Blind steals late in MTTs

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redwards92

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after writing this realize it is quite a long read lol just a warning

Played a 105$ live tourney yesterday and have a few questions about how bad I am.

First off after about just over 6 hours of play we are down to two tables and 15 players left after starting with 11 tables of 8. This is some random charity fundraiser thing my buddy invited me to, final table all cash. (live poker is limited around here and not as big so tons of fish at these types of things especially considering it is a fundraiser)

The blind structures in this tournament went from 30 minutes each level for the first 2 hours to 20 minutes every level for the next hour, then down 15 minute levels.


So like I said just over 6 hours of play two tables 15 players, and i'm card dead and every spot I spot I figure is the easiest steal pre is being taken by other players for awhile.

Anyways I'm bleeding chips and the blinds are 8/16k. I have about 228k~.

I finally get a spot in the cutoff where BTN was new player to table after two busts on our table so not much info on him, but SB and BB are very passive and never seem to raise/ call a raise without having some type of playable hand and action had folded around to me so I look down at a garbage 42o but decide since action finally folded to me I need to pick up a pot in this spot as I hadn't won a pot in a while and raise it x3 to 48k.

BTN folds, SB goes all in ( did not have enough to cover 3 big blinds ) and BB folds as expected.

So i regretfully turn over 42o while the old man turns over KK.
I flopped a pair + oesd but couldn't bink so - 30k that hand. (198k~ish)

In the exact same spot (cutoff) with the what seemed to be a nitty guy so far on the BTN and the same two passive tight players in the blinds I look down at KTo and make the same raise to 48k after action had folded to me and the BTN quickly announced allin, SB and BB fold as expected.

so on top of my 48k + his 48k + 24k in the blinds I need to call off 32k more to see if I can bink so I call hoping hes got 99 or less but he turned up JJ and I couldn't hit so -80k (118k~ish)


So anyways at this points I might be tiltish, the chairs are pieces of shit and my back, neck and legs are a little sore, i'm a bit tired and disappointed in losing about half my stack in bad spots on the same 15 minute level.

So I look down at K4s in the HJ, the blinds are now 10k/20k (had been going up by 2k every 15 minutes since 4k/8k) action other then UTG, who limped, folded to me. SB is the fold every hand lady CO and BTN are extreme nits, BB had been at my table all day we started on the same table and he seemed to have respect for my raises, UTG was random old chinese looking dude with glasses and since he got to my table it seemed shove preflop was his only option whenever he decided to play a hand.

Anyways after I raise to 40k, CO BTN SB BB all fold and of course my luck UTG shoves for 50k more on top of my 40k. at this point after the 40k raise i made I had about 78k with the blinds at 10k/20k so I was like **** my life I call i'm tired.

He turns over A9hearts vs my K4 hearts. of course I feel like an idiot and of course don't bink. (18k, less then 1 BB)

next hand I look down at K4spades and put my last 18k in. end up vs QQ and I bust 15th.

I guess my question is... Should I wait out the cardddead and pick a spot with better cards then 42o ?

Should I have been able to fold that extra 32k on the KTo hand?
 
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redwards92

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Anyways in summary, I thought this was a great experience for me I feel I played pretty well all day until the end.

After 6 hours of sitting on those most absolute piece of shit chairs in the world and at these garbage community hall style tables (not meant for poker) I was pretty drained my legs were sore, back was sore and neck was knotting up ( I'm a tall dude and these chairs were oddly shaped and small) and my eyes were twitching weirdly and frequently which I couldn't seem to control. Pair all this with my inability to adjust to about 3 or 4 new players once we hit two tables and I think I've learned a lot from this tournament and about my game overall. I know i have a lot of leaks and tons of room for improvement but I really enjoyed participating in this tournament and would definitely do it again and be confident again that I could take it down.

I felt really good and confident going into this one unfortunately I just barely didn't make the cut.

I look forward to next time, also thanks to anyone with input on how badly I butchered my chances with the unorganized hard to read hands above.
 
snklzona

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IMO waiting on a more quality hand would have been better coarse of action...I don't really see that based on yout stack you were in immediate peril...
 
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inflnlte

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Sounds like no antes and when there aren't antes, you're not losing as much every round and there's not a lot to steal. You should've just played tight and wait for better hands. The structure is not great but 228k with 15 players left seems like a lot. How many chips did you start out with? If you started with 10k, 200k+ is a lot in that spot. You ran into some tough hands but you didn't need to be that aggressive just to steal blinds when there are no antes.
 
Tropwen

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Man, props for playing 6+ hrs for charity, if you can make it that deep with that size stack you had to of played great. It just seems like you got tired and got a little to aggressive but that amount if time will take a toll on anyone
 
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deedbr

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In my opinion after you where caught with the 42 off vs KK you need to tighten up. Even the densest player is going to remember that hand. Even if they aren't aware that they are widening their calling ranges vs you, that is exactly what they are going to do.

Overall you just got unlucky that the other players woke up to hands when you went in.
 
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redwards92

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Sounds like no antes and when there aren't antes, you're not losing as much every round and there's not a lot to steal. You should've just played tight and wait for better hands. The structure is not great but 228k with 15 players left seems like a lot. How many chips did you start out with? If you started with 10k, 200k+ is a lot in that spot. You ran into some tough hands but you didn't need to be that aggressive just to steal blinds when there are no antes.

yeah no antes were introduced in this tourney.
They had a weird buy in where you could either buy in for 65 and get a 10kstack with 1 rebuy(10k) 1 addon(10k) available or you could buy it all at once (105$)which got me a bonus 10k chip +starting 10k+rebuy10k+addon10k for a 40k starting stack.

Thanks for the input everyone greatly appreciated
 
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beerobrian

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Rewards, I don't think I would have played the last part of the tournament much differently. Your next MTT playing the same way could put you in a commanding chip lead. Don't beat yourself up. You'll get'em next time. Oh, and bring one of those inflatable donuts you can sit on! You'll have an advantage for sure.
 
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