7 replies to this topic

[Egarim]

Ok. I posted this on general forum yesterday and one guy criticized my play. SO i'm curious to see what people think of these 2 key hands in the 350k Guranteed on PP. I finished 38th out of 2000. Questions: How many people make these types of plays regularly? How many people think it's a fairly standard play? How advanced do you think these plays are?1. Blinds 150-300. My stack around 11+k.Everyone folds to me and i'm a few places off the button. I look at jh 7h. Ugly. So what do i do? Raise. I just bump it up to 600 (People have been rolling over and folding to that raise, so why not?).Very solid player on button calls cold. (Sh1t) I put him on either low-mid pp or a-x suited up to aj. Small possiblity of kjs or something like that.sb and bb call. (Ok i give up...)FLop comes 2c 3 6c.Everyone checks around.Turn brings 5 (irrelevant suit). Ok i have an inside draw (I'm not too thrilled).SB bets out 2k (He's about even with me in chips).BB folds.It's on me.I'm thinking the button checked on flop so he either had a set or has nothing. I've ruled out a mid pair and a flush draw from him. So I figure he has to be scared of the str8. Of course I should be too. But that 2k bet just doesn't scream str8 to me. So... with my jack high i bump it up to 4k. Minimum raise so it looks like i have the str8 and I'm milking him.Button folds. (good, solid player is out)SB QUICKLY calls. (ok... not look good)River brings a kh filling no draws.SB checks. Decision time!10.4k in pot. I'm down to around 7k left. I'm thinking if he had the str8 he would've reraised me on the turn. If he had a pair he's gotta be afraid of the k and str8. Maybe he has 2pair, a set, or a flush draw. After putting the pieces together i have him on a flush draw. SO i go all-in. Risking it all late in the tourney and HE FOLDS! I take a huge pot and the lead at the table.

[Egarim]

We're in the money! (top 220 in the money)Blinds are at 1500-3000. I have about 42k in chips.Early pos raiser makes it 8500 to go. He is a fairly solid player. He hasn't showed many hands though, but he hasn't raised many. Only hand I"ve seen from him is him raising in ep 8500 (with same blinds) with pocket 9s.Everyone folds to me in bb. I look down at 88. Not bad... but not great vs an ep raiser.So i take a flop.Flop comes kc 10c 6c. I have no clubs. Worst flop ever....SO... decision time. I can take a stab at it and hope he had a mid pair. BUT there's a good chance he has ak, a big pair, or a-x with the club. I feel that if i bet into him i open myself to a raise and i'll be forced to fold. SO the only way i can win this is if i checkraise him here and he doesn't have it.I check first.He checks behind me. (not extremely quick... just a couple secs later)Turn brings Jc. Well now I'm in a real jam. I can bet at this and try to take it down, but i feel that i'll be open to a raise. It would be too obvious if i bet here with 4 clubs on board. He would know that i dont have the Ac and would raise me forcing me to fold.I check again.This time he bets out almost 10k. (some odd number like 9700).DECISION TIME! 28.5k in pot. I have rougly 33-34k in chips.I'm thinking... well, if he had the ace of clubs he would've definitely bet on the flop with a semi-bluff. There's no way he would've checked that. Maybe he has ak? Maybe a mid pp? If he has ak he doesn't have the club. If he has a mid pp he might have the club. OK... so basically, does he have a good club???.... I put the pieces together and decide the 4card flush is too dangerous for him. If he made a good flush here he wouldn't bet 10k putting me to a very tough decision.SO.... I bump it up to 25k!!! ( yes that leaves me with 7-8k left. If he goes allin i fold and have enough to play. But i'm trying to represent that i want a caller too.)He thinks for a long longggg time. My heart is pounding here. But finally he gives it up! That hand puts me above 70k and a huge force to be reckoned with!

[PoppinFresh]

In the first hand, I have to say it's a bad raise on the turn. On the river, I probably would have taken a stab at it as well, although I wouldn't have pushed. If you bet 5k he probably folds the same hands that he would to 7k but if he calls you still have 2k with a 300 big blind and you're not completely out of it. The second hand is a terrible raise IMO...Edit: Oh, and the preflop play in the first hand is pretty bad also IMO...don't just double the blind with no hand, you're inviting callers.

[Vade]

Egarim said:

Ok. I posted this on general forum yesterday and one guy criticized my play. SO i'm curious to see what people think of these 2 key hands in the 350k Guranteed on PP. I finished 38th out of 2000. Questions: How many people make these types of plays regularly? How many people think it's a fairly standard play? How advanced do you think these plays are?1. Blinds 150-300. My stack around 11+k.Everyone folds to me and i'm a few places off the button. I look at jh 7h. Ugly. So what do i do? Raise. I just bump it up to 600 (People have been rolling over and folding to that raise, so why not?).Very solid player on button calls cold. (Sh1t) I put him on either low-mid pp or a-x suited up to aj. Small possiblity of kjs or something like that.sb and bb call. (Ok i give up...)FLop comes 2c 3 6c.Everyone checks around.Turn brings 5 (irrelevant suit). Ok i have an inside draw (I'm not too thrilled).SB bets out 2k (He's about even with me in chips).BB folds.It's on me.I'm thinking the button checked on flop so he either had a set or has nothing. I've ruled out a mid pair and a flush draw from him. So I figure he has to be scared of the str8. Of course I should be too. But that 2k bet just doesn't scream str8 to me. So... with my jack high i bump it up to 4k. Minimum raise so it looks like i have the str8 and I'm milking him.Button folds. (good, solid player is out)SB QUICKLY calls. (ok... not look good)River brings a kh filling no draws.SB checks. Decision time!10.4k in pot. I'm down to around 7k left. I'm thinking if he had the str8 he would've reraised me on the turn. If he had a pair he's gotta be afraid of the k and str8. Maybe he has 2pair, a set, or a flush draw. After putting the pieces together i have him on a flush draw. SO i go all-in. Risking it all late in the tourney and HE FOLDS! I take a huge pot and the lead at the table.

Min raises suck...if you're going to try something, that's not itAnd another min raise on the turn with nothing?It worked, but I didn't like this hand at all :POh, and the second hand...you're lucky to face such tight opponents

[Egarim]

Poppinfresh: I raised on the turn because i thought the solid player on the button would be forced to fold to the very likely str8. And i felt like the sb didn't have the str8 with the 2k bet. So i took a shot to take a comfortable lead and take charge of the table.As for doubling the bb w/ a bad hand on #1. Well i said that the table was kind of a rollover and the blinds were large compared to their stacks. Doubling the bb had worked several times in getting them to fold. + i have a little DN and Gus in me. I like to take flops and play it out. I feel when the table starts taking flops as opposed to all preflop play i gain an advantage. I understand ur criticism since j7s isn't exactly in a skalansky group hand or a hellmuth top 10. But i'm with DN about playing outside the box and not by the book.

[Egarim]

Vade: I did a min. raise on the turn with nothing because well... 2k more is a lot at that stage. Also i wanted to represent that i had the str8. So i thought it was a brilliant play... but like i said in the first post... i wanted to get other opinions. SO i respect ur opinion and appreciate the input. Also, i raise on the turn with nothing because well... i was bluffing . I felt it was a pot i could win and it was an opportunity to build up my stack. I think it takes some heart to pull off a move like that. Does anyone else make bluffs like this??? or does it seem odd and unnecessary to everyone?

[Petoria]

First hand, you're in trouble in too many situations to make the push. Also, you should probably get out of the habit of min. raising. If you're going to steal with J7s, steal with J7s, thats not the bad part (although going in from MP+2 might not be the right time to stab). The bad part is the min. raise preflop, there is a time for the min. raise. preflop steal is not it. The rest of the hand isnt horrible, but you better be for damn sure that SB doesnt have the str8 to risk your entire tournament on a bluff.Second hand, a river bluff that puts your tournament on the line, idk. This situation isnt played as badly as the first one. Very few hands that he can call with in this situation depending on how many chips he has left. His chip position is what you should consider most when deciding whether or not to attempt the bluff.

[Egarim]

Petoria said:

First hand, you're in trouble in too many situations to make the push. Also, you should probably get out of the habit of min. raising. If you're going to steal with J7s, steal with J7s, thats not the bad part (although going in from MP+2 might not be the right time to stab). The bad part is the min. raise preflop, there is a time for the min. raise. preflop steal is not it. The rest of the hand isnt horrible, but you better be for damn sure that SB doesnt have the str8 to risk your entire tournament on a bluff.Second hand, a river bluff that puts your tournament on the line, idk. This situation isnt played as badly as the first one. Very few hands that he can call with in this situation depending on how many chips he has left. His chip position is what you should consider most when deciding whether or not to attempt the bluff.

Well I answered the j7s min raise already. The table was folding to my min. raises. And yes MP isn't a great steal spot... but like i said... i don't like going by the book and just stealing in lp. Maybe it's just me... but it seems really obvious. When im in the bb and lp tries to steal i'm a very tough player. I come over the top a lot and defend my blinds. So, maybe im overthinking it and giving my opponents too much credit. Well, I think u brought up a good point by putting myself at so much risk late in the tournament. I put myself in very marginal situations with plenty of risk. I feel that i thrive in those situations and also those situations are where u get to earn the most chips. U cant sit and wait for aa vs kk all day because ur just as likely to be on the wrong side of that. Also, i dont like plaing like a rock. I think the main reason i'm in these marginal situations is because i go for 1st place and nothing else. 38th is quite disappointing to me. But u bring up a very good point about these marginal/risky situations. I'll think about that and decide whether i need to cut down on those. Thx for the input.Edit: i missed another part of ur reply. In the second hand the guy barely had me covered. He was a solid player as i stated and I knew he wasn't looking to put his chips at risk. I basically risked my whole tourney at this point (well i got guts ), but i have confidence in my play and i like to take advantage of players who are afraid. Usually at this critical point in the tourney there are many players that are too afraid to take risks. They also are looking to move up a lvl or 2 in the money. I'm not one of those players.