A little knowledge ...

Playing in a $2 PokerStars tournament, we're all in the money, but there are still over 100 people playing, the cash at this point is miniscule (even relative to the buy in) and dozens of people need to be knocked out in order to move up in the payout scale.

But of course you must check down any hand where someone is all in right?

After the events of the hand I am about to recount, the victim to my right berated me for dozens of hands, as "she" said that she'd had a middle pair, and we should have cooperated to knock the big blind out. I put she in quotes, because her language was quite unladylike (in fact, more than that, there were a couple of give aways, but never mind).

Blinds are 400/800 with a 50 ante, and the big blind is all in for 480.

My right hand neighbour calls 800, and in late position with around 20K chips, I have QdJd and overcall. The SB drops out, and as noted the big blind is all in. Note that the main pot is 2290 and there's a side pot of 640.

Flop is A74 rainbow, no diamonds. My neighbour checks, and I bet 800. She folds, fearing an A. The BB has KT, neither of us improve and he wins the main pot.

Now let's think about my move here. In the event, with my neighbour folding, the net effect was that my bet was returned, and I won the side pot. As a result I was contesting a main pot for 2290 in which I had effectively only invested 160, holding QJ against a random hand. Even post flop, I don't need PokerStove to tell me that those are good odds!

If she'd raised, obviously I would have dropped out with a loss of 1600 on the hand, and if she'd called, I would have returned to checking it down. But I had a pretty good read, that I was going to get a fold.

Of course what really set her off was that the BB promptly went on a tear (and in fact wound up outlasting both of us, as I exited somewhere in the 30's running my KK into AK). But, that's quite irrelevant. Isn't it?

An early exit.

In this, and other posts of this type, it should go without saying that comments are welcome!

Middle stages of a low buy in tourney. Not near the bubble yet, but it seems like time to start making a move.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney,
Big Blind is t100 (9 handed)
Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)


SB (t3535)

BB (t2070)

MP3 (t3255)


Preflop: Hero is SB with Jc, Qc.

MP3 calls, I complete and the BB then raises to 300 called by MP3. Pot is 700 already and it costs me 200 to call. Seems clear.

Flop: (t900) 5c, 9c, Tc (3 players)

Looks like the jackpot flop for me, I check planning a check raise (I don't want hands with just the Ac or Kc to think about calling a continuation sized bet, but I'd like to build the pot). And then ...

Hero checks,
BB bets t600,
MP3 raises to t1200.

Now what? I'm not terribly worried about BB, I think he has AK or something similar --- even if he has a set of T's that's hardly a worry. But what's this raise from MP3 all about?

It seems to me he might have:

• A set (9 hands - maybe discount TT a bit with no preflop raise)
  
• A T and a high club (6 hands)
  
• A made flush with the A or K of clubs, but not both (12 hands -- but do all of these bet in the first place, and call the preflop raise in the second? Also discount slightly because of the presumption that BB is holding A(K or Q))

Unfortunately, I've been multitabling tournaments and have no good reads. All in all though it feels like it's much more likely that I'm way ahead than that I'm way behind. On the other hand when I am way behind, I have exactly 1 or 2 outs! Pot is now 2700, it costs me 1200 to call, and if I'm ahead I don't want to give free cards to be drawn out on. Ok then, ...

SB raises to t3235, BB folds, MP3 calls t1755 (All-In).

...

Hero has Jc Qc (flush, queen high).
MP3 has Kc 2c (flush, king high).

Ah well, guess I should have had a better read.

Cash play is so frustrating!

I'm an academic. I think a lot, probably too much, about my game. To make it even worse I'm a math guy.

Playing an SNG or MTT, if I make a play that I consider abstractly best, and it goes wrong (a bad beat if you will), I have no problem dealing with it. I can separate the buy in from the chips and simply accept the outcome. I guess that part of the reason is the finite horizon of the event --- I don't have to wait for the "long run" and moreover I know I can't.

Cash games of course are different ... when things go wrong, you have to wait for the long run to set them right. And sometimes of course that seems a very long time indeed. Meanwhile, the emotional response (cash = food = survival) is very hard to resist.

No, try as I might, I can't resist mentioning what brought this little reflection on. Playing $10 NLHE (which hardly equates to a lot of food!) on about my 15th hand at the table, having done nothing but fold so far, I pick up AA. Ok stop reading now, you know what's coming.

Still with me? Ok, you asked for it.

Folds to me, I bet 3BB in MP, called only on the button. Flop is JT4 two suited. A bit worried about JT sure, and potential flush draws, I bet about 2/3 pot. Button raises pot. Somehow my read is that he has one of KQ, KJ, AJ but not the dreaded JT, JJ or TT (the raise seems too big). So I put him all in. I have him slightly covered, and the all in bet is basically another pot sized raise at this point. He calls with KJ (would you?). J on the river.

[The call is not hugely wrong -- I'm an 80/20 favourite and he's getting 2:1 odds. And he might read me for an open ended draw with flush possibilities or something like that as well I suppose. If he uses Harrington's 10% bluff rule, then unless he's sure that all my non-bluffs are overpairs, the call is probably correct mathematically. However, I somehow don't think these were his thoughts.]

Rebuy.

Four hands later at the same table I get AA again, UTG. Raise, button calls, BB goes all in. I go all in. Button goes all in. Gosh a three way all in preflop with aces. Sweet! UB doesn't expose the hands here, but the AKQ rainbow flop is not too unpleasant. Next a low brick, and finally a J. The other two hands? JJ and (of course) TT.

[Preflop: 67%, postflop 85%, postriver 0%]

A big win!

My MTT experiences lately have not been much fun. I seem to be playing well enough (at least I think I am) but constantly finishing just on either side of the bubble. Last night I played one of my regular tournaments -- the $1.10, $200 guaranteed, turbo on UltimateBet at 0320. Truly, one of the most prestigious tournaments in the online poker world.

Just to help out all you people who have trouble with the whole time zone thing, that works out to be 7:20 pm for me. I figure that gives me a bit of an advantage. And there's often an overlay. How can that be bad?

Anyhow, I cashed third place, which was nice. Did I play well? Not particularly. I sucked out twice playing a dominated hand and hitting my kicker. To be fair, the second time it was only for half my stack and both our kickers were so low that a split pot was quite likely -- I was playing K2 from the small blind, when the BB pushed over my raise, and I thought both my cards would be live, in which case I easily had odds to call. Unfortunately, he had K4.

Then I had the difficult task of playing a big blind special -- T7 on a flop of TT7, hardly a major challenge. I got to be a big stack a little while before the bubble, and stole merrily away until the bubble burst. After that, the blinds just go up so quickly that all you can do is call the pushes when it seems right.

No details from the latter stages, as I forgot to pop a hand history window after some table change or other --- when oh when is UB going to introduce automatic hand histories? I know how I went out. Three handed, on the button with AJs. I had about 12BB and (just) the second biggest stack. I pushed and found the big stack in the small blind with AKo. No kicker this time, oh well.

Amazing though what even a trivial result like this (a whole $20 or so, whee) can do for your state of mind.

Oh those NY Times headline writers ...

Porsche Challenges German Government Over Volkswagen Voting Rights

And to think that I didn't know that Volkswagen's had voting rights in Germany.