Need advice, to play or not to play in Stars 500k tourney

[KingCon]

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Alright guys, I am in! And super excited to be so! I tried getting my wife to give me advice, and she was no help. "210 dollars is a lot of money, but it isn't really your money, so you could play in it and win more money, but 210 is a lot of money...."

[img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img] Gl today guys.

Brad

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Whats your STARS name?

[Brad F.]

Just an FYI, it was a good experience because I sucked it up hardcore. Played well for about 15 minutes. Everyone at my table was crazy loose, passive. Common play was call, call, call, minraise, call, call, call, call, reminraise, et cetera.

In one of these types of hands, blinds 15/30, I had 8-6 of clubs in the CO. 3 limpers to me, I call, the bb eventually reraises to 90 (3rd time in the last 4 hands that he'd done this). So like usual, it's call/call/call. I don't know if I just sensed so much weakness that I viewed their calls as dead money or what, but I reraised to 380.

My stack before the hand was 2800, UTG+2 had 1800, BB had me covered.

Anyway, the BB called, and UTG+2 called. So a pot of about 1500. Flop comes K-5-7, no clubs. Check, check, I bet 750 into the 1500 pot. Fold, UTG+2 calls. I make what is in my opinion my only mistake and put him all in after he checked on the turn. He calls with K-J off suit. Very nice play.

I know he caugt me in a bluff, but I had been playing tight, so I figured I had a decent table image by this time.

So I go down to about 800 and can't come back.

Tough hand there. I don't see how you call a 300 raise with K-J, but I guess it worked for him.

But it was a learning experience. Will be trying those 2-table SAG satellites as much as possible now to get more experience.

Brad

[trainslayer]

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Played well for about 15 minutes.

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I know he caugt me in a bluff, but I had been playing tight, so I figured I had a decent table image by this time.


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These two lines don't go together very well.


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I had 8-6 of clubs in the CO

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I don't see how you call a 300 raise with K-J

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Hello pot, kettle here.

[adios]

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Tough hand there. I don't see how you call a 300 raise with K-J, but I guess it worked for him.

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He's going to put you on a hand that you're trying to buy it with since you originally called from the CO. There's no reason to put you on a premium hand with the way you played it.

[Brad F.]

I love and hate poker.

The fact that I was trying to make that play excusable is kind of sad. You actually are very right. My play smelt of a steal.

And it is kind of hard (more like impossible) to gain much of a table image whatsoever.

*sigh*

Does anyone feel as if they have two poker players inside of them? I certainly do. Sometimes I make rash decisions without thinking them through enough. Here I said "I see lots of chips, I'm going to bluff." I didn't even consider calling or folding here (calling would've been right).

Oh well. I was totally upset with myself yesterday. My first big tourney, and i just blow my chips away like an absolute idiot. But I think maybe I was intimidated playing at the level. I don't know.

Either way, I guess poker is about learning lessons. Lesson learned!

Thanks for the kick back to reality y'all.

Brad

[GrunchCan]

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I had 8-6 of clubs in the CO. 3 limpers to me, I call

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I would have waited for a better spot than here, given that you are 75% sure there is a raise coming from BB, and that it's still very early in a looooong tourney, and that your hand just isn't very good.

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[...], the bb eventually reraises to 90 (3rd time in the last 4 hands that he'd done this). So like usual, it's call/call/call. I don't know if I just sensed so much weakness that I viewed their calls as dead money or what, but I reraised to 380.

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Wow. I'd say you bluff way too much in general, and in particular, as others have pointed out, you selected a very bad spot to do it here.

I used to have a huge problem with bluffing. It was the single biggest leak in my game. From both sides: I bluffed too much myself, and I suspected others of bluffing more often than was warranted.

In my uneducated and very possibly wrong opinion, you have this same problem. If you do, you simply must fix it immediately.

[Brad F.]

I will make that call every time with the blinds small and the table passive. Even if the BB has show aggression, with how passive the table has been I will get odds the second time around too. These types of hands really have boosted my tournaments early in the past.

Bluffing is my HUGE downfall. I do it a lot. It works a lot too, like reading contination bets when I have nothing, but raising because I smell weakness. It works a good amount of the time.

But I try and play others cards WAY too much. I assume I can knock them off of certain hands because I think they should. I don't ever give them credit for the fact they might think I'm bluffing.

It's something I work on obviously. Sucks it cost me 215 bucks to learn this lesson. But I only really spent 14, so it's all good.

Thanks for the good advice though.

Brad

[TonyS0pran0]

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I say unregister and keep the T$.... You sound like you dont have a huge roll to work with so playing in some of the smaller $20-$50 tourneys might work out better. This big one they have every Sunday is a total crapshoot. With 2500+ people and a horrid structure at the end it just turns into an all in pre flop suckout festival. Good luck whatever you decide...

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I might be a genius....

[Brad F.]

I guess so....

[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[trainslayer]

Dude, don't take my comments too harshly. Only time I ever took a stab at the 215 I busted out about 1900. I have only qualified about 5 times. I just think you'd do better to unregister and use the money in sng's or low buyin's.

I've just started getting back into tourney play myself after about 6 months of strictly ring game play. I get the sense that your kinda in the same boat as I am, just good enuf to get pretty lucky ever once in a while. Keep working on your game, use your occasional luck to build your bankroll and take another shot when you can afford to and you feel you've got the skill for it. (at least that's my plan of attack [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img])

Hang in there and good luck.