$10 NLHE STT: Three tourney ending hands

[thunder1276]

These are three hands that I don't believe I could have gotten away from, with the exception of the third hand.

Hand 1 - I believe I am actually the favorite to win this after the flop
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 11 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t1790)
SB (t1235)
BB (t3050)
Hero (UTG) (t1917)
MP (t1810)
CO (t3698)

Hero's M: 25.56

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A

, 10

Hero bets t150, MP calls t150, 4 folds

Flop: (t375) 10

, 3

, 6

(2 players)
Hero bets t200, MP raises to t550, Hero raises to t1767 (All-In), MP calls t1110 (All-In)

Turn: (t3695) J

(2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t3695) 6

(2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t3695

Results:
Hero had A

, 10

(two pair, tens and sixes).
MP had J

, J

(full house, Jacks over sixes).
Outcome: MP won t3695


Hand 2
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 11 Tournament, 60/120 Blinds (5 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t1370)
MP (t1175)
Hero (Button) (t2025)
SB (t6300)
BB (t2630)

Hero's M: 11.25

Preflop: Hero is Button with K

, Q

2 folds, Hero bets t300, SB calls t240, BB calls t180

Flop: (t900) 7

, Q

, 10

(3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets t600, SB calls t600, 1 fold

Turn: (t2100) J

(2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t1125 (All-In), SB calls t1125

River: (t4350) Q

(2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t4350

Results:
Hero had K

, Q

(three of a kind, Queens).
SB had 7

, 7

(full house, sevens over Queens).
Outcome: SB won t4350


Hand 3 I know I dont have any info about the rest of the table or the game, but in a typical game should I have shoved here if people aren't being very loose?
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 11 Tournament, 80/160 Blinds (5 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t2740)
SB (t1275)
BB (t5055)
Hero (UTG) (t1185)
MP (t3245)

Hero's M: 4.94

Preflop: Hero is UTG with K

, 10

Hero bets t1185 (All-In), 2 folds, SB raises to t1275 (All-In), 1 fold

Flop: (t2530) 7

, 10

, 8

(2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t2530) 8

(2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t2530) 3

(2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t2530

Results:
SB had Q

, Q

(two pair, Queens and eights).
Hero had K

, 10

(two pair, tens and eights).
Outcome: SB won t2530

 

[Bwammo]

Hand #1: The easiest way to avoid this situation is to not play the hand preflop Once you see that flop though...you're basically going to end up all in. Your opponent needs to have a set in order for you to not be roughly even money.

Hand #2: Yeah...that happens. Not really much else that could happen here. The flop was too wet to bet smaller, the pot was slightly too little to just shove into, so pretty sure I'd have lost the tournament the same way. If you know you're playing against a pretty dang tight player, you can check back on the turn...but you'd need to know he's not the type of guy who is calling you with T9 on the flop.

Hand #3: All day every day. Stack dynamics dictate we've gotta get in there. No one is shorter than you, only one guy even near you, and the top 3 stacks are all almost 3+ times your size.

 

[ManicLombax]

All look good to me. I don't mind opening ATs UTG 6 handed. Pretty much at the bottom of my range though, so if the table is loose I'll probably fold it.

You pretty much just got coolered in all of these.

 

[thunder1276]

thanks guys, thats exactly what I thought.

 

[AlexeiVronsky]

The second hand I might've just open shoved I'd rather just pick up the blinds than play that hand on multiple streets and I don't want to have to call a resteal unless I know they've been restealing a lot. And the next two hands the shortstacks are in the blinds so you can pick on them a bit if you catch a decent hand and the other two bigger stacks also realize that and would probably want to pick on them rather than go up against a 2k stack. If they have been folding too much to steals then I might do the same on that hand as you did.

The other two seem fine to me.

 

[Bwammo]

The second hand I might've just open shoved I'd rather just pick up the blinds than play that hand on multiple streets and I don't want to have to call a resteal unless I know they've been restealing a lot.

Um, shoving 2k chips to win 180 (especially when both of the players remaining can knock you out) is generally not a good practice to get into. We're not even picking up 10% of our stack, but we'd be risking our entire tournament just hoping that one of the blinds doesn't have a top 10% hand. Roughly 18% of the time you're going to be called here, and roughly 60% of the time you get called you're going to lose the tournament. Given that there are two other stacks that are not only substantially lower than you, but are also approaching emergency levels, it's usually best to attack the small players (they can't knock you out and they are your current competition...not the 6k stack).

and the other two bigger stacks also realize that and would probably want to pick on them rather than go up against a 2k stack.

In order to assume that the players are even thinking anywhere near this level, we also must assume they are knowledgeable players who are probably also winners. Since 90% of the poker world has no idea what they are doing...I'm going to go on a limb here and say that we can't make this assumption

 

[AlexeiVronsky]

Um, shoving 2k chips to win 180 (especially when both of the players remaining can knock you out) is generally not a good practice to get into. We're not even picking up 10% of our stack, but we'd be risking our entire tournament just hoping that one of the blinds doesn't have a top 10% hand. Roughly 18% of the time you're going to be called here, and roughly 60% of the time you get called you're going to lose the tournament. Given that there are two other stacks that are not only substantially lower than you, but are also approaching emergency levels, it's usually best to attack the small players (they can't knock you out and they are your current competition...not the 6k stack).



In order to assume that the players are even thinking anywhere near this level, we also must assume they are knowledgeable players who are probably also winners. Since 90% of the poker world has no idea what they are doing...I'm going to go on a limb here and say that we can't make this assumption

That's an unexploitable shove with kqo there (for SNG payout structures anyhow, though we don't know what bubble effects are currently as OP didn't mention but most tournaments it should still be unexploitable,) since they're likely calling less frequently than optimally there, it's fine to shove and adding 9% to your stack isn't bad. Your hand's going to miss the flop an awful lot and if I were one of the other two players I'd be either donk betting or check-raising c-bets depending on your c-bet frequency an awful lot if it looks like you might not have connected.

 

[Bwammo]

That's an unexploitable shove with kqo there

Just because something is unexploitable doesn't mean it's the best play There are countless ways to play hands profitably, but maximizing our profit should be our goal.

if I were one of the other two players I'd be either donk betting or check-raising c-bets depending on your c-bet frequency an awful lot if it looks like you might not have connected.

Guess what? You're not one of the other two players hehe. Like I mentioned in my last post, we should never assume players are thinking like us. Why would we? We've spent time and effort getting to where we are...how can we assume they have taken the same path?

Typically, the average player sees his own hand and reacts accordingly. Perhaps if we had stats on them, or some sort of read based on a prior hand, we could assume a higher level of thinking...but if that is the case, we should be a bit more hesitant to raise their blinds in general (because of the looming threats that come with thinking players). This may sound goofy, but I've been known to limp on players if I believe them to be capable of defending blinds from aggression.