On Thursday, I won this little $100 PLHE tournament with 6-person tables that Poker Stars runs every afternoon. For some reason most NLHE players don’t play PLHE tournaments, so this always has small fields. There were 18 runners in this particular tournament, and 16 of them were awful. That’s par for the course in this tournament.
Coming into the final table (which was the top 1/3 of the field!), I had the only other competent player to my immediate left, which wasn’t ideal. He reraised me once preflop from his button and raised my blind a couple of times, but he didn’t give me a ton of trouble. I had a feeling he was waiting for me to make a play at one of his raises, though, because I’d passed on a few decent squeezing opportunities already. Here’s a key hand against him, after only player had already been eliminated from the final table:
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 150/300 Blinds, 5 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (BB): 8,500
UTG: 14,430
CO: 3,855
BTN: 15,390
SB: 11,825
Pre-Flop: (450) 5
5
dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG raises to 900, CO calls 900, 2 folds, Hero calls 600
Flop: (2,850) 4
4 T (3 Players)
Hero checks, UTG checks, CO checks
Turn: (2,850) 9 (3 Players)
Hero bets 1,100, UTG raises to 3,000, CO folds, Hero raises to 7,600 and is All-In, UTG folds
Results: 8,850 Pot
Hero mucked 5 5 and WON 8,850 (+4,950 NET)
If you take a look at CO’s stack, he called a raise for nearly 25% of his remaining chips. This either meant he had a monster or was an idiot. If he had bet the flop, I would have folded. I was still ready to go away if he gave me action on the turn. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t do anything tricky, so I just bet small, ready to give up if he raised or called.
But then the good player on my left raised, which made no sense to me at all. I didn’t think he would raise a 9 on the turn, and I felt like he would have bet a T on the flop. So maybe he was slow-playing a big pair or trips, but the more likely explanation was that he read my probe bet for exactly what it was and thought he could raise me off a small pair. No such luck for him. This pot gave me a chip advantage over him, which was huge, since I considered him the only real competition.
After this hand, I picked up a good number of chips through a combination of stealing, flopping well, and just generally outplaying the weaker players at the table. Then I lost some calling a short stack’s all in with TT and losing to his JT. Those chips ended up in the other good player’s pocket when his A8 busted the same short stack’s KK a few orbits later.
There were only three spots to be paid in this tournament, with $400 for third, $500 for second, and $900 for first. The implication of this payout structure is that it really sucks to bubble and finish fourth, it doesn’t much matter whether you finish second or third, and there’s a big difference between coming first and second. Given this payout, the chip stacks were lined up quite nicely for me as we moved onto the bubble:
Seat 1: foucault82 (18545 in chips)
Seat 2: allinstevie (10440 in chips)
Seat 4: funngun (13490 in chips)
Seat 5: kausk (11525 in chips)
The other three are all close in chips, while I’ve got a pretty good lead on them. Since none of them wants to finish fourth, they should all be looking to stay out of my way without big hands. Hence:
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 200/400 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (BTN): 20,890
SB: 11,540
BB: 12,590
UTG: 8,980
Pre-Flop: (600) T 9 dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, Hero raises to 1,040, 2 folds
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 200/400 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (BTN): 19,490
SB: 13,140
BB: 11,990
UTG: 9,380
Pre-Flop: (600) K
9 dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, Hero raises to 1,090, SB folds, BB calls 690
Flop: (2,380) Q A 3 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets 1,400, BB folds
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 200/400 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (BB): 20,780
UTG: 12,940
BTN: 11,300
SB: 8,980
Pre-Flop: (600) 7 4 dealt to Hero (BB)
2 folds, SB calls 200, Hero checks
Flop: (800) 9 5 6 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets 800, SB calls 800
Turn: (2,400) 3 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets 2,080, SB folds
Unfortunately I got caught twice by the same guy:
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 200/400 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (BTN): 21,780
SB: 11,740
BB: 12,700
UTG: 7,780
Pre-Flop: (600) K T dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, Hero raises to 1,080, SB folds, BB calls 680
Flop: (2,360) 7 4 6 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets 1,700, BB calls 1,700
Turn: (5,760) 7 (2 Players)
BB bets 2,000, Hero folds
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 200/400 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (UTG): 17,800
BTN: 5,940
SB: 22,880
BB: 7,380
Pre-Flop: (600) 4 Q dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to 1,200, BTN folds, SB calls 1,000, BB folds
Flop: (2,800) 2 9 2 (2 Players)
SB bets 1,200, Hero folds
He had picked up chips off of a few others as well, so now the stacks looked like this:
Seat 1: foucault82 (16600 in chips)
Seat 2: allinstevie (5940 in chips)
Seat 4: funngun (24480 in chips)
Seat 5: kausk (6980 in chips)
Not as favorable a situation for me anymore. At this point, the correct strategy for me is to stay out of funngun’s way while putting as much pressure as possible on kausk and stevie. So what do I go and do?
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 200/400 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (BB): 16,600
UTG: 5,940
BTN: 24,480
SB: 6,980
Pre-Flop: (600) 5 6 dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, BTN raises to 1,200, SB calls 1,000, Hero calls 800
Flop: (3,600) 4 7 2 (3 Players)
SB bets 800, Hero raises to 5,400, BTN raises to 11,200, SB folds, Hero raises to 15,400 and is All-In, BTN calls 4,200
Turn: (35,200) 5 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)
River: (35,200) 6 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)
Results: 35,200 Pot
Hero showed 5 6 (two pair, Sixes and Fives) and WON 35,200 (+18,600 NET)
BTN showed 9 9 (a pair of Nines) and LOST (-16,600 NET)
It was absolutely not my intention to tangle with the big stack here. I flopped a huge draw, much too big to fold, and I was hoping either to take down the pot or at least race with the short stack. He’s got a lot more to lose from that encounter than I do, since I can eliminate him in fourth place, whereas losing to him would still give me a fighting chance. Unfortunately, the big stack did get involved, and at that point there was no turning back for me. Thankfully, I got there, and suddenly the chip distribution had taken a major swing in my favor:
Seat 1: foucault82 (35200 in chips)
Seat 2: allinstevie (5940 in chips)
Seat 4: funngun (7880 in chips)
Seat 5: kausk (4980 in chips)
At this point, I’m literally going to raise every pot. The correct strategy for all of these guys is to stay out of my way and hope one of the other ones gets himself eliminated in fourth. Remember, the difference between fourth and third places is much more significant than the difference between second and third, which means the other three should be more concerned about not finishing fourth than about trying to climb the ladder, especially since I was situated so firmly at the top.
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 200/400 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (SB): 35,200
BB: 5,940
UTG: 7,880
BTN: 4,980
Pre-Flop: (600) Q 3 dealt to Hero (SB)
UTG calls 400, BTN calls 400, Hero raises to 2,000, 3 folds
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 200/400 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (UTG): 36,400
BTN: 4,340
SB: 7,080
BB: 6,180
Pre-Flop: (600) 6 T dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to 1,200, 3 folds
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 200/400 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (SB): 36,600
BB: 4,340
UTG: 6,880
BTN: 6,180
Pre-Flop: (600) J A dealt to Hero (SB)
2 folds, Hero raises to 1,200, BB folds
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 200/400 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (BTN): 37,000
SB: 3,940
BB: 6,880
UTG: 6,180
Pre-Flop: (600) 4 2 dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, Hero raises to 1,200, SB raises to 3,940 and is All-In, 2 folds
Results: 2,800 Pot
SB mucked and WON 2,800 (+1,600 NET)
I would have called with almost anything, getting practically 2:1 on my money, but as it happened, I had one of the worst possible hands. Plus, this was against the other good player, and I didn’t want to risk doubling him up. I figured I could afford to give him 1200 and then grind him back down, whereas doubling him would give him more room to interfere with my larceny.
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 300/600 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (UTG): 35,800
BTN: 5,540
SB: 6,480
BB: 6,180
Pre-Flop: (900) T A dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to 2,100, 3 folds
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 300/600 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (BB): 36,700
UTG: 5,540
BTN: 6,180
SB: 5,580
Pre-Flop: (900) 6 Q dealt to Hero (BB)
2 folds, SB calls 300, Hero raises to 1,800, SB folds
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 300/600 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (SB): 37,300
BB: 5,540
UTG: 6,180
BTN: 4,980
Pre-Flop: (900) 7 2 dealt to Hero (SB)
2 folds, Hero raises to 1,800, BB raises to 5,400 and is All-In, Hero raises to 9,000, BB calls 140 and is All-In
Flop: (11,080) T 5 J (2 Players – 1 is All-In)
Turn: (11,080) 8 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)
River: (11,080) 4 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)
Results: 11,080 Pot
Hero showed 7 2 (high card Jack) and LOST (-5,540 NET)
BB showed A 6 (high card Ace) and WON 11,080 (+5,540 NET)
This time, I was getting slightly better odds with a slightly better hand and in a spot where I expected my opponent to have a slightly wider range. Honestly, given the configuration of the stacks, I’m not sure it’s correct for him to get all in with A6 there, even though he knows I’m raising anything. Maybe he thought I’d make another fold against the odds.
That hurt, but I still had a big lead, and my basic strategy remained the same:
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 300/600 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (BTN): 31,760
SB: 11,080
BB: 6,180
UTG: 4,980
Pre-Flop: (900) J 4 dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, Hero raises to 1,760, 2 folds
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 300/600 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (UTG): 32,660
BTN: 10,780
SB: 5,580
BB: 4,980
Pre-Flop: (900) 9 4 dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to 1,660, 3 folds
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 300/600 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (BB): 33,560
UTG: 10,780
BTN: 5,280
SB: 4,380
Pre-Flop: (900) K Q dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, BTN raises to 2,100, SB folds, Hero raises to 6,000, BTN folds
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 300/600 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (SB): 35,960
BB: 10,780
UTG: 3,180
BTN: 4,080
Pre-Flop: (900) 3 K dealt to Hero (SB)
2 folds, Hero calls 300, BB checks
Flop: (1,200) 5 3 2 (2 Players)
Hero bets 860, BB folds
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 300/600 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (BTN): 36,560
SB: 10,180
BB: 3,180
UTG: 4,080
Pre-Flop: (900) 7 7 dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG calls 600, Hero raises to 2,700, 3 folds
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 300/600 Blinds, 4 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (UTG): 38,060
BTN: 9,880
SB: 2,580
BB: 3,480
Pre-Flop: (900) 4 2 dealt to Hero (UTG)
2 folds, SB raises to 1,800, BB raises to 3,480 and is All-In, SB calls 780 and is All-In
Flop: (5,160) 8 J 2 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)
Turn: (5,160) T (2 Players – 1 is All-In)
River: (5,160) 6 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)
Results: 5,160 Pot
SB showed Q 7 (high card Queen) and LOST (-2,580 NET)
BB showed T 9 (a pair of Tens) and WON 5,160 (+2,580 NET)
I hadn’t been stealing as much from the player in the BB here because he was REALLY fishy, and I didn’t trust him to fold as often as he should have. Here, since he was so short, I decided not to tempt fate. As it happened, he got lucky and busted the even shorter SB, bursting the bubble and ending my profitable situation:
Seat 1: foucault82 (38060 in chips)
Seat 2: allinstevie (9880 in chips)
Seat 5: kausk (6060 in chips)
I was still in great shape, of course, but now I expected these guys to gamble with me. We all had third prize money locked up, and there was very little difference between second and third, so the correct strategy now was to push any edge and play for first, not caring if you got unlucky and finished third instead.
Eventually I got lucky on a resteal against the other good player:
Poker Stars, $100 + $9 PL Hold’em Tournament, 300/600 Blinds, 3 Players
LegoPoker Hand History Converter
Hero (BB): 36,000
BTN: 13,740
SB: 4,260
Pre-Flop: (900) 6 K dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to 1,800, SB folds, Hero raises to 5,700, BTN raises to 13,740 and is All-In, Hero calls 8,040
Flop: (27,780) 6 2 K (2 Players – 1 is All-In)
Turn: (27,780) 5 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)
River: (27,780) Q (2 Players – 1 is All-In)
Results: 27,780 Pot
Hero showed 6 K (two pair, Kings and Sixes) and WON 27,780 (+14,040 NET)
BTN showed A 8 (high card Ace) and LOST (-13,740 NET)
By this point, the other guy was so short that whoever got the button was just moving in preflop. After four hands, I won Q8 > K5 to KO him and take down first prize money. It was a very small prize pool, but it felt good to win something while running good and employing solid tournament strategy.
By the way, if you’re looking to improve your ability to play final table situations like this, you should really spend some time playing one-table Sit-and-Go tournaments. It’s a great way to simulate a final table and learn to think in terms of your cash equity ($EV) versus chip equity (cEV), which in bubble situations can sometimes diverge substantially. Sit and Go Power Tools is a really helpful application for analyzing these situations.