Zetack
08-12-2003, 03:25 PM
Hey, I just made my very first final table! For those of you much more experienced than me for whom that first happened a looong time ago let me refresh your recollection---it feels GREAT!!!!
Ok, ok, so it was a freeroll tourney (with a thousand entrants!) and all it gets me is an entry into another tourney with a teeny tiny little payout--but hey I'm new to this and its very exciting for me.
Anyway, I did make what I think was a very strategically boneheaded play. Nine players make the next tourney so ninth is as good as first and tenth is as lousy as 1000th. We're down to the final two tables, 15-16 players left (sorry I don't remember the particulars exactly right...). I have 80 something thousand in chips. The table leader has a bit over 100k a couple of spots to my left. So basically if I don't play around too much I'm guaranteed to make the final table and the prize.
So I draw A-Q of hearts. Blinds were (I think) 1500/3000 with 150 antes. A couple of limpers and I bet about 12k (might have been 15k). If I pick up the blinds, the limpers and the antes right here I'm happy but I can get away from this bet if somebody comes back at me or the flop misses me. The big stack in the BB calls and everybody else folds.
The flop comes all undercards but--2 hearts! I fire thirty thousand into pot. And then....the big stack pushes all in. ooof. So regardless of whether my bets to this point were good or not, here's where it really gets boneheaded. If I fold here I still have 40k and I still figure to make the final table and the only prize that matters. I know that almost regardless of what he has the strategic thing to do here is fold. I know that, I know that, I know that. So what do I do? I call of course. (lol)
So he turns over two pair. oooooo. The turn is a blank and the river is---a heart! Yea for our hero. I have a big ole stack and the other guy has a crippled 17k (and goes out shortly thereafter).
My thinking was this. He doesn't have aces or kings or he would've come back at me pre-flop. So ace-king seems real likely and maybe a smaller pair. So likely the flop missed him and I can bet large on my flush draw and move him off the pot.
When he came back at me all in I figure if its ace king I still have 12 outs and if its a smaller pair I have 15. This may have been a bad read, although I hadn't been at the table long enough to get a real feel for him, he certainly had not struck me as a loose player so you figure him to really like his hand in the face of my aggression.
Regardless, even if my read was right, I figured it (even at the time) as a stragically bad call. Course his all-in was equally foolish even with his two pair. Either way one of us is out or crippled whereas without the hand we both figure to make the final table.
Analysis?
And question: Suppose a smiliar situation but with a tourney that pays out to 25 or thirty places with the good money being the top few places. In that case being in the money you'd already be ahead of the game, and there would be a lot more incentive to gather chips for a push at the final places. Does it make more sense for me to call the all-in in that scenario?
Thanks
--Zetack
Ok, ok, so it was a freeroll tourney (with a thousand entrants!) and all it gets me is an entry into another tourney with a teeny tiny little payout--but hey I'm new to this and its very exciting for me.
Anyway, I did make what I think was a very strategically boneheaded play. Nine players make the next tourney so ninth is as good as first and tenth is as lousy as 1000th. We're down to the final two tables, 15-16 players left (sorry I don't remember the particulars exactly right...). I have 80 something thousand in chips. The table leader has a bit over 100k a couple of spots to my left. So basically if I don't play around too much I'm guaranteed to make the final table and the prize.
So I draw A-Q of hearts. Blinds were (I think) 1500/3000 with 150 antes. A couple of limpers and I bet about 12k (might have been 15k). If I pick up the blinds, the limpers and the antes right here I'm happy but I can get away from this bet if somebody comes back at me or the flop misses me. The big stack in the BB calls and everybody else folds.
The flop comes all undercards but--2 hearts! I fire thirty thousand into pot. And then....the big stack pushes all in. ooof. So regardless of whether my bets to this point were good or not, here's where it really gets boneheaded. If I fold here I still have 40k and I still figure to make the final table and the only prize that matters. I know that almost regardless of what he has the strategic thing to do here is fold. I know that, I know that, I know that. So what do I do? I call of course. (lol)
So he turns over two pair. oooooo. The turn is a blank and the river is---a heart! Yea for our hero. I have a big ole stack and the other guy has a crippled 17k (and goes out shortly thereafter).
My thinking was this. He doesn't have aces or kings or he would've come back at me pre-flop. So ace-king seems real likely and maybe a smaller pair. So likely the flop missed him and I can bet large on my flush draw and move him off the pot.
When he came back at me all in I figure if its ace king I still have 12 outs and if its a smaller pair I have 15. This may have been a bad read, although I hadn't been at the table long enough to get a real feel for him, he certainly had not struck me as a loose player so you figure him to really like his hand in the face of my aggression.
Regardless, even if my read was right, I figured it (even at the time) as a stragically bad call. Course his all-in was equally foolish even with his two pair. Either way one of us is out or crippled whereas without the hand we both figure to make the final table.
Analysis?
And question: Suppose a smiliar situation but with a tourney that pays out to 25 or thirty places with the good money being the top few places. In that case being in the money you'd already be ahead of the game, and there would be a lot more incentive to gather chips for a push at the final places. Does it make more sense for me to call the all-in in that scenario?
Thanks
--Zetack