Here's a hand I played in a NL HE tourney last week. I feel my calling the postflop raise may have been a bit questionable, but I had many outs. I figured him for an overpair or Ax and figured I had a reasonable shot at taking a chunk out of him.

I would like to hear some opinions on how I played this hand. I would love to hear about pot odds and outs and all that sort of stuff. I am monkeyman1968 by the way. Thanks.

Hand #4852060-39 at Fri1020pmA-045 (No Limit tournament Hold'em)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 11/Mar/05 23:09:38

hkchamp is at seat 0 with 6375.
mark_n_amy is at seat 1 with 395.
martinbrundle is at seat 2 with 5875.
-WALLEYE- is at seat 3 with 3930.
ChillyDogg is at seat 4 with 1925.
Ohwhatever is at seat 5 with 2495.
monkeyman1968 is at seat 6 with 2250.
bosley77 is at seat 7 with 860.
VickyDCup is at seat 8 with 1490.
flip177 is at seat 9 with 4210.
The button is at seat 8.

flip177 posts the small blind of 20.
hkchamp posts the big blind of 40.

hkchamp: -- --
mark_n_amy: -- --
martinbrundle: -- --
-WALLEYE-: -- --
ChillyDogg: -- --
Ohwhatever: -- --
monkeyman1968: 7s 6s
bosley77: -- --
VickyDCup: -- --
flip177: -- --

Pre-flop:

mark_n_amy folds. martinbrundle calls. -WALLEYE-
folds. ChillyDogg folds. Ohwhatever calls.
monkeyman1968 calls. bosley77 calls. VickyDCup
calls. flip177 folds. hkchamp checks.

Flop (board: 5s 9c 4s):

hkchamp checks. martinbrundle checks. Ohwhatever
checks. monkeyman1968 bets 40. bosley77 folds.
VickyDCup folds. hkchamp raises to 875.
martinbrundle folds. Ohwhatever folds.
monkeyman1968 calls.

Turn (board: 5s 9c 4s Kc):

hkchamp bets 2010. monkeyman1968 goes all-in for
1335. hkchamp is returned 675 (uncalled).

Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:

hkchamp shows Th Td.
monkeyman1968 shows 7s 6s.

River (board: 5s 9c 4s Kc 3h):

(no action in this round)

Showdown:

hkchamp has Th Td 5s 9c Kc: a pair of tens.
monkeyman1968 has 7s 6s 5s 4s 3h: straight, seven high.


Hand #4852060-39 Summary:

No rake is taken for this hand.
monkeyman1968 wins 4680 with straight, seven high.

You probably could have re-raised all-in on the flop. Your 15 outs made you a 54-46 favourite, and his ridiculous overbet indicated a desire to get all his chips in the pot. With 10-10, against a coordinated board, no less. I love his all-in bet after the overcard hits. LMAO. I would've loved it even more if you were holding KQs, instead of the OESF draw. But then, I live for irony.

I also have no issue with you calling the turn. The pot is paying you about 3:1 at that point with 2.1:1 odds of hitting. Of course, I suck at MTT NLHE.

there is no way you are ever folding that draw....

let me check the numbers on that hand for ya.

you were 56.2% to win that pot... an open ended straight flush draw is usually ahead.

the only hands you wouldnt want to see are higher flush draws

if he held Ax , you are only 45% to win... not too shabby

even against the nuts, (99) you are in decent shape at 42%


the worst case scenario is A9 in which you are only 32%


so no matter what he has, you are never dominated.... its not as good to be calling off your stack, but its still ok.

you probably should have raised all in on the flop... i thought you called off all your chips then

my bad


you can't call this on the turn IMO... at that point, you are only 34%, and that is against one of the better scenarios available

I didn't want to go all in preflop because I wanted a few more callers. With suited connectors, I'm either gonna hit the flop or miss it completely which leaves me with an easy lay down. By not pushing all in preflop I left myself with the option of folding if I missed the flop AND I was able to build the pot a little with three more players (2 of them called) left to act after me.

*edit* disregard above statement...I now see you said "on the flop" and not "preflop"

MY bad

Looking back, I guess if I was willing to push all in on the turn when rag King fell, I should have pushed all in on the flop.

Wow, I actually think I'm getting the hang of this game. Time to move up to the $5 S&G's methinks :wink:

not pre flop.... on the flop.

beat ya :wink:

lol.. damn you

i was pretty confused there for a bit.

gl on your step up to the higher sngs


u play any ring games?

No, my miniscule bankroll (2 kids to feed) can't handle the swings. I much prefer MTT's or S&G's where the amount I can lose is fixed. :-)

i think you'll be suprised to see that tournaments can have just as much variance. mainly due to the fact that you can go for a few months with no big cashes before you win one. NL cash games can be tough though... but if you 2 or 3 table some of the lowest buyin games, you can really make some cash.... more than a day of sng's (for me at least... its how i got started)

the lower games do have alot of variance though.... once you get to the NL 50 and NL 100 level, you can take more control of the swings.

this is just my opinion....... to each his own, and good luck with your approach :-)

I play a good number of multitable tournaments, and I have to offer a counter-point here. Your opponent's chip stack covers you by a great amount - you're risking your tournament life on a draw. It's a good draw, and in the long run you will win these types of pots, but even with this flop your odds are still about as good as JJ or QQ to AK. It's understandable to play suited connectors early in a tournament when the blinds are tiny, but the only move appropriate here was an all in reraise on the flop. Calling the flop was bad - you are not only signaling a draw, but if you miss the turn (as you did here), you're left with a bad situation of having to risk your tournament on about a 1/3 chance of winning. Your opponent probably would've called your all in on the flop anyway, but at least some of the time (when his raise wasn't such an overbet) you'll get someone to fold, which is what you want!

When you play suited connectors early in a tournament, you want to hit perfectly or pay very little for your draws, e.g. having 910 on a 6 7 8, or QJ suited and 2 of your suit appear on the flop, and you don't have to call an large portion of your chips for the draw. You DON'T want someone CALLING your all-in early on, since you have everything to lose and not that much to gain (stealing blinds/one big hand later on will net you more than an all in here).

Furthermore, your bet on the flop leads me to be suspicious of a draw - what I would do is check to him. By betting 30 you tell him you hit a part of the flop, but don't have it yet. By checking, he may slow play you and try to trap you with a check ( a lot of bad players do this), or with a small bet, which you can call easily. By betting small, you scared him and caused him to make the right play by overbetting the pot, and putting you all in on the turn. Although the results are in your favor, your opponent actually played the hand quite correctly (except for no preflop raise) and got unlucky when you out drew him.

I don't see this, does anyone have numbers to elaborate? I would think an OESF draw (with two cards to come) is favoured over a pair.



I agree, I should have pushed all in on the flop!



I disagree here. I don't think my small bet puts me on a draw. If I hit a set here, I'm still gonna throw out a small bet.



You think his all in with tens when a K hit the board was a good move? I had called his 875 bet on the flop so I have to wonder what he was putting me on. I can only assume he put me on A9 (suited or not) or Ax . I may have had a set, AK or 2 pair for that matter. With 40% of my chips already in the pot I felt that a gamble was necessary so I called his all in.

He probably wouldn't put you on AK, because you didn't raise the flop. Of course, he didn't raise the flop either, so who knows what the hell he was thinking? Maybe had you on a weaker spade draw, but any reasonable player would have to upgrade that to trips or two pair after you called the 875 bet. Very, very few people alive on this planet would put you on an OESF draw.