I got off to a great start finding Aces in early position. My raise got one caller. I bet out on an Ace high flop and got reraised. No need to slowplay this as im out of position and he has hit something. I correctly put him on AK and me push all in was called. Nice double up for me. I got AA again in the next hour, unfortunately no action. I make a few steals over the next few blind levels but had no hands of note. 120 players left after 4 hours of play. I again picked up AA, this time on the button. I raised an early position bet and was called. A raggy flop with 2 hearts caem and villain pushed the rest of his chips in on an overbet. I called and he flipped KhJh for a flush draw. This put me back to just over the average approx 13k.
A few orbits later and I get dealt JJ in early position. Blinds are 500/1000 so i bet 3000. Everyone folds to the button who has slightly larger stack and stares me down for ages. He plays with chips, counts a bet, recounts, thinks, stares then reraises minimum....
My thought process here. The only hands i have shown all tournament are 3 x AA and 1 x KK. I have been playing super tight and this guy knows it. That alone says he may have a monster hand. He has not played any hands out of line and seems a reasonably good player. His minreraise is not showing signs of wanting me to fold. There is 8000 in the pot, 3000 for me to call. I have 9000 left. There is no set value and a call makes me pot committed so I either reraise all in or fold. A reraise would mean he would then need to call 6000 into a pot of 17000 so I dont have much fold equity.
If im up against AK or AQ im just over a coinflip. Im a 4-1 dog vs AA,KK,QQ. What other hands can i reasonably put him on ?
I make the fold and he turns over 88.
Im still trying to work out if this was good play on his part or a loose play. Im still not sure. If he knew how i was thinking then its good play. If he likes his 88 then its bad play.
a few orbits later im getting short, card dead. blinds are 750/1500 and i have 7700 left. With an M of 3.5 I push with the best hand i can find preflop before the big blind gets to me. I am utg+1 and see 9 10 offsuit. I get called by KQ and QQ. QQ holds up im out around the 50ish mark. Should i have waited for the blinds ? questionable but I believe I made the right decision.
Online has been fun. I continue to make a steady upward progress.
Ive played 3000 hands of .25/.50 and 700 hands of .50/1. My PT Stats are 20/11/3.3 I would prefer to have the pfr higher but i keep finding reasons to limp in on the button or complete the small blind with low hands as there are usually 4-5 callers pf and noone can lay down top pair giving my 2p pair + great odds. This will change as I climb the ladder. I have cleared $50 of bonues + $47 of rakeback so my $500 deposit is now at $962. Not a bad start.I hope i am not sitting on the right side of variance. I have been dealt a few beats and can only remember one suckout that I gave so I think I am doing ok.
I see from my counter that people are reading this blog. I hope I can add some juicy content and interesting hand situations. For those people out there with no rakeback pls go get some. It makes a HUGE difference on your bankroll and you are giving money away for free if you dont have it. sign up at http://www.rakeupdate.com/signup/ryverrat
Good luck
Ryver
3 comments:
Hey, how's things? Came across your name through DoubleAs blog and thought I'd say hey.
With regard to the JJ vs 88 hand in the tourney, I'd say it might help to think a bit more about the basics of a situation.
It's good to be aware of what other's have seen of you, and aware of what they've been doing, but a lot of the time people are not paying attention and are just playing what they see. This means that (a lot of the time) they AREN'T thinking "Oooh, he's only showing down monsters", or "I haven't been raising in position enough" or anything like that. They are just playing the cards they have, and trying not to go bust.
In light of this, it can be of benefit to look at his stack size and his bet sizes and factor these into your thinking. Your numbers are a bit confusing I'm afraid, so I've made a few assumptions below.
In the hand, you raise it by 2000 (more on this raise later) making the bet 3000, and he min-raises you by betting 5000. This creates a pot of 9500, and as you first say you have 9000 left, that is what he would have to call if you went allin. So your opponent has bet 5000, and left himself at least 9000, which means his raise has not pot committed him. I would take the small size of his raise, along with his remaining stack size, to infer that he isn't very strong, and likely to fold to an allin. Even if he has something like AK which he may figure to be a coinflip 9 times out of 10, by pushing in this spot you will put all the pressure on him, and he can make a mistake either by folding when he is getting odds for a call, or by calling and being behind (however slightly).
If he has been watching you and seeing your big hands, he may have something as good as QQ or AKs and lay it down to an allin, which again suggests that is the right move. Sometimes you will be up against AA/KK in this spot, but if a solid player makes a fishy move, I'd usually be very suspicious and take my chances with a robust hand like JJ.
Best of luck in the future.
- D
Also, you might want to bet more that 3x the BB when opening from early position. 4-4.5x is good, as it will encourage less calls and make your post flop decisions easier.
Thankyou for the comment. I been thinking about this and I agree that the mistake in this hand was the small raise preflop out of position. I think I only had 12k or 13k and my 3000 bet was not very threatening. I think in my mind I would already folding to a reraise and was hoping to steal the blinds. If im hoping that then i definately should be raising it up more. The problem i then see is that any bigger raise I am then pot commited as atleast 1/3 of my stack would be in the pot so should I have just open pushed with my M of less then 10 ? Sounds like the best idea I think looking back at it. Thanks for the input.
You have a new reader for your blog. :)
Think pop it to 4k when you open, and then use your judgement on the rest of the hand. You'd still have most of your stack if you decide to fold, but JJ is usually a fairly strong hand.
Your welcome for the input.
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