Fitz €20 in tonight and the fickleness of luck

Iago

Just back from this now, finished 5th and pocketed €175 profit for my night. Works out at around €30 an hour, not bad but fcuk me it should have been better. I suppose the fact that I finished in the money at all should be a point for gratefulness on my part.

At times I really rode my luck, two hands in particular stick out..

Early on in the tournie I have J8o and I'm one of the BB's, no raise preflop so I limp in

Flop comes down Q J T rainbow..

It's checked around to MP who goes all-in for 500 for a pot that has 125 in it. I think and decide he has an up and down straight draw and call. Unfortunately Austin behind me decides to raise all-in for another 340. It'll only leave me with 250 but I'm pot commited and have to call anyway, I know I'm behind him..

Anyway cards are turned over

MP QKo for top pair and up and down straight draw
Austin QT for two pair
Me J8o for middle pair and rapidly running out of draws...

Turn is a J giving me trips
River is the last J giving me a Poker....Nice....

I get some cards and play them reasonably well after that and I've over 11K at the break. Plenty of time to sit and wait for good cards.


The second hand of note came when we were down to 11 players. I've about 32K and blinds are at 700-1000-1000, I'm UTG. I call, button calls and one of the BB raises to 2K, I call and button raises to 5K everyone else folds.

I've only got K8s but I decide to call, it was 3K in a pot of almost 14K so worth a punt.

Flop is K J 10 rainbow. I check, button (who had me covered) bets 10K I go all-in without hesitation for another 17K. He thinks and thinks and finally calls, I thought he had QQ or maybe AJ...

Button AA
Me K8s

The 8 came down on the turn and instead of being out I'm chip leader on the table.


It took somewhere around 30 minutes to go from 10 players to 9 players and we're on the final table. I've around 50K and probably slight chip leader starting out and I'm in seat 9...perfect! Ultimately over the course of the next hour two hands killed me.

The first hand I have AKo preflop, blinds are 1500-2200-2200, and a player in MP goes all-in for 17K in front of me.. I think about it and finally call

MP has 99
I have AKo

Flop is A rag rag

Turn is rag

River is 9 to give him trips...

Instead of winning a pot of over 40K I find myself with 27K and just about 10 times the BB in a three blind game with 7 players. Not a good position to be in..

We get down to 5 players and I've been stealing blinds and staying afloat, blinds are at 2000-3000-3000 and I've just over 30K when the same player goes all-in on my BB in front of me. This time I have AJs....

I should have thrown it away, but I didn't I called. He turned over 33 and I got no help and went out instead. Overall I should be glad that I got there, but I'm pi$$ed that I didn't go on to win it!

Iago

I've been thinking some more about the game last night and the calls I made or didn't make as the case may be.

I played some good hands, twice slow-playing the nut flush and enticing all-in bets, once from a lower flush and once from top two pair. On the second last table when we were down to 11 I made two really good calls/moves, the first came about with me UTG and sitting with TT. BB was 1,000 so I raised to 5K, folded around to the SB who thinks for a while before calling, somewhat reluctantly I thought.

Flop came down Q rag rag. SB bet 4K fairly quickly. I'm sitting there thinking, what has he got? I can't see him betting here with QQ, KK or AA which he may have been trapping with pre-flop. AQ or KQs maybe? or has he hit a set on the flop with one of the lower kickers. I'm about to throw away my TT, and then I decide he's on Q with a K or A kicker and I'm going to try and steal this one. I raise to 10K representing KK or AA and sit there impassively...after thinking for a good 5 minutes he eventually folds. I was talking to him at the break and it turns out he did have AQo but put me on A's or K's.

A couple of hands later I was on the BB and I had 83o, (stunning hand I know) no raises and I check to see the flop.

Flop comes down As Kd 8h

it's checked all around

Turn is 6s

checked all around

River is 8s

checked to me. I bet 3,000 to get an idea of where people are. Tbh I'm trying to represent the flush and I'm throwing out a milking bet. Next player to act goes all-in for 17k in total, everybody folds around to me.

I've been on this guys table most of the night and in other tournies, he tends to slow-play hands but bet out when he's on a drawing hand. The only question is does he have the flush draw, I called but I was wrong in my read. I thought he had an A, turned out he had the final 8 and we split the pot. Still I very nearly threw it away, against someone else I probably would have.


I made 4 mistakes last night(apart from the lucky hands above), normally 1 is enough to take you out of a tournament, but it took 4 for me.

My first mistake came on the second last table. Blinds at 700-1000-1000 and I've about 16K I call from MP with A7h, Joe O'Neill raises in LP to 4K and the BB called. Now had it been Joe on his own I'd of called but I convinced myself that one of them had A with a better kicker than me and I folded. When the flop came down JOe went all-in and was called very quickly. There were two hearts on the board and 7 was the highest board card!

As it turns out, neither of them had anything, Joe showed J9o on a bluff, the caller showed K6s on a straight draw. Neither of them hit and K high took the pot......the turn was the Q of hearts!

My second mistake happened on the final table, when I slowplayed two pair and got outdrawn on the river because one of the BB's had 34 and had filled a bottom straight. I just wasn't thinking straight at the time, ever so slightly on tilt after the AK v 99 hand a few minutes earlier. That cost me 12K from my stack as well as 6K sitting in the pot.

Third and fourth mistakes were identical, towards the end, before I was knocked out I had less than 10BB's left and because there were 3 blinds per round with only 5 players it meant that we were paying a blind 3 out of 5 hands. I decided if I was playing I was going all-in, and I did, with QQ and Aks, neither of which were called and I only picked up the blinds, looking back I probably should have just min-raised and then bet big on the flop. I just didn't feel I had the time or stack to be playing like that, but retrospect is a great thing!

careca

That guy played the first hand very badly IMHO. If hes calling a raise with AQ and the board comes Q high then he has to follow it through. By folding and thinking you had AA or KK hes basically looking for the perfect flop before committing his chips.

The second hand doesn't make sense as there can't be a flush, theres a river card so there can't be a draw. Think you typed it wrong.

As for those errors I reckon the only one is slow playing the two pair with a straight draw on the table. Just because a hand was taken down with K high and you have an ace, doesn't mean you played it wrong. Also all-in is sometimes the only option at the Fitz final tables (and I've never even played in a three blind structure).

Well played btw. Bit unlucky not to go further.

Iago

careca wrote:

The second hand doesn't make sense as there can't be a flush, theres a river card so there can't be a draw. Think you typed it wrong.

Sorry you're right I've corrected it now, my fingers have a life of their own on the keyboard!

DeVore

The only mistake you made with A7 in my mind is limping with it! Certainly with Monsieur O'Neill on your left, you need to be able to stand a reraise! I hate A7 with a passion. Its muck imho.

The new style seems to be working out for you Gary congrats on the cash win.

DeV.

Hitman Actual

careca wrote:

That guy played the first hand very badly IMHO. If hes calling a raise with AQ and the board comes Q high then he has to follow it through. By folding and thinking you had AA or KK hes basically looking for the perfect flop before committing his chips.

Also all-in is sometimes the only option at the Fitz final tables (and I've never even played in a three blind structure).

Yeah, I was thinking that about the first hand as well... if he thought you had AA or KK then he shouldn't have called with his AQ to begin with. Bloody AQ, calling raises with it is dangerous anyway.

And the all-ins at the end, I think you were right as well. Don't think min raises ever help... from a good player they look like a big hand anyway. Stick in the chips, hope to get called with the best of it... and have your hand stand up!

mewso

Just as a follow up to this. You re-raised him thinking it would put him off top pair top kicker??? Well I just don't know poker anymore especially as it worked. With 11 players left what good reason has he to put you on AA or KK and what good reason have you to think you can convince of it.

DeVore

I dunno about the AQ vs AA thing.... its not as bad as a play as people have said. You've raised to preflop from 1K to 5K. Ok so you have a hand. He calls, and hits his hand. He bets out which should slow you down but instead you reraise saying "hey, I dont give a sh*t about that queen, obviously you've hit it (theres nothing else of interest on this flop) and *still* I want to put more money in this pot". He considers for a while and puts it down. Its a good bluff rather then a bad put down imho. It may have been a bit timid but you are representing a lot of strength. I understand when people are saying that if he hit his hand he should follow through, but he did! He fires out a bet on the flop which you reraised!
imho a player cant just _decide_ what you have preflop and continue to play his hand as though thats what you have, REGARDLESS of the subsequent information he gets...

DeV.

DeVore

Muso, remember you may be flavouring your logic with actual *knowledge* of Gary's playing style

Also, who's to say he actually HAD AQ. Maybe he had pocket 4's and just decided to bluff that you werent holding a Q and couldnt call. The reraise would end any bluff there and then really...

DeV.

Iago

musician wrote:

Just as a follow up to this. You re-raised him thinking it would put him off top pair top kicker??? Well I just don't know poker anymore especially as it worked. With 11 players left what good reason has he to put you on AA or KK and what good reason have you to think you can convince of it.

I don't think I explained this hand well at all, I'll try again.

Of the range of hands that could have been ahead of me, the only ones I would really put him on where AQ, KQ, JJ. I had discounted AA, KK and QQ So there are three hands that were ahead of me in this situation. If he has JJ or KQ then I'm confident I can push him off the hand, if he has AQ he'll probably call. He could also have been playing with 99 or 88 or AJ, AT maybe...unlikely but maybe.... His bet on the flop could indicate any of these hands really, even 99 and 88 with only one overcard on the board it would be a good bet to check for AK or AJ and prevent me getting a free card.

The more I thought about it the more I realised that if I had hit anything on the flop, or in the case of 88, 99 or JJ if no A or K had come down I'd of probably done the exact same thing.

I'd seen him drop hands after betting the flop a couple of times, and I realised that in his position with any of the above hands I would probably have bet on the flop as well, the question was, could I convince him that I had more of it than he had. In the time I was on the table before that hand I'd only lost one pot I was involved in, I'd won quite a few and anytime I had to show cards I had the goods. I'd gone from being one of the smallest stacks to being clear chip leader and I was on a run of cards, or at least on a run of representing cards and when called actually having them!

I counted on him seeing my raise pre-flop as indicating I've KK or AA and hence the reraise would cause him to think. Had he decided to call he would have had to have gone all-in (only had 5-6k more on top of my bet) and as I mentioned in a previous thread, when it gets down to 10-11 players people start to see monsters in every corner, so I played on that a little. 10K was a little less than 25% of my stack but represented all of his stack.

If he called me then I was obviously behind, I took a chance that he wouldn't be willing to risk it at that stage of the tournie and facing the chip leader. I literally had pretty much mucked my cards in my head but really felt I could take him off the pot.

Tbh when he told me afterwards that he had AQ, I was very surprised. I'd of called in a shot in that situation...

Hectorjelly

Leading out into a preflop raiser with a good but not great hand is bad because its so obvious what you hold that a good player will often take you off the hand ala Iago here. If your ahead you also lose the $$ from the preflop raisers autobet. The only 2 advantages it really has is that it makes it harder for the other guy to bluff, and it ensures that the flop isnt checked through.

This is exacltly like leading out with the pair of 8's in the hand Iago posted yesterday.

I like Iagos move here and its definitely + EV against a good player, but I much prefer it if you have AK because at least you have more than 2 outs if your called.

DeVore

I think you would want to be very careful about *who* you use that trick against though. As you said yourself Hector, next time you go to play offline you are going to bring a card that says "dont bluff these guys, they dont have fold buttons" iirc!

To a lot of players I have played with, TPTK is the solid gold nuts. Many would divorce their wives and husbands to get married to it!

DeV.