NL tourney, Middle pair mania.

[ohkanada]

Played the $55 NL tourney last night on Pokerstars. Fell just short of the money out of 230 players. 5 interesting middle pair hands. The 1st 3 I survived multiple overcards. The last 2 I was not willing to risk my chips. Comments welcome.

Hand 73) Blinds 75-150. I have 2165. I open-raise with 88 for 450. I get one cold caller and the big blind re-raises all-in for another 325. I re-raise all-in and the limper folds. BB has AJ. I flop a set and fill up on the river. I jump to 3465.

Hand 89) Blinds 100-200. I have 3065. I open-raise with TT for 600. I get one cold caller. SB calls. BB raises all-in for 1500. I re-raise all-in, the cold caller calls and SB mucks. 1st CC has AJ. BB has AK. Only 1 overcard (Q) and I jump to 6685.

Hand 104) blinds 100-200, ante 25. I have 7385. I open-raise with TT for 600. BB re-raises all-in for another 390. I call. He has AK. I again survive against overcards. I am up to 8650.

Hand 106) blinds 100-200, ante 25. I have 8625. Folded to SB who has stolen blinds at every opportunity. He raises to 800. I have 99 in the BB and re-raise to 2600. He re-raises all-in (covers me). I give up and I am down to 6000.

Hand 117) blinds 100-200, ante 25. I have 5350. UTG raises to 400 (started with 4365). Unknown UTG+1 player re-raises to 2400 (he has me covered). Folded to me in the cutoff with TT. I muck.

Ken Poklitar

[alieneyes]

Just some comments - I certainly don't have all the answers :-).

73. Seems obvious with the action closed you must call another 325.

89. I'm curious about your though process when the BB re-raises all in against two cold callers (and what the heck was the CC doing). I would have been worried about an overpair in the BB.

104. Seems like an easy call for 390.

106. Well, it seems very close, you don't lay down QQ+ nor likely JJ unless you have good read. TT and 99 are much closer, but I note you re-raised 30% of your stack - isn't this very close to moving all in? Had you seen him re-raised at all before (from any position)? This would make a difference to me, if I'd seen him fold to a re-raise before I'd be more inclined to lay this down, especially if he'd stolen a couple of blinds from you before so he knows its less likely you'll re-raise with nothing.

117. Seems a bit tricky - why is UTG making such a weak raise? Even so I find it hard to believe UTG+1 is reraising that big with a hand that is worse than 50/50 and he pretty much has to call if you move in getting just under 3-1 (if he made it 1200 or so though, what do you do? you can certainly wreck the odds for him on a 50/50 hand much better if you move in). Add to this the fact that there is a slight chance UTG (what do you know about him?) might be playing possum and I think you can fold.

[ohkanada]

On hand 89, the BB only had another 900 so I was willing to take the risk. On hand 73 he was also a cold-caller and was proud of his laydown after I re-raised all-in. His comment was "i think you win this game by what you dont play". Of course that is true but he never followed his own advice except that one time. He kept on cold-calling and finally was out on hand 89.

On hand 106, my re-raise might have been to big. I likely could have made it 2200 and had the same result as 2600. And yeah it was close enough to the point where all-in re-raise would have been better. No one had even re-raised his "steal" attempts. I had never had a hand when he raised and the BB never once tried.

On hand 117, if UTG+1 doesn't re-raise then I would have raised and taken the risk of UTG re-raising.

Ken Poklitar

[maplepig]

I probably would have called hand 106). On his side, if you are going to raise him with, AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, 88, 77, 66, 55, AK, AQ, AJ and fold to his allin with AJ, 55, 66, 77 I think he can push allin with KQ and still show +EV. With no one has reraised him before, you are on the position of a bluff reraise, and he has never been caught allin on junk, he can be a lot more aggressive.

[Magician]

73) easy, correct decision as the 325 was small compared to the pot
89) Given the size of his stack, the BB's re-raise all-in could be any pair or AK (suited or not) or maybe even AQ. 2 callers for 600 and the 1 re-raise for 600 + 900 make the re-reraise all-in positive EV. I would've expected a fold from the CC too (given his initial cold call) but hey, he played incorrectly.
104) easy, correct decision as the 390 was small compared to the pot
106) I would have called to see the flop and conserve chips. If a 9 hits you take a lot of chips off him. If you see undercards to your pocket 9s you could be ahead if he has just AK or AQ. If you miss the flop and see one or more overcards to your pocket 9s just check and see what he does.

In any case, I'm happy to check on the flop if I don't hit the trips and base further decisions on what he does.

117) Given the size of the stack of UTG+1 I would have done the same as you. If that 2400 were his entire stack I would have been more likely to call.