I think I'm getting better ;-)

[petvan]

Made a couple final tables lately, but still fighting the urge to gamble.

Yesterday, in the 15+x PP NL, we're down to 350 of 1500 or so, and I'm just under average with ~T3300 sitting in CO with AJs.

As soon as I see the hand, I say to myself, this is a hand I can lose with. So, I coucil myself preflop not to bust out with it. UTG+1 who is pretty lose and has me covered with ~t6000 4X opens to 400 and its folded to me where I call. Flop is Q10x rainbow and UTG+1 comes out just under pot sized with 800.

I have a tight image, and have recently show'd down with this player before with good cards so I get to thinking She has a mid pocket or Ax, but hopefully not AQ (which of course I could reasonably put her on) I can't rule out AA/KK/QQ here either but my read didn't put her on it.

So, forgetting my previous council, I push, thinking I have decent FE and She thinks I'm tight.

Quite reasonably she has KQ and I'm out.

In this hand, I figure my call is ok, though I could have raise it to say 1200, but that gets me close to committed, so I figure its a simple call/fold scenario, but my desire to roll the dice overcomes my brain.

I'm assuming my play is wrong, but my thinking is better?

[Sam T.]

Pre-flop, facing a raise, I might consider mucking - unsuited this is an easy fold. AJ looks good, and I don't mind opening with it if I have good position, but facing a raise it quickly becomes garbage. If the flop comes anything other than J-high, you could find yourself in real trouble. And AJ is not a re-raising hand unless you are making a play. (If you are a big-stack, re-popping here is an intriguing idea. Facing a re-raise KQ suddenly doesn't look so good.)

Okay, post flop:
-"I have a tight image" - While you may have been playing tight, at this level you don't have a tight image. You are paying attention, but it is a real mistake to think that your opponents are doing so as well, and that they will allow their observations to affect their play. Villain in this case is also playing a SnG, watching SportsCenter, IMing his buddy about the tournament, and talking on the phone. He doesn't even know how long you've been at the table, let alone how tight you are.

-"thinking I have decent FE" - In Party tournaments, take the FE you think you should have, and divide by three. Villains are not going to lay down TPGK under any circumstances. This is great in some cases (ie. you can double up with AK agaisnt AQ and AJ all day long), but it also means that pushing someone out of a pot into which they have already put chips post-flop is very hard to do.

Get your chips in when you have the best of it, not when you have a gutshot and a prayer.

Good luck,

Sam

[DarrenX]

Yeah, AJs for a raise- I figure 90% of the time with that stack size I'm mucking preflop to stay out of these situations... with a smaller stack and I may push, bigger with some more wiggle room I can see an occasional call.

The 10% of the time I *do* call and whiff I'm mucking to a close to pot-sized bet, unless I suspect he's on a continuation bet, which would be read-dependent. If that's the case, with position I *might* call and peel one off to see if he slows down- another bet with no lucky K or A and I'm outta there. If he checks to me I can either check behind to see a free river, or push if I'm feeling frisky. I think your over-the-top all in on the flop would get rid of middle pair, but I think you'd have better FE if you waited until the turn.

ALL that being said, usually it's a preflop fold.

MHO,
DarrenX [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]