Classical Showdowns
When reaching towards the end of your single-table or multi-table tournament it’s important to start playing aggressive because with the blinds going up and your stack being proportionally smaller every blind you win will add big to your stack so you don’t want to take chances when you raise you want to make a decent raise. Minimum raises are usually out of the question unless you are hiding a monster hand such as Aces, Kings or Queens. Here’s a situation where minimum raising with powerhands such as Ace-King, Ace-Queen, Ace-Jack or even Ace-rag should’ve cost you.
- Level VII (100/200) -
9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 3: iopå (8795 in chips)
Seat 6: WhiskeyR (2495 in chips)
Seat 8: ME (2210 in chips)
iopå: posts the ante 25
WhiskeyR: posts the ante 25
ME: posts the ante 25
WhiskeyR: posts small blind 100
ME: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [9d Th]
iopå: folds
WhiskeyR: raises 200 to 400
ME: calls 200
*** FLOP *** [9h Qd Ts]
WhiskeyR: bets 2070 and is all-in
ME: calls 1785 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (285) returned to WhiskeyR
*** TURN *** [9h Qd Ts] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [9h Qd Ts Jd] [Jh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
WhiskeyR: shows [Kh Ah] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
ME: shows [9d Th] (two pair, Jacks and Tens)
WhiskeyR collected 4445 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4445 | Rake 0
Board [9h Qd Ts Jd Jh]
Seat 3: iopå (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: WhiskeyR (small blind) showed [Kh Ah] and won (4445) with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 8: ME (big blind) showed [9d Th] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Tens
By the way he’s a very strong player, only mistake he made was that one and he was rewarded for it. Anyways Ace-King is pretty strong and will usually help you alot in winning hands without showdowns but at this point in the game Ace-King is not that strong because with our stacks being so small and the blinds being high you can see that odds are both players will put all their chips in and go to the showdown.
In this case if he had pushed preflop there was no way I could’ve called but giving me a cheap flop to see was his mistake. After I made two pairs on the flop WhiskeyR still had many outs but he had to either hit runner cards for a better two pair or hit one of the 3 Jacks remaining in the deck. Hitting a King or an Ace was not enough. Well obviously he had to hit one of the remaining 3 Jacks to complete a straight and hit one of the remaining 2 Jacks on the river to add insult to injury.
Preflop is very important and this is another player who couldn’t see that because he gave me a cheap flop. Yes it’s possible my opponent could’ve made a straight already but if he had a marginal hand or King-Jack he probably would’ve pushed all his chips and I would’ve folded avoiding a bad beat.
So did I make the right call? Well in a heads-up situation two pairs on the flop is pretty strong and even if he did make his hand I was still good to hit one of the remaining 4 outs for a full house or a runner-runner for a straight, better full house or even four of a kind. Either way I had more outs than he did so pushing all his chips with Ace-King after the flop came out was his mistake and I couldn’t have played this better. Another situation where the better player gets it handed to him.
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Losing Pocket Kings
Doesn’t happen and shouldn’t happen too often but when it does, losing a monster such as pocket Kings is always devastating. Why? Well The only hole cards better than yours is pocket Aces. In a single-table or multi-table tournament you will usually win big when all you’re chips are in the middle. The odds of you losing are pretty low because your opponent will usually be an underdog. Take a look at the possible situations:
- He has pocket Aces which in this case you are about a 4-to-1 underdog.
- He has Ace-King which would make him a 7-to-3 underdog or roughly 2.5-to-1. If he has Ace high with any kicker your odds will go up with pocket Kings.
- He has a lower pocket pair, Queens and lower which would make him roughly a 4-to-1 underdog.
- He has any cards which would still make him roughly a 4-to-1 underdog.
As you can see, out of 4 possible situations your opponent doesn’t stand much of chance since he’ll be a big underdog 3 out of 4 times. Unless he has the Rockets, his best chance is to hit one of the three remaining Aces in the deck assuming he has an Ace in the hole. Without that, hitting two pairs, a set or making a made hand is practically impossible with only 5 cards to come. Well that’s what happen in the following hand, take a look at the hand first and I’ll go over it after.
- Level III (25/50) -
9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: d-jarl (1455 in chips)
Seat 2: BankerREL (1490 in chips)
Seat 3: jlmadsen80 (1750 in chips)
Seat 4: ChrisSolopow (1425 in chips)
Seat 5: willies777 (1640 in chips)
Seat 6: buonanotte (1335 in chips)
Seat 7: ME (1330 in chips)
Seat 8: BinAllN (1620 in chips)
Seat 9: Premier (1455 in chips)
ME: posts small blind 25
BinAllN: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [Kc Kh]
Premier: folds
d-jarl: folds
BankerREL: raises 50 to 100
jlmadsen80: folds
ChrisSolopow: calls 100
willies777: folds
buonanotte: raises 250 to 350
ME: raises 980 to 1330 and is all-in
BinAllN: folds
BankerREL: folds
ChrisSolopow: folds
buonanotte: calls 980
ChrisSolopow said, “99″
*** FLOP *** [Tc As Ks]
*** TURN *** [Tc As Ks] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [Tc As Ks 6c] [Qh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ME: shows [Kc Kh] (three of a kind, Kings)
buonanotte: shows [Jd Jh] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
buonanotte collected 2910 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2910 | Rake 0
Board [Tc As Ks 6c Qh]
Seat 1: d-jarl folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 2: BankerREL folded before Flop
Seat 3: jlmadsen80 folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 4: ChrisSolopow folded before Flop
Seat 5: willies777 folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 6: buonanotte (button) showed [Jd Jh] and won (2910) with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 7: ME (small blind) showed [Kc Kh] and lost with three of a kind, Kings
Seat 8: BinAllN (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: Premier folded before Flop (didnt bet)
As you can see, everything happened in the preflop stage. After a minimum raise from an early position player, there was one limp and on re-raise from the button. That’s when I pushed all my chips in the small blind. Did the button make the right call? No, preflop stage is very important, especially in a tournament format but clearly this player had no idea and I’ll go over why. First of all he re-raised because he wanted to fold other players and determine how good his hand was compare to the others which is fine but after I re-raised he should’ve known he was beat by either higher cards or a better pocket pair. What saved him? This player is an idiot who couldn’t get a proper read and figure out I was a tight-aggressive player.
Basically if he knew how to play he would’ve figured out I played a minimum of high cards which was giving him at best a coinflip situation. I knew I was getting more than a coinflip and I could’ve smooth call the 350 raise but with the initial raiser and limper behind me I couldn’t risk one of them calling having too little information on them, so playing it tight was my best shot. So I re-raised for all my chips. Why not just make a standard re-raise? I only had 1330 in chips and making a 2X or 3X raise would leave me with less chips then my initial re-raise so instead of smooth calling a monster and giving a flop I made forced him to take a bad gamble in which he would be about 4-to-1 underdog or 2.5-to-1 if he has an Ace.
With the blind being so low the move for him was to fold because he didn’t have to commit all his chips for a hand like Jacks when you can be beat by so many overcards and 3 pockets. He took the gamble and won with a made hand. Basically his re-raise was completely lucky because if he knew what he was doing he would’ve known that after my raise his Jacks didn’t stand much of chance and would’ve laid it down hence the reason of the raise. Obviously he made a bad move but that’s ok, sooner or later this kind of bad play is going to cost him.
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Short Stack Donkey
As a poker player I figured the best way for you to learn anything is by learning from my mistakes… or other people’s mistakes. Well in this case you can see that I’m going to be mentioning a lot of donkeys in this category. Don’t worry though I’ll try to be unbiased =P.
So let’s took at a recent hand history from Pokerstars (by the way I only play SNG tables at Pokerstars for now). Also for privacy and security reasons I took out the tournament number as well as my account name. Now take a look at this following hand, I’m the orange one and my opponent is the green one.
PokerStars Game - Level V (75/150)
Table 1 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 3: accuser (3000 in chips)
Seat 4: CerebralTrap (3315 in chips)
Seat 6: ME (1265 in chips)
Seat 7: mrcashman222 (930 in chips)
Seat 8: krazyeyz (4590 in chips)
Seat 9: Iceman1278 (400 in chips)
Iceman1278: posts small blind 75
accuser: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [Ad Qh]
CerebralTrap: folds
ME: raises 1115 to 1265 and is all-in
mrcashman222: folds
krazyeyz: folds
Iceman1278: calls 325 and is all-in
accuser: folds
Uncalled bet (865) returned to ME
*** FLOP *** [8d 6h Th]
*** TURN *** [8d 6h Th] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [8d 6h Th 6c] [7h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Iceman1278: shows [2h Jh] (a flush, Jack high)
ME: shows [Ad Qh] (a pair of Sixes)
Iceman1278 collected 950 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 950 | Rake 0
Board [8d 6h Th 6c 7h]
Seat 3: accuser (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: CerebralTrap folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 6: ME showed [Ad Qh] and lost with a pair of Sixes
Seat 7: mrcashman222 folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 8: krazyeyz (button) folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 9: Iceman1278 (small blind) showed [2h Jh] and won (950) with a flush, Jack high
I didn’t go broke yet but lost a lot of chips and eventually did not finish but that’s beside the point. My point is why would someone play all their chips with a hand like J-2 of hearts. You would probably say a donkey and I couldn’t agree more but this WASN’T A BAD BEAT. I repeat, NOT A BAD BEAT. It’s a tough one to swallow but I was only a slight favorite in this hand. Did he make the right move? The answer is unfortunately yes and here’s why.
First of all this player was more than short stacked which means he was going all-in on any cards when he was in position. In this case he didn’t but what made him call is because he was the big blind and had to cough up 150 out of his remaining 400. At this point in a SNG he couldn’t fold and wait another hand because with only 250 left even if he had pocket aces anyone would call him and he would risk being outdrawn. He wasn’t necessarily pot committed but pretty darn close.
Before looking at what I did, I need to mention that this was an average player because he played too many marginal hands and risked a lot of chips for weak hands which is why he ended up with 400 chips in the first place. Now looking at my all-in move, was it correct?
Some would disagree while others would agree. Again it depends on your situation. In my case we were 6 at the table and I had less than 10 big blinds or BB. I could have made a standard raise to 450 chips and folded the flop if I missed but I didn’t want that. With only 4 players left to act behind me and knowing that none of the players would call me unless they had a powerful hand except for the short stack I knew pushing all my chips was the best move. The reason why I knew no one would call me except for the short stack is because the big stacks don’t need to take risks right now so they can just sit out and wait for monsters to outplay me.
As for the two small stacks, the first one would only call and take a risk if he had high cards which he didn’t and as for the small one I was hoping he would make a desperate call so I could add his chips to mine. As it turned out I was right, the board just didn’t agree with me.
In the end I lost to a flush, and eventually didn’t have enough to survive to the end because it crippled me big time. My opponent did make the right decision of calling but the only reason why I consider him a donkey is because he put himself in this situation early and got a lucky break.
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