I was recently in a tourny at Pokerstars, big one $200 buy-in, over a 1000 entries, 1st place $57,500. I've only played in a couple of these big payoff tournys, I got in through a satelite, anyway, its the 2nd hand (I'm MstrMore) Did I screw up or what????
********** # 2 **************
PokerStars Game #438639555: Tournament #1529679, Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2004/05/16 - 16:31:05 (ET)
Table '1529679 103' Seat #4 is the button
Seat 2: ButchTimothy (2500 in chips)
Seat 3: team sex (2500 in chips)
Seat 4: jr50 (2640 in chips)
Seat 5: MstrMore (2480 in chips)
Seat 6: monkeyJH (2500 in chips)
Seat 7: Hot Girl 1 (2500 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 8: LeroyB (2480 in chips)
Seat 9: stiihl (2400 in chips)
MstrMore: posts small blind 10
monkeyJH: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MstrMore [As Qs]
Hot Girl 1: folds
LeroyB: calls 20
stiihl: raises 120 to 140
ButchTimothy: folds
team sex: folds
jr50: folds
MstrMore: raises 120 to 260
monkeyJH: folds
LeroyB: folds
stiihl: calls 120
*** FLOP *** [Th Ac 8s]
PeterG is connected
MstrMore: bets 150
stiihl: raises 930 to 1080
MstrMore: calls 930
*** TURN *** [Th Ac 8s] [7s]
MstrMore: checks
stiihl: bets 1060 and is all-in
MstrMore: folds
PeterG has returned
stiihl collected 2720 from pot
stiihl: doesn't show hand
Should I of gone All-in after the flop, instead of my weak $150 bet????
Should I have went All-in after his $980 raise????
My folding at the end, was it to overly cautious, do I need some balls or what. I just didn't want to get knocked out the 2nd hand, I was thinking he could have AK, I get out kicked. He hit a set with a low pair. Then he jumped on the 7 at(4th st), that made me think he could have suited connectors and the 7 made his straight, so I thought it best to cut my losses and fold. I know I had top pair and good kicker, I also had a 4 flush, I just didn't want to risk getting booted the 2nd hand. Bad Move?????? this hand is nawwwwwiing at me. I never recovered my chip loss, ended up 2nd best on three later hands and got booted early anyway.
The only hands that would make a straight on that board would be 69 or 9J, so that kills your fear of the suited connectors which usually aren't raising hands anyways. I would have played the hand a little differently myself, though by any means does that say it's the best way to play it. I would have made a pot-sized re-raise preflop to take back control of the hand OR I would have flat-called to disguise my holding since I'm going to be out of position for the rest of the hand. Minimum raises don't accomplish anything besides building the pot. I would have gone for a healthy check-raise on the flop OR I would have made about a pot-sized bet on the flop with your top pair/good kicker with the extra backoor flush possibility. If you get re-raised all-in here then you have to decide how much you want to gamble. You can't be up against an overpair, but I'd venture to guess that I'm either facing a set,top two pair or a weaker ace if your opponent is weak. If I do call the flop raise for half my chips then I'm pot-committed and I'm seeing this hand to the end and I probably would have pushed in myself when I picked up the nut flush draw on the turn. Calling can only win if you have the best hand, betting can win if you have the best hand or your opponent folds. Alternatively, it is early in the tourney so you can get away from this hand on the flop easily and wait for more clear-cut choices later or you can gamble it up and try for a quick double-up or bust.
The only way to win is to not fear losing.
