A hand I played in a live game last night

[Plow-King]

Jezza is normally the man for this sort of thing and I wont describe this aswell as he would. I think this is a part of my game I need a lot of work on, which he does so well. Reading opponents hands. Its the final table of a live MTT. £10 rebuy, with a prize pool of £2250. If memory serves, roughly one round of blinds has passed and its a fairly tight table. The blinds are 4k and 2k. I am on small blind. Its folded around to me. I have about 30k of chips and the BB has 40k of chips. Also, I should mention, its pot limit. This is the first time I have ever seen the BB blind play, He has avoided my table all night and all the info I have is from what I have seen of him on the final table. The only hand he has played was in raising with KQos, A short stack reraised himself all in and the KQos called. The short stack had pocket tens and they held up. Like I say, folded round to me on the small blind I have ££&££ ~~~~~&~~~~ I raise the pot, which makes it 8k for him to go. Obviously wanting to nick his blind, but have not too bad a hand against average cards if he calls. He calls. Flop comes ££££&£££££ )))))&)))) (&!) . Now, I have position here, so I see myself with 2 options, I either go the pot which puts me all in and hope that I can take the pot right there, but I am wary that as he has called my initial raise and I dont really know too much about this guy I must afford him the respect of him having a decent hand and that I may have walked into a BB with a better hand than me and that buy raising the pot here I could be hanging myself out to dry. Maybe he has Ace/king/queen rag and hes picked up a rag on the flop, or even QJ, or KJ. I'm ruling out a pocket pair,AK,AQ,AJ as I think he would have went over me preflop. I dont really see the point in raising anything other than the pot as if I put in a small raise and he goes over me, I have to fold it and i don't see a small raise scaring him off either. The only other option is for me to check to see what he does. I figure if he checks aswell maybe I'm ahead here and ideally I'd like to check it to the finish and see if my King high holds up. So I decide to check. He goes for a minimum raise of 4k. Not what I wanted to happen and this threw me a bit with it being such a small bet. As there is 28k in the pot incl. his raise it is going to be very hard for me to pass this for just 4k. With this small bet I am worried he is just trying to extract chips from me and im just going to end up in trouble here. But with my dwindling chip stack and the odds on offer I feel I have to call, so I do. Turn comes ((((((&((( . If he has a piece of the board things have just got a lot better for him and also a flush draw now. With the action on me, again I weigh up my options, can I possibly be winning this hand?? Has his feeler 4k raise after the flop with mid pair snared him trip 4's. I think theres not an awful lot I can do here, If i was going to bluff this pot I should have done it by now. So I check. He raises 10k. What would you do?? And what mistakes have I made upto this point and why and what would you have done differently? ? As Jezza was at this table and obviously knows the outcome, I would still appreciate his views on this as he seems to be the man when it comes to this.

[GaF]

Re: A hand I played in a live game last night Fcuk it!!! I've just typed in a long reply whilst thinking - about pot odds and flush draws and overbets etc....and went full circle in my reasoning......twice...... So I'm not going to try and blag it and simply say I don't know!!!!!! My gut feel is that with King High, you haven't enough to take him on - it almost doesn't matter whether he has a hand or not - you won't be able to bluff him out now and King high with one card to play isn't enough to seriously contest the pot....I would say Fold - but I imagine there's far more to it than I've realised......and a fold now leaves you totally crippled on the final table.....

[Jezza]

Re: A hand I played in a live game last night The problem I have with commentating on this hand is that I played on the same semi final table as plows opponent in this hand, infact I was sat next to him, so it influenced my view on him in the final - I will try to give my view on it tho without letting that information that plow did not have cross over into my analysis. Ok first of all the guy was making several mistakes with the rules at the final table. I dont mean the sort of thing which an internet player making his first journey to a cardroom might do (like string betting or being intimidated by not knowing anyone) - I mean plain mistakes. Like constantly betting out of turn despite having it politely explained to him several times. You could assume from this he is new to poker at least (new players 99/100 play far too many starting hands) calling a reraise with KQo is also a loose play so he is obviously playing a lot of hands. When it is folded round to you you are correct in thinking that your hand is almost certainly better (more times than not) than his random hand. However remember you are against a loose player here so he is probably going to call when you raise and you will be out of position from the flop and on. I might have limped because of this and hoped I could either get paid off on a favourable flop or lost the minimum. Raising is not that bad a play however either. So you raise and miss the flop what are you going to do now? I would not worry about this guy slowplaying to you as I doubt he has that ability but knowing him he could have any two cards to be honest. Remember the chances are he has missed as well as you and you have the lead from the preflop raise. Against a good player a small bet might not work here as you will be read correctly but this guy does not have that ability. Perhaps betting maybe half the pot size (not something I usually advocate but there is a time for it) might have worked - he isnt going to read anything from the size of your bet and if he has missed surely he will give it up. This way the majority of the time he will probably fold the pot to you but the times he calls you can escape still with some chips and a chance in the tournament. Checking is not too bad either but he is liable to do some random things (as all beginners are) and you must give it up straight away if he bets - flat calling on the flop is a pretty ugly play and is just giving your chips away as the turn is not liable to help you. Position really is key in these battles and if you think you are going to get played with try only to raise out of position with very good hands. Jez

[Plow-King]

Re: A hand I played in a live game last night My initial thoughts were that I should have stuck all my chips in after the flop. And normally I play pretty tight in these live games, so atleast if he'd seen me play previously he would have had the worry that when I stick all my chips in I generally have something better than king high. So if we'd been playing for a few hours I would have stuck my chips in after the flop and i think it would have made it very difficult for him to call unless he had a jack But like i say, I dont know him he doesnt know me. I didnt really put him on loose because of the KQ, The other guy re-raised himeslf all in on on that hand and I gave him the benefit of having commited so many chips to the pot that a call with KQ was a fair move. The only info he has on me is that im the shortest stack at the table on the small blind and ive tried to nick his big blind. This makes me vulnerable and I think if i stick all my chips in he will call if he has any of the board or even ace or king high. Also part of my thinking is being on the small blind despite having invested alot of my chips in this pot, I atleast have a complete round to pick up a hand to try and double up with before the blinds kill me. Onto the conclusion then, When he raised 10k on the turn, In my mind,there was only one thing I could do and that was to fold. My intial feeling was that he had hit the fours or the jack and rather than the minimum raise to milk my chips he was going for a bigger bet because of the flush draw. So when I fold, he turns over 8 9 os and laughs in my face. I have to say it was a very tough one to take and I didnt appreciate the gloating laugh in my face much either. 5 hours of playing to get into that position and then beat by a crazy bluff. As mortified/embarrassed as I was I still had some chips at my disposal and had to try and salvage something. Rather than think this guy was a good player it was obvious to me he was a moron. This was not the sort of final table where you would get away with that type of play for long. And in showing his bluff, in my opinion he sealed his own fate. He had just ensured no one was going to pay him any respect whatsoever, or me either come to think of it lol. Which was a clever playon his part if he was going to now tighten up and use it to his advantage. But I didnt think this would be the case and sure enough a few hands later he decided to take on Jez, calling Jez's raises with K10 when he had nothing of the board, even when he did get lucky and hit a king on the river it still wasnt enough to win and Jez relieved him of his chips and the moron was gone. As Jezza said, Later I found out he was only on the final table just coz he'd been lucky and hit all his cards on the night. I just afforded this guy too much respect. Like you say Jezza the call on the flop was all kinds a ugly. But It was difficult to give the pot up thinking I may be ahead, but I should have given it up. Ho hum. Another harsh lesson learned at the poker table. As for the rest of the game, I did catch some semi-decent cards, doubledup with 55 against K7. And again with A7 against 910 catchiing an ace on the turn and river after a 10 had flopped. nd with the card room about to close we were forced to cut a deal with 7 of us left. Which, still being the shortest stack, I wasn't too unhappy about.:nana

[GaF]

Re: A hand I played in a live game last night

As for the rest of the game, I did catch some semi-decent cards, doubledup with 55 against K7. And again with A7 against 910 catchiing an ace on the turn and river after a 10 had flopped. nd with the card room about to close we were forced to cut a deal with 7 of us left. Which, still being the shortest stack, I wasn't too unhappy about.:nana

Wow - I've never played live - they really do that? You can be playing a tourny all night and at closing time, they'll stop it and kick you out? Sounds outragous to me!!!

[laidbackbloke]

Re: A hand I played in a live game last night I've never played live either ................. didn't realise that happened :eek .................... must be annoying if you are winning

[Plow-King]

Re: A hand I played in a live game last night I dont know if this is the norm in other casinos. Ive only been playing it the last 5 or 6 weeks. The first week I was there, there were about 33 players, it started at 9.15pm. At 2.30am with 5 of us left we were told the card room closes at 3.00am (as Ive now found out it does every week) and anyone left in with chips on the table gets 10% of the prize pool, then rest is divided up according to proportion of chips. By 2.55am I'm down to the last 3 and the short stack. I go all in with top pair (queens) after the flop only to find the chip leader with pocket rockets. So I'm gone in 3rd, which is in the money. But in recent weeks, the game has become every popular and has reached the maximum number of players, which is 44, with people even being turned away. With so many players the game is never going to finish. Which does affect your play. Due to the tourney starting later they gave us an extra 10 mins. But with the final table starting at 2.10am and we've got until 3.10 am it does change your mind set. Normally at a final table being the short stack I have to try and make a move quickly to accumulate some chips. But here I know if I can last for an hour and even have only one chip left I can score. And if I do risk my chips to accumulate more Im not going to win it anyway am I? I might get a bigger proportion on split of chips but its minimal. As you can see with 7 left we all get 10%. So with 30% left to be split according to chips it is very harsh on the chip leaders, of which Jezza was one after dispatching the idiot.

[GaF]

Re: A hand I played in a live game last night 44 players sounds a strange number - how many players start per table? 11?

[Plow-King]

Re: A hand I played in a live game last night spot on, 11 a table. Which makes it very very cramped

[Jezza]

Re: A hand I played in a live game last night Yeah, the hand the idiot bluffed against plow was a bit over the top.... I am all for showing your bluffs when you successfully pull one off. A lot of the time I dont show, but sometimes I do and turn my cards over just to rub it in a little bit and maybe make your opponent steam. However this guy went WAY over the top with plow, pushing his face up into him and laughing. In my opinion he showed a total lack of class at the poker table and just made everyone think he was a dick. At my semi final table he had called a raise and a reraise cold with A7, the flop came down 10 J 4 and he called an all in bet and a call before him cold, one guy had QQ and the other AA - the turn and river were both 7s :lol This gave him all his chips, and he was the clear leader going into the final. After building my own stack nicely through some steals and double ups, I raised his blind with the £$ ~# and flopped three of a kind... As soon as the flop came down I knew if I played it right I would get them all, and get them all I did rocketing me to clear chip leader. This left me with 120k chips. Another guy had 90k and everyone else was 25k or below practically. with 7 people left and therefore 70% of the prizepool being split equally in 5 minutes time you can understand my annoyance at this! As it turns out first prize was 1200 or so, and I got 400...I would far rather have played it out and gone for the 1200. Casinos in the UK have a forced closing time at the moment (this might change with the gambling bill). So obviously some "rule" has to be worked out, I disagree with the 10% thing at my local cardroom but at least you are told before you start the way it is. Yeah GotAFancy, the max is 4 tables with 11 per table...and since its in an old converted house and we are playing in what used to be someones living room it is pretty cramped like that! On a wednesday it is only a ten quid buy in. These days it is full most weeks and the rebuy period is crazy. I frequently raise blind during it and will call all ins with any part of board whatsoever :rollin . The upshot of this is that we end up with mountains of chips on the table and a very deep stacked game. This is of course great fun but leads to it lasting a long time.... Jez