Tournament situation.
This is from the $150 NL multi on Stars last night. Down to two tables, and I am shortstacked and in the BB. I think I played a good game to get that far, in particular on one hand where I check-raised my opponent on the flop with ace high for half my stack and took it down. 
And, I had my fair share of good cards.
Anywho, I'm in the BB with 99. Blinds 1500/3000. After posting my BB, I have about 12K left. Maybe 17 players left... not sure exactly, and no money increase until the final table if that's important to anyone (it wasn't to me).
Folded to the button (maybe 90K or so?), who makes a minimum raise. He'd been doing that a lot, and the last time he did it he was re-raised and had to call.... with Q7o. SB (a good player) moved in for about 60K or so. My move... call or fold?
Any comments appreciated. BTW, for any of you who were watching the $10+1 rebuy at the same time, yes that KTo hand was tilt after losing with KK to AA. One 'tilty' hand can be expensive....
And, I had my fair share of good cards.
Anywho, I'm in the BB with 99. Blinds 1500/3000. After posting my BB, I have about 12K left. Maybe 17 players left... not sure exactly, and no money increase until the final table if that's important to anyone (it wasn't to me).
Folded to the button (maybe 90K or so?), who makes a minimum raise. He'd been doing that a lot, and the last time he did it he was re-raised and had to call.... with Q7o. SB (a good player) moved in for about 60K or so. My move... call or fold?
Any comments appreciated. BTW, for any of you who were watching the $10+1 rebuy at the same time, yes that KTo hand was tilt after losing with KK to AA. One 'tilty' hand can be expensive....
Comments
2 cents
Wader
So if you put him on crud push it all now since you do have a 'hand' at this point. Problem is i always fear the min. raise. also can i assume the SB folded?
If I figure this right the your share of the pot (The amount your can win) is about 20k (6k (Button) + 12k (SB) + + 3k (Your BB) + 900 (Antes I think are 100 at this stage)) of which you would call with your final 9k. With 99 that is a great call, plus you might not see a better hand before the next set of blinds move around to you. Hope fully the Button folds and you get heads up with the SB.
i fold ... but i only fold cause i'm sure you're posting this hand cause the SB had something like QQ or AQ.
in reality i need to make a big move soon and i CALL, and i'm not expecting to see a hand much better than wired 9s to soon.
Not exactly.
I think it was originally the cutoff or button minus 2 who min-raised, but that doesn't make a big difference. It was certainly from steal position whatever it was.
I think it was a good call with the 99. Assuming your goal is to make top 3 (or maybe even top 5 or 6) where the big bucks are, I think you hand is good enough and your stack short enough to call here despite the furious action. There had been a *lot* of previous plays recently at your table that suggests to me that your opponents at this table need not have had hands to raise or reraise. (As should be the case with solid tournament players of course.)
Okay, I definitely was wondering about that one. This hand made me blink several times and go speechless. :cool:
I kept wondering if you had some kind of read on the opponent that would suggest bluffing, but you on tilt makes more sense.
Why go on tilt though? Basically, to me KK vs AA is just something that "just happens" whatever side of the EV you end up on. I know, I know. Easy to say, hard to do.
I remember one tournament where I had AA vs KK one hand and KK vs AA the hand immediately following. It was a wild and crazy ride back to my original stack size (roughly).
ScottyZ
I was in a similar situation last night with 88 in the BB, in the $3 rebuy (yes, I play those!!). Almost exact same sequence and stack sizes. I think you need to push in, because
a) it is quite possible you are the favourite over the range of hands of the two opponents. How often have we seen someone in your spot hold something like QQ and the other two holding A2s, and AK, nicely tieing up some of their outs. So, I think you're in half-decent shape.
b) you're ability to steal is greatly diminished as you have a pretty small stack of a little more than 3BB left if you fold.
c) what are the odds you will get a better situation, Q7 min-raise, plus soneone who's trying to isolate him?
d) even if you're a 4 to 1 dog, you're getting 2 to 1 odds, which is not half bad for a short stack.
I say to grab Monkey Man's hand, pray and push.
----
I was watching last night -- I finished 50'th. One day we'll be on the same final table!!! I wasn't going to say anything, but did see the KT crying call.
I hope you didn't mind me attacking the wacko. I was trying to keep things light, as the guy had some serious anger issues. Just let me know if you would prefer that I stay out of those things.
Way before the KT tilty hand (small error), you called with A5s, on the wacko's raise and the button I think (could have been the SB) isolation raise. It was a huge call to make with A5s. Just wondering why that wouldn't be an automatic fold, even if it was just the wacko?
Cheers
Magi
The talk of the Stars rebuy tournament is funny because I commented to aces in the forum tournament that I find it difficult to steal blinds even later on in it because there always seems to be 1-2 wackos left at my tables who believe any ace or king or 22 is the nuts preflop or believe they are the next coming of Gus Hanson.
I finished about 45th in one two days ago and while my experience was unremarkable (few great starting hands but also no horrid bad beats) I did watch one player go from 10,000 to about 200,000 chips and knock out many in some of the most insane play I have seen late in a tournament. 10 J > KK all in pre flop 8 5 suited > AA all in pre flop (not small all ins either heh) Q 6 calling an all in post flop of A 7 5 and beating the AK with runner runner. He and I never actually fought over a hand before we were split up but boy did he have a line up of people just tearing into his play including a few that were knocked out a long time earlier.
With the A5s, I think it was a matter of opening with a steal attempt, and being pretty much pot committed due to the small amount of chips back to him even after the raise and reraise (both opponents all-in).
One feeling I have about open stealing with Ace-rag: good idea from late position (less likely for someone behind you to have an Ace), bad idea from early position (enough players left behind you that it's considerably more likely for someone to have a dominating Ace against you). If I feel I can run a pure steal from EP*, I prefer rag-rag over Ace-rag.
ScottyZ
*Which is rare, but now and then a table can get into "tight mode" in various overall tourney situations.
However, the minimum raiser called, with AA. SB had JKo. And, as we know, I had 99. The flop had two jacks in it, and the SB won, knocking me out and seriously damaging the minimum raiser. The main reason I posted this was because I wanted to make sure that calling a raise and an all-in re-raise with 99 was the correct play, in this particular situation. I still think it was, and now that I have your confirmation, I'd do it again in that spot.
Incidentally, the very next hand the minimum raiser had AA again. I believe--though I'm not sure, as I wasn't in the tournament anymore--that he minimum raised again, and got himself all-in against KTo. Two tens on the flop, and he was on life support, busting out soon after. So, if there are any people on this forum who think that AA is the 'be all and end all' (I doubt there are) then think again, or play them better, lol.
I'd like to play less, but I keep on winning!!! More seriously, I'm fortunate in that my work schedule has me working from 11:30 - 6:00. These are perfect hours if you want to supplement your income with poker.
I must have been doing something right last night. I had not one but two people express their dissatisfaction with me. The first guy simply said 'you are a pain in the ass' after I re-raised him from the BB, twice, forcing him to fold. The second guy was a bit of a different story. Out of nowhere, he said something like 'all aces if you raise again I'm going to kill you'. I said 'lol, it's not personal dude'. He said 'oh you think it's funny, I swear to God, I'm crazy'. I said 'just play your game dude'. He said 'if you keep raising, I will find you and cut off your penis'. At which point I stopped talking to him. I mean, I'm not the toughest person in the world to find, and I'm fine with that. I generally don't piss people off, so I'm not worried about people being able to track down who and where I am in 'real life'. When a wacko like this gets going, though, I think it's best to just remain silent. I did get a hand history, and I considered reporting him, but for now I think it'll be best to just let somebody else do it when he pisses someone else off, which will undoubtedly happen.
As for you getting involved, magithighs, I thought it was pretty funny, and I didn't mind at all. You will notice though that I said nothing at all, lol.
I have no memory of this hand, but I'm sure I had my reasons. Maybe I'll get a hand history when I get home from Azim's tournament tonight, and I'll take a look.
Not sure Scotty. I don't usually. Busting out of the $150 with 2 tables to go certainly didn't help, and then having the bad luck to lose a big chunk of my stack with KK on the button vs the BB's AA in the 10:15 must have affected me. It must have, and that's all there is to it, because I hate KT more than life itself. (Actually, I don't hate life at all, and now that I'm thinking about it, that expression makes no sense. Is it supposed to be 'LOVE xxxxx more than life itself? Anyways, I hate KT.) I especially hate limping with it. Ugly, ugly, ugly brain cramp.
Everyone should remember that AA is a great starting hand only.
If you plan on playing the flop with it( as opposed to going all in) you should always be preparded to fold it.
During the last forum tournament I had to fold AA as a I was making Wader and (i forget) pay for there cards and a flush came on the turn and he bet out. Winner was a king high flush.
I can say it was a great fold (pat on back), but it was tough, and the right choice.
I don't want to play with you guys anymore. I think that this monkey man that everyone talks about somehow connect to my computer on that hand...........what a brutal call I made. For some reason I thought (wishing) he was pushing with a small flush and if another diamond I would bust him with my J high flush...???????!!!!!! What the hell kind of thinking is that.
Dead money did the right thing............why couldn't I. I've been in this place to many times where I start making extremely stupid plays late in a tourney (brain farts). I now have a sticky note pasted on my computer that has "MONKEY MAN" written in felt pen, hopefully this little reminder will work. The problem with the monkey man is that many times he's right and I don't want him to completely leave my game. You know when you check raise someone on a stone cold bluff and he lays down his second pair or weak kicker.........those are the times you remember Monkey Man and give him a tap on the back. So I guess the trick is getting into that happy medium place where the Monkey Man and the Conservative Man get along.