Mini Step 5 - am I a complete wimp?

[erniebilko]

Hi all and thanks in advance for your thoughts. This is my first hand history posting and the hand in question was in level 2 (15/30) of a Mini Step 5 tourney on Party. I don't think I had ever played against my opponent before, so neither of us had any information on each other; in fact, this is the first hand I played in the tourney.

My opponent was in 2nd position and limped in for 30. I was in 6th position (late middle) with AsKs and raised to 90. Everyone folded and the opener called the extra 60 making a pot of 225.

The flop was 6h, 5d, Ad so this flop was pretty good for me.
My opponent immediately moved all-in for 735. I had him slightly covered but a loss would have left me crippled with only 150 left.

I folded after going into the think tank. My rationale is as follows.

1. I had expected a high level of sophistication at this buy-in level ($430 for direct buy-in) but I had already seen 2 instances of really bizarre stupidity which had me mystified already about the standard of play. One player had opened all-in twice in level 1, the 2nd time getting called. He showed Ac5c to the callers KK and hit an ace to win.
2. As a caller in early position, I put my opponent on a middle pair as most likely holding, so he could have been holding either 55 or 66 quite easily.
3. As a raiser, my most likely holding is a high pair or a big ace. I assumed my opponent knew this.
4. If he had flopped a set, I would have expected either a check/call with a check/raise on the turn/river or an immediate check/raise, so the all-in bet was a surprising move if he did hold a set.
5. If he had a pair other then 55 or 66 then he was moving in recklessly against an ace which likely helped me, so this didn't make sense.
6. If he had an ace, then he most likely held AK or AQ and for whatever reason chose not to raise when given 2 opportunities pre-flop.
7. He could have had AA and decided to slow-play, but if this were the case, the immediate all-in on the flop made no sense at all.
8. I though a flush draw was unlikely.
9. In the end, I thought the most likely holding was a set.

So I folded, but this hand is nagging at me, because it seems that my opponent played it badly if he held a set - why not open with a 1/2 pot bet if you want to lead out? But, I can't rationalize bad play with the high buy-in, so perhaps i'm missing something and I played badly. BTW, this is the first time I had played at this level; I normally play $11/$22 SNGs.

Hand is below:

***** Hand History for Game 2258490383 *****
30/60 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (NL) (Tournament 13380645) - Fri Jun 24 23:05:07 EDT 2005
Table Mini Step 5 1014193 (Real Money) -- Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 1: ErnieBilko (975)
Seat 2: GAescapee (915)
Seat 3: Tazman_devil (1090)
Seat 4: DARETOCALL1 (945)
Seat 6: KindaDubious (975)
Seat 7: jm3939 (825)
Seat 8: bean_mo (960)
Seat 9: NotChad01 (2165)
Seat 10: cubsdubs (1150)
Tazman_devil posts small blind (15)
DARETOCALL1 posts big blind (30)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ErnieBilko [ Ks, As ]
KindaDubious folds.
jm3939 calls (30)
bean_mo folds.
NotChad01 folds.
cubsdubs folds.
ErnieBilko raises (90) to 90
GAescapee folds.
Tazman_devil folds.
DARETOCALL1 folds.
jm3939 calls (60)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 6h, 5d, Ad ]
jm3939 bets (735)
jm3939 is all-In.
ErnieBilko folds.
Creating Main Pot with $960 with jm3939
** Summary **
Main Pot: 960
Board: [ 6h 5d Ad ]
ErnieBilko balance 885, lost 90 (folded)
GAescapee balance 915, didn't bet (folded)
Tazman_devil balance 1075, lost 15 (folded)
DARETOCALL1 balance 915, lost 30 (folded)
KindaDubious balance 975, didn't bet (folded)
jm3939 balance 960, bet 825, collected 960, net +135
bean_mo balance 960, didn't bet (folded)
NotChad01 balance 2165, didn't bet (folded)
cubsdubs balance 1150, didn't bet (folded)

[freemoney]

i make him show me a better hand, but thats just me.

[erniebilko]

Thanks for your response. If it were later in tourney and the pot weren't so small (225) compared to my stack, I would probably call because the odds would compensate for the possibility of losing. But, this is early in the tourney, I still have a decent stack and I didn't want to risk ging out unnecessarily.

[freemoney]

the mini step pays 4 not 3 so that can effect your decision marginally i guess, i just dont see any reason villian pushes a better hand into you, if you have a big pair you are folding and if you have AK/AQ you are surely gonna bet here, the best hand i can see him doing this with is like Ax [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] to have the flush draw also

[erniebilko]

I didn't think he was flushing because the Ad was flopped; if the flop was 2-suited but not including the ace, I would defintely call because the ace-flush possibility expands the number of playable hands he could have. Maybe he played KdQd, but there's little else he could play and be flushing, and if he had KQ, going all-in is reckless.

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]
the mini step pays 4 not 3 so that can effect your decision marginally i guess

[/ QUOTE ]

MINI STEP 5:
Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Rank 5
$2,000 Cash $1,000 Cash $500 Cash $300 Cash $200 Cash

[theordinaryboy]

I think this may be an example of playing outside your bankroll.

Would you call this in your normal 11/22 i know i would.

Sponger's payout post shows the top heavy structure, maybe you'd be happy with making the money but i would play for that two grand, doubling up in level 2 gives me a great chance to do that. If he's got a set sobeit but i do feel you did not call this because you valued the high level of the game too much.

My thoughts anyway feel free to disagree.

[Myst]

Very akward way to play a made hand. More often than not, your hand is good.

[erniebilko]

Good point - the buy-in level most certainly affected my decision, but not because I was intimidated by the stake itself (actually, it only cost me $6 because i bought in at Step 1). At $11/$22, I would call instantly. At this level, I expected a higher degree of competence from the other players, so I believed the set even though it looked a bad way to play it.

[lastchance]

Eh.. Good logic, but that all-in is somewhat fishy. I'm calling here, and looking for AT-AQ.