Thursday, April 27, 2006

Decisions decisions

I thought i would share a few hands i played in the $25000 Bellagio tournament last week.... these are all from Day 2.

Hand 1

Blinds 400/800. I have 100000 chips. Middle position makes it 3500 (35000 stack) to play. Cut off calls (50000 stack). Button (75000 stack) player makes it 14000 to play. I look down at JJ in the BB. What now? If you raise how much?

Extra info. Not been sat at the table long. Could be a squeeze play by the button perhaps. Folding/calling or raising were all possible moves.

Hand 2

Blinds 600/1200. I have a stack of 90000. UTG (60000 stack) makes it 4500 to play. I am UTG+1 and call with 99. All fold to the SB (80000 stack) who calls. Flop 568 rainbow. SB leads out with a bet of 13000. UTG folds. What is your decision here? Why?

Extra info. The SB opponent was a normal opponent... not particularly aggressive and hadn't been involved in many pots in his two hours at my table.

Hand 3

Blinds 600/1200. I have a stack of 90000. I limp in middle position with 33. One other limper and SB calls. Four way pot. Flop 378 rainbow. Both blinds check and i make it 5000 to play. Just the SB (125000 stack) calls. Turn T. He checks. I decide to check behind as i think he will lead out on the river when any card falls and unless he has 69 then i am way in front. I don't see him having a set. River K. Now he makes the strange move and bets just 5000 into a pot of 15000 ish. I feel i am ahead and ponder for a while and make it 7000 more. He then reraises me another 16000. What now?

Extra info. He had lost a big pot early then tilted for half an hour. He had won a few big pots lately and seemed more composed.

7 comments:

SimonG. said...

Don't know if you were inviting views or not, but here's mine anyway FWIW:

Hand 1 - I would only consider a call here if my call closed the action, but it doesn't, so I wouldn't. If I raised, am I prepared to live with an UTG re-raise? The stack sizes look all wrong here, in effect I would be laying a big price that my JJ was good in the face of action, which doesn't fill me full of joy. So actually, this may be an occasion where I would pass, but would keep very quiet about it.

Hand 2 - I think I would need to call and see what develops. I don't think you will be in bad shape against his possible hands. Bottom 2? Pair and a straight draw? Think I would call and see what the turn brings.

Hand 3 - Call. I think you may actually be winning against Kings up or something, but I think I would take the opportunity to call and show the hand down.

Standaman said...

Hand 1 Fold you have the luxury of folding Jacks. Nothing much invested a raise & reraise to you unless either of the raisers is hyper aggressive its a pass.

Hand 2

Pre flop there was a bet and a call from 2 early position players, now what is the sb have here that is not beating a pair of nines? A7 or 77 is the only hands you would beat and he could be betting and it isn’t A7 because a solid player would not be calling a UTG raise with A7. My gut feel on this one is you are trying to beat TT or JJ how do you like a 6 outer? You could of course be tied against a 99.

I hate calling what exactly do you want to come on the turn other than a 7? Either raise or fold and I think raising is a little bit too gutsy, although I don’t think he has set or a straight if he has and you reraise you are slaughtering too many chips.

Hand 3 your opponent is not bluffing he thinks he has the best hand. Question does he? I agree with you he doesn’t have a set he would have probably raised pre-flop with a pocket pair 7's or better. Okay that leaves 2 possibilities a) The dread 69 or b) 2 pair probably Kings up.

On balance call just in case he has the straight.

Robert "Animal" Price said...

1) fold
2) toughie , would have to rely on instinct on whether he called with 10s..js 87std or indeed a lower pocket pair tripped or not. think im edging to a raise , mayb even all in, but with table experience of how much he normally bets etc its difficult. call is an option also and hope he slows up betting worried of u having trips.
final decision is raise to 26-30k for infomation.
3)fold and dont curse yourself too much for raising the river

Greg_'Junior'_Hill said...

1. - fold (but i am a rock)

2. - re-raise (got to find out some more info about your hand)but be prepared to get away from this - looks a bit of a dirty situation to me.

3. - call (and be prepared to throw up as you could be losing here)

Matress said...

I like a fold
Not prepared to play for my stack in this situation. Raising commits alot of your stack, allin might get QQ to fold and you'd be racing against AK....
Hand 2
Alot of players will lead here hoping to 3-bet you. I think u should call, it keeps pot small you've got position and a good hand, he may fire again with A8 etc.

Hand 3
I like your river raise...But once u make that raise I call this bet...Especially since he's been tilting.
"I have a set, it beats lots of hands you may have I call"

Andy_Ward said...

I can't resist chipping in to say that I think Hand 2) is not a good spot to raise "for information". It's costing you too much and there are loads of players at this level who are perfectly capable of coming over the top all in with 77, 78 etc., whether or not you think that is the right thing for them to do.

Personally I would have folded pre-flop but I prefer to avoid these situations rather than play my way out of them :-)

Andy.

Jackal69 said...

Theres really very little way you can be winning on the last hand. This player at this level almost has to have a straight or 777/888. Fold, though calling is probably not massively -ev and with trips wanting to see that youre beat isnt terrible. Presumably suits are irrelevant throughout?