The Ultimate NL decision

[LetsRock]

I'm a pretty solid Limit HE player and am working on my NL game. I do OK, but always have trouble with that one "ultimate" decision when my stack is short near the end of a tourney.

I played a SNG at TGC the other day and got down to the final three as the short stack. Setting up the situation, I felt I had some respect from the other players as they were not calling my large raises and didn't make too many plays on me. A few hands before the one in question (below), the player to may right made a play in which I think he bought me off the pot. Even though I thought he was bluffing, I decided to pass as it would have put me all-in and although I was short, I wasn't up against the wall yet.

OK, the hand.... I'm in BB get T9o (not great, but I'll take it). Unless I drag a pot I'll blind out next orbit. BTN (#2 chips) folds and SB (#1 chips) completes and I check. Flop comes K9K. SB bets about half my stack and I decide to make my stand and shove it all-in. It wasn't unreasonable that my 9 was good and figured that SB would go away (unless, of course, he had a K). Well he did have the K and my tourney was over. I didn't feel too bad about it; I caught a piece of the board and I only had 2 or 3 more chances to do better or I was out anyway.

Was this too aggressive?
Was it a good move and the cards just betrayed me?

TIA

[CrisBrown]

Hi LetsRock,

Hrmmmmmmm...........

I'm of two minds on this one. On the one hand, yes, you were short-stacked and had to take a pot soon, and you did have at least a piece of the board, and etc. Plus, with two Ks on the board, the odds that your opponent has a K are greatly diminished, especially since he just limped. (I would have steal-raised with K-high from the SB in his position.)

On the other hand, this was a classic case of getting trapped by a BB hand which you might not otherwise have played. When I'm in the BB on a hand I wouldn't have paid to play, and the board hits me just a little, I not only look the gift horse in the mouth ... I take dental impressions. Given his bet, putting my entire stack at risk on a pair of 9s is kinda iffy. Even if he doesn't have a K and I'm at that moment, he might have QJ, QT, JT, or some similar gut-shot-plus-overcards hand that can run me down real fast.

I'm not saying you made the wrong decision, and I'm not saying I wouldn't have done the same thing. I just don't know. It's a situation I try to avoid, and as I said, I'm getting more and more wary of those "gift horses" when I'm in the BB....

Cris

[Schmed]

"getting trapped by a BB hand which you might not otherwise have played"

It has gotten to the point where I'm rooting for the flop to totally miss me so I'm not tempted to play

[CrisBrown]

Hi Schmed,

LOL ... I've been known to mutter, "Someone PLEASE raise so I don't have to play this hand."

On the other hand, I've also been known to mutter, "You'd better raise or I'm going to take this pot" ... when my BB hand is some trash like 94o. Sure enough, more often than not, if they let me into the pot for free, I'll spike a set or a straight or a boat or some such. If they raise, of course I fold ... and oddly enough ... often as not, I was right: I would have hit huge.

Of course, I'm not going to call a raise with a trash hand on a psychic impression that it's going to hit. No matter how many times I'd have been right, that just doesn't seem rational to me. But those times when they limp ... oh, it feels good when it hits. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Cris

[Schmed]

heck...you hit your set and of course you get rivered by a runner runner flush from the guy that thought you were stealing.... [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Prickly Pete]

[ QUOTE ]
Even if he doesn't have a K and I'm at that moment, he might have QJ, QT, JT, or some similar gut-shot-plus-overcards hand that can run me down real fast.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you're about to be blinded away (as I believe he said in the original post) and you're worried about the possibility of gutshots plus an overcard, that's playing scared. They don't always have a hand. Push allin - this sounds like a great chance to double up.

[Gator]

I invite you to check out my post "Foxwoods Final Tourney Hand – Several issues to discuss". Very similar situation and in the Results posting I'm looking for critiques of each of the decision points. It does feel like free money when you win with trash cards out of the BB.