Tournament Hand

[Manimal]

Just looking to see how you guys would play it on these two hands. For the second hand, my moves and results will be in white at the end of the post. I would really appreciate comments on my thought process.

This tournament just got heads up. I have a 2-1 chip lead over a very good friend of mine, who is a solid player, but can get overaggressive at times. He rarely leads with pure bluffs, but he does push his draws hard. Blinds are pretty substantial - 400/800 with a total of ~8000 in play.

First hand: I bring in with 8(54), two suited. He completes, I fold.

Second hand:

Me: A(JT)
Him 8(XX)

He brings it in for a full bet. On 4th, I pick up the 9c. He pulls a red 4. 5th brings the 8s for me, and the 6c for him.

Things now look like this:

Me: A98(JT)
Him: 864(XX) with two clubs

6th brings a red Q for me, and the 3c for him. On 7th, I pick up some raggy red card.

<font color="white">Results: I read him for a pair of 8's in the second hand, just called with the 3 overcards. On 4th, I check to him, he bets, I call. On 5th, I check again, and he leads again. This strikes me as slightly odd, since he usually slows down with medium pairs against a ton of overcards on board. On the other hand, I know he can't afford to give me a free card with a medium pair. I also know he probably would have played a bigger pair a little differently. So I called, figuring I had 12 outs. Right after that, I remembered those two generic overs in the hole were JT and realized that I could have gotten him all in when I had the best of it by a fair margin. On 6th, I check raised him, putting him all in. As it turns out, my read was way off. He was trying to bully me with 8(A9). He missed his club draw on the river, and that was that.

Looking back on it, I think a raise on 3rd is a possibility, but questionable at best, since he's only calling if he does have a hand. Same thing goes for 4th. Missing the raise on 5th is inexcusable. 6th seemed like a genuine no-brainer, as he was at the point that he would absolutely fire if checked to, and would have to call if raised. Thanks for any help.</font>

Edit: Changed the presentation of the hand. Hopefully it's more readable now [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Andy B]

Are you actually playing stud with blinds, or are you just not familiar with the nomenclature? You mention that he brings it in for a full bet, so I'm guessing that this is the normal ante/bring-in structure used in stud tournaments, but it's hard to tell. The exact structure does make a difference. I'll assume that you're playing with limits of $400/800.

On the first hand, well, you have garbage. If you're playing with a $100 ante and a $200 bring-in, you're getting 4:1 on your call, so that might seem attractive on the surface. Problem is, what the hell are you trying to catch? You're also very likely to be facing bets on future streets, so you're really not getting 4:1 at all. Also, if the ante structure is smaller, your odds are shorter. This is a very easy fold, I'd say.

Why the hell is the action on the second hand in white? I'm not a tournament expert, but I think that re-raising third street is in order. If he folds, that's fantastic. Calling is OK, I suppose. Checking and calling on both fourth and fifth is positively shameful. You should be leading at your opponent, or perhaps check-raising at some point. Maybe check-call fourth and check-raise fifth, something like that. If you can't be aggressive, just fold fourth. The check-raise on sixth was fine, but if you just bet sixth and seventh, you get him all-in. If he checks behind on sixth, you can't break him this hand. If he makes a flush, so be it.

From his standpoint, I think that trying to bully people with an Ace in the door is somewhat ill-advised. I don't know how you play in general, but all you did here was check and call, so you don't strike me as the sort who can be pushed off a hand. I mean, if you're not going to fold, you can't be bluffed.

[Chris Daddy Cool]

hand 2 you played kinda girly.

i would have put pressure on him by leading into him on 4th. if not checking and calling to see what delops isn't *that* bad, but with such shallow stacks where one hand could be your last or severely cripple you, now's not the time to lollygag around. put some pressure on him.

when you get the best card you can imagine on 5th street giving you an OESD plus four overcards to what you read as split eights, you have to checkraise here. you want to play for the rest of his stack. incidently it didn't matter much anyways since he didn't have much money left anyways, but suppose you were the one outchipped or that the stacks were deeper, this hand would have been critical in getting you in good shape and turning the tides.

[timmer]

I would reraise 3rd with this hand. If he folds its OK you still get his small bet and ante and your out nothing. HE may call and dump it on 5th and thats ok too.

I aways viewed getting the chips in my stack as priority #1 in tournies. sometimes laying in the weeds and letting my opponent bluff off his chips is a ok way to do this.

with only 10 BB on the table id say your friend made some foolhearty plays beyond 4th.

timmer

[Manimal]

Yeah, I mistyped blinds - it was 2am, gimme a break [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. Limits were 400/800 with a 100 ante and 200 bring in; no blinds were involved. Action was in white, since I realized I had dropped the ball, and wanted to see just how bad things were by seeing how many points of divergence there are between my line and the preferred line.