Knocked out in the Shi# Can Again

Down to 4 players. 3 players advance from 3 separate tournaments to a final playoff table for WSOP entry plus airfare and hotel prizes plus $$.

Limit tourney. 120 total chips in play. Blinds 2-4. SB has 37 chips, BB has 37 chips, I have 24 chips and button has 22 chips.

I am UTG with AJh. I open raise, hoping to take it right there. Button (loose-aggressive/somewhat tricky) calls. Both blinds fold.

Flop comes 10h,x,x. I bet, button calls. Turn is Qh. Board is 10h,x,x,Qh. I have a backdoor str8 and nut flush draw, plus draw to an A which I think might be good. I check (mistake?), button bets, I call. I call the turn because I feel like I am trapped now for all my chips as I am so short stacked. I have 4 chips left, button has 2 chips left.

River is blank. I miss everything. I check, button bets his last 2 chips, I call. He takes down the pot with Q,10 off.

My questions: 1)should I have been in that pot in the first place? 2)should I have just sat on my chips and not played a hand until the button eventually made a move and possibly got short-stacked or busted at which point I would slip into 3rd place and win a spot at the final table? 3)is there some other way I should have played this hand that I am not seeing?

I would have bet the flop to see where I stood. Got to give him every chance to fold. If he raises then you have to muck.

If the button has been consistently playing this loosely, then you might have been better off to fold even so good a hand as AJ and see if the button can't either bust himself soon, or take down one of the chip leaders to a super-short stack. Similarly, if the chip leaders are still playing a lot of hands, you can probably wait until one of them busts out against the others.


If all three aren't going to play with less than a very good hand, then raise with AJ for sure, and a lot of other weaker hands, until you steal your way to a safe stack size and can sit on it.


Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

Thanks for the insight. After the initial shock of getting knocked out of the tourney wore off, I began to wonder if I had made a huge mental error by not holding back and letting the others duke it out. That is often my strategy when the cards are not hitting me hard, and I often end up in the money that way...through the backdoor.

I don't see the point of checking the turn if you intend to call a bet.

The only way to win this indiviual potuld have been to move in on the flop. How could anyone call?