Great spots: Flush draw w/ a pair

by Landlord79 on 04/27/07

We had our bi-weekly home game last night and I was fortunate enough to win it. Actually, I split the 1st and 2nd place money w/ a visitor and took the 1st place tournament of champion’s points. We split due to the late hour of the night. (I have a very slow structure, which allows the better players to utilize their skills more.) We have a point scale based on where you finish in a given week and we add these up over 10 games and drop your lowest score. A player is allocated chips in the TOC based on how many points he has accumulated versus the rest of the field. We pull $5 per head out every week and put this into a TOC fund that basically creates a freeroll that we play at the end of our 10 game session. This really works well for rewarding consistency and creates a new dynamic in the game.

With the win I was able to leap frog 2 players ahead of me and move into 5th place. You may think that 5th place isn’t all that great, but considering that I had a horrible start on the opening two games and the overall strength of the field at my game, moving into 5th is a great place to be. This was game 5 of 10. Two weeks ago I placed 2nd to move into 7th place and this week I really closed the gap on the top of the board as the points leader went out in 6th place out of the 10 we had playing.

I didn’t get very many great starting hands last night, but I was able to hit some flops and keep my stack to the north side of where I started. I only want to post one hand that I think will be a great hand for anyone trying to learn the little things that help to put a poor player around the corner to becoming a good player.

We are 4 handed and I’m in the BB
Blinds 600-1200 w/ a 200 ante

UTG limps (40k in chips)
Button limps (20k in chips)
SB completes (25k in chips) Qd-9d
Hero checks (15k in chips) Qh-3h

Flop comes 10h-9h-3s
SB leads for 2k
Hero pushes all in for 13.5k total
UTG folds
Button folds

This is the learning part that I would like to point out: With a pair and a flush draw against one pair higher than my bottom pair I’m usually >52% favored to win this hand. With the SB having me dominated with his middle pair and equal Queen kicker I am only now around 44% to win this hand. If the opponent’s high card were any card other than a queen I would once again become the favorite in this hand. This includes changing the Queen to an Ace or King. So, late in a tournament with a short stack such as I had, this one pair plus a flush draw situation presents a great opportunity to double up or pick up some chips as the favorite.

I obviously caught the heart on the river to double up and eventually win the tournament.

Hopefully, next week, I’ll be able to give you another good report on the home game that I play on my game’s off-week. It’s a tough one too.

I should be back online most of Saturday getting my FTP bankroll built from the $12 gift that tworags.com gave me for reviewing some local cardrooms. This is a great site and those guys are doing a great job!

4 Comments

Comments

Anonymous says

congrats on the win. I agree with your play on the flush draw hand. It shows how dangerous limping can be given that they gave you a free look at the flop and it hit you pretty good - pair and flush draw. Keep up the good work and keep us posted. I'm playing in a homegame/charity tournament tonight. I don't think the structure will be very good -- from what I hear it will be fast and favorable to the weaker players.

04/27/07

Anonymous says

Great win. Can you post some other hands? I'm curious if there were other critical spots you faced once you were 2 or 3 handed.

04/27/07

tateissy says

Nice work. What's the prize if you finish first after all of the events?

04/27/07

Landlord79 says

I posted to this yesterday but I guess it didn't stick.

I played 99 and flopped a set early, the pot was over 1/2 of a starting stack. A tricky player tried to push me off my hand I guess because he thought I had missed the flop and also because he had flopped top pair. He made a defensive bet on the turn and got away from it when I raised his bet. I bluffed that same player off his hand later in the night when I had 2-6s on the button and it checked around to me. I used my big stack to bully him by betting on the turn and putting him all in on the river.

When we were four handed I flopped trip 2s and turned quads. I announced to the bettor that I had quads like I was Jamie Gold or something. Same guy as before and he was onto my ck-call, ck-call and lead the river. He makes some good laydowns.

The TOC will be a nine-handed table with a total prize pool of $450-500. The prize will be split out 50/30/20. You haev to play at least 7 of the 10 games to qualify and you can drop one score.

04/29/07

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