$1500 Bellagio NLH

[Chris Gabriel]

A hand from todays event.

Started with T3000. I have about 2200 after an hour and a half when this hand came up.

Playing 50-100

Three limpers to me in the cutoff.
I have K /forums/images/icons/heart.gif 10 /forums/images/icons/heart.gif and I limp.
Small blind folds, the button raps and five of us see the flop.

The flop is: K /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif K /forums/images/icons/spade.gif 8 /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif
check, check, check, T200 bet from a loose MP player who loves to draw.
I make it T600 to go. Folded around to MP who thinks for a minute and calls.
Turn: A /forums/images/icons/club.gif
MP bets T1000
I move in for my remaining 1475 total.
I am certain he is on a flush draw, probably ace high and he just paired up.
After thinking a minute, he calls and turns up
Q /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif 10 /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif
River brings the 6 /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif and I'm out of the Tourny.
Did I play this wrong, or was I just unlucky?
All coments appreciated.

[Greg (FossilMan)]

I count T550 in the pot after the preflop action. He bets T200. A pot-sized raise would be to T1150, which is over half your stack. Of course, if you're going to raise that big, you should raise all-in instead. So, you can call this bet, raise all-in, or raise small as you did.

If you're pretty sure he has the flush draw, you can play the risky route or the safe route.

The risky route is to go all-in now. If he loves flush draws that much, he probably won't fold, and you'll be getting all the money in as a solid favorite, 2:1 or better.

The safer route is to call now and see the turn card. If it's a diamond, maybe he gets cute and gives you a free chance to fill. Or maybe he makes a sufficiently small of a bet that you can correctly call. If it is a diamond and he bets big, you probably have to fold. If it's not a diamond, you can then go all-in, knowing he'll be more likely to fold, and if he doesn't, he's making a HUGE mistake if he only has the flush draw with one card to come.

The way you played it isn't bad at all. If he checks to you on the turn, you can bet all-in, and he's getting nowhere near the sufficient odds to call correctly, so if he does call, that's good. If you fill on the turn, you can check behind him, and maybe induce a bluff. Or, bet enough that he'll get pot odds to call for his flush, or so he thinks.

The only problem with your method is that you can't go the safe route unless he lets you. As he did, if he bets the turn, he's now getting the pot odds to call your all-in (even if he had bet less, say T600 on the turn). And since he's priced himself into the pot, you can't avoid going broke if the river is a diamond.

Of course, you shouldn't feel bad about getting all the money in on the turn when he's drawing so slim. Just feel bad that he got there.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[banditbdl]

Why not just push all-in on the flop? By only raising to 600 you're giving him good odds for those draws he loves so much. Then when the Ace came to give him the gutshot to go along with his flush, he just couldn't resist. Frankly, I'm suprised he thought so much about throwing 475 into a pot that already contained over 4000 with 12 outs.