I absolutely love these HORSE tourneys. I consider myself well rounded enough to play in all of the games (with the possible exception of the Stud portion, which I usually pass on unless i have a pair of aces of trips). Once again however I am faced with a seemingly easy decision, which wasn't so easy.
My question is this - when you can see that you are clearly better than (but possibly not better than one of) your opponents, do you keep pounding your strong hands even though there is a small chance that you are losing, or, do you slow down minimizing the chips at risk (but also minimizing your possible profit in that hand)?
Here's an example:
$5 HORSE SNG
Full Tilt Poker Game - 100/200 - Limit Hold'em - 11:30:35 ET - 2006/05/02
Seat 1: Jr Sandman (395)
Seat 2: BennyDiction (1,420)
Seat 3: Rocketwadster (2,030)
Seat 4: Villain (2,665)
Seat 5: mmagee (2,555)
Seat 6: jaemo (2,935)
jaemo posts the small blind of 50
Jr Sandman posts the big blind of 100
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rocketwadster [Kd Ks]
BennyDiction has 15 seconds left to act
BennyDiction folds
Rocketwadster raises to 200
Villain calls 200
mmagee has 15 seconds left to act
mmagee folds
jaemo folds
Jr Sandman raises to 300
Rocketwadster raises to 400
Villain calls 200
Jr Sandman calls 95, and is all in
We all started with 1500 chips. I haven't played very many hands, but the ones I did play have increased my stack slightly. Villain has gained their chips playing Stud 8, and I don't recall seeing any showndown hands in Hold'em. I end up with a capped pre-flop pot with one opponent all-in, and the Villain, who just called both times the betting came to them.
*** FLOP *** [Td Kc Qs]
Rocketwadster bets 100
Villain raises to 200
Rocketwadster calls 100
Great flop for my hand, with top set. My opponent raised my bet, so they have something. I just call to feign weakness, intending to pound the turn to a safe card (ie. no ace or ten).
*** TURN *** [Td Kc Qs] [7h]
Rocketwadster bets 200
Villain raises to 400
I bet out here as intended, but my opponent raised me without delay (it was an auto-raise). Flush draws are gone, could be two-pair, but could also be a straight. The raise was so quick that I chicken out right there, and opt to call it down UI.
Rocketwadster calls 200
*** RIVER *** [Td Kc Qs 7h] [4s]
Rocketwadster: Ace jack???
Rocketwadster checks
Villain bets 200
Rocketwadster calls 200
As indicated, I didnt improve, so I opted to just call it down. Too weak, or a smart play??? Could I consider folding at any time?
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Villain shows [Jd As] (a straight, Ace high)