13 replies to this topic

[Wily]

Early in a $20 NL multi-table tournament, you've amassed a decent stack of 3000 chips. Blinds are only 40/80. On the cut-off ,you're dealt A 4 . You, MP to your right (with 1900 chips) and the button to your left (with 2100 chips) call. The flop is 10 9 K . MP to your right bets the pot with 400 chips, you raise to 800 to see where you are and to possibly buy a free card, and button to your left quickly goes all in. MP pushes all in too. If you call and lose, you still have about 900 chips left. If you win, you become the biggest stack in the tournament so far. Thoughts? I knew that my only outs would be the hearts, since a single ace could not be good against two all in hands. But I called in this case and won, and it helped me get through to the money immensely. Would you call this?

[wrto4556]

What was the pot laying you?

[Wily]

wrto4556 said:

What was the pot laying you?

around 5:1 or 4.5:1in a ring game, of course I'd call this .. in a tournament, maybe, maybe not. I think the deciding factor was the fact that I covered both of their stacks.

[Wily]

wrto4556 said:

What was the pot laying you?

around 5:1 or 4.5:1in a ring game, of course I'd call this .. in a tournament, maybe, maybe not. I think the deciding factor was the fact that I covered both of their stacks.

[Random Fluke]

you have 1/3 of your stack invested. If you fold you are left with 2000 chips. If you call and loose you are left with 900. With a good chance at hitting the nuts you have to call here.edit: by the way the pot is laying you much better than 5:1 you're way off with that number.

[Suited_Up]

I think that yes, you need to call, but mainly because if you do, you're losing about 2/3 what you started the hand with. If you fold, you're essentially giving 1/3 away for free. Why not call for that 2nd 3rd of the stack, does this make any sense.Basically, you have the odds, but also, will either give 800 away, or call another 800 or so to make triple. (of course numbers aren't exact)

[Absolute]

If you want to make money in poker in the long runyou should start making this call

[akishore]

i think it's an easy call because the pot is laying you so much and because you're already pretty pot-committed.you have to take risks in the middle stages (what this seemed to be), and you especially can't just give away 1/3 of your stack when you have a 35% draw to the nuts. plus, the pot is laying you more than 5:1, so even if you were shortstacked and would be going all-in, it would be a good all-in. you have the chance to quintuple up.aseem

[rollito]

call......too much in the pot and even if you lose you are not in terrible shape.....your short stacked but still have enough to make a comeback....the pot odds and the chance to knock out two players is too great to fold

[Rocketwadster]

I say you have to call based on how you played it. I am curious though how others would have played it from the git-go (ie. the poster tells us what he did and when, but I don't think anyone has critiqued the way he played it).

[rollito]

quick question.....what happened to the small bling and the bb in this hand......if you, mp and the button all just called the bb would have the option....so he would be in the hand and the sb would be in the hand for 1/2 a bet a lot of the time too...just trying to figure out what happened to them

[Random Fluke]

Rocketwadster said:

I say you have to call based on how you played it.  I am curious though how others would have played it from the git-go (ie. the poster tells us what he did and when, but I don't think anyone has critiqued the way he played it).

I think I would have played it basically the same. With the bet of 400 on the flop the guy is saying "Hi, I have a king. Take your straight or flush draws and go home" Now you have the choice of smooth calling or raising. If you smooth call you are saying "Hi, I have either a flush or straight draw." Now the problem with saying that, of course, is if you hit your flush draw on the turn he will fold. However this also gives you the ability to bluff at a straight if the third straight card falls. But if you miss both the straight and flush cards you can be sure he will make it too expensive for you on the turn to draw on the river. By making the min raise here you're sending a message that you are strong and 'hey, give me a few more of your chips'. By saying that you set up the turn so he may check to you on the turn (if he is terrible). You also give yourself a chance to bluff if your flush card misses. The all in bet by the last player is him saying "Hi, I have either 2 pair or a set. Give me all your monies and go away" Now he could also be semi-bluffing with a straight or flush draw here but it would be a horrible horrible spot to semi-bluff and if that is what he is doing he should be slapped. His most likely hand to push with here is probably 9T. You have to call though at this point, if you had smooth called the 400 flop bet you could probably get away from this all-in.

[looshle]

Random Fluke said:

you have 1/3 of your stack invested. If you fold you are left with 2000 chips. If you call and loose you are left with 900. With  a good chance at hitting the nuts you have to call here.edit: by the way the pot is laying you much better than 5:1 you're way off with that number.

Well theres your blinds which are 80 a piece and we'll throw the small and big blind it too because the OP never mentioned them. So blinds = 360The button has 2100 chips and MP has 1900 chips both of which go all in = 4000We raised it to 800 bringing our stack down to 2120 = 800Pot = 360 + 4000 + 800= 5160We have to call 1300.5160/1300 = a little under 4:1

[Wily]

This one was almost too easy to be a WWYD. If you play to win, and not just to blind yourself into the bubble, you have to make this call here. The original bettor turned over K 10, and the all-in raiser to my left turned over 99 for a set of 9's. If there had only one all in-bet, this would've been a HORRIBLE call. This is pretty obvious, but alot of players in tournaments (and in NL cash games) will not drop a nut flush draw to one all in, getting horrible odds and risking their tournament life to a draw that has about the same odds as 2 7o vs AKs preflop. In this case - I did manage to hit my heart flush on the turn, and without the board pairing I tripled up and had an almost guaranteed spot on the final table if I didn't make any mistakes. I'm not a fan of playing too tight in the early and mid stages of a multi-tournament. I know there are a lot of players who do play very tight, only coming in with premium hands and trying to get a double up from beating someone else's premium hand, but I find that they are often mid to small stacked by the late stages of a tournament. That's because they miss the opportunity to pick up easy double ups from bad players' mistakes, and also the opportunity to double or trip up from drawing hands like this when the pot odds are correct. In my next post, I'll talk about suited broadway cards, which I think (when played correctly) are some of the most powerful hands in the mid-stages of a tournament.