I played in a tournament today with 366 players.
I got off to a really good start, turning my 2500 chips into 30,000 when the average stack was still only around 10k.
I then went card dead for awhile but bullied enough to build up to over 40k in chips with only 31 players left. I forgot how much fun tournaments are when you have chips.
And then I got pocket pairs on consecutive hands.
On the first one my pocket queens ran into pocket kings.
Nothing I could do. When he repopped me from the big blind I figured I was racing ace king.
I had him covered though so despite the cooler I still had around 15k in chips.
And of course the way poker works the very next hand I picked up pocket jacks.
Could someone tell the valet to get my car?
As I come in for my raise I know it looks like I'm on tilt.
And as expected I get called.
Dude has king queen off.
The dealer put a king on the board and just like that it was over.
Poof.
6 comments:
Hey Rob,
I think you're good enough to not to engage in races when you have a decent stack. If you put the guy on A/K could you have folded even with QQ and avoid the race?
I know it's tough to lay down QQ but I think if you're deep and have a good stack, maybe you could put your chips in more favorable situation?
What I love here is that my response to your comment is going to be longer than my initial post.
Here goes:
Late in a tournament pocket queens are a monster.
You're good enough to know that any pocket pair is favored over ace king.
I'm getting something like 2.5 to 1 on my money. At that price most hands are worth continuing. It wasn't like I was trying to steal the blinds and got caught. I had pocket queens. From what I hear they rank pretty high on hold em starting hand charts.
Getting 2.5 to 1 from the pot means I only have to win the hand 2 out of 7 times to break even. That's 28% of the time. Thus you'll see me raising and calling here with hands worse than pocket queens.
The only hands I'm trailing are pocket kings or pocket aces. That's it. You cannot play poker fearing that every time you get raised the other guy has aces. Well you can. But I don't.
Yes I'd fold if he showed me the bigger pair before I had to act. I'm not that stubborn. But even if I ignore his cards and call I will still suck out and win this exact hand 2 out of every 8 times.
So as you can see my pocket queens are in great shape against the range of hands he'd reraise with. Especially since at this late stage of the tourney (huge blinds and antes) every raise looks like a steal.
But I gotta ask you: If you're folding your queens here what hand are you waiting for?
And if I went all in with pocket kings and he had pocket aces should I have laid that down too?
For you to tell me I'm good enough to lay that down and look for a more favorable situation is Monday morning quarterbacking.
Ouch! Take that CheckRaise!
QQ vs. A/K unsuited is a 57% favorite to win. Against A/K suited you're a 53% favorite.
If I read this post correctly, you have 40k in chips lost 25k chips on that hand. I don't know what the blinds are, I don't know how many chips the other guy has in relation to the blinds (or you for that matter)....I'm assuming you had 40k and the other guy had 25k.
You didn't mention it was late in the tourney with high blinds etc...
Well anyway I apologize if I wrote something that offended you Rob.
I absolutely love the dynamic on this blog: People who do not have the nuts, to borrow a phrase, to drop everything and play poker for a living continuously say what they would do in a given hand using phrases like "you're good enough not to ..." or "you're improving on" this or that. Or, my favorite, "I'm not telling you anything you don't already know." Then, when they get called out as perhaps a little too sanctimonious about their expert advice, THEY act all offended?
It just points out how much we would all love to have the guts to drop everything and play poker for a year, because, for some reason, it appears we're all confused into thinking WE have.
But, to get to my point: Come on, Check Raise Chin you're good enough to know that you and Rob have been friends far too long to be "offended" by a little poker discussion. Of course, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.
It's about analyzing the hand.
"Guts drop everything to go pro" has nothing to do with it. We're discussing poker (at least I am) and dissecting hands.
My "sactimonious expert advice" is a opinion on another way to play the hand nothing more nothing less...at least I'm glad that I've put a charge in you guys.
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