A Really Bizarre Tournament Hand

I played in a few tournaments today, and in one I came across a situation I admit I had no idea what to do about. Tournament was only a $3 one so I did not expect any kind of strong play to begin with , which was fine.

The player with the huge stack in BB plays basically every hand, only ever min bets /min raises or calls and has gone to showdowns with Q high. His stack grew as people tried to bluff him over and over, as well as several rather amusing suckouts.

I realized after I raised that I should have probably limped just to setup a shove if the tiny stacked SB went all in. As is I could only call as his raise was too small to re-open the betting.

PokerStars Game #16963268246: Tournament #85793898, $3.00+$0.30 Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (500/1000) - 2008/04/24 - 15:02:36 (ET)
Table '85793898 93' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: WillieDM3 (21088 in chips)
Seat 3: jorginhu10 (23494 in chips)
Seat 4: Lau1978 (9355 in chips)
Seat 5: lovinthisgam (11100 in chips)
Seat 6: Monteroy (17075 in chips)
Seat 7: hamelino (7018 in chips)
Seat 8: fan11b (3552 in chips)
Seat 9: Rocket Ghost (89901 in chips)
WillieDM3: posts the ante 100
jorginhu10: posts the ante 100
Lau1978: posts the ante 100
lovinthisgam: posts the ante 100
Monteroy: posts the ante 100
hamelino: posts the ante 100
fan11b: posts the ante 100
Rocket Ghost: posts the ante 100
fan11b: posts small blind 500
Rocket Ghost: posts big blind 1000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Monteroy [7s 7h]
WillieDM3: folds
jorginhu10: folds
Lau1978: folds
lovinthisgam: folds
Monteroy: raises 2000 to 3000
hamelino: folds
fan11b: raises 452 to 3452 and is all-in
Rocket Ghost: calls 2452
Monteroy: calls 452
*** FLOP *** [Ad Qc Qh]
Rocket Ghost: bets 1000


I was at a complete loss as to what to do here. I still had 14,000 chips, so it would have only cost me 3,000 more to call his 3 min bets (roughly a 100% chance they would be min bets), and I considered calling down, and even shoving, but even this guy would fold a nothing hand if I shoved and if he calls with a hand like K 10 I am not even much of a favorite if at all.

I did also want to have as much of a stack as possible for what would eventually have to be a 90k chip spew on his part. In the end I folded and the hand finished off

Monteroy: folds
*** TURN *** [Ad Qc Qh] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [Ad Qc Qh Jc] [5h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
fan11b: shows [Kc Ks] (two pair, Kings and Queens)
Rocket Ghost: shows [5s 6c] (two pair, Queens and Fives)
fan11b collected 11156 from pot


His bet falls in the category of being impossible to expect with that hand in theory since it has basically nothing to gain (barring a runner runner 5 5 or runner runner 6 6), but this person was kind of capable of such a unique play.

Hindsight aside, given the dynamics was my fold (assume I would have to call 2 more min bets regardless of the turn and river) an error?

Comments

  • Monteroy wrote: »
    I played in a few tournaments today, and in one I came across a situation I admit I had no idea what to do about. Tournament was only a $3 one so I did not expect any kind of strong play to begin with , which was fine.

    The player with the huge stack in BB plays basically every hand, only ever min bets /min raises or calls and has gone to showdowns with Q high. His stack grew as people tried to bluff him over and over, as well as several rather amusing suckouts.

    I realized after I raised that I should have probably limped just to setup a shove if the tiny stacked SB went all in. As is I could only call as his raise was too small to re-open the betting.

    PokerStars Game #16963268246: Tournament #85793898, $3.00+$0.30 Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (500/1000) - 2008/04/24 - 15:02:36 (ET)
    Table '85793898 93' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
    Seat 1: WillieDM3 (21088 in chips)
    Seat 3: jorginhu10 (23494 in chips)
    Seat 4: Lau1978 (9355 in chips)
    Seat 5: lovinthisgam (11100 in chips)
    Seat 6: Monteroy (17075 in chips)
    Seat 7: hamelino (7018 in chips)
    Seat 8: fan11b (3552 in chips)
    Seat 9: Rocket Ghost (89901 in chips)
    WillieDM3: posts the ante 100
    jorginhu10: posts the ante 100
    Lau1978: posts the ante 100
    lovinthisgam: posts the ante 100
    Monteroy: posts the ante 100
    hamelino: posts the ante 100
    fan11b: posts the ante 100
    Rocket Ghost: posts the ante 100
    fan11b: posts small blind 500
    Rocket Ghost: posts big blind 1000
    *** HOLE CARDS ***
    Dealt to Monteroy [7s 7h]
    WillieDM3: folds
    jorginhu10: folds
    Lau1978: folds
    lovinthisgam: folds
    Monteroy: raises 2000 to 3000
    hamelino: folds
    fan11b: raises 452 to 3452 and is all-in
    Rocket Ghost: calls 2452
    Monteroy: calls 452
    *** FLOP *** [Ad Qc Qh]
    Rocket Ghost: bets 1000


    I was at a complete loss as to what to do here. I still had 14,000 chips, so it would have only cost me 3,000 more to call his 3 min bets (roughly a 100% chance they would be min bets), and I considered calling down, and even shoving, but even this guy would fold a nothing hand if I shoved and if he calls with a hand like K 10 I am not even much of a favorite if at all.

    I did also want to have as much of a stack as possible for what would eventually have to be a 90k chip spew on his part. In the end I folded and the hand finished off

    Monteroy: folds
    *** TURN *** [Ad Qc Qh] [Jc]
    *** RIVER *** [Ad Qc Qh Jc] [5h]
    *** SHOW DOWN ***
    fan11b: shows [Kc Ks] (two pair, Kings and Queens)
    Rocket Ghost: shows [5s 6c] (two pair, Queens and Fives)
    fan11b collected 11156 from pot


    His bet falls in the category of being impossible to expect with that hand in theory since it has basically nothing to gain (barring a runner runner 5 5 or runner runner 6 6), but this person was kind of capable of such a unique play.

    Hindsight aside, given the dynamics was my fold (assume I would have to call 2 more min bets regardless of the turn and river) an error?

    Limping would actually be sweet here. As played I don't mind just calling down, maybe if a 3rd broadway card falls you could fold I guess. Also raising to 3K here or something stupid might be fine if he folds complete air to that.
  • That was pretty weird... I guess he is trying to isolate against the all-in and hope to suckout the river.. but a pretty bad play. I think at that point you can either raise to figure out where you are, or fold. Calling might get you in more trouble if he senses your weakness.
  • just my opinion, but i think you're looking at this in a results oriented way. if villian (who calls with anything in your opinion) had any K or Q (or J after the turn) he's way ahead of you. yes he calls with anything, and yes he only bets min, but that doesn't mean you should just bet/call with a (imho) weak hand. i just feel like if he legitimately hit anything or you didn't end up having the best hand, you wouldn't have posted this (i.e. the results made you post it).

    that being said, just a call preflop would have been a better play (like you stated). but in any case, you fold to the idiot (who, by folding, learns that his idiot ways are 'working'), and beat his chips out of him later when he makes another donk move.

    again, imho, i have no problem with the big idiot donk having all the chips at the table. in fact, i'd prefer they do. makes my job a lot easier to get chips from a moron than from the rest of the players.
  • Graham wrote: »
    That was pretty weird... I guess he is trying to isolate against the all-in and hope to suckout the river.. but a pretty bad play. I think at that point you can either raise to figure out where you are, or fold. Calling might get you in more trouble if he senses your weakness.

    I knew at the time that this player was not putting thought into his action, that's what actually made the situation frustrating. He doesn't sense weakness or isolate, in fact I wasn't convinced he knew the rank order of the cards.

    As my friend put it, it was essentially like playing against a drinking bird that bends down to tap a button then bounces back without any thought behind it.

    If it was heads up, I call down his 3 min bets while rolling my eyes, but I was fairly certain the main pot was pretty much gone already, and that is what caused me frustration.

    My head scratching is not really results oriented, I realized that with that flop I was not in great shape against a ton of random hands. It was more that I realized how silly a situation it was at the time, knew that player was capable of having anything, and still was not sure quite what to do :)
  • Monteroy wrote: »
    As my friend put it, it was essentially like playing against a drinking bird that bends down to tap a button then bounces back without any thought behind it.


    Excellent. Permission to use?

    stp
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