Other than the weak preflop bet, you did all you could there. No regrets.
Well, in a 3-seat game, anything but weak betting serves only to steal the blinds. I was glad to get 2 calls, and figured shoving would close it down, at least to 1 opponent, and I liked my odds. Who wouldn’t?
Deer in the headlights: https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/477658790
I have no business being in this hand, at all, after the flop. Solid hearts, and I know better. But I see “4678” hey, inside straight draw! So when that 5h lands on the turn to fill out my straight, I’ve hit my 10-1 out, and I still know my opponent has a flush, but hey maybe a fifth heart will come on the river and we’ll chop. And a fifth heart DOES come on the river, and all the hearts on the board are higher than his… little… three of hearts, which makes it a straight flush for him. But I knew he had to have a straight flush. Of course I knew. The board screamed it. But I just had to pay to see it. I had to pay half the chips at the table. Because I believe that when a man hits a straight flush, that man deserves to get paid.
Other than that, and 2 or 3 other hands that I played really poorly for no apparent reason, I actually played this table very well. I screwed myself out of a higher finish, but at least I got 3rd.
This is why I’m surprised 3-max turbo SnGs are a thing, particularly above the bingo-happy 5K-and-under level. Everyone’s starting with under 20BB, so you’re already close to (or in) jam-or-fold territory. It’s not really possible to be “good” at these, the stack sizes are just too small.
My recommendation is to quit wasting your time on these, and focus on games that you can actually use to improve your play.
I like playing them because they’re quick, very profitable when you win them, and they are a good simulation of heads-up play late in a tournament. Playing them is how I got comfortable playing heads-up and start winning tournaments. Before that, I didn’t understand heads-up play very well at all, and didn’t understand how to change my game when I got to the end of the tournament. I would get there rarely, and not knowing what I was doing, would quickly fail. So practicing 3-max was a great way to gain experience and learn how to feel comfortable in a short-stack heads up situation.
If you want to practice heads-up tournament play, I’d be happy to sit with you on some HU SnG’s. They are still really short formats but not quite as frenetic as the 3-person hyper-turbos. I could use the work myself. If you can play HU well, you can play any game.
Sounds fun, Comicguy. If you happen to see me online, shoot me a message and we’ll go.