q, 2 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t1108900) Q (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t1108900) 7 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t1108900

Results:
SB had J, J (two pair, Queens and Jacks).
Hero had A, K (one pair, Queens).
Outcome: SB won t1108900

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $200+$15 Tournament, 600/1200 Blinds 100 Ante (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t30683)
UTG (t23180)
UTG+1 (t69583)
MP1 (t45234)
MP2 (t42249)
MP3 (t22891)
CO (t38571)
Button (t32005)
SB (t14539)

Hero’s M: 11.36

Preflop: Hero is BB with 3, 5
5 folds, CO calls t1200, 2 folds, Hero checks

Flop: (t3900) 5, 9, 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets t2400, Hero calls t2400

Turn: (t8700) K (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

River: (t8700) J (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets t4800, Hero raises to t26983 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: t18300

Results:
Hero didn’t show 3, 5 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t18300

Hell, maybe I just had the best hand anyway.

There was also this:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $200+$15 Tournament, 1000/2000 Blinds 200 Ante (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t37483)
UTG (t57104)
UTG+1 (t76633)
MP1 (t92084)
MP2 (t57631)
MP3 (t36141)
CO (t25460)
Button (t28135)
SB (t20528)

Hero’s M: 7.81

Preflop: Hero is BB with 3, 3
5 folds, CO bets t6000, 2 folds, Hero calls t4000

Flop: (t14800) Q, 9, 6 (2 players)
Hero bets t31283 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: t14800

Results:

Hero didn’t show 3, 3 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t14800

I don’t use the stop-n-go very often, but this seemed like a good spot. The guy was almost certainly not folding pre-flop, and on a flop like this, he’s likely to fold a hand that he would not (or should not, anyway) if he could see my cards. Note that he’s only got like 18K behind.

I ended up going quite deep, making the top 200 (out of 8800), on a coin flip:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $200+$15 Tournament, 12500/25000 Blinds 2500 Ante (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t723763)
Hero (BB) (t515200)
UTG (t1486381)
UTG+1 (t618409)
MP1 (t264735)
MP2 (t489035)
MP3 (t337651)
CO (t1006328)
Button (t405851)

Hero’s M: 8.59

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, K
3 folds, MP2 bets t61000, 3 folds, SB raises to t721263 (All-In), Hero calls t487700 (All-In), 1 fold

Flop: (t1108900) 6, Q, 2 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t1108900) Q (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t1108900) 7 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t1108900

Results:
SB had J, J (two pair, Queens and Jacks).
Hero had A, K (one pair, Queens).
Outcome: SB won t1108900

The idea is to pick up a little extra fold equity in a situation where you were going to move all in pre-flop by instead calling and then moving all in on any flop. If you’re pretty sure you were going to get called pre-flop anyway, then you don’t have much to lose.

The potential drawback is that you might give your opponent a chance to make a correct post-flop fold. For instance, if you have AK and your opponent folds AQ on the flop but would have called pre-flop, that’s bad for you. And it usually looks like such an improbable line that you don’t get a lot of fold equity anyway. After all, if you actually called pre-flop on a short stack and flopped top pair, wouldn’t you usually check?

For these reasons, the stop and go isn’t a play that I employ very often. I did find a useful spot for it recently, though:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold’em Tournament, 140/280 Blinds, 25 Ante, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

UTG+1: 6,650
UTG+2: 2,660
MP1: 6,510
MP2: 6,105
CO: 6,620
BTN: 4,389
SB: 2,705
Hero (BB): 3,460
UTG: 6,155

Pre-Flop: (645) 7 7 dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to 800, 6 folds, Hero calls 520

Flop: (1,965) J A 3 (2 Players)
Hero bets 2,635 and is All-In, UTG+1 folds

Results: 1,965 Pot
Hero mucked 7 7 and WON 1,965 (+1,140 NET)

As you can see, I’ve only got about 12 BB left in my stack. With such a big chunk of my stack in the pot and a decent pocket pair, I don’t think I can fold, even to an early position raise. But with a stop and go, my flop shove is big enough that it won’t be a trivial call if my opponent makes like an underpair or misses with AK or something.

This looks like a bad flop, but this hand actually illustrates another important point about the stop and go, which is that once you decide to execute, it’s generally correct to grit your teeth and shove even if the flop looks bad for you. I don’t think my opponent folded an Ace, but I have gotten him off of 88 or KQ because I followed through on my plan.