Can't lay down a hand even when I don't need the chips

karlh

Had one of those hands on Sunday in the Fitz freeroll.

I'd built up a super monster stack soon after the freezout, about 16K with another big one, bout 14K 2 seats to my right. I'm pretty sure we were the 2 chip leaders thanks to some frantic rebuys and multi-way pots....i'd tripled up first hand and doubled=doubled-doubled up from there.

This hand came up shortly after:

I'm in the small blind and call with T5, no particular reason other than i could afford it and had the discount etc.... Blinds were 400/800 i think.

BB checks, 3 players and flop comes down TT4 rainbow. I'm doing cartwheels inside and promptly check. BB checks and Button (the other big stack) bets out ~2500.

This bet to me says 3 things.....either 'I've got a small pair, the Ts are scary so I want to close it down here', 'I'll represent a T and steal this one' or 'I have a 4, like my two pair so both fcuk off!'

I think for a minute and decide that he couldn't possibly have a T. With a rainbow flop he'd give me a free card and trap......I put him on a low pair or a 4 and decided to go all in over the top to close this one down with my trips and take the ~5K without letting him draw on me.

He calls :eek:

any ideas?

Imposter

a pair of 4's

karlh

okay so i'm an idiot....

seemed bizarre to me that he bet the pot after flopping a house....even a low house. 2 other players in the pot and a lot of chips to be milked!?

anyways i got rightly trimmed, worked my way back tot he same amount by the final table and went out just outside the mullah

Hectorjelly

a pair of 4s as imposter says, or any hand that people limp with that contain a T. K10, 10 Q, 10Js, 10 10 even. This hand would be a lot easier to play if you had of led out at the flop. Check raising makes it almost impossible to get away from the hand, as by the time you get any real information out of your opponent most if your chips are in the middle of the pot.

A lot of players will bet there, generally good ones who understand what they're doing. He flopped a house so he wants to play a big pot, not a small one.

DeVore

Note to self: Hector plays with decks containing 5 Tens.

I'd have thought he might have a ten alright. 44 wouldnt really have occured to me as its just a freak flop. I'm always slow to get involved with the next nearest in chips though.

DeV.

karlh

yeah that's my point. sometimes a chip stack should determine your play to the point where you don't play at all.

top set on a flop like that and I'd be all in every time against a smaller stack but now i'll think twice bout playing dodgy starting hands, especially from the blinds, if i don't need to.

good but weird play in my opinion by him betting with the made hand......worked a treat from his point of view.

guess it's just another lesson to be learned....although don't start thinkin you can start bluffin' me off top set ya feckers!!! :P

Hectorjelly

Your chip stack should determine your play, but you've got it the wrong way round, the bigger your stack the looser you can play. Completing here if with 105o and a small stack would be pretty bad.

As De Vore mentioned you dont really want to get involved in a big pot with the other big stack, but here you went out of your way to. If you bet the flop and get raised you can fold, the other big stack probably wouldnt want to get involved with you without a big hand, and there are a lot of hands that can beat you at this point.

Davey Devil

In a normal tourney I probably would have played it the same as Karl but the freeroll is a whole different monster. First off you can never put anyone on any hand because they are quite likely to be playing any 2 cards.

However the more important point to remember is that there is no first place to play for in a freeroll, the name of the game is survival and protecting your stack is paramount.

Lafortezza

I put karlh's oppoent on K2o... standard in the freeroll must be improving..