M
MattyJayJ
Rising Star
Bronze Level
Hi guys,
I have been playing poker (NLHE) for a bit under half a year, but have only recently started to take it seriously. As you can see this is my first post on CC, but I've been lurking around for a couple of weeks and have found it to be a terrific resource. In the past, I haven't studied anywhere near as much as I should have been, but I'm now looking to change that. I have a new mindset that has culminated in me joining CC and reviewing all different kinds of threads and strategy articles and thinking about how to apply them to my own game. Everybody here seems friendly and helpful, and we clearly all have the same goal: to be the best we can be at this funny old game.
Now, I have a few questions about a hand that I played in a tournament last night. It's a fairly standard scenario that has probably been talked to death here, but I'd just like some information relevant to my situation and to see if my thought processes are where they should be. I don't have a specific HH but I have all of the pertinent information.. I hope this is okay.
It was fairly early in the tournament, blinds were at 40/80 and there were only 56 people playing in total with 1500 starting chips. Levels were increasing about every 5 minutes. UTG raised to 240, there was one caller in middle position and I called on the button with QJ of diamonds (I know this isn't really a good hand to be calling an UTG raise with, but I was struggling with the small amount of starting chips and fast levels, and I was on the button). The flop came 9d Kd and a blank (I can't remember, but for arguments sake lets say it was 3c). Straight away the original raiser pushed all-in and the other guy called. I had about 1300 chips at this point and they both had about 2000, so this was potentially for my tournament life if I chose to call. Now, I had a gutshot straight flush draw, and I figured that at least one of them had a king (most likely TPTK given preflop action) so hitting a Q or a J would do me no good. There was a small chance that I was up against a set, but I wasn't too worried about this, so as far as I was concerned I had about a 45% chance to win (I think that's right).
My questions are as follows:
Would it be correct to make the call in a cash game, and fold in a tournament? You're getting 3:1 on your money with a 45% chance at taking the pot, so over time making this call in a cash game will be profitable (and the ones that you lose you can just reload anyway), whereas in a tournament there is no second chance, so you want to get your chips in good and certainly not just on a draw. Especially considering it was early in the tournament and I could just wait for a better spot.
Is 45% considered getting it in good when you're up against 2 others?
Is my train of thought where it needs to be, or are there other things that I should be taking into consideration?
What books would you reccommend for a budding MTT player?
Also, seeing as I'm still a newbie but looking to study hard and invest a great deal of time in poker, what software (if any) would you reccommend I look into?
Thanks in advance,
Matty.
I have been playing poker (NLHE) for a bit under half a year, but have only recently started to take it seriously. As you can see this is my first post on CC, but I've been lurking around for a couple of weeks and have found it to be a terrific resource. In the past, I haven't studied anywhere near as much as I should have been, but I'm now looking to change that. I have a new mindset that has culminated in me joining CC and reviewing all different kinds of threads and strategy articles and thinking about how to apply them to my own game. Everybody here seems friendly and helpful, and we clearly all have the same goal: to be the best we can be at this funny old game.
Now, I have a few questions about a hand that I played in a tournament last night. It's a fairly standard scenario that has probably been talked to death here, but I'd just like some information relevant to my situation and to see if my thought processes are where they should be. I don't have a specific HH but I have all of the pertinent information.. I hope this is okay.
It was fairly early in the tournament, blinds were at 40/80 and there were only 56 people playing in total with 1500 starting chips. Levels were increasing about every 5 minutes. UTG raised to 240, there was one caller in middle position and I called on the button with QJ of diamonds (I know this isn't really a good hand to be calling an UTG raise with, but I was struggling with the small amount of starting chips and fast levels, and I was on the button). The flop came 9d Kd and a blank (I can't remember, but for arguments sake lets say it was 3c). Straight away the original raiser pushed all-in and the other guy called. I had about 1300 chips at this point and they both had about 2000, so this was potentially for my tournament life if I chose to call. Now, I had a gutshot straight flush draw, and I figured that at least one of them had a king (most likely TPTK given preflop action) so hitting a Q or a J would do me no good. There was a small chance that I was up against a set, but I wasn't too worried about this, so as far as I was concerned I had about a 45% chance to win (I think that's right).
My questions are as follows:
Would it be correct to make the call in a cash game, and fold in a tournament? You're getting 3:1 on your money with a 45% chance at taking the pot, so over time making this call in a cash game will be profitable (and the ones that you lose you can just reload anyway), whereas in a tournament there is no second chance, so you want to get your chips in good and certainly not just on a draw. Especially considering it was early in the tournament and I could just wait for a better spot.
Is 45% considered getting it in good when you're up against 2 others?
Is my train of thought where it needs to be, or are there other things that I should be taking into consideration?
What books would you reccommend for a budding MTT player?
Also, seeing as I'm still a newbie but looking to study hard and invest a great deal of time in poker, what software (if any) would you reccommend I look into?
Thanks in advance,
Matty.