Patrick Antonius was being very aggressive and the blinds were large and he pushed in with A-2 from the button. Doyle called him with 3-3. Patrick got miffed that Doyle could call with that hand. He kept saying "How could you call with that?" and Doyle replied "We're playing Poker not Solitare"

I don't know it just made me laugh alot. See I would have been a goober and explained that he was being really agressive and the blinds were big and I had to take a stand, whereas Doyle just summed it all up with one witty retort. I love that guy.

Also just for discussion sake what do you guys think of the call. I think it was not easy but a good play. Would you make it?

Hmm.

Short-stacked, final table, pocket pair...

I call in a heartbeat.

Doyle had to make a stand at some point and why not do it with a pocket pair? Luckily Patrick had one of the best hands that Doyle could've hoped for.

I agree.
So on another note how do you guys feel about his call with A-7 of Petersen's all in (who had i think 2-2).? He was the chip leader at the time. There I thought he could have looked for a better spot. But if he had won the coin-flip he would have had a massive chip lead over Patrick and probably won the tournament...

Personally, I don't mind pushing with A 7. Calling with A 7 is an entirely different matter.

I'm in that position, I want to be the aggressor.

PA did not move in with A 2 from the button.

Doyle was small blind, it folded to him and he limped. PA was in the BB and then raised all-in.

I liked PA's play much better than Doyle's, but I don't think Doyle's was that bad either.

Bad call. What do you think you're beating with 33? This philosophy of "Gotta make stand so I better do it with shitty cards" is what makes the sharks so much money.

Antonius got Doyle to tilt and that's a major accomplishment.

I'm not going to let the results affect my decision. I thought it was a terrible call. He did need to take a stand, but not in that situation.

Sometimes you have to gamble even with a small pocket pair with the blinds that high.

Probably not, but what do I know?

You are talking about the shark of sharks.
Your comment would make more sense in a cash game but in a tournament if you are waiting for aces or kings when the blinds are huge you are not going to win.

I don't know about cash games because I don't play them. I play MTT's almost exclusively though I built my bankroll on SnG's. Of course I know you can't just wait for aces and kings and I hate when people use this line because almost nobody does it. When the time is right, I'll raise, re-raise, and push with any two cards.

Raising with 33 here is the right play. Limp-calling is horrible. He's not limping because he's trapping - he's hoping to see a cheap flop and/or (and this is very likely) tilting. Doyle prides himself on being able to crush any "young gun." Except this time, the young Antonius is getting the best of him.

Doyle has a little more than 14 BBs and an M of 8. Not great shape, but not bad. Certainly not desperate. And he's choosing to fight with the chip leader so he's risking his entire stack. The gap concept is very relevant here: to call a raise you must have a much, much stronger hand than to raise. In this case, the raise is all-in. So ask yourself, what is 33 beating? He's only got a 18-20% chance against 44-AA. Against AKs, not even a 55% favorite. Any other two overcards and 33 is a slight favorite but still a coin flip for all your chips. You don't want to call all-in if you're not desperate unless you're sure he's got 22 or 3x or 2x.

Doyle got really lucky that it was one of those holdings. If a) it wasn't Doyle 33 hadn't held up then I really think most people would easily see what a bad call it was. If Antonius had T6o I think you'd be singing a different song.

You make some good points.
How should have Doyle played the hand limp - fold to the raise?
Standard Raise - Patrick calls then difficult to play after the flop - huge pot.
Standard Raise - Patrick comes over the top all in with his Ace in big blind. Seems Doyle would be priced into a call then too.
Doyle all in from the small blind? Seems the best?

Limping then folding is weak.

I think you can make a case for open-pushing here but with 14 BBs that seems excessive. On the other hand, the WPT FT blinds go up fast enough - and we're 3-handed, that I don't think it's a bad play.

If Doyle opens for 900 or 990k then he's got 3,300,000 left if Antonius comes over the top. Now he's got 11 BBs - sucky, yes but better than busting on a measly pair of 3's.

Antonius may just flat call though. Even 3-handed, he'll have no delusions of grandeur with a measly A2o. Post-flop, there's no real way he can continue with the hand. He'll have no pair, no draw, and one overcard. Easy fold. If he wants to make a play then that's a different story and Doyle may make a great call and as we know, end up winning it.

If Doyle really loves his threes he could do a big over-bet and commit himself to the pot - even to a re-raise all-in PF or to pushing the rest on the flop no matter what the board reads.

I think it's a tricky situation overall. Who Doyle's up against, both their stack sizes, and he's holding a baby pair - not fun. I think you can make a strong case for a number of plays. Limp-calling all-in PF or limp-call (if Antonius had made a smaller raise) then check-call all-in post-flop are both two horrible choices.

Doyle misplayed the hand. Antonius played very well all night, and made that bet in case Doyle was limping with a hand like 33, hoping that he would fold. I find 2 mistakes with Doyle's play:

1. Not raising. If he raises a solid amount, either 3x the bb, leaving him enough to get away from the hand if Antonius goes over the top, or All-In to take that move away from Antonius, he wins the blinds and antes, which were sky high at that point.

2. Not Folding. I don't think it's worth risking your tournament with 33 here. If he folds, he gets out of the way with minimum damage. However, I do not think the not folding was as bad as Not raising.

I hate MIN Raises..but with the structure of this tourney, it wouldn't have been the worst thing to do...

33 is just a very tough hand to play in that spot with those blinds....

Another way to approach the hand would have been a large raise (4xBB) to announce your commitment to the pot..but come on...33..

In that spot..it is very difficult to fold AQ..and forget AK..that is an insta call of a push...

Low "M" play is more art than science. (TURBO)

But I agree..the limp was bad...


THE WPT should be ashamed of themselves with what they have done to these structures..you play 5 days to get 100k and then they give millions to the guy that gets the luckiest in a TURBO crapshoot. There is something very wrong with a tournament structure that forces you to look at KJ like they were Aces...

Word.

I'm not sure if you guys noticed, but the M's on the most recent WPT FT were all pretty high.

I actually did notice, and my face went .

Completely terrible. Their excuses are hollow. The bigger name players should be demanding change.



I hope this was a sign of change, but the players may have just been playing a little faster with their hands. It was hard to tell if they changed the structure or not, but my bet is that they did not. The first three players seemed to bust very quickly.

Well, Ozzy wasn't particularly well-stacked. I think he limped in with 230k, while the other players had 800k or more. Blinds were 10k/20k with 2k antes...so that's 42k in the pot. Ozzy had an M of ~6, and the other Ms...

Higgins ~20
Lyter ~22
Henriksson ~25
Paul-Ambrose ~45
Singer ~63

Those are perfectly respectable for a final table.

I think I recall hearing that they might've actually "rolled back" the blinds for the TV final table.