I haven't encountered a terribly interesting hand in the past week, but in order to avoid too long a lay-off in my entries, I'll discuss a hand I encountered last night in a multi-table tourney. This hand reminded me a book I read written by a poker pro. The pro is notorious for keeping notes on hands played throughout a tournament. In his book, he revealed every hand he played during a major tournament he eventually won. That book is part of the inspiration for this blog. In all the hands he played over the two-day tournament, there were only 5 or 6 hands he considered crucial to winning the tournament.
Final table or a 5 table sit-n-go tournament. Its worth noting the buy-in for this tournament was $1, but the play at the final stages of the tournament seemed pretty straight-forward. Nine players remain of the 45 entrants. The top stacks remaining have stacks in the neighborhood of 10,000 to 12,000 chips. The three bottom stacks range from 1,500 to 3,300 chips. Seven players will receive a pay-out, with only about $13 going to first place and $1.70 going to seventh. The blinds are 300/600. Player A has 5,500 chips. Player E has 10,500 chips. I am Player E in this hand.
Player A is first to act, and he raises to 1,800 chips. All players fold to Player E, who calls for 1,800. All other players in the hand fold. The pot contains 4,500.
The flop is 8 6 2, all spades. Player A acts first again, and leads out for 1,800, which is more than half of his remaining stack. Player E raises Player A all-in for his remaining stack. Player A calls. The pot contains about 12,000 chips.
Player A shows Q Q, with the Queen of spades. Player E shows 9 9, with no spades. The turn and river are no help to Player E, and Player A wins the pot. Player A and Player E essentially flip chip stacks. I was left with about 5,000 chips after the hand. I managed to hang in long enough to finish 6th in this tournament, but was unable to recover from this hand.
My thoughts on the hand:
From the outset, I think I played this hand poorly, and got the outcome I deserved. There were a number of clues to suggest I was behind in this hand every step of the way. Player A had 5,500 chips at the start of the hand, putting him in the middle of the remaining players or about at chip average. However, the blinds were 300/600, so he could only survive six more rotations through the blinds. Rather than pushing all-in, he elected to only raise 3 times the big blind. So, even with a diminishing ship stack, he appeared to be looking for action. An all-in bet would have been more indicative of two unsuited, unpaired cards. But even if he had something like K 10, I was still no better than 50/50, and likely behind when I made the call pre-flop.
No matter what came on the flop, I anticipated he would go all-in. Instead, he bet 1,800 again, or about 1/3 of the pot. Again, Player A was practically begging for a call. Unfortunately, the flop was safe for my hand. But when raising Player A all-in, I was mostly hoping he had committed himself to the hand with A K or A Q.
The status of the tournament should have provided some extra insight. There were several short stacks, and Player A could have been content to wait a few more hands and hope some of the short stacks got knocked out - hoping to make the money. Player A instead chose to get active. Given his position at the table and his chip stack, this was another clue he had a strong hand.
My own position in the tournament argues for not playing the nines. I was third in chip position, and safely on my way to making the money, not to mention in position to potentially win the tourney. Instead, I ignored or dicounted the warning signs (perhaps because of the size of my stack) and ended up limping to the finish. If I was going to call an all-in, I would have preferred to go up against one of the smaller stacks, who likely would have been pushing with lesser holdings and posed a smaller threat to my chip stack. I risked over half of my stack on a hand where I was far less than 50% to win.
Pot odds cannot be ignored here. Pre-flop I was being offered a chance to win 4,500 for a risk of 1,800. That's suitable if I were simply facing a coin flip. After the flop, I was being offered a chance to win 6,300 for a risk of 1,800, great odds again. Too good to be true, it turns out. If I had a more sizable stack at the start of the hand, then playing this hand out is probably okay. But again, I couldn't put the pieces together fast enough. One moment of shaky thinking really cost me.
In the end, this was a crucial hand for my tournament life. I didn't watch the finish to see whether Player A was able to ride the momentum to a win, but I wish I did. You never know when these crucial moments will come up, which is why being able to pay attention and think clearly throughout the tournament is so important.
Got any tips for avioding these types of lapses in judgment? Sound off in the comments section, and thanks for reading.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Hand No. 6
The following hand provides an example of using good position and a dominant hand to maximize value for a hand.
Full table of ten players, blinds are 200/400. Player A raises to 800, Players C & D call, Player E raises to 2,000. The SB along with Players A, C, and D all call for 2,000. Pot is now 8,400.
The flop is K 9 2, with 2 spades on the board. The SB leads out for 4,000, and Player A calls. Players C & D fold. Player E goes all-in for his final 10,200. The SB calls, and is covered by Player E. After some hesitation, Player A folds.
SB shows K 10, no spades. Player E shows pocket Aces. Player A then reveals he folded K Q. I was Player B in this hand. I elected not play with Kd 9d, so I know the SB needs a 10 or running straight cards to come from behind and win the hand. Turn is an 8, and the river is an Ace, giving Player E a set of Aces. Player wins a pot of well over 30,000. SB is knocked out, but house rules allow one rebuy at this point, which may have also influenced the SB's play.
My thoughts on this hand:
I can imagine Player E was thrilled to see so much action ahead of him while holding pocket Aces. One player made a min-raise from early position and 2 players had already called. The questions for Player E is how much to raise? Player E chose to re-raise 2.5 times the prior bets, or 5 times the big blind. This bet should have been enough to drive out junk hands, but keep around the kind of hands that were shown down. The fact he got so many calls on his re-raise suggests Player E could have made a larger bet, but probably no more than 2,500-3,000.
Player E's bet was effective because it increased the value of the pot, and given he had position on everyone in the hand, he could evaluate the flop and how the table reacted. The SB leading out made sense, as he had top pair with a decent kicker. Player A just calling with top pair and a good kicker was interesting, but he did have three players acting behind him, including Player E who made the big re-raise pre-flop. Fortunately for Player A, his decision to just call gave him the option of dumping the hand when Player E re-raised again on the flop.
Player E was probably correct to re-raise all-in after the flop. There was plenty in the pot at that point, and he needed to protect his hand against the flush draw and the gut-shot straight draw. A straight call by Player E may have gotten another bet out of Player A on the turn, but again the risk of the flush draw argues against slow-playing at this point.
Player E chose an approach that built the pot, but may have also risked being out-drawn. Some may argue he needed a bigger raise pre-flop to eliminate some players. In fact, I have argued in prior entries Pocket Aces are better played against one or two players, rather than 3 or more. Here, Player E took advantage of his position to wade into deeper waters with his Aces, and he reaped a big reward for his risk.
So this is the first time in recorded history Pocket Aces held up, right? Use the comments section to let me know if you just fold Pocket Aces to save yourself the misery. And thanks for reading.
Full table of ten players, blinds are 200/400. Player A raises to 800, Players C & D call, Player E raises to 2,000. The SB along with Players A, C, and D all call for 2,000. Pot is now 8,400.
The flop is K 9 2, with 2 spades on the board. The SB leads out for 4,000, and Player A calls. Players C & D fold. Player E goes all-in for his final 10,200. The SB calls, and is covered by Player E. After some hesitation, Player A folds.
SB shows K 10, no spades. Player E shows pocket Aces. Player A then reveals he folded K Q. I was Player B in this hand. I elected not play with Kd 9d, so I know the SB needs a 10 or running straight cards to come from behind and win the hand. Turn is an 8, and the river is an Ace, giving Player E a set of Aces. Player wins a pot of well over 30,000. SB is knocked out, but house rules allow one rebuy at this point, which may have also influenced the SB's play.
My thoughts on this hand:
I can imagine Player E was thrilled to see so much action ahead of him while holding pocket Aces. One player made a min-raise from early position and 2 players had already called. The questions for Player E is how much to raise? Player E chose to re-raise 2.5 times the prior bets, or 5 times the big blind. This bet should have been enough to drive out junk hands, but keep around the kind of hands that were shown down. The fact he got so many calls on his re-raise suggests Player E could have made a larger bet, but probably no more than 2,500-3,000.
Player E's bet was effective because it increased the value of the pot, and given he had position on everyone in the hand, he could evaluate the flop and how the table reacted. The SB leading out made sense, as he had top pair with a decent kicker. Player A just calling with top pair and a good kicker was interesting, but he did have three players acting behind him, including Player E who made the big re-raise pre-flop. Fortunately for Player A, his decision to just call gave him the option of dumping the hand when Player E re-raised again on the flop.
Player E was probably correct to re-raise all-in after the flop. There was plenty in the pot at that point, and he needed to protect his hand against the flush draw and the gut-shot straight draw. A straight call by Player E may have gotten another bet out of Player A on the turn, but again the risk of the flush draw argues against slow-playing at this point.
Player E chose an approach that built the pot, but may have also risked being out-drawn. Some may argue he needed a bigger raise pre-flop to eliminate some players. In fact, I have argued in prior entries Pocket Aces are better played against one or two players, rather than 3 or more. Here, Player E took advantage of his position to wade into deeper waters with his Aces, and he reaped a big reward for his risk.
So this is the first time in recorded history Pocket Aces held up, right? Use the comments section to let me know if you just fold Pocket Aces to save yourself the misery. And thanks for reading.
Hand No. 5
I wasn't going to write about this hand at first, but the more I thought about it, I realized there is an interesting concept at play in this hand worth discussion. In this entry, we'll discuss what to do with a huge hand at a crucial moment in a tournament.
Four players remain out of ten entrants. Blinds are 1000/2000. The Dealer has a little over 50,000 chips, SB has 15,600, BB has approximately 60,000, and Player A has approximately 50,000. This tournament pays only two places, with a bulk of the payout going to first place. Player A is first to act.
Player A folds and the Dealer raises to 6,000. SB goes all-in for his final 15,600. BB re-raises all-in. After some thought, the Dealer calls. Dealer shows K K, SB shows A J unsuited, and BB shows A K unsuited.
The board comes 8 5 4 8 Q. No flush for the SB or BB. The Dealer takes down a total pot of close to 120,000. The BB is left with approximately 8,000 chips, or enough for about 4 big blinds. SB is knocked out of the tournament.
My thoughts on this hand:
The Dealer made a standard raise of 3 times the big blind. Although this may indicate some type of hand, it is difficult to confidently put the Dealer on a big pocket pair, due to his position and chip stack. SB's push all-in for his remaining 15,600 with A J makes sense as he is getting desperate and A J is a good hand with 4 players at the table. So what do we make of the play by the BB?
The BB had several options at this point, all of them defensible.
A) The BB chose to go all-in, risking a significant portion of his chip stack. This was an attempt at an isolation play. The BB had a strong enough hand to call SB's all-in bet. The BB wanted to compete only with the SB and made a re-raise to try to eliminate the Dealer from the hand. The BB may also have suspected the Dealer was making a move to steal the blinds based on the Dealer's position and chip stack. Finally, when considered in a vacuum, A K is a very strong hand. The only hands you don't want to see from your opponent is pocket Aces or pocket Kings. The likelihood of one opponent holding either of those hands is remote, even more so considering the BB had an Ace and a King in his hand.
B) The BB could have made a mid-size raise. House rules would have allowed the BB to re-raise the SB's all-in bet to as little as 25,200. A raise in the neighborhood of 30,000 would have given the BB a chance to see if the Dealer was serious about his hand, while leaving him with about 30,000 if he met resistance and suspected the Dealer did have a big pocket pair. Or perhaps the Dealer would have only called a mid-size raise and the BB would at least see a flop before making a big decision for the rest of his chips.
C) The BB could have called the SB's all-in bet of 15,600. Action would go back to the Dealer, who could fold, call, or re-raise. If the Dealer then went all-in, and the BB believed the story the Dealer was telling, the BB could get away from the hand and still have 45,000 in his stack. Another reason the Dealer may just call the all-in bet of 15,600 is to execute an unspoken cooperation play. The Dealer and the BB had an opportunity to eliminate a player from the tournament, and move one step close to finishing in the money. The Dealer may have felt, even with a premium hand, that two players have a better chance of eliminating the small stack. The Dealer may have called the SB's all-in, and then the Dealer and the BB could have checked down the hand hoping one of them would eliminate the SB. Or the Dealer may have bet out after a safe-looking flop and again the BB could have made a big decision with the benefit of more information. In the end, had the BB opted to just call the SB's all-in, he may have escaped the hand with 45,000 chips, 3 players remaining, and very much alive in the chase for the money.
D) The BB could have folded his hand pre-flop. This would be a very conservative play. However, if the BB felt the Dealer would call the SB's all-in bet, the BB could have just left it to the Dealer to try to knock out the SB. The factors lending to a call from the Dealer were very compelling. The Dealer would only need to put in another 9,600 to play for a pot that would be over 30,000. The Dealer had enough chips to commit to a pot with the SB. And the SB was very short-stacked with only about 8 big blinds left. The SB could be making this move with any two cards. Finally, the Dealer's raise could have just been a move to steal the blinds, or it could have been a bet for value. The BB may have been unsure what the Dealer was holding, and rather than risk his tournament with 2 unpaired cards, the BB may have decided to let the Dealer eliminate the SB. Bottom line, had the BB just folded, he had the potential of playing three-handed with approximately 60,000 chips.
This hand reminds me of a saying from basketball that used to drive me nuts. Announcers or pundits would often say that in the last minute of the game, referees should just "let the players play." Meaning the referees should be less willing to call a foul in the last minute of the game, so that the players on the court determine the outcome. I never agreed with that concept. I felt if a foul would be called in the early part of the game, then a foul should be called in the last minute. I worried the "let the players play" mentality was a benefit to the defense, who could be more physically aggressive in the final minute without the consequence of a foul.
So is it the same in poker? If the BB would have made a big re-raise with A K early in the tournament, shouldn't he behave the same way in the late stages? I don't know, and I suspect we all may feel differently. My preference would have been to call the SB's all-in, see what the Dealer does, and then hope to check the hand down if the board is unfavorable. How did things end for the BB? He hung in valiantly for a few hands, but was ultimately knocked out by the Dealer for a third place finish.
What do you think? Is it ever okay to just fold A K, even if you don't believe you opponent has one of the top two pairs? Sound off in the comments section, and thanks for reading.
Four players remain out of ten entrants. Blinds are 1000/2000. The Dealer has a little over 50,000 chips, SB has 15,600, BB has approximately 60,000, and Player A has approximately 50,000. This tournament pays only two places, with a bulk of the payout going to first place. Player A is first to act.
Player A folds and the Dealer raises to 6,000. SB goes all-in for his final 15,600. BB re-raises all-in. After some thought, the Dealer calls. Dealer shows K K, SB shows A J unsuited, and BB shows A K unsuited.
The board comes 8 5 4 8 Q. No flush for the SB or BB. The Dealer takes down a total pot of close to 120,000. The BB is left with approximately 8,000 chips, or enough for about 4 big blinds. SB is knocked out of the tournament.
My thoughts on this hand:
The Dealer made a standard raise of 3 times the big blind. Although this may indicate some type of hand, it is difficult to confidently put the Dealer on a big pocket pair, due to his position and chip stack. SB's push all-in for his remaining 15,600 with A J makes sense as he is getting desperate and A J is a good hand with 4 players at the table. So what do we make of the play by the BB?
The BB had several options at this point, all of them defensible.
A) The BB chose to go all-in, risking a significant portion of his chip stack. This was an attempt at an isolation play. The BB had a strong enough hand to call SB's all-in bet. The BB wanted to compete only with the SB and made a re-raise to try to eliminate the Dealer from the hand. The BB may also have suspected the Dealer was making a move to steal the blinds based on the Dealer's position and chip stack. Finally, when considered in a vacuum, A K is a very strong hand. The only hands you don't want to see from your opponent is pocket Aces or pocket Kings. The likelihood of one opponent holding either of those hands is remote, even more so considering the BB had an Ace and a King in his hand.
B) The BB could have made a mid-size raise. House rules would have allowed the BB to re-raise the SB's all-in bet to as little as 25,200. A raise in the neighborhood of 30,000 would have given the BB a chance to see if the Dealer was serious about his hand, while leaving him with about 30,000 if he met resistance and suspected the Dealer did have a big pocket pair. Or perhaps the Dealer would have only called a mid-size raise and the BB would at least see a flop before making a big decision for the rest of his chips.
C) The BB could have called the SB's all-in bet of 15,600. Action would go back to the Dealer, who could fold, call, or re-raise. If the Dealer then went all-in, and the BB believed the story the Dealer was telling, the BB could get away from the hand and still have 45,000 in his stack. Another reason the Dealer may just call the all-in bet of 15,600 is to execute an unspoken cooperation play. The Dealer and the BB had an opportunity to eliminate a player from the tournament, and move one step close to finishing in the money. The Dealer may have felt, even with a premium hand, that two players have a better chance of eliminating the small stack. The Dealer may have called the SB's all-in, and then the Dealer and the BB could have checked down the hand hoping one of them would eliminate the SB. Or the Dealer may have bet out after a safe-looking flop and again the BB could have made a big decision with the benefit of more information. In the end, had the BB opted to just call the SB's all-in, he may have escaped the hand with 45,000 chips, 3 players remaining, and very much alive in the chase for the money.
D) The BB could have folded his hand pre-flop. This would be a very conservative play. However, if the BB felt the Dealer would call the SB's all-in bet, the BB could have just left it to the Dealer to try to knock out the SB. The factors lending to a call from the Dealer were very compelling. The Dealer would only need to put in another 9,600 to play for a pot that would be over 30,000. The Dealer had enough chips to commit to a pot with the SB. And the SB was very short-stacked with only about 8 big blinds left. The SB could be making this move with any two cards. Finally, the Dealer's raise could have just been a move to steal the blinds, or it could have been a bet for value. The BB may have been unsure what the Dealer was holding, and rather than risk his tournament with 2 unpaired cards, the BB may have decided to let the Dealer eliminate the SB. Bottom line, had the BB just folded, he had the potential of playing three-handed with approximately 60,000 chips.
This hand reminds me of a saying from basketball that used to drive me nuts. Announcers or pundits would often say that in the last minute of the game, referees should just "let the players play." Meaning the referees should be less willing to call a foul in the last minute of the game, so that the players on the court determine the outcome. I never agreed with that concept. I felt if a foul would be called in the early part of the game, then a foul should be called in the last minute. I worried the "let the players play" mentality was a benefit to the defense, who could be more physically aggressive in the final minute without the consequence of a foul.
So is it the same in poker? If the BB would have made a big re-raise with A K early in the tournament, shouldn't he behave the same way in the late stages? I don't know, and I suspect we all may feel differently. My preference would have been to call the SB's all-in, see what the Dealer does, and then hope to check the hand down if the board is unfavorable. How did things end for the BB? He hung in valiantly for a few hands, but was ultimately knocked out by the Dealer for a third place finish.
What do you think? Is it ever okay to just fold A K, even if you don't believe you opponent has one of the top two pairs? Sound off in the comments section, and thanks for reading.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Hand No. 4
This hand provides a good example of how to play your way into trouble with A K.
A little under one hour into a multi-table tournament. Over 300 players remain out of a starting field of 450. Blinds are 50/100. The three players involved in the hand have just over 3,000 chips, while the chip average is 2,000. The BB has been playing with a wide range of hands and his chip stack has fluctuated wildly. Player A at one time had over 7,000 chips, but had recently come back to the pack. Player E's play has been pretty standard.
Player A raises to 200. Action folds around to Player E, who calls the 200. SB folds, but BB calls the extra 100. Pot is 650 heading to the flop.
The flop shows 7h 7d 3d. BB checks, Players A & E also check.
The turn is the Ace of spades. BB checks. Player A bets 700. Player E calls 700. BB raises to 1,400. Player A goes all-in, Player E calls for the remainder of his chips. BB calls the all-in bets, and barely has the other two players covered. BB shows 9c7c, Player A shows Ac 3s, and Player E shows Ad Kd. The pot is now a little over 9,000.
The river is a useless 8 of spades. BB wins a very large pot with trip 7s. The BB now has over 9,000 chips to play with. Players A & E are knocked out of the tournament.
My thoughts on the hand:
Player A made a min-raise in first position with A 3 unsuited. As we have discussed before, this may not be enough of a raise to really define any other player's hands. Player A also had a player in the BB who had shown a willingness to play for big pots with any two cards. Nevertheless, Player A only got two callers with his raise. The flop paired Player A's 3, giving him two pair. Player A elected to check rather than make a continuation bet or a bet that could have ended the hand. The presence of two 7s on the flop made is less likely anyone else was holding a 7 (though not impossible obviously). Player A's two pair may have been the best hand at the flop, and by checking he was giving any player with 4 diamonds a free chance at their draw to a flush. But again, Player A's pre-flop raise wasn't enough to give him an idea of where he was in the hand, so he may have checked in case someone limped in with a middle pair.
Player A made a better two pair on the turn when the Ace hit, but his 3 was now his kicker, and he is probably losing to anyone who called with an Ace. Now Player A tries to define his hand with a pot-sized bet, which gets called by Player E and then raised by the BB. Player A opts to push all-in at this point. Should Player A have given up at this point in the hand? Player A still had just over 2,000 chips remaining after committing about 1,000 to the pot so far. One thing about these multi-table tourneys with so many entrants is you have to collect as many chips as possible early on to outlast the ever-increasing blinds and survive an occasional bad beat. It was probably worth it to Player A to risk the remainder of his chips to build up a large stack.
Player E elected to just call the min-raise pre-flop with suited A K. Player E experienced the same problem as Player A. That bet was not enough to get rid of the BB. In fact, Player E's call gave the BB even better pot odds to call with any two cards. A bet of 4 to 5 times the big blind may have been enough to chase out the BB, and he may have bet out Player A too. That's not much value for A K, but at least Player E would have been protecting himself from the tragedy that befell him, and still would have been alive in the tournament. Player E had an opportunity to learn more about the hand on the flop, but also elected to check. It could be argued Player E needed to bet for value with 4 cards to a flush. But Player E was being given a free opportunity to make his flush, so a check here is probably okay too.
Player E had to be excited about the Ace on the turn, as he now had top two-pair with the best kicker, as well as a draw to the nut flush. Player E is probably now committed to this hand no matter what. However, Player E only called the bet of 700 from Player A on the turn. Perhaps Player E was concerned about the presence of the BB in the hand, or could sense something was up. Player E may have been trying to keep the BB in the hand, in case he also had a weaker Ace. Player E was facing the same chip-building dilemma as the other players in the tourney, and he did have some outs in case someone was holding a 7, so (combined with the strength of his hand) his call of the all-in bet makes sense.
The BB played the hand perfectly and maximized his value for the hand. The BB had the appropriate pot odds to call the pre-flop bets with his 9 7. The flop gave him exactly what he was looking for with the trip 7s. Some may argue he needed to lead out on the flop to protect against the draw to the flush. On the other hand, his hand is so strong that the BB could probably afford to risk the draws to allow other players to improve. The BB correctly guessed the turn gave at least one of the other players a pair of Aces, so chose to spring his trap by checking the turn and then raising the bets. His raise was enough to goad the Players with an Ace to go all-in. The BB may have been better served to go all-in rather than make the minimum raise on the turn. He probably had one fish hooked, but Player E's call on the turn may have been an indication he was drawing to the flush. Nevertheless, it all worked out great for the BB.
So what do you think? Is A 3 unsuited strong enough to raise from 1st position? What should Player E have done with the AK suited pre-flop? Feel free to leave your comments, and thanks for reading.
A little under one hour into a multi-table tournament. Over 300 players remain out of a starting field of 450. Blinds are 50/100. The three players involved in the hand have just over 3,000 chips, while the chip average is 2,000. The BB has been playing with a wide range of hands and his chip stack has fluctuated wildly. Player A at one time had over 7,000 chips, but had recently come back to the pack. Player E's play has been pretty standard.
Player A raises to 200. Action folds around to Player E, who calls the 200. SB folds, but BB calls the extra 100. Pot is 650 heading to the flop.
The flop shows 7h 7d 3d. BB checks, Players A & E also check.
The turn is the Ace of spades. BB checks. Player A bets 700. Player E calls 700. BB raises to 1,400. Player A goes all-in, Player E calls for the remainder of his chips. BB calls the all-in bets, and barely has the other two players covered. BB shows 9c7c, Player A shows Ac 3s, and Player E shows Ad Kd. The pot is now a little over 9,000.
The river is a useless 8 of spades. BB wins a very large pot with trip 7s. The BB now has over 9,000 chips to play with. Players A & E are knocked out of the tournament.
My thoughts on the hand:
Player A made a min-raise in first position with A 3 unsuited. As we have discussed before, this may not be enough of a raise to really define any other player's hands. Player A also had a player in the BB who had shown a willingness to play for big pots with any two cards. Nevertheless, Player A only got two callers with his raise. The flop paired Player A's 3, giving him two pair. Player A elected to check rather than make a continuation bet or a bet that could have ended the hand. The presence of two 7s on the flop made is less likely anyone else was holding a 7 (though not impossible obviously). Player A's two pair may have been the best hand at the flop, and by checking he was giving any player with 4 diamonds a free chance at their draw to a flush. But again, Player A's pre-flop raise wasn't enough to give him an idea of where he was in the hand, so he may have checked in case someone limped in with a middle pair.
Player A made a better two pair on the turn when the Ace hit, but his 3 was now his kicker, and he is probably losing to anyone who called with an Ace. Now Player A tries to define his hand with a pot-sized bet, which gets called by Player E and then raised by the BB. Player A opts to push all-in at this point. Should Player A have given up at this point in the hand? Player A still had just over 2,000 chips remaining after committing about 1,000 to the pot so far. One thing about these multi-table tourneys with so many entrants is you have to collect as many chips as possible early on to outlast the ever-increasing blinds and survive an occasional bad beat. It was probably worth it to Player A to risk the remainder of his chips to build up a large stack.
Player E elected to just call the min-raise pre-flop with suited A K. Player E experienced the same problem as Player A. That bet was not enough to get rid of the BB. In fact, Player E's call gave the BB even better pot odds to call with any two cards. A bet of 4 to 5 times the big blind may have been enough to chase out the BB, and he may have bet out Player A too. That's not much value for A K, but at least Player E would have been protecting himself from the tragedy that befell him, and still would have been alive in the tournament. Player E had an opportunity to learn more about the hand on the flop, but also elected to check. It could be argued Player E needed to bet for value with 4 cards to a flush. But Player E was being given a free opportunity to make his flush, so a check here is probably okay too.
Player E had to be excited about the Ace on the turn, as he now had top two-pair with the best kicker, as well as a draw to the nut flush. Player E is probably now committed to this hand no matter what. However, Player E only called the bet of 700 from Player A on the turn. Perhaps Player E was concerned about the presence of the BB in the hand, or could sense something was up. Player E may have been trying to keep the BB in the hand, in case he also had a weaker Ace. Player E was facing the same chip-building dilemma as the other players in the tourney, and he did have some outs in case someone was holding a 7, so (combined with the strength of his hand) his call of the all-in bet makes sense.
The BB played the hand perfectly and maximized his value for the hand. The BB had the appropriate pot odds to call the pre-flop bets with his 9 7. The flop gave him exactly what he was looking for with the trip 7s. Some may argue he needed to lead out on the flop to protect against the draw to the flush. On the other hand, his hand is so strong that the BB could probably afford to risk the draws to allow other players to improve. The BB correctly guessed the turn gave at least one of the other players a pair of Aces, so chose to spring his trap by checking the turn and then raising the bets. His raise was enough to goad the Players with an Ace to go all-in. The BB may have been better served to go all-in rather than make the minimum raise on the turn. He probably had one fish hooked, but Player E's call on the turn may have been an indication he was drawing to the flush. Nevertheless, it all worked out great for the BB.
So what do you think? Is A 3 unsuited strong enough to raise from 1st position? What should Player E have done with the AK suited pre-flop? Feel free to leave your comments, and thanks for reading.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Hand No. 2 - Picture as promised, I hope
Hopefully, this worked. A picture of the Quad 10s vs. Aces full of tens.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Hand No. 3
In my discussion of Hand No. 1, I mentioned the sandwich effect. This entry will show how concerns about the sandwich effect (and other odd things about the hand) saved my bacon.
Very early in an online tournament. Table of ten players, everyone still close to original chip stack of 1500. Blinds are 10/20. I am Player A in this discussion.
Player A has Jc Jd and is first to act pre-flop. Player A calls for 20 and Player C calls for 20. Player D raises to 40, and Player E & F call. BB calls for 40. Back to Player A who calls 40, as does Player C. Pot is 250.
Flop is 3s 8c 9c. BB leads out with a bet of 250. Player A folds, Player C folds, Player D goes all-in, Player E & Player F fold. BB calls.
BB shows pocket 8s, Player D shows pocket Aces. Turn and river are blanks. BB wins pot of 3320 with a set of 8s. Both players had and equal chip stack, so Player D is out.
My thoughts about this hand:
First of all, my play. I hate pocket Jacks, and I especially hate having to act first at a full table with pocket Jacks. They are of course worth playing, so I limped in hoping to see a flop with a bunch of low cards. The raise to 40 was easy to call. I got the flop I wanted with the 3s 8c 9c. Fortunately, I was no longer first to act. BB led out with a pot-sized bet that was very suspicious. Since he only had to call a raise of 20 from the big blind, he could have had anything at this point. My initial thought was something like A8 or A9, but two-pair, flush draw, and straight draw are also possible. At this point I seriously consider raising his bet, maybe to 500. Then I realize there are still 4 players left to act. Now, not only I am thinking about what sort of tricky, trappy hand the BB may have, I am worried about what awaits with the players behind me. Because of the pre-flop betting I have no clue as to what anyone is holding. Since I don't know where I am in the hand, and its still very early in the tournament, I decide to fold. Turns out, I was third best at this point.
Player D decided to raise only the minimum with his pocket Aces. This is a bet I see a lot in online games. Someone with Pocket Aces or Kings raises the minimum, presumably to keep players in and build the pot. However, as I've noted before, Pocket Aces are great against 1or 2 players, but against 3 or more they start to lose their value (in a playability sense - I may need to describe this concept better in a future entry). To me, the min-raise makes more sense when the blinds are a significant portion of the chip stacks, but early on your not going to drive out many hands with that raise. In this case, I'm not sure any raise would have driven out the BB with pocket 8s. And Player D may have lost all his chips in that hand no matter how it was bet. Player D's loss here could be summed up as "Well, that's poker." But I have seen this sort of betting with huge pocket pairs backfire too many times. With some limpers in front of him, I would have liked to see Player D raise 4 or 5 times the blind to whittle the field down to 2 or 3 players. And then he probably loses all his chips.
Have any opinions on how to play Pocket Jacks? What do you think of raising the minimum with Aces? Let me know in the comments section, and thanks for reading.
Very early in an online tournament. Table of ten players, everyone still close to original chip stack of 1500. Blinds are 10/20. I am Player A in this discussion.
Player A has Jc Jd and is first to act pre-flop. Player A calls for 20 and Player C calls for 20. Player D raises to 40, and Player E & F call. BB calls for 40. Back to Player A who calls 40, as does Player C. Pot is 250.
Flop is 3s 8c 9c. BB leads out with a bet of 250. Player A folds, Player C folds, Player D goes all-in, Player E & Player F fold. BB calls.
BB shows pocket 8s, Player D shows pocket Aces. Turn and river are blanks. BB wins pot of 3320 with a set of 8s. Both players had and equal chip stack, so Player D is out.
My thoughts about this hand:
First of all, my play. I hate pocket Jacks, and I especially hate having to act first at a full table with pocket Jacks. They are of course worth playing, so I limped in hoping to see a flop with a bunch of low cards. The raise to 40 was easy to call. I got the flop I wanted with the 3s 8c 9c. Fortunately, I was no longer first to act. BB led out with a pot-sized bet that was very suspicious. Since he only had to call a raise of 20 from the big blind, he could have had anything at this point. My initial thought was something like A8 or A9, but two-pair, flush draw, and straight draw are also possible. At this point I seriously consider raising his bet, maybe to 500. Then I realize there are still 4 players left to act. Now, not only I am thinking about what sort of tricky, trappy hand the BB may have, I am worried about what awaits with the players behind me. Because of the pre-flop betting I have no clue as to what anyone is holding. Since I don't know where I am in the hand, and its still very early in the tournament, I decide to fold. Turns out, I was third best at this point.
Player D decided to raise only the minimum with his pocket Aces. This is a bet I see a lot in online games. Someone with Pocket Aces or Kings raises the minimum, presumably to keep players in and build the pot. However, as I've noted before, Pocket Aces are great against 1or 2 players, but against 3 or more they start to lose their value (in a playability sense - I may need to describe this concept better in a future entry). To me, the min-raise makes more sense when the blinds are a significant portion of the chip stacks, but early on your not going to drive out many hands with that raise. In this case, I'm not sure any raise would have driven out the BB with pocket 8s. And Player D may have lost all his chips in that hand no matter how it was bet. Player D's loss here could be summed up as "Well, that's poker." But I have seen this sort of betting with huge pocket pairs backfire too many times. With some limpers in front of him, I would have liked to see Player D raise 4 or 5 times the blind to whittle the field down to 2 or 3 players. And then he probably loses all his chips.
Have any opinions on how to play Pocket Jacks? What do you think of raising the minimum with Aces? Let me know in the comments section, and thanks for reading.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Hand No. 2
I'm including this hand not because it involves any complicated poker principals, but because its the sort of hand you keep talking about for weeks and weeks. I was the dealer and sometimes you can't believe the cards that actually come off your fingers.
Late in the tournament, blinds are 500/1000. The players involved were two of the bigger stacks at the table. Action folds to Player E, who raised to 2500. Table folds to SB, who re-raises to 5000. E raised to 8300 (a proper raise in this game), SB goes all-in and Player E calls for the remainder of his chips. SB shows pocket Aces, Player E has pocket 10s. SB has Player E covered. Pot is approximately 40,000.
The flop is J A 4. Player E has no flush draw and now needs running 10s or running straight cards to win the hands. River is a 10, and Player E needs the final 10 to win and stay alive. I dealt the final 10 on the river and felt like I had been struck by lightening. Player E wins the hand with quad 10s to the SB's Aces full of 10s.
Several of the folks at the table with smart phones took the time to take a picture of the hand, and if I can figure out how to post pictures in this blog, I'll put one of them up.
There was some debate as to Player E's chances of winning the hand after the flop, whether it was 2% or 1%. All I know is it was low. I do know a better card for Player E on the turn would have been something like a Q, which would have left him with 4 Kings as outs rather than the one 10. But whatever.
I see this hand as proof that no matter how well you play on any given night, sometimes the poker gods are just out to get you.
Late in the tournament, blinds are 500/1000. The players involved were two of the bigger stacks at the table. Action folds to Player E, who raised to 2500. Table folds to SB, who re-raises to 5000. E raised to 8300 (a proper raise in this game), SB goes all-in and Player E calls for the remainder of his chips. SB shows pocket Aces, Player E has pocket 10s. SB has Player E covered. Pot is approximately 40,000.
The flop is J A 4. Player E has no flush draw and now needs running 10s or running straight cards to win the hands. River is a 10, and Player E needs the final 10 to win and stay alive. I dealt the final 10 on the river and felt like I had been struck by lightening. Player E wins the hand with quad 10s to the SB's Aces full of 10s.
Several of the folks at the table with smart phones took the time to take a picture of the hand, and if I can figure out how to post pictures in this blog, I'll put one of them up.
There was some debate as to Player E's chances of winning the hand after the flop, whether it was 2% or 1%. All I know is it was low. I do know a better card for Player E on the turn would have been something like a Q, which would have left him with 4 Kings as outs rather than the one 10. But whatever.
I see this hand as proof that no matter how well you play on any given night, sometimes the poker gods are just out to get you.
Hand No. 1
8 players at the table, relatively early in the tournament. Everyone is close to original chip stack of 16,000. Blinds are at 200/400. I am Player A in this hand and first to act pre-flop.
Player A raises to 1300 with 5s 5c. All players at the table call for 1300. The pot is now 10,400. The flop is Qd 10d 4o. BB bets 2500. Player A folds. Player B raises to 6000. Player C calls. All other players fold around to BB, who calls the additional 3500. Pot is now 28,400.
Turn is a 6o. BB checks, Player B goes all-in for final 6,300. Palyer C calls, and BB calls. BB has 1200 left. Pot is now 47,300.
River is 9o. BB checks, Palyer C puts BB all-in for 1200. BB calls. Showdown: Player B has AQ, Player C has KQ, and BB has Kd 10d. Player B wins main pot with pair of Queens, Ace kicker. Player C wins small side-pot with pair of Queens, King kicker.
Some thoughts about this hand:
My initial raise was probably a poor play. Pocket 5s are the kind of hand you like to limp in and hope to flop a set or a bunch of low cards. Once the queen and the 10 hit the board, and the with whole table left to act after me, I was done with the hand.
Player B made a good play to raise the BB's bet on the flop. The flop presented both a strait and a flush draw, and Player B had the whole table (minus Player A) to act behind him. Also, after the hand one player showed he folded pocket 6s to the raise on the flop. The turn would have given this player a set of 6s. Player Bs raise not only dissuaded the drawing hands from sticking around, but also bet out pairs below the board to prevent them from sticking around and spiking their set. 2500 may have been enticing enough for the 6s to hang around, but the raise to 6000 shoved him out.
Finally, the most interesting aspect of this hand occurred during the betting pre-flop. I raised the bet to 1300. Everyone behind me simply called the raise to 1300. I would have loved to have seen one of the last players to act put in a big re-raise, somewhere in the neighborhood of 6000 to 7500. The fact that everyone only called indicated they had decent, but not great cards. Had someone held something like pockets Qs or higher, they would have put in a raise already. Hands like that are great against one or two players, but not against an entire table. You also had people in middle position calling just because they were priced in. The pot was building 1300 chips at a time, so it would have been a decent take for someone in late position. A big re-raise from late position probably could have knocked out the marginal hands and those who called due to pot odds.
The other thing a re-raise would have going for it is something called the squeeze play or the sandwich effect. Since so many people had called already, each player left to act after the big re-raise would have had the players behind them to worry about too. Therefore it would have been harder to call the big re-raise with something less then a big pocket pair.
Opportunities like this don't come often, and its tough to put in a big re-raise if you're not holding decent cards. I recall trying this one-time and I still got one caller. Though I was ahead pre-flop, the caller outdrew me on the flop and I lost all my chips.
Feel free to share you're thoughts about this hand in the comments section. I'd be especially interested in what you have to say about the big re-raise idea. Thanks for reading.
Player A raises to 1300 with 5s 5c. All players at the table call for 1300. The pot is now 10,400. The flop is Qd 10d 4o. BB bets 2500. Player A folds. Player B raises to 6000. Player C calls. All other players fold around to BB, who calls the additional 3500. Pot is now 28,400.
Turn is a 6o. BB checks, Player B goes all-in for final 6,300. Palyer C calls, and BB calls. BB has 1200 left. Pot is now 47,300.
River is 9o. BB checks, Palyer C puts BB all-in for 1200. BB calls. Showdown: Player B has AQ, Player C has KQ, and BB has Kd 10d. Player B wins main pot with pair of Queens, Ace kicker. Player C wins small side-pot with pair of Queens, King kicker.
Some thoughts about this hand:
My initial raise was probably a poor play. Pocket 5s are the kind of hand you like to limp in and hope to flop a set or a bunch of low cards. Once the queen and the 10 hit the board, and the with whole table left to act after me, I was done with the hand.
Player B made a good play to raise the BB's bet on the flop. The flop presented both a strait and a flush draw, and Player B had the whole table (minus Player A) to act behind him. Also, after the hand one player showed he folded pocket 6s to the raise on the flop. The turn would have given this player a set of 6s. Player Bs raise not only dissuaded the drawing hands from sticking around, but also bet out pairs below the board to prevent them from sticking around and spiking their set. 2500 may have been enticing enough for the 6s to hang around, but the raise to 6000 shoved him out.
Finally, the most interesting aspect of this hand occurred during the betting pre-flop. I raised the bet to 1300. Everyone behind me simply called the raise to 1300. I would have loved to have seen one of the last players to act put in a big re-raise, somewhere in the neighborhood of 6000 to 7500. The fact that everyone only called indicated they had decent, but not great cards. Had someone held something like pockets Qs or higher, they would have put in a raise already. Hands like that are great against one or two players, but not against an entire table. You also had people in middle position calling just because they were priced in. The pot was building 1300 chips at a time, so it would have been a decent take for someone in late position. A big re-raise from late position probably could have knocked out the marginal hands and those who called due to pot odds.
The other thing a re-raise would have going for it is something called the squeeze play or the sandwich effect. Since so many people had called already, each player left to act after the big re-raise would have had the players behind them to worry about too. Therefore it would have been harder to call the big re-raise with something less then a big pocket pair.
Opportunities like this don't come often, and its tough to put in a big re-raise if you're not holding decent cards. I recall trying this one-time and I still got one caller. Though I was ahead pre-flop, the caller outdrew me on the flop and I lost all my chips.
Feel free to share you're thoughts about this hand in the comments section. I'd be especially interested in what you have to say about the big re-raise idea. Thanks for reading.
Comments
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. Please be respectful of the blogger and the commenters. Abusive comments are subject to deletion. Again, this blog is not meant to be an avenue to criticize or complain about another player's style of play. This blog is meant to be an open forum for all players, representing all levels of experience and tendencies to discuss particular hands.
The comments section can also be a place for you to suggest a hand for discussion. I ask that you mirror the style of the blog when setting up the hand. If I like your suggestion, I may create a new entry where I copy your hand and discussion into the entry.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. My goal is for all of us to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of Texas Hold'em. As I often say, "I hate how much I love this game."
The comments section can also be a place for you to suggest a hand for discussion. I ask that you mirror the style of the blog when setting up the hand. If I like your suggestion, I may create a new entry where I copy your hand and discussion into the entry.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. My goal is for all of us to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of Texas Hold'em. As I often say, "I hate how much I love this game."
Method
As I stated, the purpose of this blog is to discuss hands of Texas Hold'em I've recently witnessed. That means I will only discuss hands I've personally seen played at my home game, online, or on TV. Each entry will be a hand I think is worth discussion. I will not make up hypothetical hands to discuss certain Hold'em principals, such as pot odds, drawing hands, or pushing all-in. That is how some of the poker books I've read are written. Instead, we will see these principals play out in real hands, and we will see how these principals hold up.
At the start, there are cerrtain limitations we'll need to overcome. I will have to take notes in order to capture every aspect of the hand. But I will occasionally lose some details, especially in online games where hands are played very quickly. Nevertheless, I will do my best to discuss each hand fully. In addition, I realize online play differs greatly from "live" play. So sometimes the discussion of a hand from my home game may focus on how it would turn out differently if played online, and vice versa.
Out of respect to my opponents (friends) at my home game, I will reveal the hole cards of a player only if that player reveals them during the hand in discussion. Sometimes we may discuss a hand where we won't know the hole cards of a player involved in the hand. So part of the discussion could be trying to guess the hole cards based on how the hand played out.
I do intend to protect the innocent. Although, I will discuss hands from my home game, no names will be used. Perceptive players from my home game may be able to discern the players involved in a hand from the context clues, and I hope they will respect my attempts at maintaining anonymity. I will use a short-hand for players that many of you will recognize. "D" will stand for the player in the dealer position, "SB" will stand for the player in the small blind position, and "BB" will stand for the big blind. The player immediately to the left of the big blind is Player A or "A", to the left of Player A is "B," and so on around the table. The same naming convention will be used for hands from online games and TV. On exception, I will identify myself in the hands I participate in. And since I pay more attention to hands I play, we'll probably discuss a lot of my hands.
At the start, there are cerrtain limitations we'll need to overcome. I will have to take notes in order to capture every aspect of the hand. But I will occasionally lose some details, especially in online games where hands are played very quickly. Nevertheless, I will do my best to discuss each hand fully. In addition, I realize online play differs greatly from "live" play. So sometimes the discussion of a hand from my home game may focus on how it would turn out differently if played online, and vice versa.
Out of respect to my opponents (friends) at my home game, I will reveal the hole cards of a player only if that player reveals them during the hand in discussion. Sometimes we may discuss a hand where we won't know the hole cards of a player involved in the hand. So part of the discussion could be trying to guess the hole cards based on how the hand played out.
I do intend to protect the innocent. Although, I will discuss hands from my home game, no names will be used. Perceptive players from my home game may be able to discern the players involved in a hand from the context clues, and I hope they will respect my attempts at maintaining anonymity. I will use a short-hand for players that many of you will recognize. "D" will stand for the player in the dealer position, "SB" will stand for the player in the small blind position, and "BB" will stand for the big blind. The player immediately to the left of the big blind is Player A or "A", to the left of Player A is "B," and so on around the table. The same naming convention will be used for hands from online games and TV. On exception, I will identify myself in the hands I participate in. And since I pay more attention to hands I play, we'll probably discuss a lot of my hands.
Purpose
I've been playing Texas Hold'em in various "home games" for about 8 years and I've been playing online for about 4 years. I enjoy playing the game not because I get a thrill from gambling, but rather I enjoy the strategy involved in the game. One thing I miss while playing in both home games and online is discussion of the hands as they are played, a sort of post-mortem of the hands. I suppose the idea appeals to my analytical nature. Time constraints usually inhibit discussion of the hands, or sometimes there is no discussion out of deference to the loser of the hand.
The purpose of this blog is to discuss interesting hands I have seen, whether at my home game, online, or on television. I want to discuss every aspect of the hand. How it was played pre-flop, on the flop, turn, and river. What was the position of the players in the hand, their chip stacks, and the size of the pot. I want to discuss why the hand played out the way it did, and how it could have been played differently.
It is NOT the purpose of this blog to be critical of anyone's play, or style of play. Everyone makes tough decisions accounting for a number of factors, including but not limited to: experience, chips stacks, pot odds, and "gut feelings." I may state there is a better play, or a better result may have been achieved, but that is only my opinion - and I am often wrong.
This is not a teaching blog. I assume the reader has a basic understanding of the rules and strategy of Texas Hold'em. If you want to learn to play Texas Hold'em, there are a number of books and websites I can direct you to. I am not a professional poker player. You will NOT be a better player just by reading this blog. My hope is that the reader and I will develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of this wonderful game.
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