Insanely long - 6 NL tournament hands for analysis
in Online Poker
Here are some hands from a $5 + .50 NL tournament on Pacific last night. I finished 12th out of 609 entries for a whopping $30. I managed to stay in the top 5 right from relatively early on until there were around 14 players remaining, and I’m looking for some feedback about a couple of early hands that I lost, and even moreso the last few hands I got mixed up in at the end. Overall I was happy how I played, but was disappointed at how quickly things went sour at the end, so I am looking for comments, feedback, etc. on how I could have done better.
Any comments are very much appreciated. Sorry for the super long ass post.
HAND #1
towards the beginning of the tournament
blinds 50/100
8 handed, I am about twice the average in chips
drpuddy (me) 2940
shiro 805
Rommelll 1660
Dadahead 1475
Whizkids 1265
Howrocky 715 (sb)
Levi920 3879 (bb)
RPRP 1361
Dealt to drpuddy [Qh, Th]
RPRP folds
Drpuddy calls
Shiro calls
Rommelll folds
Dadahead calls
Whizkids folds
Howrocky calls
Levi920 checks
FLOP [3s, 2s, Tc]
Howrocky checks
Levi920 bets 400
Drpuddy raises to 800
Shiro folds
Dadahead folds
Howrocky folds
Levi920 calls
Levi920 is a clever player and I had already made a note to watch out for him. He had built up his stack with some good plays.
TURN [5h]
Levi920 bets 500
Drpuddy calls
RIVER [8h]
Levi920 bets 600
Drpuddy calls
Levi920 has 10d, 2c and wins with two pair, tens and twos
Drpuddy loses with a pair of tens
Any thoughts on this one? I’m thinking that alarms should have been going off once he led into me on the turn (and river), but at that point I thought my top pair might be good. Looking back, I realize he could also have had 4-6, A-4 or a set as well, but I don’t think I even considered that at the time. I was stuck on the thought he might have top pair or a flush draw somehow. The amount of his bet on the turn confused me a bit. Any comments on how I could have done better here would be appreciated.
This hand wiped out a good start and put me below average. I was lucky enough to get some good hands to bounce back.
HAND #2
33 hands before I bust
blinds 1500/3000
6 handed, I don’t remember how many remaining, but maybe 25 or so?
I am about 4th in chips for the tournament
drpuddy (me) 58715
tmtulcs 22722
ribby07 26782 (sb)
bull36 15950 (bb)
Robboy88 31094
Boggan 13923
Dealt to drpuddy [Ac, Th]
Robboy88 folds
Boggan calls
Drpuddy calls
Tmtulcs folds
Ribby07 calls
Bull36 checks
FLOP [9c, Ad, 7d]
Ribby07 checks
Bull36 checks
Boggan bets 5,000
Drpuddy raises to 10,000
Ribby07 folds
Bull36 folds
Boggan raises his last 923
Drpuddy calls
TURN [Qs]
RIVER [3h]
Boggan has [Ah, 7c] and wins with two pair Aces and 7s
Drpuddy loses with a pair of aces
Another loss to two pair. This reminds me a lot of hand #1 above, so once again any thoughts would be appreciated. His stack size had something to do with my decision, since he had had the blinds coming soon (1500/3000) and only 10K in chips left. I thought he might be making a move with something less than he ended up having. Since I lost in a similar way to the hand above, I’m wondering if anyone has any thoughts, advice, comments?
THE END IS NEAR! OK, I’m not sure that I played all of these hands all that poorly, but I’m looking for comments, feedback and whatever I might have overlooked. I seem to be having trouble with the stage of the tournament where there are <30 players left. I find I’m reaching the final 30 relatively often, but can’t seem to break through to the final 5 places or so where the prize money really starts to go up (I once finished 4th, but in a smaller tournament of 200 or so). I was wondering if anyone had any comments, feedback, or advice about how I played the hands that led to my demise. I guess I’m wondering where I went wrong because I went from a decent stack to being ousted fairly quickly. So here’s the last few hands I got involved in…
HAND #3
7 hands before I bust
Blinds 2500/5000
7 handed, 14 remaining
I am above average and about 4th out of 14 remaining
squadldr 26072 (sb)
drpuddy (me) 56792 (bb)
ribby07 40456
bull36 17622
Rommelll 68546
Robboy88 29094
Boggan 9668
Dealt to drpuddy [Th, Tc]
Ribby07 folds
Bull36 folds
Rommelll calls
Robboy88 folds
Boggan raises all in 9668
Squadldr (sb) folds
Drpuddy raises another 5,000
Rommelll folds
Flop [2c, As, Qh]
Turn [Ad]
River [3h]
Boggan has Ks, Qc and wins with Aces and Queens
Drpuddy takes back 5,000
I don’t question calling Boggan here although maybe I should. His stack couldn’t survive much longer and he needed to make a move, and I had a decent hand. I was worried about Rommelll, who had a big stack. My thinking was that the extra raise would be enough to freeze him out unless he had a big hand, as he would not likely want to get into a hand with the second biggest stack at the table unless he had a fairly strong hand. I’m not sure about the raise though. As a background, Rommelll had limped in with a big pair (KK? Memory fails me here) on a previous hand and then raised after the flop. Should I have raised more, say 10,000? If Rommelll had re-raised me over the top what would I do then (I lean towards folding then, but I really don’t know).
Obviously I lost to Boggan anyways. I don’t feel I played this one too badly, but I’m interested in feedback in case people have anything to add. Was the call and raise a good move here even though I ended up losing?
HAND #4
6 hands before the final
Blinds 2500/5000
7 handed, 13 or 14 in the tournament, I’m slightly above average, about 5th place
I’m in the sb with $44K+ and player in the bb is very aggressive and has $40K+
Folds to the button and a player who has come back by stealing a bunch of blinds goes all in for $23K+. I have AQ o but fold in part because I’m not sure what the big blind will do here. BB folded as well.
Should I have called? I don’t regret this one, but once again appreciate any comments.
HAND #5
Two hands before final hand
Blinds 2500/5000
7 handed, I think 13 in the tournament at this point
squadldr 31072
drpuddy (me) 44624
ribby07 25456
bull36 32622
Rommelll 56046 (sb)
Robboy88 24094 (bb)
Boggan 26836
Boggan calls
Squadldr folds
Drpuddy calls [Ah, Js]
Ribby07 folds
Bull36 folds
Rommelll calls
Robboy88 checks
Flop [4d, Ac, Ts]
Rommelll checks
Robboy88 bets 5,000
Boggan folds
Squadldr folds
Drpuddy raises to 10,000
Rommelll folds
Robboy88 calls
TURN [8c]
Robboy88 checks
Drpuddy bets to put Robboy all in (14,094)
Robboy calls all in 14,094
RIVER [10d]
Robboy wins pot with [10c, 2c] for 3 of a kind Tens
Drpuddy loses with two pair Aces and Tens
This leaves me with 15,530
Next hand I raise all in UTG for 15,530 (blinds 2500/5000) with Ad, 2s and everyone folds
HAND #6
Final hand
6 handed, 12 remaining in tournament
blinds 2500/5000
squadldr 26072 (small blind)
drpuddy (me) 23030 (big blind)
ribby07 25456
bull36 32622
Rommelll 53546
Robboy88 65688
Ribby07 calls
Bull36 folds
Rommelll folds
Robboy88 folds
Squadldr calls
Drpuddy [Jd, 8h] checks
Flop [Js, Ts, 9c]
Squadldr bets 5,000
Drpuddy raises all-in 18,030
Ribby07 reraises all-in 25,456
Squadldr folds
Turn [8d]
River [3s]
Ribby07 wins with [Kh, Qd], straight 9 to King
Drpuddy loses with two pair Jacks and Eights
Did I overdo it here? Should I have called instead of going all-in? I didn’t have many outs here, but I didn’t really that at the time. I was thinking top pair, plus an open ended straight draw was a relatively strong hand at the time.
Thanks in advance to anyone taking the time to read this and make any comments.
Any comments are very much appreciated. Sorry for the super long ass post.
HAND #1
towards the beginning of the tournament
blinds 50/100
8 handed, I am about twice the average in chips
drpuddy (me) 2940
shiro 805
Rommelll 1660
Dadahead 1475
Whizkids 1265
Howrocky 715 (sb)
Levi920 3879 (bb)
RPRP 1361
Dealt to drpuddy [Qh, Th]
RPRP folds
Drpuddy calls
Shiro calls
Rommelll folds
Dadahead calls
Whizkids folds
Howrocky calls
Levi920 checks
FLOP [3s, 2s, Tc]
Howrocky checks
Levi920 bets 400
Drpuddy raises to 800
Shiro folds
Dadahead folds
Howrocky folds
Levi920 calls
Levi920 is a clever player and I had already made a note to watch out for him. He had built up his stack with some good plays.
TURN [5h]
Levi920 bets 500
Drpuddy calls
RIVER [8h]
Levi920 bets 600
Drpuddy calls
Levi920 has 10d, 2c and wins with two pair, tens and twos
Drpuddy loses with a pair of tens
Any thoughts on this one? I’m thinking that alarms should have been going off once he led into me on the turn (and river), but at that point I thought my top pair might be good. Looking back, I realize he could also have had 4-6, A-4 or a set as well, but I don’t think I even considered that at the time. I was stuck on the thought he might have top pair or a flush draw somehow. The amount of his bet on the turn confused me a bit. Any comments on how I could have done better here would be appreciated.
This hand wiped out a good start and put me below average. I was lucky enough to get some good hands to bounce back.
HAND #2
33 hands before I bust
blinds 1500/3000
6 handed, I don’t remember how many remaining, but maybe 25 or so?
I am about 4th in chips for the tournament
drpuddy (me) 58715
tmtulcs 22722
ribby07 26782 (sb)
bull36 15950 (bb)
Robboy88 31094
Boggan 13923
Dealt to drpuddy [Ac, Th]
Robboy88 folds
Boggan calls
Drpuddy calls
Tmtulcs folds
Ribby07 calls
Bull36 checks
FLOP [9c, Ad, 7d]
Ribby07 checks
Bull36 checks
Boggan bets 5,000
Drpuddy raises to 10,000
Ribby07 folds
Bull36 folds
Boggan raises his last 923
Drpuddy calls
TURN [Qs]
RIVER [3h]
Boggan has [Ah, 7c] and wins with two pair Aces and 7s
Drpuddy loses with a pair of aces
Another loss to two pair. This reminds me a lot of hand #1 above, so once again any thoughts would be appreciated. His stack size had something to do with my decision, since he had had the blinds coming soon (1500/3000) and only 10K in chips left. I thought he might be making a move with something less than he ended up having. Since I lost in a similar way to the hand above, I’m wondering if anyone has any thoughts, advice, comments?
THE END IS NEAR! OK, I’m not sure that I played all of these hands all that poorly, but I’m looking for comments, feedback and whatever I might have overlooked. I seem to be having trouble with the stage of the tournament where there are <30 players left. I find I’m reaching the final 30 relatively often, but can’t seem to break through to the final 5 places or so where the prize money really starts to go up (I once finished 4th, but in a smaller tournament of 200 or so). I was wondering if anyone had any comments, feedback, or advice about how I played the hands that led to my demise. I guess I’m wondering where I went wrong because I went from a decent stack to being ousted fairly quickly. So here’s the last few hands I got involved in…
HAND #3
7 hands before I bust
Blinds 2500/5000
7 handed, 14 remaining
I am above average and about 4th out of 14 remaining
squadldr 26072 (sb)
drpuddy (me) 56792 (bb)
ribby07 40456
bull36 17622
Rommelll 68546
Robboy88 29094
Boggan 9668
Dealt to drpuddy [Th, Tc]
Ribby07 folds
Bull36 folds
Rommelll calls
Robboy88 folds
Boggan raises all in 9668
Squadldr (sb) folds
Drpuddy raises another 5,000
Rommelll folds
Flop [2c, As, Qh]
Turn [Ad]
River [3h]
Boggan has Ks, Qc and wins with Aces and Queens
Drpuddy takes back 5,000
I don’t question calling Boggan here although maybe I should. His stack couldn’t survive much longer and he needed to make a move, and I had a decent hand. I was worried about Rommelll, who had a big stack. My thinking was that the extra raise would be enough to freeze him out unless he had a big hand, as he would not likely want to get into a hand with the second biggest stack at the table unless he had a fairly strong hand. I’m not sure about the raise though. As a background, Rommelll had limped in with a big pair (KK? Memory fails me here) on a previous hand and then raised after the flop. Should I have raised more, say 10,000? If Rommelll had re-raised me over the top what would I do then (I lean towards folding then, but I really don’t know).
Obviously I lost to Boggan anyways. I don’t feel I played this one too badly, but I’m interested in feedback in case people have anything to add. Was the call and raise a good move here even though I ended up losing?
HAND #4
6 hands before the final
Blinds 2500/5000
7 handed, 13 or 14 in the tournament, I’m slightly above average, about 5th place
I’m in the sb with $44K+ and player in the bb is very aggressive and has $40K+
Folds to the button and a player who has come back by stealing a bunch of blinds goes all in for $23K+. I have AQ o but fold in part because I’m not sure what the big blind will do here. BB folded as well.
Should I have called? I don’t regret this one, but once again appreciate any comments.
HAND #5
Two hands before final hand
Blinds 2500/5000
7 handed, I think 13 in the tournament at this point
squadldr 31072
drpuddy (me) 44624
ribby07 25456
bull36 32622
Rommelll 56046 (sb)
Robboy88 24094 (bb)
Boggan 26836
Boggan calls
Squadldr folds
Drpuddy calls [Ah, Js]
Ribby07 folds
Bull36 folds
Rommelll calls
Robboy88 checks
Flop [4d, Ac, Ts]
Rommelll checks
Robboy88 bets 5,000
Boggan folds
Squadldr folds
Drpuddy raises to 10,000
Rommelll folds
Robboy88 calls
TURN [8c]
Robboy88 checks
Drpuddy bets to put Robboy all in (14,094)
Robboy calls all in 14,094
RIVER [10d]
Robboy wins pot with [10c, 2c] for 3 of a kind Tens
Drpuddy loses with two pair Aces and Tens
This leaves me with 15,530
Next hand I raise all in UTG for 15,530 (blinds 2500/5000) with Ad, 2s and everyone folds
HAND #6
Final hand
6 handed, 12 remaining in tournament
blinds 2500/5000
squadldr 26072 (small blind)
drpuddy (me) 23030 (big blind)
ribby07 25456
bull36 32622
Rommelll 53546
Robboy88 65688
Ribby07 calls
Bull36 folds
Rommelll folds
Robboy88 folds
Squadldr calls
Drpuddy [Jd, 8h] checks
Flop [Js, Ts, 9c]
Squadldr bets 5,000
Drpuddy raises all-in 18,030
Ribby07 reraises all-in 25,456
Squadldr folds
Turn [8d]
River [3s]
Ribby07 wins with [Kh, Qd], straight 9 to King
Drpuddy loses with two pair Jacks and Eights
Did I overdo it here? Should I have called instead of going all-in? I didn’t have many outs here, but I didn’t really that at the time. I was thinking top pair, plus an open ended straight draw was a relatively strong hand at the time.
Thanks in advance to anyone taking the time to read this and make any comments.
Comments
I think I like folding pre-flop here. You're in bad pre-flop position with a limping hand that's merely okay as such.
Hand #2
The small stack is showing a lot of weakness here by only limping in instead of just moving all-in for ~10,000 more into the 7,500 pot. I would raise pre-flop just enough to tap the limper (and this is conveniently just about enough to also tap the short-stacked BB).
Whether or not you like raising it up another 10,000 or not is open to debate. However, I can't see ATo as a hand to limp with here. This is a pre-flop raise or fold spot I think.
Hand #3
I think raising pre-flop is a good idea. You have quite a strong but vulnerable hand here.
This is a *rare* case where I think that raising by about the minimum (as you did) is a good play. This is a big enough bet coming back to the limper to firmly say "get out of my way", but without putting so many chips at risk in case (although this seems like it would be quite a bizzare play in general, you did mention him previously limping with a premium hand) you get limp-tapped, or even limp-called and face a nasty flop.
I think that raising it by 10,000 (or more) is starting to enter the realm violating the Dave Scharf "bet enough to get the job done"^TM maxim.
Hand #4
I don't think I would call here. I would move all-in instead.
AQo, while generally weaker than people think in many situations, is actually a monster hand *if* you're against a button open-raiser who has been "stealing a bunch of blinds".
Also, I don't think I would want to tempt the BB (whom you describe as aggressive) to attempt some kind of fancy dry side pot move by merely calling.
If either the button or BB wakes up with a Top 4 hand, c'est la vie. You simply can't pass up such a juicy opportunity to pick off a blind steal here.
Hand #5
As with the ATo previously, I just don't see AJo as a limping hand. Raise or fold pre-flop here. Being 7-handed, I favour raising here, and it's really personal preference if you'd simply stack-in, or make it 15,000 to go and leave yourself room to bail out later.
Hand #6
On the flop, I think calling would be the worst of the options.
I like moving all-in here. Top pair with a straight draw is going to be exteremely difficult to get away from when you're on a fairly short stack and at a 6-handed table.
You might consider folding on the flop in an alternate universe where the flop bettor was a rock, and had actually moved all-in instead of making a weak-ass leading bet which was (drum roll please...) the minimum bet. It turns out that you made a good play but were simply unfortunate enough to run into the nuts behind you.
Thanks for posting some very interesting hands, and congrats on your finish!
ScottyZ
RAISE PRE-FLOP!!!!! People aren't going to stick around with the hands that demolished your stack like 10 2o or A 7....
Hand four is mostly dependent on your read of the player, is he loose or tight? You have enough chips that you do not have to call this raise, unless you are fairly confident you're in the lead....
For the AJ hand... because you have less than 10x the BB, you should be in all-in or fold mode. Consider that your call here was more than 10 percent of your stack, so you might want to consider raising. That should be all in simply because, you cant fold to a re-raise, and the allin may get hands like 22-99 to fold...
Pat
I'm reviewing my preflop play, especially in the late stages. I seem to be getting too timid once the blinds start putting pressure on me in the late stages, when earlier on in a tournament with the same hands I would have no problem raising to 3X the big blind or pushing all in if I was shortstacked (or just folding outright if I wasn't confident enough to raise). I actually went back and looked at how I played the same and similar hands in the early part of this tournament. Early on it was pretty typical to raise preflop for 3X bb for a good portion of the hands I played, but later on in the tournament it was call, call, call. My self analysis after reading your comments is that maybe I'm too afraid to lose at the end, and it makes me become too passive.
Thanks again, and any other comments are still welcome. I really think I learned something from posting these hands here.