Did I play this right?
Local tourney - about 35 people; rebuys until break and 1 add-on at break
I have slightly below average stack (around 2800 - started with 1000) and we have just started playing after the break (ie no more rebuys). There are still about 25 people left.
I am dealt KK in mid to late position. Blinds are 100-200. 3 limpers before me. I raise to 1000 and get 1 caller.
Flop is 3-10-10. Limper bets 500. I have about 400 more chips than he does. What do you do?
I'll reply to this post with the answer.
I appreciate your feedback.
lowestofthelow
I have slightly below average stack (around 2800 - started with 1000) and we have just started playing after the break (ie no more rebuys). There are still about 25 people left.
I am dealt KK in mid to late position. Blinds are 100-200. 3 limpers before me. I raise to 1000 and get 1 caller.
Flop is 3-10-10. Limper bets 500. I have about 400 more chips than he does. What do you do?
I'll reply to this post with the answer.
I appreciate your feedback.
lowestofthelow
Comments
I moved all in and he called instantly to show pocket 3's!
Fate smiled on me that day as a beautiful king showed up on the river to essentially double me up. If I had lost this hand, it would have crippled me and left me with perhaps 400 chips left. I ended up splitting 1st and 2nd place prize money with another player, so it was a great day all around. Just hoping for some wise insight into my play.
I do wonder about his call of 800 with pocket 3's...
Thanks in advance.
lowestofthelow
You didnt miss anything....i just shouldnt try and remember hand histories so early in the am! :eek:
Flop was 3-10-10 (he flopped a boat)
Thanks for pointing that out.
lowestofthelow
I would have expected him to slowplay the boat but he got all your chips in so he achieved what he wanted. From your perspective, I might have been afraid of AA or TT but those are the only 2 hands I would be fearful of given the big pre-flop raise. Given those odds, I'd be happy to get my chips into the middle. I think you played it right and sucked out. It's nice when it happens in your favour once in a while.
As side, 2 + 2 has a very interest thread about playing big pockets when stacks are deep. Different than what the general consenus is but many WCP agreed with the hand. It's posted under the World Poker Tour area by David Skalansky (?).
To everyone who said push the flop..
Are you even taking into considering that this player acts "out of turn" to lead into the flop? Why would he do this?
1) He's a habitual bluffer and thinks you missed
2) He's a complete fish and can't wait to bet his big hands.
Lets remember that the first rule of local home game poker is that bets are strength and calls are weakness..
Pkrfce, I don't think my table image came into play...i was a complete stranger to everyone at the tourney and we had been playing for only an hour or so...up until then i had played a few hands, winning 2 or 3 and only showing i think one hand (pocket pair).
I still think it was a pretty loose call given he was putting almost half of his stack in with 3's.
BBC, in hindsight, I wonder if he correctly put me on a big pair and bet 500 to induce me to go all in. It was a small amount compared to the pot of 2700. I just couldn't put him on 3's, 10's or A10. If he had had Aces, I guess I would have expected him to reraise all in preflop.
Thanks again for the insights. :redface:
lowestofthelow
Just for the record, I bust too... but I think his bet is a glaring piece of information to discard without a little bit of thought behind it.. I've busted a few local tournaments with terrible players when they push all-in first on a connected flop after I preflop raise a large pocket..
As for hindsight, he didn't even consider your hand. He saw any pocket in his hand preflop, got married to it and got lucky on the flop. Let's not go give our opponents too much credit for finesse plays.
A check and call sets off all kinds of alarm bells for the player with KK. But, betting out looks like it might be a bluff.
I probably go bust with your hand.
When he bets out the flop, what position are you in?
Pot is 3200. You are facing a bet of 500. And, you have 1800 in your stack.
What does he have? Hmmm... tough. He called 1,000 pre-flop. I will give him credit for a hand that he thinks is worth 1000. Probably a big ace (A-K or A-Q) or a pocket pair. Against the range of hands I will out him on I am almost certain to call.
Arbitrary Harringtonesque calculation:
20% chance of bluffing: You win 17 of those.
91 total hands - how many of those will you win?
Pair aces (6) : win 1
Pair Kings (1) : win 1
Pair jacks, pair 9-9 to 4-4, or pair 22 (48) : win 42
Pair T-T (1) : win 0
Pair: 3-3 (3) : win 0
A-K or A-Q (32) : 26
I win 70 of 91 for 62 out of the 80 that he's not bluffing.
So... on balance I figure to win 80% ish of the time (if my read is right). I call or move in and go bust.
In the thread, Sklansky tells of a hand in the first level (25-50, stacks of 10k) where he overlimped with aces, got a couple limpers behind on a tough table, and folded to Jennifer Harman's QT3 flop bet.
basically the principle of AA with deep stacks is that a preflop raise doesn't get enough chips in the pot to kill implied odds and is likely to take down a tiny pot. On the other hand, a limp that flops a set vs. underset can win a monster pot, or if, as is often the case at a tough table, there is a late position raise, the Aces can then come over the top and commit.