Monday, December 8, 2008

sigh.

Shortie shoves into my blind, I've got AJ and figure he's shoving much wider than that. He's got 33 and I lose a race. One tourney down

Next hand, I shove any two cards from the small and only 2.5 BB left. My two cards happen to be 68o - but I get called by bigstack 45o! +60% to win, lose anyway. ICM actually says this is a dead-even move with his wide calling range, but c'mon, am I going to wait for better cards now? My cards were crap the whole tourney.

In the second tourney, people foil my shove/reshove moves time and time again, and I get blinded out practically. I end up shoving my last 6BB with 24o into 4 people, not good. But I can't let the blinds pass me again - I figure this crap hand is the best chance I have to have 2 live cards... except I get called by 99, so I really have NO live cards. oops. After the tourney, I realize that 99 had already limped, and I shoved over him, but I didn't see this b/c I was playing 2 tables. Guess I have some work to do there...

Tourney 3 - haven't won a hand yet... finally, JJ... but the player right before you minraises. His stats so far - 38/0. Terrific. This practically screams "I've got a big hand". How big? Do I really fold JJ? He's a -16% player on sharkscope - could this be AT? Sure it could. Crap. I reraise, he shoves over. Double crap. I make the call - expecting QQ/KK/AA, but I'm pleasantly surprised to see AK. I'm even more surprised to not see an ace or king on the flop. That means I'm a 3-1 favorite with 2 cards to come...and the turn pairs his ace and I'm out in 8th place.

Should I just have folded? My reads were conflicting, and his real hand ended up as a race. Should I really just fold and live to fight another day? A -16% bad player could have TT/99 there as well as what he had. I hate Jacks.

Tourney 4 - bubble lasts about 6 hours - I've got big stack and start to bully but people start calling/shoving. I slow down until I hit some hands. Headsup is bizarre - dude "slowplays" every top pair so I can't get a read on him, he finally makes the critical error of slowplaying AK with an ace on the flop all the way to the river, I hit runner-runner straight, shove, and he calls. That's bad poker, people.

4 tourneys, net profit - $1. 3 losses and one $45 win. I will now immerse my head in boiling cooking oil.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

With the JJ hand: Did you consider just calling? There isn't much info on blinds levels or number of players,etc. I find that sometimes with middle pairs up to QQ, especially against players I think I can outplay or players that tend to underestimate my play, that calling and then outplaying them after the flop can be very rewarding at times. Also, if an A or K hits the flop you can probably get away from the hand and live to fight on; if one doesn't hit the flop, the player normally is more willing to fold to a bet or make a bad call. Good luck!

Bumstead

matt tag said...

An interesting idea. I often do this with AK, for the same reasons but only in late position. I believe I was in middle position with the JJ.

On this particular hand, it might have worked. The flop came all unders to my jacks. If I shove then, I might get a fold.

Of course, calling might have let in later position players with suited connectors or small pairs, and they could have hit the flop harder than my overpair as well.