JellyTrollMorton
07-01-2005, 03:32 PM
If you were in the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens, California Thursday June 30th at 7:00 and walked into the Men's room closest to the tournament area, you probably noticed me. I was the guy who was standing in front of the mirror screaming "Fold A-J in early position" at his reflection. Having thus psyched myself out, I promised to make a dent in my free time Thursday night through Friday morning by going deep into the NLH tournament.
Well since I am going to post a tournament history from memory, it's probably pretty obvious that I didn't see that many hands. Fifteen to be exact. So half an hour later, the bad news is that I find myself on the 710 freeway instead of hearing the blinds go up for the first time. The good news is that I can freely use the F-word as often as I like, but by the time I got to the 5 interchange my voice had already gone
hoarse. So here's the blow by blow account (and feel free to tell me where I blow).
I am in seat 2. The button is seat 4. We have $3,000 in chips and blinds are $25 and $25 for the first 30 minutes. In two hours, the blinds will be $50-$100 with a $25 ante, so I felt that people had to be a little aggressive at some point (it would be bad to still be around $3,000 at that point).
Hand 1: I have 5s5c. Seat 7,8,9 all limp. Seat 1 folds. I decide to limp. Seat 3 raies $100. Seat 5 calls, seat 7 folds, Seat 8 calls, seat 9 folds. It's to me and I'm last to act. I decide to call. Flop is AcJs4s. We all check to seat 3 who bets and we all fold. My stack is now $2,875.
Hand 2: I have TcTd. Seat 8 calls, seat 9 and seat 1 folds. I throw in a $100 but I forget to say "raise" (I should know better). The bet gets interpretted as a cal. Seats 3 and 4 fold, 5 and 6 (the blinds) check. The flop is Th7cKh. It's checked to me. I bet $200, seat 6 calls, everyone else folds. Turn is 2s. Seat 6 checks, I bet $400 and get called by seat 6. River is Jh. Seat 6 checks. I think for a bit and decide to check, afraid that seat 6 may be trying to trap with a flush or straight (either of which he could have caught on the river). I show my set (I know, I should have insisted on seeing my opponent's hand first), but I allowed him to muck. My stack is $3,550.
Hands 3, 4, 5, and 6 are all easy folds (93o, 72o and other
non-promising hands). Hand 6 I was big blind with 72o and seat 9 raised $100. In one of these hands, seat 4 held AJo and checked a board showing J744. The river was a 9 and he lost to seat 9 who held J9s.
Hand 7, I get dealt Ad9d (I am the small blind). Two people (I think seats 7 and 8 call). I think about raising here but I just check because I promised myself that I would not overplay AJ, why should I overplay A9? I check and seat 3 (the BB) checks. The board is AcQs5s. I decide to bet $300 to see where I stand ("Doh! Didn't I say I won't overplay A9?"). Seat 3 raises $1000 and everyone, including me, folds. I kick myself and now have a stack of $3200.
Hands 8 through 13 are all unremarkable folds on my part. During this time, seat 9 won a three-way pot with QJs that caught a K-9 straight on the turn and has the biggest stack at the table.
At this point seat 1 has only played one hand and won it uncontested after a bet on the flop. Seat 3 has only played the two hands that I have described. Seat 4 has made one error by not betting aggressively enough. Seat 5 has not done much except lose the QJs hand to seat 9. Seat 6 had not played much since hand 2. Seat 7 picked up a couple of small uncontested pots, and seat 8 has not shown anything. Seat 9
seems fairly aggressive with a wde range of hands. I don't feel that I have a good feel for this table.
So hand 14, I get dealt AKo UTG. I throw in a $100 chip, and this time I make sure that I say "raise." Everyone folds and I end up winning both blinds. I have $3,250. Everyone else has roughly that amount, a couple of have noticeably less chips, and seat 9 has more.
Hand 15 I am the big blind with Ad3s. Seat 5, and seat 9 call. Seat 1 checks. I check. The flop is 2d4c5h. Seat 1 checks. Now what do I do? I want to bet, but I don't want to chase everyone out. I considered slow playing this, but I decided to bet $400. Seat 9 calls, and everyone else folds.
Turn is the 5c. "Danger Will Robinson, Danger! Danger!" thoughts sprang into my mind. Should I check and fold a straight if seat 9 bets? I thought that that was rather wimpy so I bet another $500. Seat 9 calls. The river is 9s. I thought about it a bit, and I realize that that card should not help any, and so I continue by betting $500. Seat 9 goes all in.
"F***" I say to myself (not out loud, there is a ten minute penalty for doing that). I call time and ruminate for a minute. 55, 44, 22, and 54-suited beat me. I don't think that he would have stayed for so long with 99 or 95, and I'm guessing that he would not play 54o. He may have played A5 suited or 65 suited and given that I was the big blind I could easily be playing 24 and caught a losing 2 pair on the flop. Also, I did bet $300 and folded to a raise several hands ago, so he may think that there is a possibility of me folding a winning hand. I had already bet roughly half my stack on this hand. I was roughly getting 3-1 odds to call. Out of the thirteen possible hands that he could have (5s5d, 2c2h, 2c2s, 2h2s, 4d4h, 4d4s, 4h4s, 4h5h, 4s5s, Ah5h, As5s, 6h5h, 6s5s) I can beat 4 of them so I am getting slightly worse than 2-1 to call.
So I say to myself (I talk to myself a lot -- I need to check a video tape of me to see if my lips move -- that would be a real bad tell, particularly to lip readers) "I did not come all the way out here to lose half my stack in one hand," and so I call. Astute readers can probably guess that I managed to lose my whole stack in one hand when my opponent turns over 4s5s.
One glaring error that I realize that I made in retrospect is that if my opponent read me for having 24 after the flop, I certainly could not be holding 24 after I bet on the turn when the board paired. Therefore, he probably should have read me for better than 24 and the only other possibilities are 22, 44, 25 and A3, all of which he had beat. So I know that I should be REALLY SCARED after he calls my bet on the turn where the 5 paired. I would have kept my losses to $925 if I had checked and folded after that.
Someone has already pointed out to me that I overbet the flop on hand 15. Something in the $125 range would have been more reasonable. I think one mistake that I have made recently is that I feel that I should be more aggressive. This has resulted in me overbetting pots. I think that I should not be aggressive by betting higher pots -- instead I should be more aggressive by betting and raising more often.
I've also noticed that in past tournaments, I would tend to fall behind about an hour and a half into the tournament. Then, in the tournaments that I scratched in, I would have a fairly good period where I did well. After reading Harrington's second book, I realize that I was probably playing a "yellow zone" strategy all the time. Thinking back, I probably had my good streaks when I naturally fell into the "yellow zone." So I now feel I have a better idea of how I should play earlier.
Anyway, thanks for your time. Any comments will be appreciated.
Well since I am going to post a tournament history from memory, it's probably pretty obvious that I didn't see that many hands. Fifteen to be exact. So half an hour later, the bad news is that I find myself on the 710 freeway instead of hearing the blinds go up for the first time. The good news is that I can freely use the F-word as often as I like, but by the time I got to the 5 interchange my voice had already gone
hoarse. So here's the blow by blow account (and feel free to tell me where I blow).
I am in seat 2. The button is seat 4. We have $3,000 in chips and blinds are $25 and $25 for the first 30 minutes. In two hours, the blinds will be $50-$100 with a $25 ante, so I felt that people had to be a little aggressive at some point (it would be bad to still be around $3,000 at that point).
Hand 1: I have 5s5c. Seat 7,8,9 all limp. Seat 1 folds. I decide to limp. Seat 3 raies $100. Seat 5 calls, seat 7 folds, Seat 8 calls, seat 9 folds. It's to me and I'm last to act. I decide to call. Flop is AcJs4s. We all check to seat 3 who bets and we all fold. My stack is now $2,875.
Hand 2: I have TcTd. Seat 8 calls, seat 9 and seat 1 folds. I throw in a $100 but I forget to say "raise" (I should know better). The bet gets interpretted as a cal. Seats 3 and 4 fold, 5 and 6 (the blinds) check. The flop is Th7cKh. It's checked to me. I bet $200, seat 6 calls, everyone else folds. Turn is 2s. Seat 6 checks, I bet $400 and get called by seat 6. River is Jh. Seat 6 checks. I think for a bit and decide to check, afraid that seat 6 may be trying to trap with a flush or straight (either of which he could have caught on the river). I show my set (I know, I should have insisted on seeing my opponent's hand first), but I allowed him to muck. My stack is $3,550.
Hands 3, 4, 5, and 6 are all easy folds (93o, 72o and other
non-promising hands). Hand 6 I was big blind with 72o and seat 9 raised $100. In one of these hands, seat 4 held AJo and checked a board showing J744. The river was a 9 and he lost to seat 9 who held J9s.
Hand 7, I get dealt Ad9d (I am the small blind). Two people (I think seats 7 and 8 call). I think about raising here but I just check because I promised myself that I would not overplay AJ, why should I overplay A9? I check and seat 3 (the BB) checks. The board is AcQs5s. I decide to bet $300 to see where I stand ("Doh! Didn't I say I won't overplay A9?"). Seat 3 raises $1000 and everyone, including me, folds. I kick myself and now have a stack of $3200.
Hands 8 through 13 are all unremarkable folds on my part. During this time, seat 9 won a three-way pot with QJs that caught a K-9 straight on the turn and has the biggest stack at the table.
At this point seat 1 has only played one hand and won it uncontested after a bet on the flop. Seat 3 has only played the two hands that I have described. Seat 4 has made one error by not betting aggressively enough. Seat 5 has not done much except lose the QJs hand to seat 9. Seat 6 had not played much since hand 2. Seat 7 picked up a couple of small uncontested pots, and seat 8 has not shown anything. Seat 9
seems fairly aggressive with a wde range of hands. I don't feel that I have a good feel for this table.
So hand 14, I get dealt AKo UTG. I throw in a $100 chip, and this time I make sure that I say "raise." Everyone folds and I end up winning both blinds. I have $3,250. Everyone else has roughly that amount, a couple of have noticeably less chips, and seat 9 has more.
Hand 15 I am the big blind with Ad3s. Seat 5, and seat 9 call. Seat 1 checks. I check. The flop is 2d4c5h. Seat 1 checks. Now what do I do? I want to bet, but I don't want to chase everyone out. I considered slow playing this, but I decided to bet $400. Seat 9 calls, and everyone else folds.
Turn is the 5c. "Danger Will Robinson, Danger! Danger!" thoughts sprang into my mind. Should I check and fold a straight if seat 9 bets? I thought that that was rather wimpy so I bet another $500. Seat 9 calls. The river is 9s. I thought about it a bit, and I realize that that card should not help any, and so I continue by betting $500. Seat 9 goes all in.
"F***" I say to myself (not out loud, there is a ten minute penalty for doing that). I call time and ruminate for a minute. 55, 44, 22, and 54-suited beat me. I don't think that he would have stayed for so long with 99 or 95, and I'm guessing that he would not play 54o. He may have played A5 suited or 65 suited and given that I was the big blind I could easily be playing 24 and caught a losing 2 pair on the flop. Also, I did bet $300 and folded to a raise several hands ago, so he may think that there is a possibility of me folding a winning hand. I had already bet roughly half my stack on this hand. I was roughly getting 3-1 odds to call. Out of the thirteen possible hands that he could have (5s5d, 2c2h, 2c2s, 2h2s, 4d4h, 4d4s, 4h4s, 4h5h, 4s5s, Ah5h, As5s, 6h5h, 6s5s) I can beat 4 of them so I am getting slightly worse than 2-1 to call.
So I say to myself (I talk to myself a lot -- I need to check a video tape of me to see if my lips move -- that would be a real bad tell, particularly to lip readers) "I did not come all the way out here to lose half my stack in one hand," and so I call. Astute readers can probably guess that I managed to lose my whole stack in one hand when my opponent turns over 4s5s.
One glaring error that I realize that I made in retrospect is that if my opponent read me for having 24 after the flop, I certainly could not be holding 24 after I bet on the turn when the board paired. Therefore, he probably should have read me for better than 24 and the only other possibilities are 22, 44, 25 and A3, all of which he had beat. So I know that I should be REALLY SCARED after he calls my bet on the turn where the 5 paired. I would have kept my losses to $925 if I had checked and folded after that.
Someone has already pointed out to me that I overbet the flop on hand 15. Something in the $125 range would have been more reasonable. I think one mistake that I have made recently is that I feel that I should be more aggressive. This has resulted in me overbetting pots. I think that I should not be aggressive by betting higher pots -- instead I should be more aggressive by betting and raising more often.
I've also noticed that in past tournaments, I would tend to fall behind about an hour and a half into the tournament. Then, in the tournaments that I scratched in, I would have a fairly good period where I did well. After reading Harrington's second book, I realize that I was probably playing a "yellow zone" strategy all the time. Thinking back, I probably had my good streaks when I naturally fell into the "yellow zone." So I now feel I have a better idea of how I should play earlier.
Anyway, thanks for your time. Any comments will be appreciated.