A hand from the Final Table of the Friday Night Special

[durron597]

2+2er Gigabet was at the final table of this week's Party Friday Special, when this hand came up. Villian in this hand had been raising/calling the blinds in amounts that (IMO) were bigger with the better hands and smaller with the weaker hands. The flop push allin was INSTANTANEOUS, but Gigabet went into the tank a long time before making his action. What do you do and why?

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t15000 (4 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

saw flop|<font color="C00000">saw showdown</font>

<font color="C00000">UTG (t83673)</font>
Button (t306051)
SB (t174972)
<font color="C00000">Gigabet (t122304)</font>

Preflop: Gigabet is BB with 2/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 2/images/graemlins/spade.gif .
UTG bets t30000, Button folds, SB folds, BB calls t15000

Flop: (t22500) 7/images/graemlins/club.gif, 5/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 9/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(4 players)</font>
Gigabet checks, <font color="CC3333">UTG bets t53673 (All-In)</font>

[Lurshy]

I'm folding like a worker in a commercial laundry.

You can't count on 22 winning unimproved. He could have easily bet that way with an overpair to the board (e.g. 10 10) given your read, or hit a set. Don't even know I would call the raise PF with 22, though it was cheap given the pot odds by being in the BB. If I do call PF, and if I have any intention of calling something, I bet out, especially on that BB special type flop. This would maybe push two over- cards out of the pot, but by calling and checking, you can't think you are ahead. JMHO

[durron597]

You claim it's an easy fold.... what range of hands do you put UTG on?

Sorry about the error in my initial post, it should say "Gigabet calls" not "BB calls"; bisonbison's converter and I didn't get along particularly well over this HH, it needed some modifying.

[jwvdcw]

A hand like this is impossible for those not there to answer. This depends solely upon your read on your opponent and how he has played. I think that Gigabet or those watching intently are the only ones that can really make a call here. Even though you gave us a brief description of the opponent, thats not enough for us to really make a decision.

I will say this: If you had no read at all on your opponent, then you should fold.

[Paragon]

I happened to be up late and got to watch Gigabet and the other players through the last two tables. durron's description of the UTG player is very accurate I think... Min raising with weaker hands (although he did do that earlier with JJ vs. that moron with 54s) and betting higher with quality.

After Gigabet checked the guy instantly went all in (probably had bet pot clicked). He had done this just two or three hands previous and to almost everyone watching it seemed to be weak. It was just whether Gigabet had anything to call with... However, I personally would not have had the guts to call probably /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Was definitely *the* play of the final table.

[Lurshy]

I guess my point was, if I am going to call, I would have just bet out, trying to buy the pot. That flop is great for a BB typically. If the opener missed he would have trouble calling, or raising. But as soon as you checked, you gave up any edge. If he came over the top of a pot sized bet by the BB, it is an easy fold. Once you check, how do you call an oversized bet with 22 ???

Range of hands almost doesn't matter. But any PP, or any steal with the board cards in it already has him beat. If he doesn't have a pair, he has at least 6 more outs (+ any drawing outs).

[Gigabet]

[ QUOTE ]
I guess my point was, if I am going to call, I would have just bet out, trying to buy the pot. That flop is great for a BB typically. If the opener missed he would have trouble calling, or raising. But as soon as you checked, you gave up any edge. If he came over the top of a pot sized bet by the BB, it is an easy fold. Once you check, how do you call an oversized bet with 22 ???


[/ QUOTE ]

I had the pleasure of playing with villain on table #3 before the final table...I played with him most of the tourney, so I had a very good handle on his play. So good, in fact, that my whole plan for the final table, was to take advantage of his play. Unfortunately, the first time I am able to take advantage, he does something different.

Villain consistently would limp in with Ax, and sometimes fold and sometimes call an all-in behind him, at one point, he limped with A4, and beat my KK when I raised behind his limp. Throughout the tourney, I think he cracked my kk 3 times, with similar moves. Anyway, he liked to look at a lot of flops, his flop play was almost always the same though, min bet, min bet, min bet. I didn't like the way that was looking, and finally was able to see a couple showdowns. Most of the time, he was on second pair with the min bet, a couple times, he was on top pair. So this was the type of player who likes to get value for his hands, usually played straightforward also, checked if he missed the whole board.

When I called his preflop min raise(which was his change of gears, when the blinds started to get too high, min raise instead of limp), my intentions were to get a 5 card board and not call any of his bets. However, instead of min betting, he moved in, now for someone who plays straightforward, and likes value for marginal holdings, that is definitely not his play.

So now that I know that he missed, I need to figure out if I want to have a showdown with my 22, with 2 cards to come. Against 2 overcards, i will win around 70% of the time, from there, I think I am definitely the favorite to take 1st place. If I lose however, i only have 2BB left at 40k in chips, but this is my BB, so I have two full rounds. I think from there I still have a chance to win, although it is much less likely, I have came back from much much worse situations though; so that really didn't bother me.

If I just let the hand go, I remain a middle stack with huge blinds eating me away, and aggressive players on each side of me. It was tough for me to pick spots, because they were always taken, when I had any kind of holding.

So, all in all, I figured that to give myself the best shot to win I had to take the shot there.