I'll be sure to play in the next one! I was unable to play in this one since my 20th bday was on friday, and come saturday I could barely walk let alone play poker.
Sounds like a well run event and everyone came out happy.
Another very well run tournament and my luck at the Poker Pit finally runs dry. Things started off very well and in the first few blind levels I built my stack up to 2,600, when I ran into a hand that did bad things to my stack.
I'm on the button with QTd.
One person behind me calls, I limp and stp on the BB checks.
Flop comes JT9 rainbow giving me middle pair with a double ended straight draw. Shannon bets out 300, and I get the feeling he has a Q or 8. I'd be surprised at the 8 as the Q coming would make a K high straight possible. Does he have KQ? I don't think it's likely because I know stp's an agressive player, and would have imagined him raising the hand with limpers. He could also have AJ-QJ in which case I'm not in great shape, so I call hoping to hit the K or 8.
Turn: Q. Crap. I really didn't want to see this hand. It's given me two pair but any K or any 8 now beats me. Shannon bets out 500 and I'm VERY nervous at this point. Now, if the K comes, I'm beat by an Ace, but I do four real outs, I think, in the potential boats if another Q or T falls. The bet is just enough to keep me in and I call.
River: Brick (3?) Shannon checks. I don't consider betting back and stp turns over KQ. His check on the river was a worry check that I held AK (he's seen me occationally limp with this in the past), so I feel lucky I got away without losing too many more chips.
The check pre-flop, really suckered me into the hand. Great play, stp!
I then went on and made a HORRID monkeyman call a few hands later to drop me down to about 900, and then the mid-game lull of dead cards came.
Once the blinds were high enough to reduce me to 7-10 blinds, I wanted to make a move in the next two rotations, before raises by me would have had to have been automatically called.
Calling it card dead was an understatment. 42o was the most popular hand I saw and when I complained that I hadn't seen a card over a 7 in a single rotation, the dealer immediately made me feel better by giving me 83o.
The two times I had a decent hand, the pot was raised in front of me, and so the blinds ate me up. In one hand stp raised pre-flop and I was in the SB with A2o (my most hated hand). I was going to call all-in, but just couldn't do it. The BB called stp's bet, the flop came A2x, the BB bet, stp folded and I'm sure the BB had an Ace with a better kicker. I think it was the right fold at the wrong time.
Eventually I was UTG with two BB's left which meant the chaces are this hand or next, I'd be out. I was dealt 6Ts and decided this was as good of a random hand as any I'd want. And called all-in. Folded around to the BB who held Q9o, no help and I'm out.
I hate getting eliminated by the blinds. In retrospect, the card dead streak I went on gave out the table image that I was playing my short stack incredible tight, so I think I should have just pushed a random hand at the 7-10BB level to survive more rotations, until I could hit a good hand.
Live and learn; it was still a fun day and I got to head home early and enjoy a movie with the g/f.
The table has been tight aggressive in general most pots raised preflop with about 2-3 seeing the flop at most. There are approx 20 players left top five get paid and there are 7 players at the table.
Blinds $75/$150...raising every 25 min. (about 10 min left before next increase to 100/200)
You are BB with approx $3,000 which is about the average stack. Your raises have been respected as you have a pretty aggressive image.
UTG (aka Andrew R.) doubles the blinds preflop. UTG is the table chip leader but not by a huge amount and probably has $5,000. Has been playing pretty straight forward raising big cards and medium to big pairs. Seems to be a pretty straight forward player who is capible of folding if he thinks he is beat.
Action is folded to you in the BB. The small raise seems to make think he is on Ace Paint or two paint cards. I think I can push him preflop with a substancial raise. What do you do?
I look down and see A9o. Not exactly a big hand but I decide to stick with my instincts and reraise to $1,000. UTG visually doesn’t like the reraise and thinks for a while and eventually calls. I am really feeling like he is on two paint maybe Ace Paint now.
The flop comes Rag, Rag, Nine. The pot is $2,175 and you have approx $2,000 UTG has you covered but will be hurt badly if doubling you up. You’re first to act...what do you do?
I push since it will basically be a pot sized bet and therefore forcing him to fold or make a bad call...
The rest in white font so highlight for the results...and a couple more questions...
He ends up making a terrible call and shows top set???????????????? Can you put him on that hand? I don’t think I should have discounted that hand but I really couldn’t see him calling the reraise with small to medium pockets and I think he would have pushed with JJ-AA preflop. Maybe some one from the tourney can help with what they thought of UTG (aka Andrew R.) and if they think my read was out in left field.
One element of a player's game which goes largely unmentioned is what I like to call their "Love Affair With Pockets". A player with a high levels of LAWP is a player who will overvalue the strength of almost any pair. While most common seen with players that have graduated from pure beginner, I've seen people who I consider have a good game have this leak.
Take, for example, oen of my last tournaments. The player who ended up second was there primarily because of his MASSIVE love affair with pocket pairs.
In the first instance, he called a raise and an all-in (putting his own tournament on the line) with 66 (against AQ and KJ) The flop came QTT and the pair of sixes ended up hitting a runner-runner flush to win the hand.
A few hands later, he once again called a raise and a re-riase all-in with TT. (This time he was against QQ and 22) He turned a ten and became a massive chip leader.
Determining a player's "Love Affair with Pockets" will help grow or shrink the box you can put him in, and I think, in some cases, needs to be measured apart from how they play non-pockets.
Comments
Sounds like a well run event and everyone came out happy.
I'm on the button with QTd.
One person behind me calls, I limp and stp on the BB checks.
Flop comes JT9 rainbow giving me middle pair with a double ended straight draw. Shannon bets out 300, and I get the feeling he has a Q or 8. I'd be surprised at the 8 as the Q coming would make a K high straight possible. Does he have KQ? I don't think it's likely because I know stp's an agressive player, and would have imagined him raising the hand with limpers. He could also have AJ-QJ in which case I'm not in great shape, so I call hoping to hit the K or 8.
Turn: Q. Crap. I really didn't want to see this hand. It's given me two pair but any K or any 8 now beats me. Shannon bets out 500 and I'm VERY nervous at this point. Now, if the K comes, I'm beat by an Ace, but I do four real outs, I think, in the potential boats if another Q or T falls. The bet is just enough to keep me in and I call.
River: Brick (3?) Shannon checks. I don't consider betting back and stp turns over KQ. His check on the river was a worry check that I held AK (he's seen me occationally limp with this in the past), so I feel lucky I got away without losing too many more chips.
The check pre-flop, really suckered me into the hand. Great play, stp!
I then went on and made a HORRID monkeyman call a few hands later to drop me down to about 900, and then the mid-game lull of dead cards came.
Once the blinds were high enough to reduce me to 7-10 blinds, I wanted to make a move in the next two rotations, before raises by me would have had to have been automatically called.
Calling it card dead was an understatment. 42o was the most popular hand I saw and when I complained that I hadn't seen a card over a 7 in a single rotation, the dealer immediately made me feel better by giving me 83o.
The two times I had a decent hand, the pot was raised in front of me, and so the blinds ate me up. In one hand stp raised pre-flop and I was in the SB with A2o (my most hated hand). I was going to call all-in, but just couldn't do it. The BB called stp's bet, the flop came A2x, the BB bet, stp folded and I'm sure the BB had an Ace with a better kicker. I think it was the right fold at the wrong time.
Eventually I was UTG with two BB's left which meant the chaces are this hand or next, I'd be out. I was dealt 6Ts and decided this was as good of a random hand as any I'd want. And called all-in. Folded around to the BB who held Q9o, no help and I'm out.
I hate getting eliminated by the blinds. In retrospect, the card dead streak I went on gave out the table image that I was playing my short stack incredible tight, so I think I should have just pushed a random hand at the 7-10BB level to survive more rotations, until I could hit a good hand.
Live and learn; it was still a fun day and I got to head home early and enjoy a movie with the g/f.
Blinds $75/$150...raising every 25 min. (about 10 min left before next increase to 100/200)
You are BB with approx $3,000 which is about the average stack. Your raises have been respected as you have a pretty aggressive image.
UTG (aka Andrew R.) doubles the blinds preflop. UTG is the table chip leader but not by a huge amount and probably has $5,000. Has been playing pretty straight forward raising big cards and medium to big pairs. Seems to be a pretty straight forward player who is capible of folding if he thinks he is beat.
Action is folded to you in the BB. The small raise seems to make think he is on Ace Paint or two paint cards. I think I can push him preflop with a substancial raise. What do you do?
I look down and see A9o. Not exactly a big hand but I decide to stick with my instincts and reraise to $1,000. UTG visually doesn’t like the reraise and thinks for a while and eventually calls. I am really feeling like he is on two paint maybe Ace Paint now.
The flop comes Rag, Rag, Nine. The pot is $2,175 and you have approx $2,000 UTG has you covered but will be hurt badly if doubling you up. You’re first to act...what do you do?
I push since it will basically be a pot sized bet and therefore forcing him to fold or make a bad call...
The rest in white font so highlight for the results...and a couple more questions...
He ends up making a terrible call and shows top set???????????????? Can you put him on that hand? I don’t think I should have discounted that hand but I really couldn’t see him calling the reraise with small to medium pockets and I think he would have pushed with JJ-AA preflop. Maybe some one from the tourney can help with what they thought of UTG (aka Andrew R.) and if they think my read was out in left field.
Take, for example, oen of my last tournaments. The player who ended up second was there primarily because of his MASSIVE love affair with pocket pairs.
In the first instance, he called a raise and an all-in (putting his own tournament on the line) with 66 (against AQ and KJ) The flop came QTT and the pair of sixes ended up hitting a runner-runner flush to win the hand.
A few hands later, he once again called a raise and a re-riase all-in with TT. (This time he was against QQ and 22) He turned a ten and became a massive chip leader.
Determining a player's "Love Affair with Pockets" will help grow or shrink the box you can put him in, and I think, in some cases, needs to be measured apart from how they play non-pockets.