McSucker's return to SNGs. How's this hand?

[Guy McSucker]

Hello,

Haven't played SNGs for a long time so I am rusty, and I never played the Party ones so I don't really know how they play out. How did I do here?

Party $50+5 NL. Level 1, all stacks around 1000, and I don't know anyone's style.

Five limp to me on the button with J[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], so I limp in. Is that okay?

Flop: 8[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] - sort of exciting but ugly too.

A few checks, one guy bets 100, I call and an early limper calls.

Turn: A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. Checked to me, I check.

River: 7[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] completing my straight. Limper bets 90. Guy in the middle folds.

I call.

How did I do?

Guy.

[erfinator]

Hey,
IMO, I think the call on the flop may have been too loose. The board was paired and it showed two clubs... meaning you were probably drawing to 6 outs at best and could very easily have been drawing dead.

[rjb03]

The limp is OK in level 1. I fold the flop here. I assume the CO bet and 6 or 7 earlier limpers are still to act, not good. The board is paired and there are two clubs showing as someone else stated possibly leaving you drawing to 6 outs or dead. You hit your hand as hard as you could on the river and still don't know what to do; you should be making a game plan before calling chips away, and I doubt any sensible plan would resemble how the hand played out. Drawing to the nuts makes future decisions much easier. That flop hardly looks exciting to me. A check-raise wouldn't be very nice for you either in addition to the lack of odds the pot offers you when you call first behind the bettor. If you somehow think there are going to be quite a few people calling behind you, I can't see one of them not check-raising. If you're not raising the river you've got to ask yourself why you're calling the flop. You're not even giving yourself the implied odds you need if you planned on playing it as you did.

[Guy McSucker]

[ QUOTE ]

The limp is OK in level 1. I fold the flop here


[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks very much, both of you - that's what I concluded, too.

I think the mistake of calling on the flop illustrates perfectly a newbie/rusty old hand error in NL play in general and short-stack tournament play in particular.

Drawing to non-nut hands in multiway pots gives you problems if you hit and loses chips for sure when you don't. In a small-stacked tournament you can't afford to bleed away chips on draws that won't make you rich if you hit them; and even then you need to be careful how much you invest on a draw.

I'd forgotten all this stuff, which used to be second nature. It's amazing how playing limit poker in a non-tournament setting for six months can mess with your game!

I like my river call, though. Best way out of an ugly situation I should have avoided in the first place. Folding would be absurd; if I raise I run the risk of a reraise from flopped trips/house, and I won't know which it is; and not a whole lot of hands will just call a raise.

The bettor showed 9-9 for the flopped house.

Guy.