A brag post
We haven't had one of these for a while so it must be time. I played my usual little cluster of four micro buy in tourneys on Stars yesterday. I exited early in three of them owing to a combination of bad beats and rank stupidity, well ok, owing to rank stupidity (Memo to self: After making a continuation bet in position with middle pair on a king high board, do not call the all in check raise). The fourth though (which was actually the second one to start but anyhow) was another story.
Two incredible hands put me in position to place well. With the blinds at 300/600, I had 12,800 chips and picked up K♦K♣ UTG+2. UTG folded, but my right hand neigbour bet 2,450. I raised to 4,850, whereupon my left hand neighbour went all in for 16,000. The BB who was practically all in on the blinds anyhow came along, and so did my right hand neighbour who had me slightly outchipped.
Now it seemed to me that I actually did have a decision to make. If either of the big stacks had AA then obviously I should fold. But I decided to go along for the ride. Lefty had A♥K♥, righty had A♣Q♥ and the poor old BB had A♠6♥. I felt certain that the case ace was going to appear at some point, but for once all was well (though lefty had an OESD on the river -- at least I had two of those outs, and righty had one). So that took me up over 40,000 chips.
Just a few hands later I picked up A♠A♥ in the small blind. There were three limpers in front of me, so I raised to 3000. The BB (lefty from the KK hand) was already all in on the blinds, but all three limpers called. On a J♣9♦2♣ flop I bet 8000 into the pot of roughly 13000. That disposed of two of the limpers, but I got a min raise from the third (who'd begun with about 25K chips so now had only about 6K behind). At the time I figured this for some combination straight/flush draw, and I could in principle be behind. Regardless, I pushed, and was happy to find that he only had K♦J♦. Again my hand held up.
That put me over 70K chips and in a position to more or less cruise to the final table. These two hands though also highlight an aspect of this type of tournament which I've had trouble dealing with -- particularly in the latter stages with the blinds escalating, people raise far too rarely, but call far too frequently. This makes traditional big stack blind stealing difficult, as it's hard to carry out a steal. Some will fold to the second bet, but often they'll just stick around. So it seems that a far tighter approach is required, waiting for the opportunities to get the money in while way ahead.
I finished sixth -- an enormous luckbox at the final table who'd arrived with a monster stack and demonstrated that he was willing to call an all in with pretty much any two cards, decided (with some money already in the pot) to call my all in (for about a quarter of his stack) on 77. I had 88, but a 7 on the flop sent me home.
Two incredible hands put me in position to place well. With the blinds at 300/600, I had 12,800 chips and picked up K♦K♣ UTG+2. UTG folded, but my right hand neigbour bet 2,450. I raised to 4,850, whereupon my left hand neighbour went all in for 16,000. The BB who was practically all in on the blinds anyhow came along, and so did my right hand neighbour who had me slightly outchipped.
Now it seemed to me that I actually did have a decision to make. If either of the big stacks had AA then obviously I should fold. But I decided to go along for the ride. Lefty had A♥K♥, righty had A♣Q♥ and the poor old BB had A♠6♥. I felt certain that the case ace was going to appear at some point, but for once all was well (though lefty had an OESD on the river -- at least I had two of those outs, and righty had one). So that took me up over 40,000 chips.
Just a few hands later I picked up A♠A♥ in the small blind. There were three limpers in front of me, so I raised to 3000. The BB (lefty from the KK hand) was already all in on the blinds, but all three limpers called. On a J♣9♦2♣ flop I bet 8000 into the pot of roughly 13000. That disposed of two of the limpers, but I got a min raise from the third (who'd begun with about 25K chips so now had only about 6K behind). At the time I figured this for some combination straight/flush draw, and I could in principle be behind. Regardless, I pushed, and was happy to find that he only had K♦J♦. Again my hand held up.
That put me over 70K chips and in a position to more or less cruise to the final table. These two hands though also highlight an aspect of this type of tournament which I've had trouble dealing with -- particularly in the latter stages with the blinds escalating, people raise far too rarely, but call far too frequently. This makes traditional big stack blind stealing difficult, as it's hard to carry out a steal. Some will fold to the second bet, but often they'll just stick around. So it seems that a far tighter approach is required, waiting for the opportunities to get the money in while way ahead.
I finished sixth -- an enormous luckbox at the final table who'd arrived with a monster stack and demonstrated that he was willing to call an all in with pretty much any two cards, decided (with some money already in the pot) to call my all in (for about a quarter of his stack) on 77. I had 88, but a 7 on the flop sent me home.
Labels: brag
posted by Michael Albert at 4:27 pm
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