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View Full Version : Swingy - last nights 25k rebuy


sloth469
04-19-2005, 03:48 PM
Last night while sweating Gavin and Dano at the final table I got to watch what I concidered to be idiotic poker, by a player named swingy. He was as W/T as you can get it seemed and allowed himself to fall to just over 2 BBs. All the while he is slowly moving up the pay ladder as players are jumping over him to go out.

That he eventually ended up making stands wasn't the interesting part. But the way he chose to do it really got me thinking. When he had just under 2.5 BBs he raised UTG to 123,123 leaving himself almost nothing behind it. To everyones surprise the BB folded and Swingy took it down.

A short time later, swingy goes after Gavins blind and raises all-in except for 1 chip. Gavin put him in of course and swingy won the toss up.

My point is what is the real value of this psychological ploy? Against a strong player in Gavin he got a call, did he want one though? Against the BB on the previous hand his ploy seemingly worked and he took down a pot when he should have been in a fight for his life.

Are there enough poor players in the mix even at the final table that plays like this can be that valuable? Despite coming into the FT in last place, swingy went on to win last nights 25k. Any thoughts on his play would be appreciated. Like I said I thought it was really bad play, but is there something to it? At least last night, survival to swingy was worth an extra 10k.

-sloth

LethalRose
04-19-2005, 04:06 PM
Swingy got incredibly lucky and I think considering his "strategy" as a winning strategy is a big waste of time. People simply called his pushes with marginal hands and he got lucky. When his stack got up to a decent size the people who called his pushes failed to realize what his stack size doubling would do for him.


it was just luck if you ask me.

sloth469
04-19-2005, 04:13 PM
I agree it was luck, but if he had pushed from UTG would the BB have been more likely to call then he was because of the odd bet? Is there really this great of potential in psychological ploys? Obviously I'm not going to be trying it any time soon, but I really think it is worth discussing.

Didn't T.J. say you have to give yourself the chance to get lucky?

2005
04-19-2005, 05:00 PM
Well, I actually know Swingy, we went to high school together. A friend of mine (Bel0wAb0ve on PokerStars) is also a friend of Swingy's and he and I both agreed that Swingy played that tournament pretty terribly. He got lucky that the BB didn't put him in that hand, as he only had A3s and there was no hand that he was in really good shape against. There is 0 merit to his style of play. Let me give you a "for instance"

blinds were 15k/30k, he had 250k, I had almost 1 million. Folded to him in CO, he makes it 64,551 I have AJ and make it 210k, everyone folds... He said later that he didn't want to commit too many chips to a steal, but why commit 65k out of 250k and then fold? If he pushes, I fold, and so does everyone else and he picks up some much needed chips.

Gavin

sloth469
04-20-2005, 12:58 AM
Gavin I agree no merit to the play against players such as yourself that know better, but you gotta admit the BB had odds w/ any 2 there to let that go was baffling and i really think the particular bet had something to do with it. 123,123 just looks like someone playing games and the BB out thought himself, am I totally off?

-sloth

2005
04-20-2005, 05:05 AM
Nah, the BB was just an idiot who thought that 94 would have been a bad call there. I don't think the bet amount had anything to do with it.

Gavin

sloth469
04-20-2005, 05:26 AM
Fair enough, thanks for your reply.

SoBeDude
04-20-2005, 12:27 PM
[ QUOTE ]
Nah, the BB was just an idiot who thought that 94 would have been a bad call there. I don't think the bet amount had anything to do with it.

Gavin

[/ QUOTE ]

This is exactly correct. We here in the 2+2 world forget that the majority of the rest of MTT players out there just don't understand basic odds. They look down at a two crappy cards (such as the suggest 94o) and don't realize they're only a 60-40 dog to a hand like A3s, and that when they're getting 2-1 or 3-1 odds to call, that it is a MISTAKE to fold!

Monday night in a live tourney at Seminole Hard Rock, I called an all-in from the CO short-stack. I was BB and I was getting just over 3-1 to make the call with my 83o. I called. flopped a straight draw, turned a flush draw and still missed to his KJo. oh well. But the whole table looked at my like I had three heads when I turned over my cards. Good. let them think I'm an idiot.

Oh. And its been my experience that leaving the odd couple of chips in the stack when essentially going all in seems to be a superstition about online play. I know several strong online players who are convinced that leaving the few odd chips helps them win the hand. Go figure.

-Scott