Thursday, November 15, 2007

This is why I suck in tournaments

Fuel, maybe you'll stop picking me as your horse when you see these HH.

I played in the Mookie and I was playing well. I was making good steals and in many instances, when I didn't c-bet, I was able to induce a bet on the turn at which point I would raise and get them to fold. I was mixing up my play fairly well when this hand happened. And congrats to Mike for taking down the Mook. I guess me donking off chips to him here helped (which obv did since he posted about it on his blog).

FullTiltPoker Game #4179668128: The Mookie - DDDNasty II (31525513), Table 4 - 100/200 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:36:30 ET - 2007/11/14
Seat 1: katiemother (7,290)
Seat 2: GCox25 (3,650)
Seat 3: katitude (3,150)
Seat 4: RaisingCayne (4,160)
Seat 5: jeciimd (7,240)
Seat 6: RumpleTILTZkin (4,320)
Seat 7: RecessRampage (8,255) <--- see, I was doing well
Seat 8: DonkeyPuncher74 (3,593)
Seat 9: Mike_Maloney (3,740)
RumpleTILTZkin posts the small blind of 100
RecessRampage posts the big blind of 200
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qc Ah]
DonkeyPuncher74 folds
katitude: holy moley
Mike_Maloney raises to 700
katiemother folds
GCox25 folds
katitude folds
RaisingCayne folds
jeciimd folds
RumpleTILTZkin folds
RecessRampage calls 500

So this is my side of the story which doesn't show in the HH. For a brief moment, I had to think about what to do here. I obv had three options. To fold, call, or reraise. And to be honest, when I first thought about this hand, my thought was "I should just fold here." But surely, that's too weak-tight. The only reason that crossed my mind was that I don't like playing AQ out of position against a solid tournament player. So, having built up a lot of chips, I figured I could wait for a better spot (esp since I was stealing with a lot worse hands when I was in position, I felt that AQ wasn't making up for me being out of position). Another thought was to reraise but I felt like that was kinda silly so in the end, I elected to call.

*** FLOP *** [4s 5c 2d]
RecessRampage checks
Mike_Maloney bets 850
RecessRampage raises to 4,050
Mike_Maloney calls 2,190, and is all in
RecessRampage shows [Qc Ah]
Mike_Maloney shows [7s 7c]
Uncalled bet of 1,010 returned to RecessRampage

Mike said it on his blog about his betsizing and he bet the perfect amount to reel me in like the fish that I am. I took the bait, hook, line, and sinker. The flop was all low and Mike bet out a c-bet looking bet... a very weak one at that... so I took the bait, thinking maybe he had two high cards like me and that he would have to fold on the check raise. Very well played by him but also a very dumb move by me to spew chips like this at this point in the tournament. Bash me all you want, I know what I did and how bad that was. Hence my opening on this blog...

*** TURN *** [4s 5c 2d] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [4s 5c 2d Jc] [7h]
RecessRampage shows Ace Queen high
Mike_Maloney shows three of a kind, Sevens
Mike_Maloney wins the pot (7,580) with three of a kind, Sevens

Then here's the next hand that really did me in. Not that anyone would have played it differently but I always hate calling an all-in with A high...

FullTiltPoker Game #4179785358: The Mookie - DDDNasty II (31525513), Table 4 - 150/300 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:47:32 ET - 2007/11/14
Seat 1: snakster (9,900)
Seat 2: GCox25 (3,195)
Seat 3: katitude (2,405)
Seat 4: RaisingCayne (7,520)
Seat 5: jeciimd (6,470)
Seat 7: RecessRampage (3,955)
Seat 8: DonkeyPuncher74 (3,728)
Seat 9: Mike_Maloney (10,380)
snakster antes 25
GCox25 antes 25
katitude antes 25
RaisingCayne antes 25
jeciimd antes 25
RecessRampage antes 25
DonkeyPuncher74 antes 25
Mike_Maloney antes 25
RecessRampage posts the small blind of 150
DonkeyPuncher74 posts the big blind of 300
The button is in seat #6

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Ks Ah]
Mike_Maloney folds
snakster folds
GCox25 folds
katitude raises to 2,380, and is all in
RaisingCayne folds
jeciimd folds
RecessRampage raises to 3,930, and is all in
DonkeyPuncher74 folds
RecessRampage shows [Ks Ah]
katitude shows [5h 5c]
Uncalled bet of 1,550 returned to RecessRampage
*** FLOP *** [6h 2d Tc]
*** TURN *** [6h 2d Tc] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [6h 2d Tc 6c] [2h]
RecessRampage shows two pair, Sixes and Twos
katitude shows two pair, Sixes and Fives
katitude wins the pot (5,260) with two pair, Sixes and Fives

Again, I assume that everyone would go all in there with AK but I really hate CALLING an all in with it because if Kat's range is very wide, I'm only way ahead against hands that include an A or K. If she does QJ or below, I'm only like 60-40 or 65-35ish ahead, right? Or behind, like I was against any pair. Not that I'm complaining about AK but I'd rather be pushing with it than calling with it. Does anyone ever think that way or am I being way to passive? Maybe this has more to do with my cash game mentality...

Let's see if I can do better tonight at the Riverchasers. See you tonight.

7 comments:

Hammer Player a.k.a Hoyazo said...

Hey Alan. Great hands to post as always.

It's funny, but considering that you were thinking about folding that AQ hand preflop (that is wayyyyyyy to pussy btw without a doubt), you certainly ended up being mr. super aggro with it after the flop for a guy who didn't even want to play it preflop. Here's my view on AQ, which is actually the most profitable hand in my entire poker database for me other than the big pocket pairs:

In this case, Mike raised preflop. What's his range here? Let's assume Any pair, AK, AQ, AJ or KQ. That may not be exactly right, but generally speaking I think that's a good range for an average preflop open-raiser not on the button or in the blinds or something.

So, when the flop comes all rags, I'm looking at my opponent, the preflop open-raiser from early-middle position, 's hand range, and I have to think that with AQ I am highly likely to be behind and not ahead. You're still behind any pair, and you're behind AK and tied with AQ. Basically there's only two hands Mike could have that you are ahead of, and like 15 that you are behind. From my perspective, this is a completely avoidable loss and one that you should kick yourself about and then try to learn from it. It seems that tons of people have problems with AQ, but for whatever reason I do not. AK however is a different story for me, and frankly I think your push with AK instead of AQ in this spot makes a heck of a lot more sense because you know no matter what that you're not dominated in this spot.

I recognize btw that you were also building in some fold equity when you move in here, don't get me wrong. I just think that if you make a habit of pushing in tournaments with AQ against a guy who raised preflop from early-middle position, you're going to make a habit of getting called down and losing to all those hands better than AQ in his hand range. You can definitely find a better spot to make a move here. If Mike had raised from LP or the blinds or something then it's much more reasonable to think about making a move in the hopes that you are ahead.

Second hand, I surely push as well. Yes youre calling and not raising, but at that point I think it's entirely reasonable to assume Kat's range is sufficiently wide with a shortish stack that AK plays very well against that range. As it is she had a pretty dam crappy hand but you couldn't pull it off. As I said, I am basically the AQ master, but with AK I am an abject donk I guess.

Nice post. You and me both suck it in the BBTwo, huh?

lj said...

wooo hooo, you posted!

i am guilty of making a call like that w/ AQ. but yeah, i hate the re-raise. i did something similar very early last night w/ AJ in sb, except instead of jamming i re-raised cbet on flop. i lost almost a third of my stack playing a hand that every bone in my body told me to fold pre flop.

just like i should have done w/ KK when A flopped, that hand is check fold, easy (for me to say now), if you choose to play it.

lucko said...

You had two options on the AQ hand. Fold or raise. Calling oop with big cards hoping hit a flop with under 20bb effective stacks is straight up spew. Its close impossible to play profitably calling.

There is really nothing wrong with jamming or folding there.

And auto call the AK. Saying you are only a 60% favorite is just silly. That is a HUGE edge. There is no tournament player alive good enough to pass that kind of edge.

Anonymous said...

Well....as you would assume I probably would have just called the pre-flop raise just like you did. I certainly wouldn't have folded. I guess I may have re-raised pre flop with the mindset that no matter what the flop showed .... i'm going to c-bet strong and hope that Mike goes away (which obviously he wouldn't have given the flop).

Anonymous said...

Real tough to work me over with AA and TT. I hate you.

Rematch at 2 a.m.?

If i'm not online, it means i'm hooking up with a very giving fort lauderdale blonde. So what i'm really saying is....We'll be playing at 2.

-PouringReign

lightning36 said...

I am certainly not one to talk since I screw up with A-Q and A-J way too often, but I would have gotten away from the hand instead of pushing.

In the second hand, what are you gonna do? If only there was a way to bribe the poker gods.

You constantly apply pressure at the tables, which makes you a dangerous (and good) player, imo.

SubZero said...

It's a tough break with AK with short, but the move is correct. I got stacked myself shoving with AK vs Pre55to in a live tourney, and though it sucked it was still the right play.

With regards to the AQ vs 77 hand: unless you make a habit of playing your big PPs like that, I don't think your opponent would have any reason to fear your allin check-raise.