Another Cash & You Decide #53
Monday, June 18, 2007
When it rains, it pours. I took third place out of 5o+ players in the Hoy last night, good for $200. Ultimately, I succumbed to awfukit poker, raising with A7, and then calling an all-in when CMitch raised back at me. I had enough chips to fold and duke it out, but it was 1:15am and I was aching for bed. Still, its no excuse. I really let myself down on that one.
Still, it was a great tournament for me, largely because like my recent MTT win, I played screwed down for most of the tournament. In fact, I made some fancy plays that are often too fancy. Luckily, the advanced play by bloggers makes these plays profitable if you can pull them off against the right players.
The beginning of the tournament was interesting. I must've dropped to under 2k (starting stacks of 3k) on at least three occassions, only to work myself back up to a full stack. Smokkee particularly seemed to notice my willingness to make plays, and I flatly replied in the chat box that it was due to the deep stacks. I might as well shake things up early if I'm confident I can recover.
I saved a bunch of hands, but lets lead off with one of the hands I'm just not sure about. For that reason, let's make this a You Decide.
You Decide #53
I'm at 3360, with blinds of 25/50, after dropping down near 1500 on two occassions already. I'm dealt my first premium hand of the night, KK. UTG+1, I raise to 150, 3x the BB, and get calls from BobRespert (1830 in chips), and the blinds, Columbo and CrazdGamer.
Full Tilt Poker Game #2705357454: Mondays at the Hoy (19464486), Table 6 - 25/50 - No
The flop is an ugly 2d5s4h. It checks to the BB, Crazd, who bets 500 into the 600 pot. I decided to min-raise to 1000, hoping to get a feel for where I am at. When it folds to Crazd, he pushes all-in for 3k. I fold.
I'm not so sure about my play here. The min-raise was designed to get information, and when he pushed, I assumed I had all the information I needed. That didn't stop me from taking my dear sweet time folding, all the while replaying the hand in my head. He was a blind getting good pot odds on a preflop call and I'm an action player, so I figured that he could be defending his blind preflop with anything, including cards that would result in a straight, two pair, or a set. Ultimately, I decided that my entire tournament life wasn't worth KK, so I folded. What do you think? (Interesting side note: CrazdGamer has a hand on his site that we played in last week's Mookie. Take a look, because after seeing that hand from his perspective, I may've been good here. But still, probably not).
So, that's the You Decide, but now its time for me to discuss some other great hands that really made this tournament an interesting one for me.
I was down to 1183 when blinds got to 50/100. In UTG+2 at an 8-handed table, I was dealt ATs. When it got to me, I raised 3x the BB to 300 total. This is clearly a gambling move, but the play was very tight, and I wanted to take a swing at some of those juicy blinds from an odd position. I only get one call, Columbo in the BB.
The flop is 964, rainbow. This is a semi-scary flop, mostly because he's a blind and might be defending, so I have no idea what he has. Any of those cards can be in his range. He checks, and I opt to check, hoping to turn a Ten or Ace, making me a definitive leader, at least in my estimation.
The turn was a harmless offsuit 2, and Columbo bets 300. I only have 883 total, so a push will only require a 583 call from Columbo. I decide to push and to my delight, he folds. Why push here? Part of it was working out what Columbo was likely doing, bluffing. After all, I clearly was abandoning the pot when I failed to continuation bet on the flop. His bet was small, but it seemed like he wanted it to appear small. I suppose its sorta 3rd level thinking. I'm thinking that he is thinking that I am thinking that he might have a piece and I have crap. If I was in his spot with pretty much any two cards, I'm raising on the turn, there. If he had it on the flop, though, I think he would've raised. It was possible that he was planning on check-raising the flop, and decided to just bet out the turn, but it didn't seem accurate. The final thing that made me push was the story I was telling. I'm very aggressive, so a preflop raise is common. However, the post-flop check is not. Once I raised all-in on the turn, I wanted to represent a flopped set, slowplaying for value. My re-raise, a mere 583, actually may appear more menacing than the dimunitive size actually is, since it seems like I could ONLY make that play if I had a hand worthy of an all-in. After all, who is folding to 583 in a 900 pot when there are no opportunities for me to bet anymore.
Interestingly, after he folded, I showed my cards. The reason was to hopefully get action later and also to tilt Columbo. I also wanted the table to know that I was playing for keeps. I like the show here, too, mostly because it lets me control my table image.
Sometimes, a hand like that will ignite my creative juices and I'll find myself trying something new in a couple of spots in a tournament.
But first, I needed some chips. I was moved to a new table, and ultimately lost the hand history, but I'll recreate it as best I can here. I was dealt TT in the BB when a player in LP raised preflop. The SB pushed all-in and I was left with a tough decision. By then, I had over 3000, the pusher had less than 2000, and the LP raiser had me covered. I thought long and hard about folding, but the push from the shortstack SB really intrigued me. Ultimately, I decided this was the perfect time to build a stack or go home, so I pushed all-in on top of the pusher. The LP raiser called, and we reached showdown, TT v. 99 (pusher) v. KQ (LP raiser). To my astonishment, by the river, I had quad Tens. With 8000+ in chips, I was finally able to shake things up and control the game.
I was moved tables and by the 100/200 level, I had amassed over 10,000 in chips, making me the table chipleader by a nice 1500 margin. UTG+1, I was dealt 8Td. I was on a rush, so I chose to limp with the suited gapper. Everyone folded, including the SB, and the BB, Astin (7k+), checked.
Astin is a very aggressive player, so I reached into my bag of tricks to pull out something special for him. The flop was KQ4 with two hearts and Astin bet out 500. I decided to min-raise to 1000 with air. He called. The turn was a 3s. Astin checked and essentially, that was the end of the hand. Astin, being uber aggressive, had checked, showing me that I was able to take the pot. I bet out 1500 into the 2400 pot and took it down. With other players, I wouldn't have even tried this play.
After this, I realized that there were some players that I could actually induce a bluff from...and then bluff the pot away from them after inducing the bluff. With blinds of 150/300 and a 25 ante, holding just short of 10k, I limped in EP with AJo. I hate AJo, because its often dominated, but I wasn't willing to throw it away, given my chipstack and the table conditions. Mike Maloney, who was playing very aggressively with just a few chips more than me, raised to 1200 total. When it folded to me, I chose to call, hoping to exploit Mike's aggressiveness later.
The flop was A96, all spades. Ostensibly, the Ace is nice, but the all spades (I held none) sucked. I checked, expecting Mike to...well, "Mike_Maloney bets 2,400", do that. I waited for a while, thinking the hand through. He wouldn't raise that much if he flopped the flush. He might have an Ace, but even then, wouldn't he fear my flush...if I check-raised him! So, that's what I did, raising to 6600 total. That was a large chunk of change, and he folded. He may've not even had an Ace, so by checking, I allow him to (a) give me important info and (b) bluff, since he's aggressive. His bet felt like a bluff, but mine certainly didn't. Who the hell would raise that much here? The answer, me, because I saw an opportunity. After he folded, he asked if I was on a draw. I didn't answer.
Those are my hands for today. I really enjoyed the idea of inducing a bluff to bluff a bluff. I'm not sure any of these hands truly qualify, but its something I'll be looking for in the future.
Little recaps, while we are here:
The Chess Challenge is going slow, mostly because certain players haven't sent me an email (highonpokr AT yahoo...with no E) or their buy-in $10 via FT (HighOnPoker, with an E). So, I've decided that once I return from Puerto Rico (I leave next Tuesday), we are starting this bitch up. Whoever has paid is in, whoever has not is out. Since its a round-robin format, I'm not too concerned about the amount of people. If you are interested, send me an email. If you just want to play for fun or want to get in a practice round, sign up at ChessHere.com, and challenge HighOnPoker.
The WSOP Prop Bets continue to heat up, with my man, Phil Ivey, final event #26, good for another $5 from MeanHappyGuy. Unfortunately, Hellmuth is one seat away from the final table of Event #28, which would cost me $1 against Unimpressed. Whatever the case, I'm still up for the series.
Until next time, make mine poker!
posted by Jordan @ 10:34 PM,
11 Comments:
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At 10:30 AM,
cmitch said...
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Good game last night. A6 is my new favorite hand. :)
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At 12:25 PM,
MHG said...
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Damn Ivey!
Good timing on your vacation, I'm leaving Tuesday for a week up in Seattle. I'll be back on the 3rd of July.
Shall we start the chess tourney on the 5th? Or how long are you going to be on your vacation? -
At 12:39 PM,
Gydyon said...
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I don't like the minraise.
Why do you hate that flop? Do you have a read that CrazdGamer would play A3 or 36 in this spot, and not eights, nines, or tens thinking it's a safe flop?
Could he be thinking you can make a big laydown there, reading your minraise as exactly what it smells like, "I want to see where my big pair is" and bluff or semibluff accordingly?
Given the action, I would certainly consider bluffraising in that spot with something like pocket threes
You're getting 2.5 to 1 on your call, and you put 1/3 of your stack in preflop and on the flop. There's no flush draw out there.
I would have a hard time making this fold barring, as I said before, a read. -
At 12:53 PM,
Jordan said...
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Gydyon, your points are valid. My "read" was that he wouldn't fire that 2nd bullet if he didn't have a great hand. Maybe he caught on to my overpair, but in these sorts of games, players would routinely go all-in here with KK on that board. I didn't want to risk my entire stack on an overpair, but I may have been overly cautious. I am very curious as to what he actually had. Maybe I'll leave him a comment on his blog requesting his input.
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At 1:13 PM,
TripJax said...
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Well done. I believe our race (my 88 vs. AQ) is what boosted you in the right direction. Gotta win those...
Keep it up...you have a hot hand right now and should keep at it. -
At 1:18 PM,
crazdgamer said...
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Interesting.
I was getting odds to call from the BB preflop. You'll probably think that I'm a donkey for making this play, but so it goes. My thinking was that you wouldn't call the all-in given the board texture. Against AK, I'm leading, and the only other high pair I'm scared of is AA. Against everything else in your range, I have 9 outs, which isn't too bad. But my main priority was getting you to fold.
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crazdgamer [Ah 4c]
smokkee folds
HighOnPoker raises to 150
Wippy1313 has 15 seconds left to act
Wippy1313 folds
BobRespert calls 150
cmitch folds
Papi Justify folds
columbo calls 125
crazdgamer calls 100
*** FLOP *** [2d 5s 4h]
columbo checks
crazdgamer bets 500
HighOnPoker raises to 1,000
BobRespert folds
columbo folds
crazdgamer raises to 3,060, and is all in
HighOnPoker has 15 seconds left to act
smokkee: hammer no goot
HighOnPoker has requested TIME
columbo: hammer always goot
HighOnPoker folds
Uncalled bet of 2,060 returned to crazdgamer
crazdgamer mucks
crazdgamer wins the pot (2,600)
The blinds are now 30/60 -
At 1:58 PM,
Hammer Player a.k.a Hoyazo said...
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I was going to berate you for the fold but then crazd goes and shows what I already suspected, you were surely ahead here. I can't stand that minraise, and while I will use that move on occasion, this is a great example of a bad place to do it IMO. You're putting in about a third of your entire stack on a minraise, in this case with a very strong hand on a very crappy flop, and then you're going to fold to the push from a guy who has repeatedly busted early from blonkaments by overplaying his hands? Bad read my friend. Great play overall on the night, but the minraise stinks and the fold to the push makes me want to cry. Of course this comment seemed more genuine before crazd verified what I already suspected, but if he stacks you there with A3 or some set or something, I say so be it. I think if you're going to fold to that push, then you're just asking for him to push at you with that minraise. Remember, if this is cmitch or lucko or somebody, your fold makes a lot of sense. Against a much looser re-reraising opponent like crazd, you gotta play that one out.
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At 2:58 PM,
Jordan said...
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Fair enough. That's why I post these things, to get opinions on how to improve in a given situation.
Crazd, I don't think you are crazy for making the play. In fact, I'm impressed.
Hoy, I haven't played with Crazd much, so I didn't know he was a super loose aggressive player. I give him much kudos for his play. Oh, and I'll take critique, but Jordan doesn't do well with being berated. Just keep that in mind for the future.
All that said, I still don't mind my fold, since I believed that I could catch up and find a more certain spot if I was going to commit all my chips. As it were he had a decent amount of outs, three Aces, four 3s, two 4s, and I just couldn't get a good enough read on what hand he actually had. Nice play, Crazd. -
At 3:34 PM,
Gydyon said...
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I am the smart! S M R T!
I don't mind big laydowns, but big laydowns when you've put 1/3 of your stack in with an overpair to the board just don't work in the long term, especially since there's such a large range of hands you could be ahead of.
That said, sweet play by Crazd -
At 2:59 PM,
StB said...
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Damn it, Hoy! You beat me to it. I would have pushed on the re-raise, putting the pressure back.
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At 8:25 PM,
Dr Zen said...
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I'm calling that every day and twice on weekends. Putting him on precisely the hands that beat you is MUBS when there are tons of hands that play it the same but don't beat you. I don't think it's the worst fold ever but you might as well checkfold the flop if you're going to make it.
