I made it down to 300 or so in the Sunday Million today, thanks in no small part to a gamble relatively early on:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 500/1000 Blinds 75 Ante (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Hand Converter from HandHistoryConverter.com
MP1 (t11074)
MP2 (t21590)
MP3 (t47491)
CO (t62986)
Button (t47576)
SB (t16526)
Hero (BB) (t29503)
UTG (t31340)
UTG+1 (t46561)
Hero’s M: 13.56
Preflop: Hero is BB with 2
, 10
UTG bets t2000, UTG+1 calls t2000, 3 folds, CO calls t2000, 1 fold, SB calls t1500, Hero calls t1000
Flop: (t10675) J
, Q, K (5 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG bets t6666, UTG+1 raises to t13332, 2 folds, Hero calls t13332, UTG raises to t29265 (All-In), UTG+1 raises to t44486 (All-In), Hero calls t14096 (All-In)
Turn: (t96633) 9
(3 players, 3 all-in)
River: (t96633) A (3 players, 3 all-in)
Total pot: t96633
Results:
Hero had 2, 10 (straight, Ace high).
UTG had Q, K (two pair, Kings and Queens).
UTG+1 had K, K
(three of a kind, Kings).
Outcome: Hero won t92959, UTG+1 won t3674
I was pretty pissed at myself for eventually going broke here:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 4000/8000 Blinds 800 Ante (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Hand Converter from HandHistoryConverter.com
SB (t178810)
BB (t172056)
UTG (t285030)
UTG+1 (t254696)
MP1 (t155336)
MP2 (t189351)
MP3 (t515043)
Hero (CO) (t180632)
Button (t279374)
Hero’s M: 9.41
Preflop: Hero is CO with Q, A
5 folds, Hero bets t17777, Button raises to t40000, 2 folds, Hero raises to t179832 (All-In), Button calls t139832
Flop: (t378864) 3, Q, 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)
Turn: (t378864) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: (t378864) 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)
Total pot: t378864
Results:
Button had Q, Q (three of a kind, Queens).
Hero had Q, A (one pair, Queens).
Outcome: Button won t378864
On the one hand, folding AQ in the CO for 20-odd big blinds is pretty exploitable. Not to mention I’d been naturally been playing aggressively. I’d just stolen blinds the previous hand, and in fact I was hoping someone would shove on me. A small re-raise from the Button was about the only thing I didn’t want to see. This Villain had previously called one of my pre-flop raises with a hand that couldn’t stand a re-raise from someone behind us, and sometimes donks just do donky things. With AJ I fold without too much thought, AK I’m happy enough to ship it, but AQ is the sticking point against a relative unknown. I wasn’t too happy with myself when he rolled Queens. I hate donkaments.
I would have folded the second hand. For that matter, I would have folded the first hand preflop.
I should probably stick to cash games.
There’s an article here on getting rid of image files in your hand history conversions, and replacing them with font-based suit symbols, if you’re interested.
we call with T2s cuz of the huge pot odds and great implied odds to possibly stack a KK or AA who’s inviting everyone in the pot with their preflop min raise.
other than flopping the flush, that flop is pretty dang great for T2s. we called pre hoping for trips, two pair, a flush or a huge draw. the huge draw is what got… ship it in.
on hand #2… what read do you get when he calls behind and then folds to the blind squeeze?
i’ll take a shot….
he’s playing straight forward and not calling behind with monsters?… he’s not thinking about how his action might influence/induce other action pre flop? like he didn’t realize he was setting himself up for a squeeze when he cold called you with his KJo. so he’s not likely to cold call pre with his monsters cuz the only way he knows to get value is 3 bet. which means versus this player… his 3 bets are the real deal and not bluffs.
is that to much to infer from 1 cold call behind and a fold to a squeeze? is that something else to look for in spotting fishy/non-thinking tourney players?
Mostly right about the T2s, but one important caveat: I did not ship it in. Obviously I’d prefer to have fold equity with this hand, but when there’s a bet and raise in front of me, I don’t think that’s going to happen. The next best result for me is actually to get as many callers as possible. Thus, I cold call the raise, hoping to drag the better along as well. His contribution to the pot greatly improves the odds I’m getting without affecting my equity hardly atll.
As for hand 2, I think it’s safe to tentatively conclude all of those things based on the first flat call. In fact you’ve done a very nice job of unpacking what exactly I was getting at when I included that history. Is it too much to infer from one hand? Yes and no. In poker we do the best we can with the info we have, but we also have to recognize its limitations and and not rely too heavily on it. The stronger our read, the more we can deviate from game-theoretically optimal strategy in favor of exploiting a mistake we believe Villain to be making. In this case, I think maybe I could fold a slightly weaker hand like AJ, which would still be exploitable, but wasn’t comfortable enough with my read to fold AQ. Does that make sense?
Busted 69th this week 🙁 Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Eh, I don’t think the AQo rejam is too bad. You might just be prone to a results oriented outlook here. I feel like because you are opening frequently he knows you can not have a big hand every time and the last time when he flatted you he was forced outta the pot w/a jam. He might be 3b’ing you here because he saw somewhere that you can 3b light on active players from the btn because you have position, I feel like a lot of randoms do things they do not understand because the saw it on some forum or something. I would definitely say that AQs is the bottom of my hands I would consider reshoving as well as JJ+.
Furthermore, the blinds move up so quickly in this tourney… flatting is obv not an option, I would say here my my PF move after being 3b is (most of the time) going to be
Fold >>>>>>> Rejam >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Flat (aka never)
Obv in this instance he happens to have a big hand, but he is not as likely to flat with the middle ranged hands here like he did last time (when he got squeezed). I think that the squeeze behind previously could easily make his 3b’ing range (as opposed to a flatting range) a lot wider
Thanks, Mac. You’re probably right. You can never totally discount the spaz factor in the Million, and it probably would be bad to fold AQ without a read. FWIW I was never considering flatting.
I tend to feel like these guys, even if they do 3-bet weaker hands, tend to choose bigger sizes for that. Like if he had just shoved here I’d be happier about calling than I am about shoving over a small 3-bet. I guess that’s how I’d expect him to play something like AJ if he was just fed up with me raising a lot.