Bad luck, bad play, or both?

[DaNoob]

Last night (my 30th bday) I played in four no limit, small buy in tourneys and lost all 4 relatively early. At first I blamed it mostly on bad luck (which was the case for one I'm pretty sure) but started to think that I played most of them rather poorly. So, I thought I'd post a brief synopsis of each for feedback. Feel free to pummel me - my feelings won't be hurt.

Hand 1: Early stages of a 150+ player $1 tournament. I'm in EP with AA, blinds are 20/40 and I've got ~1500 (starting stack). I open raise to 300, folded to BB who raises to 600. I raise all-in (smiling to myself), BB calls and flips over AJd. The cards are dealt to reveal xxJxJ. I lose.

Hand 2: One table Sit&Go at Stars, $5.50 buy in. I've been playing extra tight, and have managed to stay relatively close to my starting amount (T1500). I get dealt 88 in MP, with blinds around 50/100, and limp in. SB completes and BB checks. Flop is 8TJ rainbow. There is an obvious threat of a straight, but my worries dissipate as it is checked around to me. I check (first questionable play). Turn is a 7. Checked to me again and I decide to raise all-in (questionable call #2). Both players call (BB all-n). River is a blank. SB turns over 77 for a losing set. I win the side pot (v small). BB turns over 69 for the straight and takes most of my money. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Hand 3: After having recently lost a raising battle with a larger stack (I bet big with top pair decent kicker only to be re-raised and fold) I find myself with KTd in the BB. Blinds are 30/60 and I've got ~T950 left, making me one of the shorter stacks. Open raise to 120 from MP with one caller before it gets to me. Since it's only 60 to go, and I like my hand, I decide to call. Flop comes Kc Qh 5c. Feeling like I have the best hand at this point (gut feel), and hoping to walk with a decent pot, I raise all-in. Original raiser folds and cold caller calls. He turns over AcTc for a straight/flush draw and hits his flush on the turn. My hand is no good and I've lost my 4th tourney for the night.

The 4th game's not worth mentioning, as I think I eventually gave up for boredom (it was a freeroll tourney with 200+ players and a $3 first place prize).

Please comment on my play and don't hold back. Last night was a particulary poor night for me, both luck-wise and play-wise and I'd like to learn from it and move on.
TIA for all the advice.

[alieneyes]

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Hand 1: Early stages of a 150+ player $1 tournament. I'm in EP with AA, blinds are 20/40 and I've got ~1500 (starting stack). I open raise to 300, folded to BB who raises to 600. I raise all-in (smiling to myself), BB calls and flips over AJd. The cards are dealt to reveal xxJxJ. I lose.

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Well obviously this is just bad luck. I personally wouldn't have raised quite so much (might have made it 160) but obviously its not such a bad play if people are playing back with AJ.

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Hand 2: One table Sit&amp;Go at Stars, $5.50 buy in. I've been playing extra tight, and have managed to stay relatively close to my starting amount (T1500). I get dealt 88 in MP, with blinds around 50/100, and limp in. SB completes and BB checks. Flop is 8TJ rainbow. There is an obvious threat of a straight, but my worries dissipate as it is checked around to me. I check (first questionable play). Turn is a 7. Checked to me again and I decide to raise all-in (questionable call #2). Both players call (BB all-n). River is a blank. SB turns over 77 for a losing set. I win the side pot (v small). BB turns over 69 for the straight and takes most of my money. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

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With a tight image and no players in before me, I'm making it 300-400. You might win it right there, at the very least you are probably going to get rid of hands like 6-9. In last position on the flop you must bet, atleast the pot (300), make any draws pay.

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Hand 3: After having recently lost a raising battle with a larger stack (I bet big with top pair decent kicker only to be re-raised and fold) I find myself with KTd in the BB. Blinds are 30/60 and I've got ~T950 left, making me one of the shorter stacks. Open raise to 120 from MP with one caller before it gets to me. Since it's only 60 to go, and I like my hand, I decide to call. Flop comes Kc Qh 5c. Feeling like I have the best hand at this point (gut feel), and hoping to walk with a decent pot, I raise all-in. Original raiser folds and cold caller calls. He turns over AcTc for a straight/flush draw and hits his flush on the turn. My hand is no good and I've lost my 4th tourney for the night.

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Well, this depends on a lot on the players in my mind. A limit raises in NL usually come from weak players, but rarely its a good player trying to trap. A call for 60 more getting 5.5:1 isn't so bad, but you have to play this carefully. Ideally I'd like top pair with the T or K with flush draw or something along those lines. There are some bad KQ and KJ possibilities. You did make a massive overbet which seems a bit out of line, your aren't committed to this hand yet, so there is no reason to panic. It turns out your opponent is actually a slight favourite to win (54% or so), so he's correct in calling. If you check and he bets the pot, how would you feel about your hand (there's some free info up for grabs). Its seem like the caller had a large stack to start with based on the play. This play could be considered a stop and go but I don't think its wise on this flop with 2 players behind you. Another play might be to make a big re-raise preflop and try and take it down right there.

[ohkanada]

Happy 30th!

1) The fact that you were able to get someone to risk all there chips pre-flop with AJs vs your AA is a very good thing. In a typical tourney your open for 300 is way to big. Make it 120 or so.

2) Limping with 88 is fine as well as making a standard raise. On the flop it is imperative to bet with straight possibilities. The pot is 300 so make a bet of 250 or so. On the turn you overbet the pot by 5x. Again I would make a smaller bet. With stack sizes you may not have been able to get away from your set vs a flopped straight.

3) I am sure I would have also called with KTs from the BB vs a small raise. But you do need to be wary of your kicker. Many raising hands include a King and most would have a better kicker. Even the limper could have a better king. With 400 in the pot and only having 960, betting all-in may be fine as well as betting 300-350. Of course this assumes you have the best King.

Although some of your bet sizes may have been wrong, once you called pre-flop, you were destined for losses unless you could somehow read your opponents. The fact these are on-line makes that almost impossible.

Ken Poklitar

[DaNoob]

Thanks to Ken and alien for the comments. I suspected that I hadn't bet the right amount at the right times in most of these hands. I bet the AA high in the 150+ $1 tourney because people have a tendency to go all-in early in the tourney rather than waste hours for a small prize - I figured this was my chance to double up (or even triple) depending on how the cards played out.. The other hands, I agree, could have been played much better.

On a positive note, I set out to prove myself in a couple of tourneys last night, both to regain some pride and to practice stealing the blinds. I lost my first tourney in a manner very similar to the night before:

Blinds are 30/60 and I'm in LP. I limp with J9o (prolly bad decision) and get called by BB only (who just lost 1/2 his stack trying to bluff with absolute garbage). I've got T1405 and BB T1725. Flop comes 9 /forums/images/icons/club.gif 2 /forums/images/icons/heart.gif 6 /forums/images/icons/club.gif . BB bets 120, I take him for bluffing, and raise all-in with top pair, decent kicker, and a gutshot flush draw. He calls and turns over 3 /forums/images/icons/club.gif 7 /forums/images/icons/club.gif . Turn is a 5 /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif and river is a 4 /forums/images/icons/club.gif . I lose to his straight and flush and once again get knocked out of the tourney WAY earlier than expected.

The good news is that I didn't give up, came back for another beating, played more conservatively and ended up running away with 1st in my next sit and go, effectively making up for my previous 3 losses. Hopefully, what I've learned from the last few sessions (and these posts) will help me continue to win.

[Ignatius]

1) A pot sized raise here would have been to T140. While a small overbet to T200 seems in order to manipulate the potsize for moving in when reraised, making it T300 is overdoing it and will prevent more ppl. than necessary to play back at you.

2) preflop: Unless there are some calling-stations in the blinds, I'd rather open raise here from MP and try to take it down w/o a fight.
flop: Even on a safe flop, slow-playing a set is hardly ever a good idea when checked to as ppl. will fully expect you to bet and won't put you on a huge hand. With an obvious str8-draw on board against 2 opponents, it's a disaster.
turn: By moving in here (and 5 times overbetting the pot), you assure to only get called when beaten. After you failed to bet the flop, you're pretty much reduced to checking along, hoping to fill or induce a bluff on the river.

3) If you want to go all-in on the flop, you should do so with a check-raise. By 5x overbetting, you guarantee that you will only get called by a better hand (note that with 15 outs, AcTc is a 6:5 fav. on the flop). That being said, given that your KT is not really great, I'd be reluctant to commit on the flop and rather bet T200 and see how the hand develops.

[Simon Diamond]

With a tight image and no players in before me, I'm making it 300-400. You might win it right there, at the very least you are probably going to get rid of hands like 6-9.

Have you played many $5 sit and go's at Stars? You have no chance of driving out a gut straight draw on many occasions.

To the original poster, it is the nature of the beast in small buy in tournies to get sucked out on - not much you can do there. As far as worrying about mistakes is concerned, I sympathise as I used to conduct similar post mortems. Good luck in figuring out how to eradicate errors and if you find a remedy, be sure to email it to me immediately /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

Good luck in future events.

Simon

[alieneyes]

Yes, I've played a bunch of $5 s-g's there. Even in the small ones do I rarely see a player cold call 400 preflop with 6-9 heads up (the 300-400 was a pre-flop raise).

[Simon Diamond]

Sorry to be picky, but I believe you are mixing the hands up here. In the one where he flopped a set with 8-8 and lost to the straight, he limped in pre flop and the 6-9 hand was in the blinds.

I think I incorrectly stated that it was a gutshot straight draw, when it was infact an open ended draw. I still maintain that it is tough to drive out even a gut straight draw in the low buy in comps.

I find the $5 sit and go's to be a mix as far as player styles are concerned. There are some crazy players, some timid players and the odd solid player (who seem to be in and around the money most of the time). Figuring out what category each of the players come into at the start is very important for me, though I'm not sure how that would help if someone clung on to their gut straight draw for dear life.

Might see you in one some time, my user name is the same - SimonDiamond.

Good luck,
Simon

[DaNoob]

And mine, as my quote at the bottom hints to, is SenorStinky. I'll keep an eye out for you (and prolly avoid that table). Lol.

[alieneyes]

We are referring to the same hand. I'm stating that if he makes the pre-flop raise to 400, it is unlikely that 6-9 will call pre-flop (as well as 9-7 and Q-8, the flopped straight possibilities). If he does, so be it, but its a bad play. It is also less likely there is an open ender to play against (except KQ) - few card combos with a 9 are going to play against a raise - a notable exception being 99. A strong bet on the flop can also make it wrong for the 6-9 player to call even with an open ender - its irrelevant whether or not he will call, its good for you if he does.

[Simon Diamond]

Okay, I understand now. I was unaware that such analysis even went on in those tournaments, I prefer impulse betting and raising /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif

Simon

[philnewall]

It looks to me like the only bad play you made was hand two, you definetly should have raised on the flop imo. Other than that, you were very unlucky in hand 1, and hand 3 was a bit of a coin toss situation.