Monday, July 11, 2011

Confusing play

Hi guys,
I've been playing a couple of times lately, and doing ok. Quite a number of $7 50/50, there are both fun, and fairly easy to make money on.
Last weekend, I was playing my favourite tourney $4.50 180 players, and busted out on 29th place with following hand. I had been too long on that table, but I had the impression that the opponent was a steady player.
The hand was like this (leaving the players names for a change)



Hitting the 2 top pairs on the turn, I was absolutely sure that I was ahead, and indeed I was right. I was completely aware of the fl draw, of course, but I did consider the guy to be a good player, so I was sure he would fold a fl draw. Completely wrong, as you can see. WHAT A DONK, was my first thought. He had appr 20% chance of winning the hand, and I would have folded instantly. Well, just another a BB, and ok with it.
The problem is indeed that this player has some nice stats, as you can see yourself.
So either he was completely drunk or on tilt, or I made some basic mistake somewhere.
I tend to believe that the fault was mine, but I can't figure out how to play such a hand against such a good player. For the record, the fellow ended 3rd with a nice win of some $83.

Any ideas

PS: God summer to everybody.

2 comments:

  1. Well, it is always easier to see problems after the fact. Here is my take at any rate.

    1. No preflop action means we can't narrow his range much at all. Was this typical of him??
    2. You flopped top pair on a wet board. He could be on a striaght draw, flush draw or already have trips. He leads out with a min-raise. Is this typical of him? Well, you know what I think about minraises. I would assume he has a drawing hand, or has a weak pocket pair.

    Folding top pair seems weak, and calling on that board is too dangerous. So, I agree with the reraise which is meant to protect your hand and hopefully get him to fold. However, I think the problem is your raise size. You reraised 1200 making the pot 2700 and only 800 for him to call. Those odds are too good for him to pass up. You needed to have reraised at least 2200; however, this is starting to be such a signicant part or your stack that I probably would have shoved rather than being forcing to fold on a later street.

    3. Now, with the Q on the turn, you have two pair. He still might have you beat with a set, or a big pocket pair, and he might chase a draw. He called your reraise so he must like something about his hand.

    He checked the turn, again I don't know if this is a sign of strength or weakness. Your hand looks strong, but you are far from having a lock on the hand. I think I would take the free card and see what happens on the river. If a flush or straight card hits you can consider folding and still have a decent stack. f he assumed you hit the 9, he might be thinking his top pair is good.

    As it played out, yes he made a bad call to your shove on the turn, but it is understandable after seeing his hand. The damage was already done on the flop unfortunately.

    PS: I've been playing a bunch of MTTs myself. I've made top 50 in 3000+ player tourneys several times the last few days, but the big FT keeps eluding me. Perhaps tonight.... :)

    Roland

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  2. Thanks Roland,
    Pretty much the same thoughts that I had during this hand :-)))) I considered to re-raise more than 3BB, but didn't do it since I considered an AI rr as a possibility. Slowplaying BFMs occurs quite often, and I would have to fold a rr, for sure. The villain checking the turn convinced me that he had some sort of draw, and possibly some piece of the flop. Shoving at that point appeared like a good idea, since I wasn't too interested in the last card, lol.

    Good luck with your MTTs. I guess I'm playing some hands tonight, and having some bubbles too. It's my brothers birthday today ;)

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