S
ssbn743
Visionary
Silver Level
This hand is from the $360 MSPT regional event in Black Hawk, Colorado this past weekend. Starting stacks were $20K with 30 minute levels and what turned out to be the largest field in Colorado poker tournament history.
Hero (Seat 10) - $18K
Villain (Seat 8) - $8,700
Level $200/$400/$25
Hero UTG+1 – opened to $1K with
All folds to the Villain in the BB – he flat called.
Pot - $2,450
Flop –
The BB checked to me, I bet $2,500 and he flat called
Pot - $7,450
Turn -
The BB checked to me, I bet $4,500 and he flat called
Pot - $16,450
River -
The BB checked to me and I checked it back
Details
Now, and as always, the truth is in the details – so let me explain the why behind the above.
#1 (Pre-flop)
I opened 45h from EP, take fault with that if you’d like, however, my table image was extremely tight (as evident by the whole table folding) and I decided to play, hoping to build a high SPR, low risk high reward scenario. That didn’t happen. The villain was a terrible regular, and I mean terrible, in fact, he may very well be the single worst player I have ever actually seen in live poker.
He had $8,700 in his stack, but had a $1K chip out for his $400 BB – it may very well have been that he would have folded pre-flop if he only had 4 black chips out there, but since he already had $1k in there – he called.
Not the situation I was looking for, obviously, but I still might be able to make something of this situation. His range is literally the entire deck, and I honestly mean all 1326 possible combinations. So, I chose to rely more on my apparent range.
#2 (Flop)
He checked to me and I decided to make a C-bet. I don’t think that’s a bad play, my other option would have been a delayed C-bet, but I thought a C-bet was the right answer. I decided to size it larger against the weak donkey in the BB and bet $2,500. In hindsight, I would take this back and bet smaller, but…
He insta-called.
#3 (Turn)
Mayday, Mayday, Mayday….
I had every intention of giving up here, however, that wasn’t the worse card I could have seen. He checked to me and as I was sitting there pondering changing my plan and firing a second barrel, he started begging me not to bet.
“Awww come on man – don’t bet”
At first, I thought it was merely a ploy to get me to put more chips in the pot, however, as he kept talking:
“I haven’t had a hand all day – be cool man”
I realized he genuinely did not want me to bet. His stack was hard to gauge as he had it “barber polled”, but I wanted to bet an amount that seemed like a value size but also committed his stack – I settled on $4,500 as I thought he had $7-$8K behind.
He snap called, I mean he threw a pile of chips out, sorted out the $4,500 and it was only then that I realized he left himself with 4BB, or $1,700 chips, I thought he had more than that.
#4 (River)
He checked to me yet again. At this point, I waived the white flag and checked behind – he rolled and won the pot. Oh, and yes, you read that correctly.
Discussion
So, obviously, we’re dealing with a terrible player – but if I had sized my bets better, I think I could have won this pot pretty easily.
For example, on the flop, if I had bet more like $1,100. Then, on the turn bet something more like $2,500 after he started begging me not to bet – I could have shoved the river (if I still believed my read) and earned his fold.
Then again, that may be somewhat results oriented thinking now that I know his hand. However, this sizing dilemma was really all set up by the larger than normal pot C-bet on the flop, the change of plans mid-stream and a barber polled stack didn’t help either.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this one?
Hero (Seat 10) - $18K
Villain (Seat 8) - $8,700
Level $200/$400/$25
Hero UTG+1 – opened to $1K with
All folds to the Villain in the BB – he flat called.
Pot - $2,450
Flop –
The BB checked to me, I bet $2,500 and he flat called
Pot - $7,450
Turn -
The BB checked to me, I bet $4,500 and he flat called
Pot - $16,450
River -
The BB checked to me and I checked it back
Details
Now, and as always, the truth is in the details – so let me explain the why behind the above.
#1 (Pre-flop)
I opened 45h from EP, take fault with that if you’d like, however, my table image was extremely tight (as evident by the whole table folding) and I decided to play, hoping to build a high SPR, low risk high reward scenario. That didn’t happen. The villain was a terrible regular, and I mean terrible, in fact, he may very well be the single worst player I have ever actually seen in live poker.
He had $8,700 in his stack, but had a $1K chip out for his $400 BB – it may very well have been that he would have folded pre-flop if he only had 4 black chips out there, but since he already had $1k in there – he called.
Not the situation I was looking for, obviously, but I still might be able to make something of this situation. His range is literally the entire deck, and I honestly mean all 1326 possible combinations. So, I chose to rely more on my apparent range.
#2 (Flop)
He checked to me and I decided to make a C-bet. I don’t think that’s a bad play, my other option would have been a delayed C-bet, but I thought a C-bet was the right answer. I decided to size it larger against the weak donkey in the BB and bet $2,500. In hindsight, I would take this back and bet smaller, but…
He insta-called.
#3 (Turn)
Mayday, Mayday, Mayday….
I had every intention of giving up here, however, that wasn’t the worse card I could have seen. He checked to me and as I was sitting there pondering changing my plan and firing a second barrel, he started begging me not to bet.
“Awww come on man – don’t bet”
At first, I thought it was merely a ploy to get me to put more chips in the pot, however, as he kept talking:
“I haven’t had a hand all day – be cool man”
I realized he genuinely did not want me to bet. His stack was hard to gauge as he had it “barber polled”, but I wanted to bet an amount that seemed like a value size but also committed his stack – I settled on $4,500 as I thought he had $7-$8K behind.
He snap called, I mean he threw a pile of chips out, sorted out the $4,500 and it was only then that I realized he left himself with 4BB, or $1,700 chips, I thought he had more than that.
#4 (River)
He checked to me yet again. At this point, I waived the white flag and checked behind – he rolled and won the pot. Oh, and yes, you read that correctly.
Discussion
So, obviously, we’re dealing with a terrible player – but if I had sized my bets better, I think I could have won this pot pretty easily.
For example, on the flop, if I had bet more like $1,100. Then, on the turn bet something more like $2,500 after he started begging me not to bet – I could have shoved the river (if I still believed my read) and earned his fold.
Then again, that may be somewhat results oriented thinking now that I know his hand. However, this sizing dilemma was really all set up by the larger than normal pot C-bet on the flop, the change of plans mid-stream and a barber polled stack didn’t help either.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this one?
Last edited: