Heart Breaking finish...What would you do?

[KingMedicine]

[ QUOTE ]
Is calling and trying to hit a set such a bad idea?

Put in another 1500, so your stack is at 11.5K, 11 after the SB if you check-fold on any flop without a 7. If you hit a 7, you can probably double through. If you miss your set, dump it and post the SB.

[/ QUOTE ]

in this situation i like this line or folding, maybe slightly prefer folding. with your stack you cant really afford to lose another 1500 chips because if the small stack doubles thru (which he's probably around 40% to do), then you're right there with him, but if by chance you hit your 7 on the flop, you can probably get all your chips in there and double up. also, on a non scary flop, there is a chance you can get your opponent to fold to a lead-out bet by you or to check it down with you and you very well might end up with the best hand.

its definitely a tough hand, but going over the top and pushing is definitely a wrong move in my opinion. he's not laying down a pair higher than your 7s, which means your tourney is over. he's not laying down AK or AQ either, which makes you a slight favorite. it turns out your read was right in that he didnt have you beat, but your read that he was no slouch was wrong and the slouch called. tough one, but i think you gotta lay it down. wait until the 4k stack busts and then make this move without hesitation.

[Brian R]

Calling isn't a bad idea but we all know the challanges with 77 post flop. In this case a flop of 933. It might have been a tough fold on the flop....

[Brian R]

I agree with your comments. Too bad the heat of the battle clouded my judgement!

[mcteecho]

Or if you feel compelled to get all your chips in, at least run a stop-n-go so he has to make two decisions (I realize that with this flop his 2nd decision is easy, but we can't base the analysis on the result).

[McMelchior]

If you base your tournament play on how people "should" play and not what they're doing you will not get far. At all limits I've played, online up to $215 and live up to $500 buy-ins, I've seen numerous players making numerous very loose calls at any point in the tournament.

You can't take for granted that your defeater read you to be tight and only willing to move in with prime starting hands. As a matter of fact he made the correct read - you were out stealing with a medium pair, and his kicker was good. Maybe he "read" that, maybe he just wanted to gamble, or maybe his mouse mis-clicked. What matters is that you voluntarily brought yourself in a situation with an inherent risk of either coin-flipping for you whole stack or even finding yourself dominated by a higher pair. The size of this risk being determined by the quality of your read on the opponent.

The outcome is a result of your action, not of what he "should" or "should not" have done. Blaming your incorrect reads and the consequences of your actions on your opponents might provide you with a short-term solace, but it's detrimental to your development as a tournament player.

The most important thing in improving your game is to be absolute honest with yourself. I make a ton of mistakes when I play, often because I get excited and act without thinking (“I’ll show that moron!”), because I refuse to believe someone with such a big stack can raise from position with a genuine hand or maybe even catch two good hands in one orbit, because I haven’t paid attention of just because I don’t know any better. It’s painful to realize that I was the one that did something “bad” – not the opponent that “stupidly” called my all-in with a pair of fours to defeat my pocket deuces. Sometimes my bad reads, my stubborn calls or my arbitrary raises brings me to accumulate large amounts of chips and eventually cash big, but that doesn’t make me a better player. Mistakes are caused by me and by my actions – not be other players “bad play” or by what they “should” have done.

Best,

McMelchior (Johan)

[djoyce003]

I think you wait here and let the 4k guy bust out or double up.

[Hickboy]

Unless the 4th place prize has no meaning to you, you most definitely don't want to go broke here.

I think calling his raise, and seeing the flop is optimal here (someone already mentioned this).

I would bet out on most flops in this situation heads up. There is a decent chance that the raiser may be on a steal, and/or missed the flop completely. Even with this flop, it would be hard to know where you are in the hand without a bet. If you encounter resistance, time to dump it.

Comments appreciated.

[housenuts]

many people have mentioned only pushing with AA or KK. i could see myself pushing down to TT and AK and AQ. upon thought my line may not be the best but that's just what i see myself doing in the situation. what would you push with in this situation?

how much was the buy-in for this tourney by the way?

[Brian R]

The buy in was only like $230 or so. I probably would have pushed AK all in (a raise for value) AQ would have scared me. I mucked 1010 a few hands earlier when an UTG player raised 2.5 the blinds and I was in the cut off...88 and 99 in my book would be the same as 77 (end result...bad time to go all in) 1010 is probably a grey area...I might have smooth called with 1010, gone all in on the flop then lose to the boat on the turn JJ is would probably have the same results. I prob. would have gambled with QQ and KK and AA for sure push. The end result is I could fold ANY hand with for the 4k stack to bust then still WIN, the tourney.

[docknet]

Here. Here.