I don't feel so bad after watching the "pros" play.

[JC_Saves]

PokerStars Game #2199231853: Tournament #10400590, Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2005/07/27 - 11:49:37 (ET)
Table '10400590 12' Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: WHISKEYBENT9 (2005 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 3: Dolly J.Lo. (8563 in chips)
Seat 4: Cassie (1535 in chips)
Seat 5: mobay (2730 in chips)
Seat 6: Sirkusartist (4011 in chips)
Seat 7: bigslick789 (3148 in chips)
Seat 8: MAGNOLIAMARK (1985 in chips)
Seat 9: chowmein (1615 in chips)
WHISKEYBENT9: posts small blind 50
Dolly J.Lo.: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Cassie: folds, mobay: folds, Sirkusartist: folds, bigslick789: raises 100 to 200, MAGNOLIAMARK: folds, chowmein: calls 200,WHISKEYBENT9: folds, Dolly J.Lo.: calls 100
*** FLOP *** [2c 6s 8h] [pot 650]
Dolly J.Lo.: checks, bigslick789: bets 400, chowmein: raises 1015 to 1415 and is all-in, Dolly J.Lo.: folds,bigslick789: calls 1015

bigslick789: shows [9h Jh]

I am interested what you think about the play of this hand. First off, why min raise with thse hand?
It seems to me that this was just terrible to draw to a gutshot, or pray for a backdoor flush draw getting these odds, thoughts?

Hand 2:
PokerStars Game #2199182388: Tournament #10400590, Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2005/07/27 - 11:37:26 (ET)
Table '10400590 14' Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: rio138 (1253 in chips)
Seat 2: JohnnyBax (1935 in chips)
Seat 3: chipsport (1175 in chips)
Seat 4: theoneseyes (1895 in chips)
Seat 5: knass007 (4377 in chips)
Seat 6: blkjck (2653 in chips)
Seat 7: Jiminy (3055 in chips)
Seat 8: worm630 (5255 in chips)
Seat 9: vtaces (1065 in chips)
theoneseyes: posts small blind 25
knass007: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
blkjck:folds,Jiminy: raises 100 to 150,worm630: folds,vtaces: calls 150, rio138: folds,JohnnyBax: calls 150,chipsport: folds,
theoneseyes: folds, knass007: calls 100
*** FLOP *** [7d Kh 9c] Pot:550
knass007: checks,Jiminy: checks,vtaces: checks, JohnnyBax: bets 300, knass007: raises 3927 to 4227 and is all-in, Jiminy: folds, vtaces: folds, JohnnyBax: calls 1485 and is all-in
knass007: shows [9d 9h] JohnnyBax: shows [Ks Qc]

Was this just a horrendous call in this situation? Considering jonnybax is a pro player, am I missing something here? This looks like the clearest fold that you could ever see to me. Thoughts?

[Toddy]

Ya i often question how the pros play. I watched Neverwin one day and he was winning with questionable plays. BigSlick789 is the #1 player on Stars by the way.

[blockafor]

1st hand is crazy. That's just some straight up gambool.

2nd hand does not strike me as unusual. He figures he has the best hand after his opponent goes all-in. It doesn't look like a set because it's played faster than a set is typically played, and he doesn't think he's outkicked since AK would be raising pf, so he probably figures his opponent most likely has a weaker K or a straight draw.

[ChoicestHops]

What do you expect? These guys have been playing at the same limits and Im sure their opponents have tens of thousands of hands stored on them on how they play. You have to mix it up.

[TheDrone]

1st hand isn't all that bad if you look a little deeper. The min raise with a suited gapper is to build the pot a little so that it's harder for top-pair hands to get away if BigSlick789 flops a monster. I see this more with small/medium pairs, but I suppose that a suited gapper could work too depending on how the table is playing.

The flop bet is just to take it down since it's unlikely anyone hit it. After the other guy raised all-in, the call is about EV neutral if you consider 1:2.4 pot odds and the likelihood of being a 30% favorite (against top pair or overcards). So the call is questionable, but maybe BigSlick789 plays a big stack really well, so the EV neutral call will allow him to make more +EV plays later (see Gigabet's post on this).

[JC_Saves]

the min raise really bothers me for some reason. I don't understand the philosophy of betting twice as much when limping will also encourage others to limp behind you. So you wager twice as much, so you lose twice as much when the flop misses you, or you build a pot so big that people will stay longer and hit more often against you.

Is it just a no brainer that if you are getting greater than or equal to 2 to 1 on you money that you have to call these all in type bets?

It seems to me that that is what Bigslick did a couple times with marignal hands. He go lucky earlier playing JT, min raising with it, was called by a couple, and then someone goes all in giving him 2 to 1 and he calls and got lucky against AK limper UTG and hit a straight.

[davidross]

I think you need to look at a bigger picture when examining these plays. You have picked 2 players who are well known as the tournament leaders every month. THey play a lot of tournaments, and they play big stacks very well. THey are very willing to take chances early in a tournament in order to accumulate chips, which they will use to pound their opponents and go for a high placement. If they bust out early, so what, they just enter another tournament. I'm quite certain they would both have played these hands differently at the WSOP.