Saturday 14 June 2008

Finally, a deep run in a decent size tournament

Today my poker has been limited to just the two Early Double tournaments on Full Tilt... wanted to play all evening after I got home but my sister asked me to help her move some stuff to her flat, so I agreed, and didn't commit myself to any tournaments that could run for ages. She then kept texting to say she was delayed, we'd do it in a bit, she was on her way over any minute etc etc, and eventually ended by saying "we'll do it another night actually." Correction missy - YOU will do it another night, since you've had me sat twiddling my thumbs all evening when I wanted to be twiddling chips. Grrrrr.

So once again I am on minor life-tilt when I fire up the tables (only about 6.5 on the tilt-o-meter this time I would say... last night was a solid 9), but what do you know, I only went and made the final table of Early Double B. 855 runners, $5000 prize pool... unfortunately I continued my trend of also running terribly at final tables and only finished 7th, for what feels like a relatively meagre $127.50. But I'm grateful for what I can get I guess. I'm not even sure I played all that well to be honest... I made some good, brave calls but also some very timid folds. I plan on posting a full(ish) recap tomorrow sometime, there are a few hands I would like some input on.

For now, here are 2 hands from Early Double A I'm not 100% sure of. I finished 317th of ~870 in this one, never really got going and came out on the wrong side of a race with 1010 vs KQo.

Hand 1 -

Early Double - A (51673765), Table 38 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: StripMyMind17 (3,485)
Seat 2: TheAlbinoKid (1,940)
Seat 4: I am Cookn (2,430)
Seat 5: Jester279 (1,510)
Seat 6: matty711 (2,360)
Seat 7: Frost 71 (1,815)
Seat 8: UrMyJob01 (4,625)
Seat 9: 2outsMUCKgget (1,805)
StripMyMind17 posts the small blind of 20
TheAlbinoKid posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Jd Js]
I am Cookn folds
Jester279 folds
matty711 calls 40
Frost 71 folds
UrMyJob01 calls 40
2outsMUCKgget folds
StripMyMind17 calls 20
TheAlbinoKid raises to 240 (only the 2nd time I have voluntarily put chips in the pot in the 25 minutes we have been playing)
matty711 calls 200
UrMyJob01 calls 200 (and they all call anyway, obv)
StripMyMind17 folds
*** FLOP *** [Kc 2c 4c]
TheAlbinoKid bets 440
matty711 calls 440
UrMyJob01 folds
*** TURN *** [Kc 2c 4c] [7s]
TheAlbinoKid checks
matty711 bets 1,680, and is all in
TheAlbinoKid folds

Is c-betting this flop spewy with two others in the hand? I figure I take it down often enough for it to be ok, but it's close, and if anyone can suggest why I should be check/folding here, I'm all ears. I also tried to talk myself into shoving the blank turn card, but on reflection there is just no need to risk it and we probably aren't making enough weak top pair hands fold or getting called by enough hands with a naked club often enough to justify it.

Hand 2 (just two hands after Hand 1) -

Early Double - A (51673765), Table 38 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: StripMyMind17 (3,445)
Seat 2: TheAlbinoKid (1,240)
Seat 3: Rommaren (1,640)
Seat 4: I am Cookn (2,430)
Seat 5: Jester279 (1,510)
Seat 6: matty711 (3,040)
Seat 7: Frost 71 (1,815)
Seat 8: UrMyJob01 (4,385)
Seat 9: 2outsMUCKgget (2,145)
Rommaren posts the small blind of 20
I am Cookn posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [5c 5h]
Jester279 folds
matty711 raises to 120
Frost 71 folds
UrMyJob01 folds
2outsMUCKgget folds
StripMyMind17 folds
TheAlbinoKid (OTB) raises to 1,240, and is all in

Too aggressive? The UTG+1 raiser was rapidly proving himself to be a bit of a donk; on the one hand, this meant that my fold equity probably wasn't as high as I needed it to be to really make me happy about this shove; on the other hand, I am probably in pretty good shape against his raise/calling range as a whole, (even from early position, because I doubt he knows what position is), good enough shape that I don't think I really need as much fold equity as usual to make this slightly +EV. I confess, a small element of "what the hey, I don't feel like nursing a short stack for ages to try and grind back into this" might have come into my decision too, but I still suspect my play might have been fractionally +EV. Agree/disagree? Would a smaller re-raise be better? If so, how are we a) dealing with a shove and b) approaching the flop if he calls?

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