Tourament Hand (Too aggressive?)

Chris

$55 MTT on UB. 45 players left top 20 pay out. Was I too aggressive here? How should I have played it? Would you be suspicious of the minimum raise, or would you pressure him? With a flop of 299 I probably would have been all-in anyways, but I'm wondering if my preflop play was bad.


Hand #4870094-89 at Sun12amA-002 (No Limit tournament Hold'em)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 13/Mar/05 01:29:51

dapster is at seat 0 with 6705.
KBshiznit is at seat 1 with 3855.
Stony0420 is at seat 3 with 5525.
poppapump is at seat 4 with 8010.
Chris Jensen is at seat 5 with 3140.
Sagres is at seat 6 with 490.
timbo777 is at seat 7 with 1725.
NIPDOG26 is at seat 8 with 2195.
DrBLovemore is at seat 9 with 7350.
The button is at seat 6.

timbo777 posts the small blind of 75.
NIPDOG26 posts the big blind of 150.

dapster: -- --
KBshiznit: -- --
Stony0420: -- --
poppapump: -- --
Chris Jensen: Td Th
Sagres: -- --
timbo777: -- --
NIPDOG26: -- --
DrBLovemore: -- --

Pre-flop:

DrBLovemore folds. dapster folds. KBshiznit folds.
Stony0420 folds. poppapump folds. Chris Jensen
calls. Sagres folds. timbo777 folds. NIPDOG26
raises to 300. Chris Jensen goes all-in for 3140.
NIPDOG26 goes all-in for 2195. Chris Jensen is
returned 945 (uncalled).

Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:

Chris Jensen shows Td Th.
NIPDOG26 shows Kc Ks.


Flop (board: 2c 9h 9s):

(no action in this round)


Turn (board: 2c 9h 9s Qc):

(no action in this round)


River (board: 2c 9h 9s Qc 2d):

(no action in this round)




Showdown:

Chris Jensen has Td Th 9h 9s Qc: two pair, tens and nines.
NIPDOG26 has Kc Ks 9h 9s Qc: two pair, kings and nines.


Hand #4870094-89 Summary:

No rake is taken for this hand.
NIPDOG26 wins 4465 with two pair, kings and nines.

---

This crippled me and I busted soon after going all-in ona flush draw getting about 3.5:1 on my chips.

ScottyZ

Limp-reraising all-in with TT into a minimum raise, with the all-in bet being a large overbet of the pot, is a poor play I think. Not simply because your opponent might have a monster, but more importantly because the risk-reward profile is way off for this sort of play.

When you limped in pre-flop, you have decided to play your TT like a drawing hand. And, as I usually say, if you're going to play it like a drawing hand, then play it like a drawing hand. Given that you have already limped, you should just call the pre-flop raise. Thank your lucky stars that it was for the minimum, since you're still getting the right implied odds to call and chase a set.

I would have instead opened for 400, and probably folded to a big re-raise. I would be tempted to take a flop if I got re-raised small (or would in fact be forced to if smooth called).

If I somehow get to this flop, and my opponent has shown some strength over my raise pre-flop, I probably start to feel a little ill. If my opponent checks, I would likely shoot in a small, but not too small, bet of around 300 or so. I'm looking for the amount big enough that he can toss in two overcards, and small enough that I'm not wasting chips in the cases where I'm beat. I'm thinking I'd have to let it go if check-raised.

If my opponent just check-calls on the flop that I've somehow seen, I'm probably going to be in a world of hurt. At this point, I am going to start wondering if I simply didn't bet enough on the flop to get him off big cards, or if I am being played like a cheap violin by a monster hand. I may even try another small bet on the turn to (hopefully) set up a checked down river.

As for the KK, raising the minimum from the big blind into one limper is an incredibly bad play. I don't see what this does except for broadcasting your hand strength getting little value and with no chance of protecting the hand. Checking the option here is a nice play, wheras making a big raise might be okay too, in an attempt to induce a skeptical "he looks like he doesn't want a call" call from a run-of-the-mill hand.

An important point here is that KK is a strong enough hand to try a fancy trapping play with. The TT, while it certainly can be sometimes be played passively as a drawing hand, should rarely (and almost never in typical tournament scenarios) be played passively in the form of setting a trap. Wait until after you spike your set of Tens to lay down the trap-a-mundo.

Ayyyyyyyyyyyyy!

[Apparently, when it's this late, I turn into the Fonz.]

ScottyZ

Chris

Very good advice. I guess the reason I was limping in was to see how they would act after me. I don't wana take pocket tens into a pot 3 way. Since it was HU I put him all-in. But now that I think about it, what cards would he make such a tiny raise with? I should have been suspicious since most would not make that raise with a medium pair, making me at best a coin flip.

It really was a bizzare raise, though. And I thought he was just testing me since I limped. My reraise was even worse.

Anyways, the good news is I just finished 10th (out of 210) in another tournament. However, I only got to play 3 hands at the final table, and it was only an $11 bucker.

mragmoore

My noob perspective: if you really want to keep the tens ( and win the 450 in the pot ) re-raise like Scotty said, folding to the inevitable re-re-raise.

Personally I'd very easily throw the 10's away.

You (had) more than enough cash (3000) to wait for a monster hand ( maybe like KK lol ) before All-Inning.

ScottyZ

...if you really want to keep the tens ( and win the 450 in the pot ) re-raise like Scotty said, folding to the inevitable re-re-raise.

Actually, when raised from the BB in the actual hand, I thought it would be better to not re-raise with the TT in this example. Better to call the small raise and take the flop.

My alternative pre-flop suggestion would be to open with a raise instead of limping in, probably folding to a large re-raise in this case.

ScottyZ

mragmoore

Oh I get it. My mistake.