A hand vs. Amir Vahedi

[sledghammer]

Not a terribly interesting hand, but playing this is the first "TV pro" ive played with. Not too sure what he was doing in a 700 person, 200+20 tournament at chumash, but he said he was 'on vacation,' and i heard a dealer say chumash paid him to be there as a sort of promotion. The tourney had a great structure and was very well run, with blinds starting at 25-50 for an hour, and 5000 stacks.

I had about 6000, amir had about 5000. blinds 100-200. I have a very tight table image.

I open raise to 600 in MP1 with Q9o, on a tight player's BB. Amir calls on the button. Heads up.

flop is Ac9c7s. I lead out 700 into the 1500 pot. he calls.

turn is an offsuit ace. I check. Amir says "checking your ace, eh? ok." and checks.

river is an innocuous 3. I check, Amir bets 600, I call.

I thought his river bet was very fishy. I think he would have reraised preflop with most pairs that beat me. An ace was quite likely, as there werent many draws out there on the flop, and he probably anticipated a turn fold. Does anyone bet/fold the turn?

Amir was funny as hell, chatting up the whole table almost continuously. He busted pretty early though, which was a shame, the table chatter afterward was dominated by these two annoying college students.

To lazy to post on the hand, but I love tha 'mash. i just moved to CA and it was the first indian casino I ever went to. The morongo is next. Good to hear the tourneys are well stuctured.

Why the preflop raise? The rest I guess is okay, although I think you might want to bluff the river; sounds like his talk was entirely to make it hard for you to bluff.

[sledghammer]

They run this tourney once every 6 months or so. They have small buyin small field tourneys all the time with typical crappy structures. But yeah, the staff at chumash really makes an effort.

[sledghammer]

I raised because of my tight table image, a generally tight table, and the tight BB. Sitting around for an hour and a half folding also tends to make me impatient.

I dont think Amir is folding any hands that beat me, and hes not calling with any hands i beat, except maybe a small pair. So there isn't much reason to bet the river as a bluff or for value. my hand has value only in snapping off bluffs.

I was confused about what he called the flop bet with, unless he thought he could push me off with a turn bet, as a bluff. But then he didn't bet the turn.

[bruce]

I have played with Amir numerous times. He is very difficult to put on a hand and his post play flop is very creative. He can be a nice fellow in general.

As far as your hand goes I like how you played it. The blinds are big enough to steal esp. against a tight big blind. I would think based on Amir's playing style that my
hand on the river is good. I don't see any reason to bet the river. Give him a chance to hang himself. I would call
his bet. If he has you beat, well so be it, and you still have plenty of chips left. If he makes a big river bet, good luck putting him on a hand. And he certainly is capable of bluffing.

Bruce

Nothing to add on the hand, but I was also in that tournament and finished 35th...getting AA about 6 times helped. I was the tall skinny kid in a green Seattle Sonics jersey if you happened to see me. I never got to see Amir play, which was a shame...I heard he tore up the NL $500 game last night.

Edit: Oh, and regarding the structure...I agree about the early levels being good, but I thought it was kinda ridiculous that once the blinds hit 10000/20000 pretty much everyone was a shortstack (avg stack = 700 * 5000 / 35 = 100,000, so average M = 3.33!!!). Granted, this was my first live MTT, so maybe that's typical of these and I'm just not used to it.

[sledghammer]

I called, and I waited for him to show his hand. He really didn't want to, and eventually he just mucked, but he was holding his cards up, and he said he had 10 8 for a busted OESD. Hes definitely a tricky post-flop player, especially from other hands i saw him play.

[sledghammer]

I got knocked out before lunch, when the blinds were still 300 -600. Congrats on cashing in your first live one. I think thats sort of a typical late tourney blind structure, online at least. i don't play many live ones.

I wouldnt expect to see an ace from Amir if he didnt't re-raise it from the button. But who am I to try and read his play. But yeah basically I'd put him on a speculative drawing hand.

The talk was making it so you wouldnt bet the river big, I agree. His check was obviously to get himself a free card, and I probably would have seen it as that.

Post oak bluff on the river? Why such a small bet, he probably figured you were calling..