Hand from Poker Tourney

[Big Country]

So, this past weekend (THu-Sat) I had driven with the family up to Northern California to visit my family.

 

Friday evening, my Dad and another friend of mine head down to the local cardroom my Dad has been frequenting to play in their tourney. It's a $50 buy in tourney, and they usually have 45-60 players on Friday night. This night they had 54 players, so top 7 get paid, with 7th paying $100 and first being around $700.

 

I had played in a $3-6 cash game for an hour before the tourney and found the play to be generally terrible.. worse than I had ever seen in any Vegas or LA room. On one hand I had queens, raise preflop and get 4 callers. No surprise there. Flop comes 9 high rainbow. I bet and get two callers. Turn is an ace. I bet and both call. THis I don't like. River is a blank, so I check. Player A bets out and Player B calls quickly. Now, if Player B had folded this is a neasy call for me. But, with one player betting and another calling quickly, I don't see how my queens can be good so I lay them down. THey both had a 9 with medium kicker (I think one had 9-10 the other something like 9-7).

 

I sit at my starting table and start studying my opponents. Mostly locals. Two of the guys to my right obviously play together a lot (and the house let them get away with a lot of slowplaying each other and telling each other their hands once they got it heads up, but as they were quite bad players I did not want to complain and rock the boat). To my immediate right was a fairly weak player. 4 to my right was the 40 year old guy that puts on his Oakley's, so I immediately peg him as a fish. To his right is the only player at the table that seemed to know what he was doing. The player to his right (two to my left, maybe 3 to my left) seemed average, and the girl in the one seat seemed to be pretty much an ABC player.

 

Tourney is a very fast structure. You start with 10,000 chips, but blinds are 100-200 to start and they go up fast. Every 12-15 minutes, and they sometimes more than double... level 2 is 200-400 then it jumps to 500-1000.

 

Anyway, the Oakley wearing dude is playing fast and loose, picking up a few pots with very aggressive play. Around level 2 he gets involved in a hand with the ABC girl. 4 or 5 limpers, and the ABC girl is in th BB. Flop comes down 88T - checked to fast/loose Oakley wearer and he bets 5K into a 3K pot. folds to ABC girl who pushes all in for about 8500total. Oakley wearer, who had picked up a few pots and could lay down here and still have about 8K in chips calls the 3500 more. I knew the ABC girl had an 8, but when the Oakley wearer showed Q6 I was floored. THere's aggressive play, and there is stupid play. Anyway, ABC girl doubles up. Oakley guy busts about 6 hands later as once he tabled that hand, everyone gunned for him.

 

So, I have been blinded down, and a couple times when I raised with AJ or AQ I either had to lay down to a reraise or I completely missed the flop and had to lay down. On one hand at 200-400, there is a caller in front of me, and i have AJ and make it 1500 to go. ABC girl calls, folds to limper who pushes all in for about 7K. I have about 6500 at this point so it is an all-in call if I make it.. but the ABC girl calling my raise concerns me as does a limp reraise. I lay down. ABC girl calls.... both had QQ.. river would have been my ace and I would have tripled up.

 

Now I am getting in trouble. I get 77 and make it 1500 again (I only had about 4500 total at this point). I want to do a stop n go here and will push on just about any flop. Get one caller. Flop is 89T. Not great, but I have a pair and an open ender. I push all-in and it is folded to me. He showed he had 66. Next hand I am in BB with 89offsuit. 4 limpers to me so I check my option. Flop is beautiful. 67T. Guy in front of me pushes all in for 5K, I barely have him covered so I push all in and get called by ABC girl. They each have pairs, and my hand holds up. Now I am alive and kicking. Table breaks up and with blinds growing I am able to play my way to the final table with a slightly above average stack of about 60K, with blinds at 5-10K (can you say crapshoot)

 

As I said, top 7 get paid, and we are down to 9 players. I have grown my stack to 105K, blinds are at 10-20K. I am 3rd or 4th in chips at this point. Player UTG in front of me raises to 60K. I look down and have KK. I decide to push it all in here. Folds to the original raiser. He goes into the tank. I know I am way ahead. He finally decides to call (he was one of the few stacks bigger than me). He tables AJ. Flop has a J and two under cards. Turn is the dreaded ace and river bricks. So, I am out just outside of the money.

 

Is there anyway I could/should let the kings go, knowing that at this point I could pretty much fold my way into the money then hope the crapshoot went my way?

[SheikYerbuti]

 

Is there anyway I could/should let the kings go, knowing that at this point I could pretty much fold my way into the money then hope the crapshoot went my way?

 

No. You have 3 rounds of blinds in your stack. You have him dominated when the money went in. Playing for $100 in a $50 tourney is a waste. Play for first or don't play. Don't ever regret the way you played it.

 

Nice report!

 

[Big Country]

No. You have 3 rounds of blinds in your stack. You have him dominated when the money went in. Playing for $100 in a $50 tourney is a waste. Play for first or don't play. Don't ever regret the way you played it.

 

Nice report!

 

 

 

I just wish I could play there mroe often. Once I got in the groove at the cash game and realized that not only would they lead out with middle pair (not neccessarily a bad play), but would call a bet with middle pair (the reason I folded my QQ), I knew Icould run most of this table over. Alas, the tourney started and I went deep in it. But, it sis make me realize just how much more I enjoy live poker than online poker.

 

I may have to take a hiatus from online poker (though, I did run good in SNGs on Sunday afternoon... played 5, I won 3, took second in one and did not cash in one - if I could run like that consistently I'd be really rich and have a new career)

[TimC]

You did the right thing. We have a guy that I play with that prides himself on finishing in the money almost everytime. He never wins though. I usually either win or finish outside the bubble (or crash and burn early) to accumulate chips to win...not finish in the money. My friend doesn't understand that concept (I know you do).

 

On a side note, we had our monthly tourney last Friday with about 10 new players that normally play their own tourney. We invited them to join us. Their play was so horrible and I was so card dead that it burned me up. I can't wait til next time.

 

A guy with almost equal chips eventually knocked me out by calling my all-in A-Q suited (best hand of the night) with K-7 offsuit. He hits a king of course. These guys just depended on pure luck to get them through. It was funny to watch sometimes. The guy I went to Vegas with and I are licking our chops for them to come back everytime.

[Seattle LawDawg]

How much larger stack was his? How had he been playing?

[spain]

Is there anyway I could/should let the kings go, knowing that at this point I could pretty much fold my way into the money then hope the crapshoot went my way?

 

He11 no! You absolutely made the right move there. You had fold equity if he making a move or didnt want to gambe, and you were way out in front when the money went in if he calls. Your play was correct by any measure. You dont want to play for 7th place, you want to win this thing. With the blinds being so high, at that point you are playing poker-bingo anyway. Give me that same situation and 10 times out of 10 I make the exact same move. If you win that hand, you have a great shot to win the whole thing. You got unlucky, thats all.

[Big Country]

How much larger stack was his? How had he been playing?

 

 

It was about the 15th hand of the final table. He had got there through the other table, but, in those 15 hands he had doubled up getting all in behind (IIRC, he had A9 vs. TT and caught). If he folded, He'd still have had about 90K in chips. Had he lost the hand, he'd have been down to about 40K in chips.

 

He was fairly active. I believe he was involved in about 6 or 7 of the hands to that point.

[SheikYerbuti]

How much larger stack was his? How had he been playing?

 

 

Even if I hadn't seen him enter a pot all day, I still think I'm grabbing onto KK and sending it in.

 

If you're 2 out of the money at the WSOP main event and you satellited in, you can make an argument for folding. In a $50 daily tourney 2 spots away from doubling your buy-in, you play kings.

[spain]

Even if I hadn't seen him enter a pot all day, I still think I'm grabbing onto KK and sending it in.

 

If you're 2 out of the money at the WSOP main event and you satellited in, you can make an argument for folding. In a $50 daily tourney 2 spots away from doubling your buy-in, you play kings.

 

+1

[Menudo]

I think you did the right thing.

 

On the poker front, I finally found my calling. I had been playing ring games for over a year, usually coming close to even, probably down a bit overall if I'm being honest. About 3 weeks ago, I started playing the Sit-And-Go's at Bogdog, and it has been going very well. I usually play in 10 player Turbos from $15-$25, but, sometimes I play the $50 turbos. I've been using an ultra tight-agressive style and it has been netting me money.

 

I've also been playing some of the guarantees at night. Last night I played from 8:30PM to 1:30AM in the 40K Guaranteed. I finished 14th out 550, netting me $300.....

 

I'm up almost 1K in the last 3 weeks, which after years of being roughly even, has me feeling good.

 

O.k. back to your post, sorry to hijack, but, there was an opportunity for me to brag, and, well, you know me.