$Freeroll NLHE MTT: Donks at FT

[peaceofcoke]

I played Neymar Jr golden chip tournament, I made it to the FT with 18 BB. Lost a hand to the same villain in this hand. PS. He is a calling station. in a previous hand I went allin A5s BB over his limp with 85o, he rivered a straight.
He is MP. I am CO
200.000/400.000/100.000
he limps I went allin with JJ and 5.5BB he called w/ K9 he had 7BB
I cannot figure out how to play this hand, if I went allin flop he would call, turn he'd call. What should I have done, fold JJ???

 

[fundiver199]

There is nothing complicated about this hand. K9s should have open jammed for his 7BB, and then you should have called with JJ for your 5,5BB. Instead he limp-called, which gave the exact same result. Losing a hand does not mean, you did anything wrong, nor does it mean, your opponent is a "donk".

 

[liuouhgkres]

Just unlucky, not much you can do about. Money would go in no matter how you play.

 

[Vallet]

A good pocket pair doesn't always win, unfortunately. Your opponent could have just pushed all in preflop. But he wanted to watch the flop with a small stack. If he hadn't caught his outs on a flush draw, straight draw, or pair, he would have folded. I can tell you what the difference is here. It doesn't matter what kind of hand you have. If he chooses the limp-call option and wins, he gets a sense of superiority. Because you put all in yourself and give him your chips on your own initiative.
I usually do this with the AA hand. And it overwhelms the opponent when he pushes against me.

 

[fundiver199]

Recreational players limp with all kinds of hands, because they have not studied poker theory, so they dont understand, that raising is a more profitable strategy. Its also more exciting for them to see flops and "play" rather than try to accumulate chips by stealing blinds and antes. Some even get angry, when other players jam preflop, since they consider it "bingo".

At the end of the day it all boils down to the fact, that even someone using a poor strategy will sometimes make the best hand, and if the hand goes to showdown, they will then win. K9s had 32% equity against JJ preflop, so its not exactly shocking, that JJ will sometimes lose. This is something, OP just need to get used to, since it will happen in tournaments all the time against both good and bad players. OP might also ask himself, if he would rather have been against AA or KK, and the answer is obviously no.

 

[peaceofcoke]

The problem is that I was eyeing the $1300, instead I finished with $200. I just hate it when I lose to someone that plays poorly. If he jammed I'd folded JJ. K9s is meant to be jammed with, not call a jam with, that's the diff

 

[Robsant]

It's going to the next tournament

 

[fundiver199]

I just hate it when I lose to someone that plays poorly.

Then you should play a game like chess, where the best player always win. Losing is part of poker, and its no worse losing to bad players rather than good players.

If he jammed I'd folded JJ.

Then you would also be playing poorly. You are supposed to call off fairly tight in this situation, because its a final table, and 4 players are all short trying to outlast each other. But even so JJ is still a clear and very profitable call, especially when there is such a large ante. I ran the scenario in ICMizer with the caveat, that I dont know the payouts, so I had to just pick some random MTT (888 Poker 27 paid). ICMizer has you calling with 99+, AQ+, AJs, so JJ is not at all close, and folding JJ would be a blunder. Its kind of funny, that you are so focused on other people playing poorly, but you dont know the correct strategy yourself either. This is an attitude, you need to change, if you want to succeed in poker.

K9s is meant to be jammed with, not call a jam with, that's the diff

Any hand is meant to be played as an open jam, when you only have 7BB. Just for fun I let the opponent limp in ICMizer, and at equilibrium he can only limp 11% of hands, while he can open jam 26% of hands. So by open jamming he can profitably play 2,5 times as many hands as by limping. Which is a pretty clear illustration of, why we use a push or fold strategy, when our stack is this short. So after all of this analysis we are back at, what I wrote in my first reply to you. K9s should have open jammed, JJ should have called, none of these decisions were particularly difficult, and then the outcome would have been the exact same.

 

[Lexand]

Recreational players limp with all kinds of hands, because they haven't studied poker theory, so they don't understand that raising is a more profitable strategy. It is also more exciting for them to see flops and "play" than to try to accumulate chips by stealing blinds and antes. Some even get annoyed when other players jam pre-flop, because they consider it "bingo".

That's right !! But the problem is when these players play all hands and win all the hands they play. And it happens a lot when I'm playing, it takes my patience.

 

[tzuriel]

That's right !! But the problem is when these players play all hands and win all the hands they play. And it happens a lot when I'm playing, it takes my patience.

In the long run, patience and skill win out over luck. In the long run, you want the people who play lot of hands at your table so you can scoop those chips. Poker is highly affected by the odds and in the long run the odds are with the better hands.

Patience is part of the reality of tournament poker. Even more so at the micros and freerolls.

 

[fundiver199]

Patience is part of the reality of tournament poker. Even more so at the micros and freerolls.

Also if you hate variance and being all-in preflop, then you should probably not play a turbo or hyper turbo format like this. Everyone at this final table had between 4BB and 16BB, so obviously its going to be a shove fest, until only one guy is standing. This is a classic tilt post, and the funny part is, OP actually end up saying, he would have preferred his opponent to play well (by open jamming), because then OP could have made a blunder (by folding) and avoided the variance.

But with 5,5BB you are going to be all-in against another player in the not very distant future anyway. So why not take your chances with a big pocket pair against just a single overcard rather than a small pair against two overcards or a ragged ace against a better ace, that has you outkicked? Which will be two other very common situations, when your stack is this short.

Apparently the tilt in this case was triggered by the same player getting lucky twice in a row, and in top of that he was not a good player. But thats part of the game, and if it sets you off enough, that you need to make a post about it, they you have a serious tilt issue. There is nothing to learn from a hand like this, and in reality it belongs in the "bad beats and wents" section. This might sound harsh, but really I am trying to help OP here as well as anyone else with similar tilt issues to face and solve them.