Tournament 2 against Devilfish

[1800GAMBLER]

$1.2k no rebuy tournament, 60 entered and you land on the toughest table possible. Devilfish has hit a huge deck and has a massive lead. He's playing lots of hands and playing them aggressive. It's still early in the tournament starting chips was T10k. Comment on my plays.

Hand 1. Devilfish raises UTG to T800 with T100/T200 blinds. I just call with TT. 2 behind call.

Flop: AA2 raindow.

Devilfish makes a 1/2 of the pot bet. I think, check left, they look somewhat uninterested. I call.

Turn: K completing the raindow.

DF checks. I bet 1/2 the pot he c/rs me all in. I fold with very little thought.

Hand 2. Folded to DF on the CO he raises, surprise, i call with A7s. Blinds out. Blinds: T100/200 and i have above average stack.

Flop: T 7 2.

Devilfish says, 'you're from Manchester, i like you, get out of this pot.' He bets the pot and i call and wink.

Turn: 2.

He checks. I check, 'sorry no checkraise this time.'

River is a total brick, he sets me all in which is about 4 more times the pot, i muck. He winks.

Hand 3. This is against someone who's playing too loose but hasn't got out of line with his raises. His face looks fimilar as a pro; i think he's a snooker pro though.

He's UTG and raises T1.5k blinds are T200/T400, he has me covered and i have about T9k and QQ. Everyone folds, i make it T3.5k leaving me with T4.5 afterwards. He pushes. I'm getting 3:1. I don't think he's doing this with JJ but i called. We turn over KK vs QQ, devilfish comments that there's nothing i can do there. I'm out.

It was fun while it lasted. It's been really good fun to play against the big names and they were all really nice guys.

[Diplomat]

Hand 1: Most of the time I will re-raise pre-flop here. Besides that, I think you played the hand well.

Hand 2: Bet the turn. He will put you all-in on the river with a lot of hands if you show weakness on the turn.

Hand 3: I think a smaller re-raise is in order, probably to 2750 or 3000. He's right though, not much you can do with the odds.

-Diplomat

[1800GAMBLER]

Hey.

I wont go into more detail yet about all the hands but hand 2 i disagree with what you think he'll put me all in with on the river yet i might be fearing monsters (yet i think there's merit to the turn bet, just for other reasons). His all in bet is a massive massive overbet, his bluff success rate would have to be huge and he has no reason to make a bluff that big against me.

I have no idea what he thinks of my play i've been pretty tight and one of the most aggressive players in the game so far. But i really do think this is a 'i don't know what you have, but i have a monster so i'm going to get all incase you have a little monster.' I think he's also trying to commit me again on the turn/give me a free draw. To sound weaktight i think he hit the set/boat and just hoped i somehow had a two.

I also forgot to meantion that before the hand the chat went something like that, DF: 'hey what's you all these calls now.' me: 'can't be having you stealing all the time' DF 'I'm not stealing i don't need! *points to his stack*' ... even though he's raising preflop like 25% of the time. So anyhow, i think his massive overbet is a rope a dope into convincing me he's stealing. ... or maybe i want to convince myself i played well against him /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[daveymck]

In those situations when he has control of the table he raises with anything judging by how he is playing on the Poker Million, even 23o isnt a hand he wont raise or defend his blind with. He seems to use his image and stack to outplay people on the flop.

[DOTTT]

Hand 1: played great imo.

Hand 2: I don't like the call with A7, I'd just throw this away pre flop. On the flop I'd go for a raise, if he calls, I'd look for a cheap showdown. I agree though that he probably was trying to trap you with his all in bet on the river.

Hand 3: Nothing you can do really, but I'm wondering if you don't think he'll move in with jacks what do you think he's moving in with?

[La Brujita]

I didn't yet read the other responses but here goes:

1. I raise the flop to see where I am at. I figure I am likely ahead and don't want to give up a free KQ or J.

2. Tough one. If you thought you were ahead should you have raised the flop? That is what I would have done.

3. Did he raise 1.5 or to 1.5? I probably would have pushed rather than reraised.


Very cool post btw.

[1800GAMBLER]

Hand 1. I'd play the same if i played it again.

After the hand i thought i should have reraised preflop fully expecting to take it down, most preflop reraises were going uncalled. Later i thought that was a bad idea because the stacks were so deep compared to the raise that i think TT has a lot more value being played for a set/multiway/overppair. So i like my call.

On the flop, i can't raise. There are two solid-not-holding-stupid-cards players to act yet they could very well have an ace so if i raise i feel i'm risking way way too much.

The turn i think an arguement can be made for checking to induce a call from 77 88 99 on the river but i doubt they will call. Moreso, i really wanted a free showdown which was my main reason for betting, but thinking about that, just because i bet now does not mean someone like devilfish is going to give me a free showdown. However, i still like the bet.

The fold i very easy. I thought DF can't be taking a shot at me because he must fear i hold a big hand once i just call the flop with 2 players still to act. I asked him about it after and he said the same as what i thought and told me he had AQ. It's shocking how much of a correct play checkraising the turn with AQ is there for him.

With him holding AQ it would have been very ver interesting had i reraised preflop.

Hand 2.

This is an awful hand. It's so hard to analyse. If i ran hot and cold (no betting just shodwowns) sims with A7s VS devilfish's raising standards it would be profitable, very profitable, i'm ahead a lot with this hand. However because of the way it plays it's going to be -EV. I'm only going to hit a flop 2:1, i have some stealing equity on the missed but that's very overweighed by the fact DF plays better than me postflop. Hence even though i'm probably leading with this hand it should be folded because the extra +EV i have with it i lose in the fact he plays better than me postflop, Clarkmiester KQo VS a good player hand in midhigh forum goes on about this better than me.

So i should have folded it preflop, had i not, i think i should have raised the flop. I wanted to let DF bluff the turn again, but i think that's a bad idea since i really don't want to be risking turn cards and i really don't want to be risking chips against devilfish when every other player in this tournament is worse than him and i can play against them.

Thoughts on the turn play i posted above.

Hand 3.

I agree with the smaller reraise because i can then fold if he comes over the top. I don't think anyone in this game is coming over the top without AA KK AK, everyone knows i'm nearly commited there and they don't expect me to fold any of them so they aren't bluffing. However, even if i do make a smaller raise players in this tournament are very capable of just calling with AA KK, seems like i'm going bust a lot of the time here.

Playing the hand the way i did i still think i should fold it for 3:1. Putting him on AK AA KK makes it a fold, the only way i can justify a call is if he 100% just calls with AA here (happened a lot in this tournament).

The part that annoyed me more is when i was walking back to the hotel i remembered how that player's preflop raises were usually like 10x the blinds, some LA-face-lift-boob-job-40-year-old-women commented on how some players don't want callers with some hands and he agreed. I should have spotted this with his smaller raise. The problem being i play a lot worse live and i just got excited at finally seeing a good hand. Seeing only 30 hands/hour makes me hugely bored and unfocused since i'm used to 500hands/hour /images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Oh well. I'll play better next year.

[La Brujita]

I didn't realize there were two other players in it in hand one. I messed up, I think you played it well.

You make a very good point in hand 2 about him outplaying you post flop. What I thought was weird was (i) you likely have the better hand pre flop and (ii) this is a pretty decent flop for you once you decide to play.

Edit to say the positions are different but this hand is slightly reminiscent of Dan Harrington's cr all in against Fossilman holding Q9 I believe in the sense that middle pair is not a bad holding at all against a bully.

You make a good point about raising smaller with QQ. I don't know if I could have let go of QQ here (opponent dependent) so I figured a push would put him to the test. Your point about him betting 10xbb changes things a bit as well.

Nice analysis.

Best regards