A few hands from my final table last night

[primetimenole]

I played a BD 30+3 last night with 110 entries and got to the final table. I ended up 4th which is pretty good considering this is one of the few final tables I've been to because I haven't played that many MTT's. Anyways, I have a few hands that I would like to discuss. I don't have PokerTracker so this is from memory. The first two hands are similar, the 3rd is a bit different. Anyways, here goes:

Hand 1: 8 people left, I have approx 25K and villain has approx 37K in chips, blinds are 500/1K

I am in SB with A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 2 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

villian limps, I complete, BB checks

Flop comes 3 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 5 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

I check, BB check, villain bets out 2K, I raise all-in, BB folds, villain folds

Hand 2: I have approx. 20K in chips, 4 people left, villain has about the same stack as me, blinds are 1K/2K

I am in BB with K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 5 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

Everyone folds to villain in SB, he raises to 4K, I call because he has raised my blind basically every time so I am not scared of his raise.

Flop comes K [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] T [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Villain bets out 4K, I raise all-in, he folds.

Hand 3:

Hero in SB with approx 20K in chips, villian is in BB and is chip leader with approx. 80K in chips. 4 people left. Blinds 1K/2K

Hero has J [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

Everyone folds to hero, hero raises to 4K, villain calls.

Flop comes K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

Hero bets 4K, villain calls.

Turn is A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

Hero checks, villain bets enough to put hero all-in. Hero folds. Even though he didn't have to, villain shows A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 2 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]


Anyways, I guess my question about the first two hands is if I should have played more slowly or if you guys think I basically got as many chips as I could out of it. With the last hand, I was wondering if you guys would push the flop all-in there. I am about 99% sure that I played that last hand wrongly and it really crippled my stack there at the end. I was pretty pissed at myself after that one. Anyways, I appreciate any thoughts. Thanks

[EnderIII]

Primary difference between hand one and hand two is the amount of money in the pot in relationship to your stack size. In hand one there is an approx. 5k pot and you have 24k left in your stack, so about 1/5 of your chips.

The second hand, there is a pot of 13k and you have 16k left, so the pot is 1/2 your stack. Makes the all-in on the second hand ok to play fast and might even encourage a call from a ten.

But the first hand with made straight and a redraw to the nut-flush or gut-shot straight flush, with less percent of your stack out there, it should probably be played more slowly, unless you have a read that acting aggressively will be more likely to get you a call (that is you've been going all-in like crazy and they are dying to call you down).

I'm not sure about what to have done with the last hand, but minraising the chip leader out of the sb with just about anything makes me queezy, much less some junk. I like a fold, complete or push much better than a minraise and on the flop either a push, check or checkraise push (if he makes a small enough bet to have any FE).

Second and third hand are fine.

First hand, just raise to 6000 or so, you have him crushed.

[primetimenole]

Yeah, I think the first hand I could have played more slowly. In retrospect, I dont think I would have gotten him to call unless he flopped a set or something because with 8 people left there were some small stacks out there that people were just waiting to bust out.

The second hand I think I played right, the guy said he had QJ, which could have busted me if he was telling the truth and I waited around for him to hit his straight.

Hand 3 I thought was pretty bad. I think at the beginning I was trying to be fairly aggressive but then halfway through the hand I realized that it was stupid because he had so many chips.

Hand 1: This is kind of read dependent, but I lead the flop here for 2-3k. There's a decent chance that someone here has a pair or a draw and will call/raise. If you do go for the c/r, you can raise to 7-9k or so instead of pushing. This is also read dependent, as some villains view pushes as bluffs, others will tend to push over a raise here, and others will call the raise here with a pretty wide range.

Hand 2 is fine.

Hand 3 I raise more preflop because I think I have much more fold equity raising to 5k than I do raising to 4k as many people will default call a minraise on the BB. I play the rest of the hand like you did.

1 - Your hand is SO GOOD, that you could slow play and try to get the most money out of it. By calling, if the flush don't hit, he may fire again. You could min-raise or raise but, you WANT a call. He doesn't have a 6 ot 7 that could hurt you.

2 - Same thing... You are very strong, you say that he is not very likely to have AQ or AJ, that could beat you with a str8 because he raises all the time. So slow-play it again.

You don't get good hands like this all the time so you must extract much more money out of them.

3 - Hard one... I would raise to 5 or 6 k, not only double the BB of the chip leader. On the flop... scary, bet 1/2 or 2/3 of the pot seems fine. God fold after the A hits.

Congratulations

[rwanger]

[ QUOTE ]

You don't get good hands like this all the time so you must extract much more money out of them.


[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with this line of reasoning. If you have a huge stack, and you're up against another huge stack, then maybe you don't want to "sucker" in your lone opponent with anything less than the nuts. But in all of these examples, you have a medium to small stack. You can't just be happy to flop a straight or top trips and walk away with the same amount of chips you would have won on a hand where you were steal raising.

You should be trying to double up on both 1 and 2. How many hands will the final table last? 50? You are not going to be getting better hands to double up with. So why not throw them a little rope and take the risk that they might outdraw you? If you DON'T take that risk, realize that you are going to be playing a coinflip for ALL OF YOUR chips in the very near future.

Hand 3, if you must, limp only if you are sure he won't raise, otherwise fold or push. You're around 10x. As it was played, you needed to bet more on the flop, probably enough that you'd be committed to calling a raise anyway. HIGHLY unlikely he has you beat with this flop, and you don't want to see more cards, so just push.