Blue Chip, IN Tourney Report

[CMP]

I played in the Limit Hold Em tournament at Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, Indiana yesterday. It was a good time.

$35 buy-in for T500, $15 rebuy for T500 whenever you're below $500, and $20 for T1000 add-on at the break. 96 entries (sold-out, apparently sold-out every week). 10 places paid. Yesterday, 10th was $150ish, 3rd and 2nd were both over $1000 and 1st was over $2200. Limit Hold 'Em on Wednesdays, 7-stud on Fridays, No-Limit Hold Em on Sundays (see their web site for the buy-in/rebuy details).

Play was loosey strange during the rebuy period (lots of river run downs) and tightened up significantly after the rebuy period (as might be expected -- significant number of hands won without showdown, blind stealing, etc.). I invested $70 ($35+1 rebuy $15+ add-on $20).

I had the expected roller-coaster ride of making hands getting beat. Lowlight was at my second table, I wasn't there very long, played 2 hands -- AA lost to 10J (thankfully) all-in straight, and KK lost to A10o when an A flopped. Highlight was my first all-in UTG with 88 vs. 109s and JJ, flop Q-9-9, turn was the miracle 8 to give me 8s full and get back in the game (table went crazy at the miracle spike -- fun).

Two hands stick out that I had questions about:

1) how do you play AQo against an unknown early-position raiser folded to you in late-middle or late position? I'll clarify by saying this -- I did know that the raiser is not a rock. A raise does not mean AA-KK-AK from this player. I don't know if he's sane or overly loose. Early in the post-rebuy level, so bets are relatively small still compared to stack sizes.

What I did: 3-bet and got it heads up. Flop came 2-3-6. He checked and I checked behind. Turn was an A and he called my turn and river bets and my hand was good. He didn't show, but he had something with a J in it -- either JJ or KJs maybe? He went on massive tilt playing EVERY hand until he busted out a few hands later.

2) folded to you in the SB, you have 75s; you have enough chips to cover one more round of blinds, but your table is short-handed at 7, so you get your button plus 4 free hands, the next blinds and 5 more free hands before going all in on your 2nd big blind; you'll need some help to get into the money (you may blind into it, but not a gimme) - raise, limp, or fold?

What I did: I limped (in hindsight, I'm thinking worst option) and BB knuckled. Flop came Q-high with 2 clubs, I bet, he raised, and I re-raised all-in. He had Q-rag offsuit, no more clubs came, and I busted out in 14th place (4 off the money).

I'm thinking it's raise or fold at that point -- perhaps a pre-flop raise will get him to fold his Q-rag, perhaps not, since he's much bigger stacked and trying to bust me. Maybe I should've folded and tried to sneak into the money.

In any case, I did just about the max amount of work to bust out just outside the money, but it was a good time (the whole "the next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing" thing).

The room was quite nice, and as the only regular tournament choice in the Chicago area, I'll definitely visit them for the tournies again, though the game selection was not enough to get me to put in the 45 extra minutes past Harrah's.

Thanks for listening, thoughts on the above hands appreciated.

CMP

[ohkanada]

On your 1st hand I would likely re-raise like you did with AQ. With only 1 opponent I likely bet the flop since you are screaming big Ace if you don't.

On your 2nd hand I probably fold 75s and find a hand very soon. Raising may be better than just calling but if the BB calls you are likely dominated and it sounds like you have very few chips left after that so he is unlikely to fold anything. Raising UTG may have been better that going through the blinds. You don't mentions your chip position exactly so it is hard to say.

Ken Poklitar

[Mackie]

1) Re-raise or muck. I prefer to muck.

2) 75s is not my idea of a dream hand heads-up out of position. Easy muck, IMHO.