Ok, let me revisit my quick post from last night. Basically, I just wanted to know from a lot of the tournament players how to play a situation where you have a pretty big hand but all of a sudden face a lot of opposition. I just wanted to elaborate on some of my thoughts some more. I was in no mood to really type much last night since I was on tilt from being busted out of the tourney early and that I had to work all weekend... I tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve so if I sounded bummed or pissed on my post last night, well, that was how I felt.
Just to recap, early in the tournament (4 minutes in), blinds at 15-30, I was fairly active at this starting table. I'm dealt JJ from UTG +2 so I make a standard pot sized raise to 105. Everyone folds to SnailTrax on the BB who calls and we see this:
*** FLOP *** [3s 9d 5s]
SnailTrax checks
RecessRampage bets 195
SnailTrax has 15 seconds left to act
SnailTrax raises to 600
This check raise could be anything I thought. Could be spade draw, a set, etc. So, I decided to define my hand here and see what he does.
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage has requested TIME
RecessRampage raises to 1,800
SnailTrax raises to 2,895, and is all in
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage has requested TIME
RecessRampage folds
Uncalled bet of 1,095 returned to SnailTrax
SnailTrax mucks
SnailTrax wins the pot (3,825)
Anguila who is a much better tournament player than I am commented that he would let the hand go on a checkraise here. Again, his thought is that it's so early in the tournament and we are so deep that there's no reason to get into a monster pot situation where you're not sure where you stand. He also commented that after the reraise though, he might be inclined to call because the pot is now so big.
Well, I did not think of folding after the initial checkraise. I thought about calling but at that point, I guess my desire to define my hand was bigger so I reraised. When he immediately came over the top, I thought that I was probably crushed. However, there were a few more interesting thoughts that entered my mind.
I thought about calling because of the monster pot odds. Basically, I was getting 5:1 so I really thought about calling. The other bigger conflicting thought that made me lay this hand down was because of how early it was in the tournament. If I fold, I still have 1,000 in chips and with the blinds at 15-30, I figured I could still make a come back. So, based on that, I folded.
I think my play would be different if this were in later stages of the tournament. As a matter of fact, I know that my play would be different in the later stages in the tournament. Another thing I didn't take into account was that with 1,000 chips, I was still alive but I was starting to tilt... if I could have kept my composure, I think it would be a different story but being short stacked early and tilting was probably not a good combination.
Oh well, you live you learn. We'll be back at it tonight at the MATH. 10pm ET, $26 buy-in. You know the drill. See you tonight.
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2 comments:
I find this to be the age-old question that all strong tournament players come to at some point in their poker careers. Do you push what you think is an aggressive edge early on in a tournament when you believe you have a skill advantage over the other players? Or do you wait for more nuts-like hands, sets, flushes, boats, etc. and just try to last until one of those comes along?
In this case, I do not at all agree with "defining my hand" by raising that many chips. It's like 2/3 of your stack just to fold to the reraise? That's just too much there. Yes I agree with the fold at that point don't get me wrong, but you're leaving yourself with only 1000 chips so early on. I believe in either check-folding or pushing allin in that spot. You could raise to a smaller amount, but how do you pay half your stack just to get the information that you're beaten? No way I would make that play. I've never been a big fan of paying for information in poker, and I find that most people who do this a lot tend to misuse the information given to them.
The great thing about the BBT man is that when you funk up one night like we both did, there's another tournament right around the corner to take your mind off of things.
See you tonight brotha.
If you are re-raising his check-raise to get more info, I'd prefer a simple min-raise to 1000, instead of the raise to 800. He'd probably still re-raise you after that, at which point you could have gotten away for cheaper. Also, the min-raise looks like you want a call, so it may scare him off. If he has a draw, he is likely to simply call. So, in other words, you get all the info, the same fold equity, and get it all for cheaper.
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