I’ve never played this tournament before, but since I was going to be playing the FTOPS anyway, I decided to give it a go. I’ve generally assumed it would attract a fairly strong field and be a high-variance, low-profit venture. But really even most good tournament players are people I wouldn’t mind having a 1K NL table. Then again, the problem with tournaments is that with shallow stacks, it’s hard to have a big edge, especially against people who play tournaments regularly and understand some basic theory about them. Anyhow, I did get one double up with a pretty sweet thin value shove:
Poker Stars, $1,000 + $50 NL Hold’em Tournament, 50/100 Blinds, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
SB: 7,060
BB: 1,715
Hero (UTG): 2,475
UTG+1: 2,820
MP1: 3,330
MP2: 2,700
CO: 3,060
BTN: 6,540
Pre-Flop: (150) Q
K
dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to 275, 2 folds, MP2 calls 275, 4 folds
Flop: (700) 8
Q T
(2 Players)
Hero checks, MP2 checks
Turn: (700) 8 (2 Players)
Hero bets 450, MP2 calls 450
River: (1,600) 5 (2 Players)
Hero bets 1,750 and is All-In, MP2 calls 1,750
Results: 5,100 Pot
Hero showed Q K (two pair, Queens and Eights) and WON 5,100 (+2,625 NET)
MP2 showed J J (two pair, Jacks and Eights) and LOST (-2,475 NET)
I can’t fault his play here, I probably would have played it the same. This is a flop I’d rarely check with a hand that I think is best (which is why I checked here, along with the fact that KQ would be at the absolute bottom of my range for betting in this spot). So my turn bet is kind of suspicious, and my river shove would seem to be either a flush or a bluff. Ah, de-polarized ranges!
I ended up getting burnt in a pretty strange spot:
Poker Stars, $1,000 + $50 NL Hold’em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
Hero (UTG+2): 4,785
MP1: 7,864
MP2: 10,570
CO: 3,040
BTN: 4,756
SB: 8,160
BB: 4,040
UTG: 9,367
UTG+1: 1,160
Pre-Flop: (300) A K dealt to Hero (UTG+2)
UTG raises to 510, UTG+1 folds, Hero calls 510, 5 folds, BB calls 310
Flop: (1,630) 3 6 K (3 Players)
BB checks, UTG bets 900, Hero calls 900, BB folds
Turn: (3,430) Q (2 Players)
UTG checks, Hero checks
River: (3,430) 8 (2 Players)
UTG bets 4,600, Hero calls 3,375 and is All-In
Results: 10,180 Pot
Hero showed A K (a pair of Kings) and LOST (-4,785 NET)
UTG showed 7 9 (a flush, Queen high) and WON 10,180 (+5,395 NET)
I’d usually jam AK in a spot like this, but stacks were just a touch too deep. I figured flat calling would conceal my hand and keep dominated hands in his range. So we get a nice flop, and he bets into two people. He certainly could have KK or AA, but this is a great spot for him to c-bet no matter what he has. Still, I can’t expect worse to pay me off on the turn, especially on this turn. My best bet is to check and represent something like JJ to try to get him to bluff at it again. So of course, when he does shove the river, I’m calling. I doubt he bets QQ on the flop, so I’m really only concerned about the odd set or backdoor flush draw….
My opponent here was a pretty well-known tournament regular, probably a winner even in this tournament. But I just can’t see how raising 97s UTG at a full table with these shallow stacks is good. There aren’t even antes yet! If I’d realized his range was that wide, I would have jammed it pre-flop. One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of reasonably good tournament players drastically overestimate their ability to play implied odds profitably from out of position and/or with shallow money behind, which there almost always is even in relatively “deep” tournaments. But I’ll have to wait for another day to punish him :-(.