one card...

Played two tourneys last night. I decided to try get more aggressive in late position (after rereading "The Poker Tournament Formula" by Arnold Snyder). In the early part of the tourney, I was open-raising from the last 3 spots (button, cutoff, hijack) no matter what my cards were. Nobody’s calling my raises, and my chip stack slowly grows and keeps up with the blinds.

One hand doubled me up – donk limped in from middle position. I reraised him with position with JcQc. Flop couldn’t get much better – Kc Tc 9d. I flopped a straight, plus an open-ended straight flush draw. Flop goes check/check. Turn comes a red 2 or some blank – he bets (big) – I reraise – he pushes, I call – he turns over KK for a slowplayed set! Uh Oh. Fortunately the board doesn’t pair and I’m in business with the chip lead.

Later my aggression gets me trouble. I’ve got 3h4h from the small blind. I limp, fully expecting the big blind to raise me (which he’s done a couple times before). He doesn’t though and we get to see the flop. It comes 9 T T, with 2 hearts. I check out of position with a draw, he checks behind.

Turn comes a Jack of hearts. Ok, I’ve got my flush. I lead out, he raises me. I decide that maybe he was slowplaying a ten. Sure he could have a higher flush, but can I really lay down a made 3-on-the-board flush? Nah. I call, then check the river (“small ball”). He bets about 2/3 pot, and I call. He turns over Jack Jack for the boat, and I lose a pretty big pot.

In review – that Jh is the only card in the deck that makes me lose a big pot. Any other heart and I’ve got a flush with 90-10% chance to win. If the other jack comes, he’ll have his boat but I’m not calling anything with 3-4. Any other card comes and he’s got 2 pair and I’m also not calling.

Later I shove with 77 and a donk calls with TT and I’m out.

Second tourney went better – stayed aggressive, but not quite as much so because people on my left were defending more often. If I made a blind steal from one off the button and it worked, I wouldn’t do it again on the next hand unless my cards warranted it.

Got into the chip lead by winning a big pot but it could have been bigger – donk limped, I reraised him with QQ. He calls. Flop comes A Q x. Set of queens, sweet! Check/check. Turn comes (blank), he bets/I raise, he calls. River comes a 2. Now he donks into me with a pot size bet! What the hell does he have? Crap. In the heat of the moment, I decide to just call. He’s got A2 for 2 pair. My set of queens hold up, but what a weak call on the end. One of the good players at the table types “??”, and then “he should have been gone, taglius, why the call at the end?”. I type “I’ve been seeing monsters under the bed lately, lots of second best hands”. He replies “you put him on AA, lol!”. Checking out the hand in review, that is the only thing he could have had to beat my set of queens. Although, in my defense, I did have a slowplayed set of kings against me on the same night just one tourney before.

In this tourney I made it to second place against a beginning player who was catching the cards of his life (quad twos, AA twice, etc) – one time my KQ actually held up to his AA when I hit runner-runner QQ on the turn/river, but he was still a 5-1 chip fav and knocked me out a hand or two later.