S
ssbn743
Visionary
Silver Level
I’m in a live $260 buy-in NL hold ‘em event that is one of the events of the CPC (Colorado Poker Championship – A locally run tournament). Starting stacks were $30K with blinds starting at $50/$100 with standard wsop Circuit, 30 minute levels.
We’re about 5 hours in, and after I took a brutal beat with JJ I had built my stack back up to about $70K and was among the big stacks at the table, the leader had just under $100K.
I am in the cutoff with
To my immediate right is the $100K stack that is controlled by one of the best players in the room.
To my left, on the dealer button, is a semi-regular player that is hyper aggressive but takes it too far and often times looks really dumb with some of the stuff he does. Already in this tournament his stack had been as high as $80K then back down to $20K, back up to $70K, before finally being about $48K for this hand.
Now I know the hyper-active player to my left is not going to fold his button for nearly anything; for that reason alone, normally I would fold A3 pre-flop, however…
The blinds were $600/$1200/$200 the previous hand and had just gone up to $800/$1600/$200. The player to my right open raises with a single $5K chip and verbally declares $2600. The dealer immediately made the correction and informed the table that the wager was $3200.
This player is a very good player and I’m sure that from late position his range is much wider; however, he was visibly upset that he made that mistake (something we all have done I’m sure) and I had to give him credit for a hand better than A3; not the much of his range protrudes beneath A3 anyway. Nonetheless, I felt that I had to take advantage of his mistake and flat called the $3200 with plans to re-evaluate the flop.
I knew the button would call, but both of the blinds were thinking along the same line as I and each called the $3200 as well.
Pot: $14,600
Flop:
The player to my right was first to act and reluctantly checked. I was pretty sure at this point he had JJ or QQ, maybe even KK. I led out and bet this flop with a good draw and what could be the best hand outright; I bet $8K. I am called by the hyper aggressive button and everyone else folds.
Pot: $30,600
Turn
Short of a spade, that’s a good card for my hand. It’s also a good card for my opponents range. He could have Ax but more likely something like K9, or Q4 – both of which he had played several times that day alone. I probably still have the best hand and even if I am up against Ax I believe I have the fold equity to play this hand optimally.
I move all-in after the turn, because I know that any check line I chose gives me zero fold equity. My all-in has him covered by over $20K. He agonizes over his decision for a while, during which I had to change my read to Ax since I don’t think K9 or Q4 would make him think so long; he finally calls all-in and shows
Pot: $100,600
River:
“YES, YES, YES, I KNEW IT” is what I had to listen to after that river card fell. The open raiser then said he had QQ and congratulated him on hitting a nice “two-outer”.
Now he actually had a better hand than mine from the start, but he certainly didn’t need it; he was calling from his button regardless. It is for this reason that I would normally fold a weak hand like A3 pre flop here. I felt that I need to try to take advantage of a very good player’s error and ended up losing over 70% of my chips.
When I stopped to think about it, if he made it $2600 with a $1200 Big Blind then it stands to reason he would have made it $3400 with a $1600 Big Blind if he hadn’t made a mistake; so what was I trying to take advantage of; a $200 chip error?
Then again, to win a tournament you have to pounce on situations like this, maybe this isn’t a very good example. I don’t really know what else I could have done, maybe 3-bet or fold pre, but I think the button would have called a 3-bet anyway – he had been flat calling 3-bets out of position all day long, so in position he’s certainly calling and we would have ended up in the same spot.
I don’t know, I wish I had just folded pre-flop like I would often; thoughts?
We’re about 5 hours in, and after I took a brutal beat with JJ I had built my stack back up to about $70K and was among the big stacks at the table, the leader had just under $100K.
I am in the cutoff with
To my immediate right is the $100K stack that is controlled by one of the best players in the room.
To my left, on the dealer button, is a semi-regular player that is hyper aggressive but takes it too far and often times looks really dumb with some of the stuff he does. Already in this tournament his stack had been as high as $80K then back down to $20K, back up to $70K, before finally being about $48K for this hand.
Now I know the hyper-active player to my left is not going to fold his button for nearly anything; for that reason alone, normally I would fold A3 pre-flop, however…
The blinds were $600/$1200/$200 the previous hand and had just gone up to $800/$1600/$200. The player to my right open raises with a single $5K chip and verbally declares $2600. The dealer immediately made the correction and informed the table that the wager was $3200.
This player is a very good player and I’m sure that from late position his range is much wider; however, he was visibly upset that he made that mistake (something we all have done I’m sure) and I had to give him credit for a hand better than A3; not the much of his range protrudes beneath A3 anyway. Nonetheless, I felt that I had to take advantage of his mistake and flat called the $3200 with plans to re-evaluate the flop.
I knew the button would call, but both of the blinds were thinking along the same line as I and each called the $3200 as well.
Pot: $14,600
Flop:
The player to my right was first to act and reluctantly checked. I was pretty sure at this point he had JJ or QQ, maybe even KK. I led out and bet this flop with a good draw and what could be the best hand outright; I bet $8K. I am called by the hyper aggressive button and everyone else folds.
Pot: $30,600
Turn
Short of a spade, that’s a good card for my hand. It’s also a good card for my opponents range. He could have Ax but more likely something like K9, or Q4 – both of which he had played several times that day alone. I probably still have the best hand and even if I am up against Ax I believe I have the fold equity to play this hand optimally.
I move all-in after the turn, because I know that any check line I chose gives me zero fold equity. My all-in has him covered by over $20K. He agonizes over his decision for a while, during which I had to change my read to Ax since I don’t think K9 or Q4 would make him think so long; he finally calls all-in and shows
Pot: $100,600
River:
“YES, YES, YES, I KNEW IT” is what I had to listen to after that river card fell. The open raiser then said he had QQ and congratulated him on hitting a nice “two-outer”.
Now he actually had a better hand than mine from the start, but he certainly didn’t need it; he was calling from his button regardless. It is for this reason that I would normally fold a weak hand like A3 pre flop here. I felt that I need to try to take advantage of a very good player’s error and ended up losing over 70% of my chips.
When I stopped to think about it, if he made it $2600 with a $1200 Big Blind then it stands to reason he would have made it $3400 with a $1600 Big Blind if he hadn’t made a mistake; so what was I trying to take advantage of; a $200 chip error?
Then again, to win a tournament you have to pounce on situations like this, maybe this isn’t a very good example. I don’t really know what else I could have done, maybe 3-bet or fold pre, but I think the button would have called a 3-bet anyway – he had been flat calling 3-bets out of position all day long, so in position he’s certainly calling and we would have ended up in the same spot.
I don’t know, I wish I had just folded pre-flop like I would often; thoughts?