Discouraged from big buyin tourneys....was my previous play justified

Crystal1303

I do very well playing poker online at around the $12-$24 stakes at FTP

My Officialpokerranking is 99.24%
Shark on Sharkscope at FTP
Leaderboard Star on small stakes on Pokerstars

I love playing sats to the bigger games but i tend to just spend the tourney dollars playing my regular games...I have read (to the point of memorization) 10 of the most well respected poker books and am very familier with all forms of poker stategy

I seems like everytime i try playing a large stake tourney something sick happens

The following hand busted me in the Sunday Million on Pokerstars:

1200ppl left of 5600
810 get paid
Ave Stack = 50000
Blinds = 2000/4000
My stack = 54000
Position = 5/9

Everybody folded to me...I raised 12000 with A10 suited
loose player with equal chips calls from BB (been playing on this table for over 2.5 hrs and this player tended to overbet the pot when he smells weakness...had been rarely called when he did this)

FLOP A 4 10 Rainbow
He checked ... I checked back thinking he will bet the turn BIG
TURN 9
He goes all-in ...all my chips and most of his
I Call....he has JK for a gutshot

RIVER....u guessed it Q
BUSTED....and it still stings

Was my trapping play justified??? Should i have just made a continuation bet on the flop and ended the hand being the money was so close??

Should I keep trying or stick to my regular 45ppl S&G's
I have won smaller tourneys.....1st of about 3000 in a .50 cent tourney
3rd of about 2500 in a $3.30 tourney
1st of 150 in a $24 limit tourney
ETC...

Thanks for any suggestions

m_dolens

in reference to moving up in levels, you might be thinking that you win X amount of games at the lower level and therefore you should be winning X amount of games at a higher level, and this may not be the case. you may notice a slight drop in winning freqency when changing levels, but this is to be expected and hence why one should use proper bank roll management to deal with these swings. i am, however, assuming that you have not played a large amount of bigger buy-in tournies.

in reference to the specific hand, i almost always bet my two pair. the chances of it improving are not great, therefore put your money in now before things possibly get worse. the villian is loose and tends to overbet according to you. he checks the flop. i'd consider putting in a small raise here (after a little time comtemplating). if he's a good player, he should fold, but you'll be making a +EV play. if he's a bad player, he'll think you're weak and hopefully make a big (over)raise. then i'd probably push.

Wetts1012

Crystal1303;153564 wroteI do very well playing poker online at around the $12-$24 stakes at FTP

I love playing sats to the bigger games but i tend to just spend the tourney dollars playing my regular games

I am sure you take the same amount of sick beats in your regular game. They are just amplified because of the buyin.

That said, using the T$ is great, but if youre taking advantage of the soft sats,take your shots when you can. Admittedly, I probably have a negative ROI in the $5 - $25 MTT over the last few years. However, I have won the FTP 30K, and finished second in the ongame 320 - all through sats. (which has also shown me to be a sick player on OPR 97% - which is why I show no faith in this ranking system). Clearly rigged.

g2

Crystal1303;153564 wroteWas my trapping play justified??? Should i have just made a continuation bet on the flop and ended the hand being the money was so close??

Are you playing to win or to make the money?

/g2

Pantsonfire

There's at least 26000 in the pot and more if there are antes. You now have 42000 behind after your raise. You have top two pair and the only draw is a broadway gutshot and you are heads up. This situation all adds up to the fact that you are going to get all your chips in this hand.

The only hand beating you is a set and there are only two aces and two tens left so a set is pretty unlikely. Besides, given the stack sizes, you can't fold this hand since there are so many other hands that you beat.

If you are up against an A, it has to be AK-AJ to be a worry and even then he only has three outs on the turn. If you are against a pp, he has two outs. If he has that broadway gutter, he has four outs. From your read on the guy, I would say giving a free card here is low risk and the right play. It is highly unlikely he is goning to overtake you with 2-4 outs on that turn card. And even if he does, you still have a redraw to a pretty big boat.

There are simply too many hands that he could have where he could try to push you out of the pot on the turn and that's what you want. You got it all in on the turn as a 90% favourite. That's good poker. The river card is irrelevent to the strategy.

It just hurts more in a bigger tourney. I've see some pretty outlandish play in big buyin tourneys, mostly be guys who satellite in as lagtards. Lots of players grip their stick too tight when the big money comes close so plays like this guy made work a lot. What would have done if the board was A J 4?

blackmagicz

A10 suited is not a strong hand and gets misplayed often....you may want to have either called or raised a little bigger to discourage the call from the BB

Figure with the blinds at 2000/4000 like the previous poster said there are probably antes involved which makes the odds for the BB great to call with just a 3x raise. In this case a raise to 16-17K would have been more appropriate to ensure the proper odds aren't given to the blinds to warrant a call.

In this case the BB as described would probably complete with any overs or suited connectors so the above scenario may have just resulted in a shove on you...which in this case you would be pot committed and you would have to call based on the BB ranges.

Since you did mention you were close to the money a safer bet would have been to fold if you were worried about making the money and you did have an average stack. When I have played certain tourneys I have folded AQ/AK in those situations because I wanted to make the money (I was young and did not have a bankroll and was worried about have my tourney life destroyed by a suckout)

But once again if you looking to win the tourney you want a BB calling for a gutshot everytime...

Congrats though on the deep finish....keep it up :)