Small Stakes No-Limit Tornament one hand play

[Lapper]

Hello, everyone. This is my first post on this board. A little background for you, I am a former high stakes Blackjack Card Counter, you can see my posts on the bj21.com site, although I haven't posted there for many years. With the anti-counter measures employed nowadays by most casinos, and after being backed-off (barred) from many of the casinos in Las Vegas, I decided to try a new game. I picked up Lee Jones' book and started playing low-limit Hold-em about a year ago. I have since read just about all of the Sklansky books and I consider myself now a fairly decent medium level limit player (anywhere from 10-20 up to 30-60). I have not done much in the way of no-limit except a few small stakes tournaments ($10 buy-ins with $10 rebuys in the first two rounds, top prize anywhere from $800 to $1500). Also, I have played some higher stakes tournaments at Party Poker.com and placed fairly well in one of them (57th out of 1250 players).

Aside from my autobiography, my post has to do with a hand I played recently at one of these small stakes tournaments. I'd like to describe it to you and see what you all think about the way the hand was played, not only by me, but by the other players.

So, we are in round three at the tournament, which is the start of the freeze-out rounds, no more rebuys. I bought in for $10 to get initially 1000 chips. I ended up with 1975 in chips after the second round at which point there was a $10 add-on for 2000 more in chips, so I started round three with 3975 in chips. There were ten players at the table and I was in seat 5. Seat 6 was the chip leader with about 7000 in chips and seat 1 was second with a little more than me. I was third and everybody else at the table had under 3000 in chips. I folded the first two hands I got in round three and the standing at the table didn't really change except for seat 4 directly to my right who lost a bit in one of the hands and was now short stacked at about 800 in chips. The blinds at this point were 100 and 200.

On the third hand of the round the following happened. Seat 1 was big blind. I was dealt Kc Tc. Seat 2 and 3 folded, seat 4, the short stack called and I decided to limp in also, so I called. Seat 6, the chip leader, folded, seat 7 called, seat 8 folded, seat 9 the button and seat 10 the small blind called, and seat 1 the big blind checked, so there were 6 players and 1200 chips in the pot. The flop comes Jd, 7c, 3c. The small blind checks, the big blind checks, seat 4 checks and so I am first in. With all the weakness shown at the table so far, I figured that the best anyone could have was top pair of Jacks, so I thought it would be a good time to try a semi-bluff to steal the 1200 chips, so I raised all in with my flush draw and K over card. I raised all in rather then a smaller raise because it was freeze out time and I didn't think anyone had a real quality hand to go all in with me. I calculated it as 12 outs in case I got called, the 9 clubs and the 3 other Kings. Seats 7, 9 and 10 folded, seat 1 the big blind sat and thought about it for a very long time and then finally called me for what wasn't all of his chips, he still had 175 left over. Surprisingly, the short stack seat 4 also called. So, since me and the short stack were both all in we turned up all of our cards at that point. The short stack must have been a very inexperienced player, the kind you find at low-limit no-fold-em hold-em games because he turned up Ks 9h, throwing in all his chips to two other callers with only a backdoor straight possibility and an overcard. Unfortunately, his K took away one of my outs.

The big blind, who had thought about the call so long had an interesting hand, 5c 4c, giving him a flush draw, with a gutshot to a straight or a straight flush. So he had a lot of outs also and I think I probably would have called in his case also. He probably didn't put me on the higher flush draw, thinking maybe I had top pair of jacks, so even though his flush draw was dominated by mine, he couldn't have known that, so I think his play was the right one.

Anyway, the turn comes Qh, giving our short stack hero a gutshot straight draw and then the river comes and as the dealer is turning it up I see it is a club, so I raise my fist in the air in victory, until I notice it is the 6c completing the big blind's straight flush. I lowered my fist and said "good hand" to the big blind and left.

What do all you guys think of this play?

[vanHelsing]

You may want to post this in the tournament forum for more feedback. Interesting hand.

[JohnG]

Given the stack size of the limper, I recommend raising or folding preflop. Probably a fold with so many behind you.

On the flop it's a dangerous semi bluff against so many players. Probably check, or if you figure it's worth reaching out for with a good chance of success, a pot sized bet is probably better than allin. You can then see what happens if you get action and then have the option of getting away from the hand if a bad situation develops after your bet. Or maybe the other big stack just calls and you both hit the flush on the turn and bust him etc.

[Lapper]

Thank you for the feedback.

After reading your post and reflecting on the hand I think I agree totally with everything you said. Without the benefit of hindsight I now believe the best play for me in that situation was a fold pre-flop.

With the benefit of hindsight, knowing what the other players had and how they acted in that particular situation the right play probably was a raise pre-flop to put the limper all in. Chances are the other limpers behind me would have folded and it is likely that the big blind would have folded his 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 4[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], giving me the ability to win the short stack's 800 chips. But, I only say that now knowing what happened, I couldn't have possibly known that at the table, so really folding, as you pointed out was the best option.

Also, my post-flop semi-bluff was pretty dangerous because of the number of players. Many people limp in with Ax suited, so I wasn't even sure that my club outs were really outs. The table had been pretty passive before that so there was a good possibility that everyone would fold but the number of limpers, as you pointed out, was too many to make that possibility a reality.

Again, thank you for your input, I am still learning the game and I expect to be a studier of the game for many years to come, so input from people like yourself is extremely welcome.