Some hands from Festa Al Lago

[Irieguy]

I usually post in the 1-Table forum, but this belongs here. I don't mind if you treat me like a noob and flame me.

I thought I would post some key hands from yesterday's event with as much context as possible. The main difference between live tourneys and on-line tourneys (for me, anyway) is that my play in live tourneys is so dependent on how well I know the other players. I've been playing for a long time and know all of the regular tournament players quite well, whereas on-line you are typically missing a lot of this information.

Hand 1: How to almost go broke in the first orbit of a $2K event

My starting table was great. I knew 5 of the players well, and with the exception of TJ Cloutier to my left, they were all particularly bad players. I felt like I would be able to control this table and acquire chips early. Unfortunately, my table was set to break early so I knew that this opportunity would be short lived.

I was in the SB, TJ in the BB. Blinds 25/50 and we all had about our original 4K except the villain here, who had a few more from winning the first hand of the tourney without a showdown. There was a mid-position limper and a loose-aggressive, but very un-tricky regular fish whom I knew well raised to 175 from the CO and did so in a manner that had me convinced that he didn't have much of a hand. It was passed around to me and TJ peeked at his cards while I was looking at mine. I could tell that TJ wasn't interested and I knew that the raiser would bet the flop if I checked no matter what came and that I would have a really good chance at taking down a decent pot unless he really hit his hand. So I called. TJ folded and so did the limper.

The flop came Q-7-6 rainbow. Perfect. I checked and the raiser bet 400. I check-raised to 1400 and I could clearly see that he was agitated and that his first instinct was to quickly muck. But he didn't. He looked at me and I could see the gambler in him thinking about making a gigantic re-raise with nothing. I had a jack and felt like my jack-high had a nice chance of being the best hand. I was contemplating calling if he moved all-in and then I remembered that this was like the 3rd hand of a $2K event and I probably didn't need to call off my stack with Jack-high when this table would easily allow me to build some chips over the first hour. He called.

The turn was an ace and I felt pretty confident that he would simply have to give up if I bet strong. But I took a second to think and had the feeling that he called my flop raise out of frustration and with plans to try to take me off the hand later. So, I checked hoping he would take a stab at the pot with a reasonable bet. He obliged and bet two pink chips (1000), leaving him with about 1500 behind. The way he looked at his chips and chose his bet amount told me that he was prepared to save his last 1500 chips if necessary. I took the amount of time that I thought I would take if I were genuinely trying to figure out how to get the most money out of AQ, and I raised all-in.

He had the decency to quickly muck and save me from the anguish of having to look at my whole stack sitting in the center of a pot where I held only jack-high with an A-Q board against a player who showed strength on every street. I wasn't sure how to feel about this hand when it was over.

Hand 2: How to stack TJ

I had been playing quite a few hands, particularly from late position and particularly against the two players whom I knew could fold. With TJ to my left, most of these hands involved TJ being on the button or in the SB and having to fold because I was beating him to the opportunity to play these pots. I knew that he was watching me closely and that he would come back over the top of me before too long.

Then the perfect situation developed with TJ in the SB and me on the button. There was a limp by a particulary passive player and I was in the process of getting my Heineken from the waitress. I had kings and did my best job of acting like my cards were meaningles as I quickly glanced at the single limper and made a bigger-than-standard raise to 325 hoping that TJ would take this chance to put me in my place. He raised to 1200 and I instantly min-raised him. He pushed, I called, and he had AK. No ace came and I was in really good shape.

Hand 3: What do you do when you hate your table?

After the first limit, our table broke and I got moved to a horrible table. It would have been a great live-game table, but it was a horrible tournament table to be at with a big stack. The standard opening raise was too big, and there were at least 3 players seeing every flop. We had DrunkOldCowboy(TM), CrazyAsianDude (TM), RamblingBrittishFish (TM), ArabSuicideBomber (TM), and PhilippinoBingoRefugeeChick (TM). To make matters worse, this table wasn't going to break for a long time. I wasn't going to be able to make many, or any, moves here and it was going to be like when I sucked at poker and would just have to wait for a big hand and hope for the best.

But a glimmer of hope developed as I realized that RamblingBrittishFish was limping into every pot and would call a raise of any size, and then chase a draw of any kind. I wouldn't need much of a hand to get some chips from him, I figured.

Blinds were 100/200 and both me and RBF had about 11K in chips, which was well above average.

RBF limps in and I make it 800 to go with AJo. PhillipinoBingoRefugee calls from the BB and RBF of course calls.

Flop was Ac-5s-5d. Checked to me and I would often check behind here... but these opponents were different. I needed to bet. I bet 2K, PBR folded and RBF called.

The turn was the Jack of clubs. RBF checked. I wasn't really sure what to do here, but I could tell that RBF expected me to bet again and that he wasn't going to fold. I decided that I wanted to show down this hand, and that I wouldn't go broke if he had a 5 if I checked behind here and played the river for value. I just didn't feel like I needed to create a situation where I would have to consider calling either a check-raise on the turn, or a river push. So I checked.

The river was the 3 of clubs and RBF bet half his/my stack at me (around 4K). I don't think I need to go into length about why I called here, but if everybody thinks it was horrible I will explain it more. He had Qc7c for a club flush.

Hand 4: Did I blow a chance at more chips?

I held my own at the table and was able to battle back up to around 9K in chips without showing down a hand. CrazyAsianDude was now the overwhelming chip leader after cracking aces with AK and he was in the BB. Blinds still 100/200.

I was dealt QQ in late position with a single unknown/new player limper in front of me. I made it 900 to go because I figured there was a pretty good chance the BB would call with just about anything, and I didn't want to price the limper in. The BB called and the limper folded.

The flop came Jc-8c-4s and CAD lead out for 2K. I thought if I acted quickly with a giant overbet he would put me on AK or a draw and call me with a wide range. I raised all-in for another 8K and he went into the tank. After about 3 minutes he folded AcJs face-up and I hated my play.

Adios, Festa al Lago

I went card-dead for an hour or so and got down to 8K in chips, and RamblingBrittishFish went on a tremendous suck-out fest to become the chip leader at our table with 20K or so.

With the blinds 100/200 and a 25 ante, an EP young, tight player made it 800 to go and RBF called. I had AK in LP and really wanted to just play RBF for this pot. I re-raised to 2K figuring that was enough to get the EP tightie out, but not too much to make RBF fold. The pot was going to be big enough to justify getting all of my chips in if I felt there was any chance that my AK was best hand on the flop. RBF called, the flop came A-J-x and RBF put me all-in.

I called, he had A-J, and that was that.

Post Mortum

Im interested to see criticisms of my play in these hands. I wasn't happy with hands 1,3, and 4. Hand 2 against TJ I posted to see if anybody had comments on TJ's play and my decision to use a min-raise to induce his push. At the time, I liked my play and didn't mind his push but another 2+2er thought he played AK poorly.

Irieguy

[TomHimself]

nice report!
#1- i dont think i could ever do this but i dont have any real live experience, i think if i had ur read i wouldve just pushed turn instead of going for check-raise where he puts 1/2 his stack in the middle and look like u have no FE.
#2-im not usually a big fan of miniraising but i think its fine in spots like these. i think TJ played it fine
#3-i think i play it exactly the same, i dont think i can fold the river there. i also would sometimes check the flop to keep the pot small
#4-i think ur in a akward chip position right there when he bets into you and any raise other than allin will leave u in a weird spot, plus the board is a little draw heavy but i think a case can be made to just smoothcall considering villian is aggro and may continue to bet his hand

Cool report.

The first hand makes me feel stupid: If I'm him I probably give you credit for AQ, and if I'm you I probably give him credit for turning the A and then chicken out on the reraise. In other words, no matter who I am, I find a reason to lose. I think I'll go play 56 SNGs now to rebuild my confidence.

Hand #4 must have been frustrating, but you had a plan and it almost worked. Though if he didn't bite on that flop, it's true the plan might have been flawed. But if you smooth-call and the turn blanks and you push over his turn lead, I still don't know if you double through him.

[bugstud]

just have ak next time on hand #4. Going to play any more of the tourneys?

[MLG]

This deserved more attention.

Hand 1. I like it. Obviously its all context. In my opinion there are two types of players when it comes to the first hand. Those who really dont want to go broke, and those who really want to start moving chips. If you know who is who when you start its easy to win a big pot.

Hand 2.
I don't like the minreraise here. I think you got lucky TJ had a big hand that he was happy to go with. Generally I think it breaks with the image you've conveyed to the table and sends up warning signs. Im more inclined to call the raise like you aren't good enough to fold, and get the money in later in the hand.

Hand 3.
If he's as bad as you say he is then I bet the turn. I'm more worried about getting the max value out of my hand and charging draws than I am about keeping myself from facing the go broke/big laydown challenge.

Hand 4.
Meh. I like the play. I'm surprised you didnt get a call.

Hand 5.
Obviously a bigger meh.

I agree with everything MLG said except that I'm terrified of playing the first hand like you did. I open push turn if you're confident in your read, mainly because I'm worried that he may do the same and force me to fold. Were you really going to call if he pushed the flop?

I really hate the miniraise, as I think he folds/flat calls for set value anything but AK/QQ+. However, you seem to have thought about it more. He thinks that I think that he thinks that I....?

[EverettKings]

In hand 4, I dont see how an insta-push for 8k over his 2k bet is supposed to look like AK. I mean, do you run into many people that will insta-overbet-push after such a strong lead with just AK? They won't hesitate or think at all first?

If he CHECKS and you insta push on a moderate overbet then maybe (like say you had 3k on the flop and he checked), but when you insta-push over his raise it looks exactly like an overpair. I would have much preferred it if you'd semi-tanked and then pushed.

Everett

[Pat Southern]

Hand 1- As strictly an online player these type of moves are foreign to me, but nice hand I guess.

Hand 2- I would either call or push, depending on how deep TJ was depending on how deep his stack is

Hand 3- If you feel that he'll call almost any size bet with a flush draw, then I would bet about 5k here and if he has a 5 so be it. On the river I think you're obligated to call.

Hand 4- I think its fine, any raise you make is saying you're committed to the hand and I think anything other than allin looks fishy.

Hand 5- Poker sucks

[SuitedSixes]

Nice avatar.

[ghostwriter]

Can you explain your reasoning on calling the river in hand 3. Your read of your opponent didn't seem to indicate he would bluff here. Did you think he would bet a worse Ace here?