my first live tournament

thejameser · #1 07-12-2005, 12:04 PM

i am basically a SS Hold 'Em player, but i have played some Sit N Go's online and the local casino was having a WPT satellite so i thought i would enter. the field was 130ish to start with. here is my question/scenario:

down to 2 tables from 13, maybe 15 players total. blinds are now 1500/700, i am in the big blind. the blinds are due to raise in the next 10 minutes or so. my chip stack was a measly 5200 before the BB. so i post it is folded around to the SB who completes(note: the small blind was the table chip leader and the most aggressive player at the table next to me). i look at my hole cards and they are K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]10 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. so i move in. he calls with A3o and his A high held up and i was out; there were now 12 players in the tournament. only the top 9 payed. was this a good spot? if i was going to make any impact i needed to get it done pretty quick as the blinds were reaching a point that i would be all-in next go round anyway. i knew he would likely call, i just hoped he did not have an A or a pocket pair, or a bigger K. also, i think i was maybe the second biggest stack at the table at that time. would i have been better to try to let the blinds eat the other guys up so i could try to sneak into the money? what would be the optimum tourney strategy here guys? like i said, i am very inexperienced at tourney play, but i am very aware of equity, theory, etc.

DiggerDog · #2 07-12-2005, 12:21 PM

At some point you have to make a move and although it's hard to be in love with KT, (suited or not), it doesn't sound like a bad play to me. I would say that unless you knew that there were other players with shorter stacks than yours, giving you a chance to wait for a better hand to move with, it's hard for me to second guess your play.

My experience has been that most everyone tightens up just before the "money" is decided, (who's in, who's out), so making a move with KT suited, especially in the situation you described, seems OK to me.