I recently played the WSOP Circuit event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas ($5,000 buy-in Main Event) and ran into two hands that have started me thinking about possibly changing my tournament style. As a general rule, I tend to be a tight, aggressive player. I’m a consistent winner in cash games (5/10 NL and up) and have made it deep in several major events. My tournament play has tended to mirror my cash game play—heavy emphasis on finding very advantageous spots to get my money in. Unfortunately, I often find myself waiting for a better spot and then scrambling to stay ahead of the blinds. As a result, I’m wondering if I should adopt more of a gambling style in my tournament play.

In any event, here’s what’s been keeping me up the last couple of nights. The first two levels were uneventful; I was card dead at a very active table and had been whittled down to about 8,500. At Level 3 (blinds 100/200/no ante) though, I had some decisions to make.


Hand 1

In the first hand, I was in the big blind. The cutoff seat, a young, aggressive player from the East Coast, was the chip leader at the table (about 28,000 chips) and opening any pot folded to him. He had recently busted one player when he flopped the nut flush and enjoyed the pleasure of an overplayed pair of queens.

In any event, he opened here for 700. The button, an Asian player with almost as many chips as East Coast, was consistently calling his raises with any two cards and did so here. The small blind was a young player named Brandon, a friend of WPT champion Joe Bartholdi, who appeared to be a thoughtful and aggressive player. Brandon had about 13,000 and made it 4,200 to go. I looked down in the BB and found J J.

At this point, the pot stood at about 6,000. My stack, again, was 8,500. Ok, call, push or fold?

I knew I didn’t want to call since…

1) Calling would likely encourage the big stacks, East Coast and Asian guy, to hang around with any kind of hand. The last thing I wanted here was four way action with hooks.

2) I would probably be faced with a tough decision post-flop, out of position. There’s a 60% chance cards bigger than a jack are hitting the flop. I hate tough post-flop decisions, out of position.

3) If I called, half my stack would be in the pot and I’d be pretty much pot committed.

4) There’s no fold equity in calling.

My alternatives, therefore, were to move-in or fold.

If I moved in, I was really only worried about Brandon. East Coast and Asian guy were playing a wide range of hands and my image was very tight (a nifty by-product of three hours of folding 62o, 74o, A2o et al.). Unless one of them held a monster, they were gone.

This left $1400 of dead money in the pot and Brandon to think through.

I’m obviously not happy if Brandon has AA, KK, or QQ, but I discounted AA and KK pretty quickly. Why would he make such a large bet if he had AA or KK? His bet was discouraging action.

So if he did have a big pair, it was probably QQ, but given the bet size, I felt his most likely holding was AK, in which case, I am a slight favorite to win the hand and double up. This would give me a nice chip stack early and room to maneuver.

I also might have some fold equity, although the size of Brandon’s bet suggested he was playing this pot.

So it really came down to the following decision: Did I want to play a huge pot here for a coin flip when I still have 40x the big blind and consider myself to be one of the better players at the table?

In the end, I decided “No.” although in retrospect, I think there’s merit in pushing here. At some point, in any tournament, I need to win some coin flips. And although I consider myself a solid 2x favorite in tournament play, I rarely like turning down edges; JJ is a 55/45 favorite and there was 1400 of dead money in that pot. If I had to do it over, I think I’d…well…who knows?

Side note: Brandon did not show his cards but later told me he had AK and would have called my all-in.


Hand 2

The second hand came about 15 minutes after the JJ hand.

Chris McCormack, a thoughtful, courageous player with good table sense, had recently been seated four seats to my left and raised to 600 from UTG+2. He had about 20,000 chips. An amateur with about 6,000 chips called the 600 from middle position.

It was folded to me on the button (my stack stood at about 7,400 at this point) and I called with 6 6. The blinds folded, leaving the pot at roughly 2,100.

The flop came 4 5 7.

Chris checked, Amateur checked, and I considered my options.

I could take a card off and see if I make my straight. However, if I did hit, with a four card straight on the board, I would probably get little action. And if my straight card was a spade, it might someone else’s flush. Plus, other than my straight cards, there are very few cards I’d like to see on the turn. I felt my best choice was to bet 1,800 and try to take the pot down. Unfortunately, Chris check raised enough to put me all-in. Amateur folded after some thought, and hence, tough decision #2.

At this point, I’ve got about 5,000 chips left and I’m getting about 2:1 odds on my money (figure about 10,000 or so in the pot at this point) if I call. Most likely, Chris has an over-pair. I probably have 10 outs (8 outs to my straight and the other 2 sixes) which makes me slightly better than a 2:1 underdog to win. He may also have two unpaired over-cards and, knowing that I have been playing tight, is trying to push me off the better hand. If the two over-cards are spades, he’s a slight favorite. If not, I am a big favorite.

I concluded that I was likely calling off my entire stack drawing as a 2:1 underdog and with 25X the blinds figured I’d find a better spot and folded.

Looking back, I think the check raise was a great bet by Chris. Whatever he had, it was the best way to win the pot. In retrospect, I think I needed to give more weight to the fact that Chris might be playing AK or AQ of spades. This is a classic young gun semi bluff move. Chris gets 50% or more fold equity and he is a slight favorite to win against a hand like mine.


Conclusion

As it turned out, the JJ was the best starting hand I had the entire day. I never had another pair over 44, and no AK or AQ through the next three levels. I managed to grind my way into the 6th level (300/600/75 ante) by stealing with nothing, but bounced out in 140th with my J 10 v A J.

As I look back, I’m not one to play results, but I do think that I need to rethink spots like the ones above and consider the merits of gambling to build a stack. At some point, I’ll need to win flips and gamble a little. And let’s face it…playing with a big stack is a lot more fun than grinding along as a shorty. I think I’m going to practice taking more risks early in some local tournaments and see if I can find a rhythm with it.

Keep practicing!

PianoMan

Anonymous says

I think you needed to play for all of your chips on both hands. Not sure what you were thinking on the JJ hand. Could he have had AA-QQ... sure, but his range was much wider than that and you were most likely a favorite against his range. In fact, I would argue that you were a bit favorite against his range. He could have been making a move with a so-so hand and he could also have had 88-TT many of the times.

On the 66 hand I also think you needed to play. If he really had an overpair I think it was very likely that he bets out to prevent giving a free card. It looks a big A with a flush draw to me. Sure he could have had an overpair, but if he did you were getting about the right odds and when you factor in that he could have a flush draw you should play.

I do understand your rationale for folding, and it's easy for me to tell you to play the hands sitting here in my livingroom, but based on your blog you probably already know that you should have played these hands. Better luck next time.

Paul

05/05/07

lakong says

The first hand I think is very straightforward and a pretty easy call.

The second hand is more interesting. The guy raises in EP and you peg him for a good player so his range is likely a pair or a big A, right? Now he checks the flop, what could he have? Well it's a very dangerous flop and there are two people behind him. If he had an overpair would he really want to give a free card here and see either the flush come on the turn or a 4 card straight? I just don't see it. A made straight is almost impossible given his PF bet, so he either has two big cards with a possible flush draw, trips or an overpair. Trips or an overpair would be betting most of the time, right? I would think two big cards could also make a continuation bet most of the time. But two big cards with a flush draw would probably go for the check raise or would be happy to see a free card and try to make their hand on the turn.

Now you bet and get CR. It really looks like AK/AQ of spades, doesn't it? While you are just about even money to the flush draw + two overs, you are clearly getting the right odds to call. Even if he has an overpair you're still getting the right odds (1.5-1). There's also a chance that he's just 'playing poker' with two big cards that aren't spades figuring that he can get you off your hand. In that case you're almost a 4-1 favorite.

So there really isn't any reason to lay this hand down. You're getting 2-1. The likely scenario is that you are even money against this guy with two overcards and a flush draw. Another possible scenario is that you're behind but have 10 outs and are EV+ to call. Another possible scenario is that you are a big favorite to win the hand. There really doesn't seem to be any good reason not to play this hand. Does anyone disagree?

05/07/07

lakeoffire says

GAMBOOOOOOOL!

05/22/07

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