Hand of the Night

[Stew]

OK, well it probably wasn't the hand of the night, but it was for me. Anyway, this is a home No-limit Hold 'Em tourney, 7 players start with T300. At this point, we are down to four players. Blinds are 20/40.

UTG folds (chip leader with approximately T900). Button calls (Approximately T450 in chips). I'm in Small blind and call with 8s, 9c (I have T300). Big Blind checks it (T450).

Flop is 3s, 8c and 6d. Button checks. I bet 30 into pot of 60. Big Blind folds, button calls. Turn is 5h. I check, Button bets 40 (Minium bet) into pot of 120. I go into my study mode (as Phil Hellmuth would say). Based on all the information at this point, I am putting button on either two overcards (but not a pair) or a smaller pair with a face card kicker. I do not put him on an 8 with a better kicker. The reason why is based on his play so far in the evening, he had played top pair stronger than the minimum of 40 bet. Same with an overpair. I raise all in (calling 40, raising 160). Pot now contains 360. He has probably 300 chips left. He thinks and thinks and thinks, finally calls. He shows A,Q of Diamonds.

My question is, did I play this corretly to this point? Obviously, I understeminated his hand, but thought he would have pre-flop raised with that, and I would have folded with 8,9 off. Nevertheless, I did read him fairly well, I just didn't anticipate those two overcards. I thought he might have A,rag or possibly K,Q or K,J, J,10, Q,J etc. But not A,Q.

What would you have done on turn? I felt no matter what I opened with, he was going to call, so I checked it to see what he did. His mininimum showed weakness and that he wanted to buy-it right there (if he had bet 60 or more, I would have tossed it). I, of course, had three options. Fold, didn't feel that was appropriate, given his weak bet. Call (certainly possible, but I felt I had best hand). So, I decided to raise and felt all-in was the best bet.

What do you think? Also, is there anyway you call with AQ at that point?

Give me some feedback and I'll post the results!

Thanks!

[sam h]

You made a good read and your opponent made a terrible call.

I don't know anything about the other player in this hand, but in general I think betting out half the pot on the turn is better than checking since many players are not going to make such a weak bet - they will push off the better hand or just take a free card.

[Stew]

OK, just to get this back to the top, a Queen spiked on the river and I was out. Any other opinions?

[jumpthru]

What does the T in T900 mean?

[Stew]

When you see posts regarding tournament play, you will often see a "T" in front of the number of chips designating these to be Tournament Chips and not Cash chips.

[JayKon]

This is exactly the kind of hand I have trouble with, but I'm going to take a shot - mainly for the exercise of running it all down.

First, if the BB is 40 and the button, SB & BB see the flop, thats 120, not 60 - anyway, I'll figure both.

Flop top pair into a rainbow flop & bet 30. Button calls - pot: 180/120 - button got 5 to 1/3 to 1 for his over-card call - 6 outs for turn only is about 1 in 7 & turn/river combined is about 1 in 3 - so his flop call was OK/fair.

Turn blank. You check and Button bets 40, or 1/4 ish - 1/3 of the pot. Since you put him correctly on over-cards (it doesn't matter which two) I'm guessing he wants to see where you're at.

Pot: 220/160

Since he called your flop bet, I'm assuming he figured pairing either of his cards gave him a winner. However, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Your raise of $200 ($160 for him to call) makes the pot $420/360 which gives him about 2.5 to 1 on a call. He really needs 7 - 1 here for it to be profitable.

So, from a purely math perspective, your way ahead and he is way behind.

However, lets look at it another way. You have the best hand now, but if you loose your out. Your not short stacked and the blinds aren't a threat yet, so why play the hand at all? I mean $10 isn't much, but its the decisions that follow, unless the flop hits you over the head, which at best is about 1 in 50 times. Remember though that all hands hit about 1 in 3, so 33% of the time you have a chance to make a bad decision.

Seeing how much this guy ignores pot odds, I'd say pick some better starting hands to challenge him and let him steal the BB.

[fnurt]

I'm going to respectfully disagree a bit with JayKon only because I really like the original poster's play. Here he is heads up against a weak player, having observed him all night and learned from it, using his superior hand reading skills. That's exactly what a good player should be shooting for.

We'd all love to be in the hypothetical situation where you double up against a player who is drawing dead but that just doesn't come around often enough. The fact is that over the course of a tournament, even if you play at a world-class level, you're going to have to give a few people a chance to beat you with 2 or 3 or 6 outs on the river. Of course they'll hit sometimes, which is why the top players don't win every tournament. But if this is the most dangerous situation you ever get yourself into, you'll win lots and lots of tournaments.

[Stew]

Thanks for the comments Jay, you are right, I mistyped. The limits were 10/20, not 20/40. I was thinking 10/20 blinds and 20/40 minimums. Anyway, i completely understand what you are saying regarding starting hands and agree. Believe me, if I wasn't in the SB I would have never any thought of calling with that. But, my mindset here is I'm shortest stack, I have to start gambling a little, b/c we only paid two. So, why not see a flop when I'm half invested in it. It wasn't like it was 8/3 off, they were connected. But, I think the bigger issue is the play from the flop on. Mainly, did I play it right? What do I do to prevent him from drawing out, while still remaining alive in the tournament? Or is there a balance there? Obviously, I could have smooth-called the turn-bet and fold to a huge bet on the river. But, I still don't think that's right. Bottom line, IMO and a couple of guys I played with in the tourney (that are decent players). He made a bad call and got lucky on a six outer. You are right, he needed a little over 6 to 1 to call and he was getting about 2 1/2 to one.

[JayKon]

With T300 after posting the SB and the blinds are 10/20, you may be the small stack, but you are not short stacked. Anyway, the only real problem I have is with the initial call. Other than that, yes, you played your hand very well.