PoppinFresh 0 Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 Hi all! I've been browsing the boards for a couple of weeks and thought I'd register and start posting. I'm a decent poker player I guess, looking to improve my game over the summer.I headed up to Turning Stone about a week and a half ago for some rare casino action(I'm only 19, so it's tough), and entered a NL Bounty tournament. There were 98 entrants and the blinds were rising fairly quickly so that after the first few rounds there really wasn't much post-flop action. Below are two hands that I would appreciate some advice on.Hand #1: Blinds are at 200/400, with my stack at 2025. Everyone folds to the position before the cutoff(not sure what it's called), and he doubles it to 800. Player in the CO folds, and on the button I look down to see KJo. My read on the raising player was that he was playing fairly tight, but knew how to play his position. He was definitely raising more pots in late position when the action was folded to him. He had 2100 in chips, so he was basically committing his entire stack to the pot with that raise. I knew that I could be in really bad shape, but I also knew that he would raise with a mid-pair and confident he would raise with a small pair. I asked myself what I thought he would do if he looked down at K 10 or Q J in his position, and I thought that he would be raising given the circumstances. What should I have done here? Hand #2: We're at the final table with 9 players left. Blinds are at 2000/4000 with a 400 ante, rising to the 3000/6000 w/ a 500 ante on the next hand. I'm in the BB with exactly 12,000 in chips after I paid the ante, and a player in early position pushes all-in. The action is folded around to me, and I find myself with 6c5c. There were 226,000 total chips in play, so with 9 players left that made the average stack 25,111. With the blinds and antes where they were, it was pretty much a crapshoot where you hoped to catch a hand that you could move all in with.In the pot so far, 9 players had anted 400 for a total of 3600, the small blind had folded his 2000, I had 4000 in front of me already, and the guy who pushed in had another 12000 in front of him(as far as it mattered to me). That makes a total of 21600 in the pot and it was 8000 more to me. If I won the pot, I would have nearly 30000 in chips and would be in decent position to take a shot at first place if I caught some cards. If I folded, I would be in the small blind for 3000 on the next hand, and after anteing 500 if I didn't push I would be left with only 4500 with a 6000 BB. At this point I could ante myself to death, and since the blinds were so high and this wasn't the type of table to wait for me to go out I could easily have moved up 1 or maybe even 2 positions in the money.What should I have done? I felt that I had a pretty easy decision here, I just wanted to make sure that my reasoning for it was right. I've read that I shouldn't put the result of the hands in my post, so I'll let you guys know how they turned out later.Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. Link to post Share on other sites
Rocketwadster 0 Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 Second hand - I think I would call (I hate being blinded to death) more times than I would fold, due to the size of the antes and blinds :wink: First hand - King Jack offsuit is an absolutely terrible hand. No way, Jose that I am calling or pushing with that. :wink: Link to post Share on other sites
BeanGW 0 Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 Hand #1: Fold. you can find a better spot to make yr move. If you are wrong about yr read on the guy, this would be a pretty lousy way to go out.... and even if you are right and one of the blinds has a hand... i dunno. If you are going to play it you've gotta push to get the blinds out, and I honestly don't think it's worth a push.You are semi-short stacked for sure, but on the button, so you'll get to see at least a few more hands before you have to make your move. K-J is a raising hand to an unraised pot, but should be folded to a raise. Even a weak one like this.Hand #2: Easy push/call. I don't generally like calling my chips away, but here you are in pretty rough shape if you don't make yr move now. Even if you fold now and double up on the next hand, you aren't in good shape. Link to post Share on other sites
cdddc75 0 Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 Hand 1: Easy fold.Hand 2: Reluctant call, unless waiting a few more hands makes a big difference in payout. You really should have made a move sooner though if you wanted to win the tournament.How much did you pay for this lottery ticket anyway? What a horrible structure (from the impression you give). Link to post Share on other sites
Big Country 0 Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 Hand 1 - I let the hand go. Given your read on the guy and the hands he is likely to raise here, you are either a coin flip with two overcards to his pocket, or at best a small favorite if he has KT or QJ. You still have enough to find a better spot.Hand 2 - Getting 2.5-1 or so odds, I go ahead and push it here. Granted, you could hope for a better situation in the small blind, but, with a suited connector, you are not going to be too wrong to call with the odds you are getting, especially playing under the assumption that you are playing to win it all, and not just make the money, If you are just looking to make the money, then it could be argued to let it go. Link to post Share on other sites
PoppinFresh 0 Posted June 1, 2005 Author Share Posted June 1, 2005 Well, there seems to be a pretty clear consensus, thanks guys.In the first hand w/ K J I ended up pushing. SB and BB folded, the original raiser called my all -in and flipped over A 10. I wasn't in too bad shape, and I ended up sucking out and doubling up. I suspected that I was making the wrong move there, now that I know I'll have to keep this in mind. In the second hand I called all-in. I was up against AKs and lost, I was happy with the call though and at least I made some money in the tourney.To cdddc: It was a $40 + $10 buy-in. It was the first MTT I had played at a casino so I wasn't really sure what to expect, compared to online MTT's though the blinds seemed to escalate quickly. There were 98 people though and it was scheduled to finish in around 5 hours, so I guess the blind levels were necessary to avoid everyone staying there for an eternity. Also about making my move earlier, I was actually doing very well with 12 players left, but my AK lost to a short stack who moved in w/ Q 10, and I called an all-in with AQ when another short stack had pushed with AK(his hand held up). Those two hands really crippled me going into the final table. Link to post Share on other sites
Makata 0 Posted June 2, 2005 Share Posted June 2, 2005 Although I can't speak from either experience or certainty, I'm guessing that's a symptom of a B&M casino tournies .. they have to pay dealers, and hands go much slower and honestly they probably don't make a whole lot of extra profit over ring play. 5 hours, 98 players posting $10, that's $196 an hour of at least 10 tables (at the start). I'm guessing that comes out roughly to about $38 a table an hour, and I'm guessing that's not even as good as a 5/10 rake, so I honestly can't blame them for fast blind structures.As far as the hands go .. I think hand 1 you CAN push but only if you were alot more confident in your read and his ability to fold. You're pushing KNOWING you're either on the bad side of a coin flip or dominated. So if you think the chance that he'll fold is significant enough, or conversely, the chance that you're not dominated (such as in your example) is high enough, the play can be correct.Second hand, I'd say it's correct to call but I doubt I'd have had the cajones to. Link to post Share on other sites
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