2+2 Representing on Pokerstars!

[sam h]

I parlayed a small stack and a series of lucky all-in wins into a 6th place finish in the Sunday $200 NL and Fnurt one-upped me by taking third. Congrats, Fnurt! Did you guys make a deal?

Here's my bustout hand, which I think was a close decision. My five opponents have these stacks, approximately.

780
280
170
80
50

I have 49K left after posting the 20K BB. The second stack raises to 60 UTG+1 and I reraised my last 9K all-in with KQo, getting about 2:1. He had A3 and I couldn't find one more all-in miracle.

Basically, I thought it was probably about a wash EV-wise against his range of hands. But there was only a $1200 difference between 5th and 6th and an $1800 difference between 5th and 4th. Then the really big money started. So I figured I'd gamble and take a shot at putting myself into position to crack the top three.

[fnurt]

I didn't realize that was you! Congrats on a great showing. Those were some amazing all-in wins you had to move up to 6th.

When it got down to 3 players the stacks were something like 800k, 500k, and me at less than 100k. So I don't think a deal was exactly in the offing. They might have agreed to pay me less than 3rd place money, haha.

Anyway it was a lot of fun and obviously I'm thrilled about my finish. I'll try and post a few hands later for discussion.

[Rickfish]

The trouble with getting lucky with all-ins is that you start to think that it is easy! KQ is losing to any raising hand. The best you can hope for is to have 2 overcards against a pair. Worst case scenario was KK. I don't see the rush to get it in on this hand. You have a good chance of picking up an Ace or pair to raise on before you hit the next big blind, or maybe you will successfully steal on the SB.

If you tell me that you had noted that the raiser hand been raising on hands like KJ, QJ, JT, then fair enough.

But you finished 110 places above me - who am I to criticise? Strangely enough the hand that left me mortally wounded was my KK vs KQ (river gutshot). I struggled for a while afterwards but that hand had done the damage.

[fnurt]

He's already got 20k in the pot though which is almost 30% of his stack. I think he gets better odds by calling here, even though he's likely to be a slight dog, than by waiting.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

I disagree. While KQ isn't a hand I'd play around with in the middle stages, under these circumstances, this may be the best chance he gets. Next hand he loses more than 1/3 odf his stack in the SB. This looks like a reasonable rik-return to make the move right now. I was watching from 3 table left. Good job guys.

[ohkanada]

Congrats to both of you!

I would play it the same as you. Maybe you could try the just call and hope he folds when you bet 9k on any flop. But with 120k in the pot that would seem very unlikely.

Ken Poklitar

[Greg (FossilMan)]

Ken, perfectly correct for the real world. Online, although there is a very small chance, I would delay and see if I can't catch this guy getting disconnected.

I don't mean disconnect yourself! That's cheating. I mean, delay a bit before calling the raise. Then, when the flop hits, delay a bit before betting the 9K. There is always some small chance that he'll get disconnected, and declared all-in. That way, you don't have to put your last 9K at risk.

Unless the blinds are about to go up, then I'd play fast so that if I won this hand, I wouldn't have to pay the higher small blind amount.

Also, this hand is a clear play. Once you post 30% of your stack, it will very seldom be correct to fold preflop.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)