40 person NL tourney at local club. Down to final table, 8 players left. I am chip leader but 4 of us are bunched pretty tightly with no one holding a dominating chip position.
Hand #1 On the BB, I get 10s10c. LP (his stack is approx 1/2 of mine, tight aggressive player) and button (right behind me in chip count) limp in. I raise 3xBB, both LP and button call. Flop is 10h Ks Ac. I make small bet hoping to show a little weakness so someone with A goes over top. LP obliges and raises 5 times my bet, approx 1/2 his stack, button calls, I go all in with my set. LP calls and button folds. LP turns over QcJc. Turn and river are of no consequence, his straight takes down my set of 10's.
Hand #2 (very next hand) On the SB I get AdAc. UTG bets 3000 which would put me all in. Everyone folds to me, I call and am now all in. BB only has 100 more chips so he also calls and is all in. UTG turns over AhKh. BB has 10c5c. I am in a dominating position. Flop is Qc5h6h. BB has pair of 5's and UTG has flush draw. Turn is 5s. Trips for BB now. He's also my brother in law so I don't feel bad that he will stay in tourney and I should win the bigger side pot. River is 8h. UTG catches flush and both me and my brother and law are out.
Obviously, I do not think there is anything I could do to get out of the second hand, but should I have been more careful with the the first hand? To be honest, I did not even consider QJ because I was so in love with my set this late in a tourney. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
1st hand, after flop, you might have considered going all in right there and probably drug the pot, others could have been in there with AK, or Ax, or Kx, and you don't won't to risk THEM hitting a set...it was a dangerous looking flop...
You played it ok, just a bit riskier that way, but most of the time you'd win it, the way you played it.
In tournament, you want to keep surviving and take small and medium pots, instead of risk being put out. IMHO get'em next time
Hand #1: Just tough luck there. Say you fire a bigger bet at him? He's not going away with the flopped nut straight. If you check, maybe he checks too, and you get trapped on the turn or river, rather than on the flop. Or if he bets after your check, you're still going to raise. Like I said, it's tough luck. Maybe you could have saved some, but that would have required some pretty impressive post flop play on your part.
Hand #2: Well, hand #1 screwed you here. With no ammo, you couldn't protect those aces, and sure enough, the flush draw beat you. Absolutely nothing that you could have done.
1st hand was definately the problem. with a flop that scary and no re-raise pre-flop, you have to put them on 2 face cards. shut down, maybe LP wants to slowplay the nut str8 in order to get more money in the pot from AK AQ etc. so you get another shot at the quad or the full.
if he bets a small amount, call it, if the turn doesn´t give you the best hand, you have to assume you´re beaten and you want to preserve your stack.
hand 2 couldn´t have been played any different. that was just tough luck.
Say you are heads up with someone and you move all in on them and they are pondering a call... Where should you look, straight at them, away, just pick a random place? I know you will probably say pick a place and stay consistant with that the whole game, but I was recently in a game where I moved all in on a kid and was on a bluff. I was staring off at a random place trying to look uninterested (which usually means you got a hand) and the kid says "He's avoiding eye contact hes on a bluff!" and im thinking to myself CRAP. I don't really know what to do. He ended up folding, but what if you are in that same situation and you got the nuts and you are staring away and looking uninterested. Are they going to think that you are bluffing because you avoid eye contact or are they going to think that you are trying to look uninterested because you got a hand? If you stare at them they might think that you are trying to look strong and are on a bluff or they could think that you actually are strong. I'm never sure who has really read into tells because if I knew that I was playing against someone who has read "Caro's Book of Tells" then I might stare at you if I got a hand and you might think that its a strong means weak tell and call me. Otherwise you would probably think that I actually was strong and fold. Maybe I'm just paranoid that people are getting reads on me, but I'm interested to know what you guys think.
Check how Howard Lederer acts during a hand. You can never get a TELL from him. 100% poker face... stone cold look, no reactions at all. That what u need. I dont look at the player when im on a bluff... but instead i put my hands on my cheeks and find somewhere to look. If i got the nuts, i would do the exact same thing. You cant change it because that would be a TELL in itself. Keep people guessing, dont be predictable. If u are good at talking, i would talk to your opponents, but that requires a lot of practice.
Scenario is final table of a cheapie $1 No limit texas holdem t.
4 players remain ..Blinds are at 2k/4k
There has been one super aggressive player at the table and i engaged in a battle with him which resulted in me being eliminated.
I am in the BB with pocket deuces, and this is a hand i like to play with...sort of one of my favs to hitting sets...my chip stack is at around 34k he is solid at 48k ..he is in the small blind and raises me 10k...i probably had no right to call this large raise but i do.
Flop comes 34j Rainbow..........I check...He calls a bet of 6k...i cant say why but i truely believed he didnt pair up board or had pockets in hand and was trying to take this pot cuz he dedicated to it...He has been all in on several other medium hands and this bet was a "fishing" one.... so i take one of my biggest gambles and i re-raise him all the way in.......with just pocket deuces and 3 overcards on the table.
Big hesistation from him ..he then proceeds to call me...he turns over q 10 suited............WTF!!!!!!!!! You gotta be shitting me..how can he possibly call on that..maybe he put me on a bluff? w/e..anyway turn is junk and river is a 10 and he knocks me out.............
Makes you wonder...I read him like a kids book..made the right move in my opinion and shazzam the damn rookie hits on river...horrible horrible .......
You had no reason calling that raise to begin with. Think about it... the only way you could win is flopping a set and the odds are stacked up against u there. Sure, u were ahead and he caught the card on the river, but statistically it was 50/50 preflop, plus he had a decent chip lead over u so he could gamble, YOU couldnt. I just dont like playing small pairs especially 2s...
Was it a bad beat?? Possibly... but u could have avoided it to begin with.
yeah that sucks when there is that much money at the table. But hey, you have to gamble in my opinion because first place payout is so much higher than any others. I would rather get fourth 3x and 1 once than get third or second. You made a move and he called proably because it was a dollar tourny and he is not that good of a player, and he was proably figuring he had "pot odds" because it only was about another 15000.
