Re: An early hand from the Empire tourney
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I'm replaying one of the tournaments now. There's a hand I'm confused about early in the "109-second".
Early in the tournament, Imsolucky0 is in the small blind with Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. MP miniraises to 30, and there are 2 callers. Imso calls from the small blind, and the big blind calls.
(150 in pot). The flop is J[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], giving Imso an overcard and a flush draw. He checks, bb checks, MP checks, LP bets 150, and the button folds. Here Imso calls for 150.
He's getting 2:1 and I put him on about 10 outs. Perhaps someone will come along behind, but this is a hand that I'd fold here, as it's 10% of my stack and I seem to be taking the worst of it. Even if I think LP will do this without a pair, I still think I probably fold here. Anyone who can help straighten me out, thanks!
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I haven't looked at this, but it looks like it is in the first round, and hero calls off 10% of his stack with a flush draw?
First, he has implied odds if he hits. Second, he may get to see the river for free if he misses. Third, early in a tournament a lot of players (myself included) like to look for spots to pick up a bunch of chips, even if it risks part or all of our stack. The general idea is that the decisions you make later in a tournament are much more important (from a cashing equity stand point) than the ones you make earlier. It is really valuable to have a bigger stack at the later stages since it allows you to steal more effectively, and it allows you to survive losing a hand or two. Therefore, it is better to embrace variance early in order to mitigate it later. Embracing variance does not mean getting in negative EV situations, but being willing to gamble with small edges. Here, the implied odds probably makes this +EV, especially since there are others who may come along since they will be getting better odds after hero calls. It sucks if someone raises behind, but overall this is a fine call IMO, though folding and raising are also decent options. (Raising being my least favorite of the three since you really hate a call with about as many chips left as the pot size here OOP.)
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