My First Final Table Tonight

[RPatterson]

I just wanted to share this life changing moment with everyone. Also my reading this forum helped me double up in a pivotal moment.

I don't normaly play many multi-table tournaments because they are so time consuming, you can play for hours and not make the money, and I usually don't do well in them.

I suspect the fact they have a foul taste in my mouth is because I've only played the pokerstars 1 dollar buy in tournaments which requires you to become a kind of poker wrecking machine to cut through 1700 people to the money.

I decided to enter a 5 dollar one on UB because it only had 381 entrants. I can't remember too much of what happened early but there was pretty steady chip growth throughout the tournament. Things get more clear when we cut down to the last two tables.

I had about an average sized stack at this time but in 3 hands I caught AK, AA and KK back to back. Winning huge pots in all and breaking players with AK and KK. This put me in 2rd or 3rd chip lead position.

By the time we hit the final table I was in 5th place out of 10. I didn't do anything until I picked up J/9 offsuit from the BB and the button opened for a minumum raise. I immediately thought of a post from here someone made where they were arguing with Daniel Negreanu that calling the minumum raise from the button when you have J/9 suited is bad poker, and Daniel was saying it would be incredibly weak to fold and every great player would call. I decided to go with Mr. Negreanu on this one and made the call.

The flop was 10/9/7. I bet out about 2/3 of the pot and the player raised me back most of my chips. I had him covered by something trivial like 400 chips when we were playing 30,000'ish stacks. I debated and then decided that I'm going to be a real man and come back at him all-in. He called with K/8 and didn't hit anything making me 2nd or 3rd chip leader at the final table.

I was then card bankrupt and the only playable things I saw for the next 45 or so minutes was JQs, AQ and AT. When I held JQs there was a raise and a re-raise all-in in front of me so I ditched it. When I held AQ there was a raise and a re-raise all-in in front of me so I ditched it. After awhile my stack was more average and we were down to 7. This short-chip'ed bastard won about 3 coin flips in a row to keep us from getting a for sure 6th place money finish.

I then got AT like 3 off the button and if I was going to fold this then I should just go watch tv because there is no way I'm going to do anything at the final table. I raised 3xBB and the BB who was the big stack at the table came back at me for about half my stack. I know that AT is [censored] but I could see him doing this with a pocket pair or KQ, and if I foldered here I'd have the short-stack at the table. I didn't like my chances at the short-stack so I decided to take a chance and come back all-in hopefully doubling up and putting myself in position to contend for a top 3 finish. He called with JJ and no miracle occured.

In retrospect I think I should have folded AT, it was just too stupid. I mainly called I think out of frustration for the fact that I wasn't getting any cards and when I was they were met with monster raises every time. About 15 minutes after I was knocked out I looked back in on the table and there was still 6 of them but half of them had almost the same chip count as I would have had I folded. It was deffinately stupid to go for it all there when I could have bid my time more and tried to finish high'er.

Do you guys think my J/9 play was also retarded?

[ZootMurph]

I don't like your J9 play, but quite honestly, you have to hit some luck to make it to a final table, so it worked out for you.

As for the AT hand... was it folded to you, or were there limpers? I don't like the play if there were limpers. If it was folded to you, a bigger bet than 3xBB was needed, I think. I would have raised 5xBB or 20% of my stack, whichever is larger. If you are reraised, you know you are in trouble and can fold it with still a decent stack. I'm really against the middle of the road raise on a steal attempt, because you don't know if someone thinks you are just trying to steal and they are trying to bluff you out, or if they really have something. A bigger bet will give you that information without being pot committed.

As for your first final table... CONGRATS!

[Al_Capone_Junior]

i dont think the J9 play was bad at all. He stupidly min-raised you, a move I personally despize about 99% of the time, thus allowing you plenty of pot and implied odds to try and get a bunch of his chips, which you did. HE should have raised you MORE, enough to force you to fold preflop.

al

[Jason Strasser]

First off, nice work making the final table!

Your Jack Nine play can be characterized as one of two things:

1) Flat out Gangsta. When something goes down at my homegame, we call this a gansta call. That, my friend was a gangsta call.

2) Temporary Insanity. You risked your chips with mid pair on a straight draw board, facing a minimum raise (which can often mean big hand).

The AT is a tough one. I hate calling my chips with a hand like this, and I'd make a raise preflop where I felt comfortable laying it down.

Best of luck, keep it rolling, don't you dare gangsta call me. (For more on gangsta calls, see Fossilman's call with 22 on WPT insider)

[RPatterson]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I really appreciate it.

Yeah the J9 play was kind of crazy. I thought there was a pretty fair chance I was beat but it just seems like you don't keep going in tournaments by making folds so I was willing to risk it. I figured he either had a big pocket pair in which case I had some stuff I could catch or a 10 which hopefully didn't contain a Jack kicker.

The AT raise shouldn't have looked like a steal because I was like 2 players away from the button, there were no limpers however. I can't remember if he re-raised me a large portion of my stack and I came back all-in or if he just re-raised me all-in. Either way I think I should have folded, but oh well it was my first final table and a learning experience.

Something I left out of the original post was when there were like 3 tables left I had not a real short stack but below the average by enough a margin to start to get concerned. I picked up K-9s from a mid-position and decided hey I'm below the average, I need to make a move and I'm going to do it now. Went ahead and raised with it and just the small-blind called. The flop was QQJ with 2 of my suit giving me a 4-flush. I just went all-in and the player hesitated a long time and then called me with AQ apparently trying to slowroll. I caught the flush though.

Between going all-in with a flush draw that connected and going all-in vs. a straight draw with an overcard that didn't connect and coming out on top both times I feel I was very lucky. Things were on my side this tournament.