Dick Hertz

I played this tournament in Aug of 2003 and posted this on another forum.
Unfortunately the forum was a very small one with mostly inexperienced players and posters. I would be interested to read any comments on my play and on the best way to play a tourny of this format.


The Great Blue Heron Casino in Port Perry On. hosted a holdem tournament this week. The following is a summary of my experiences that day.

Buyin: $100 for 2000 tournament chips
Rebuys: $ 50 (unlimited for 1hr) 1000 tc
Addon: $100 for 2000 tc

There are 88 players

Limit holdem for 2hrs
No-limit holdem for the remainder
The blinds go up every 20 min
To rebuy you must have 2000 tc or less
There was a 10 min break every hour
The limits start at 50-100
And increased as follows: 50-100
100-200
200-400
Break 10min
200-400
400-800
600-1200
Break 10min
Changes to No-limit


Blinds 300-600
400-800
500-1000
Break 10min
500-1000
1000-2000
1500-3000
10min

My plan was to try and last untill no- limit rounds started. Notice how the levels don't increase after each break. While this seemed strange to me I was certainly happy to see such a gentle increase in the blinds. For this reason I felt it was possible to get to the no-limit portion of the tournament without playing alot of hands. I could rebuy and add-on and have enough chips to play no-limit with blinds or 300-600.
I did a rebuy as soon as the tourny started. I tried not to get involved without a premium hand. I had aces early and won a nice pot. We were playing 200-400 when the following hand came up.

Ishould mention that at this casino all holdem games are played 11 handed.

I am in seat 6

I am in middle position with 99
-every one folds to me I raise
-seat 7 reraises ( I know this player well and put him on a higher pair probably JJ or QQ, I know he would smooth call me with AA or KK)
-seat 8 calls ( he hesitated before calling and it was not an act. I feel he is looking to gamble with a smaller pair or suited cards)
-everyone else folds
-The flop Kc 5c 7d If my thinking is right so far I like this flop Seat 7 dosn't like that K.
-I check (Im sure seat 7 will bet with his JJs or QQs)
-seat 7 bets ( he's worried about the K I can tell)
-seat 8 calls ( could he have a K? NO I'm gonna stick with my instincts he has a pair smaller than KK or most likely the club draw)
- turn Ah
- I bet ( this card scares seat 7 more than the K. If I bet Im sure he will fold. I know he won't bet again. Now I can be heads up with the flush draw)
-seat 7 folds seat 8 calls ( he didn't raise me here so his flush draw is not Ace high)
-River 7s (this should be a brick )
- I bet -seat8 folds (maybe I should have checked here to induce a bluff. Since if he calls my bet I must be losing.
- seat 7 says he had JJ ( I am happy to be stacking this pot)

I survived the limit portion and enter no-limit with 8000tc. I feel I am in great shape at this point.

I am moved to a new table and am now in seat #3.

The Blinds are 300-600

In early position I get JcJd
-I decide to limp in
-two late callers and the big blind all see the flop
-flop is Tc7c6h
-The big blind goes all in for 4000( oh no what have I done. I should have raised. I consider folding but I decide the BB probably has a big T possibly KTor QT )
-I call
-one other player calls all in for less
-we turn our hands over two pair T6off for the BB the other caller has AdKd.(I need help now. Why didnt I fold? Well at least i will still have 2000 left to play with)
-the final board is Tc7c6h4dJh
What a river card I got very lucky.

I now have 16500tc
The blinds go up to 400-800
In late position I get JJ again
-UTG goes allin for 2000
-folded around to me I make it 4000 to go
-everyone folds to the big blind who calls
flop comes Jc5c5d (wow I almost fall out of my chair. What a great flop)
- BB bets 3000
-I call
-The turn 5h ( doesnt hurt me at all. He cant have a 5)
-on the river the board is Jc5c5d5h7c
-he bets 3000 ( did he have a flush draw or does he have a smaller full house? How much should I raise him?
- I make it 6000
- he calls quickly( I could have raised more. I dont notice what his cards are)
I now have 31500tc

In early position I get KK
-UTG limps in
-I make it 2400 to go
-everyone folds to UTG he calls
Flop is 9TJ (not a great flop for me but if I am not leading I have an out)
-UTG moves all in for 6000
- I call HE shows 99 for a set
final board is 9TJ7Q (I make a straight to the king. He out flopped me but I caught up)

I have aprox 40000tc

THe blinds go to 500-1000

In middle position I get AA
- the player on my right makes it 6000
- I make it 16000 to go ( I feel he has a big hand here and since he has aprox 25000 in chips I am happy to have him heads up)
-he calls
flop is 7sTdJd
-he checks
-I bet 10000 (the rest of his chips)
-he calls he has AdKh
final boardis 7sTdJd4dTh (I didnt like seeing that 3rd diamond on the turn but my aces held up)

I now have aprox 66000tc

During the break that follows I check out the other 2 remaining tables for an aproximate chip total. I estimate there is 350000tc in total. The average stack at the final table will be around 32000. That means I am in great shape and am probably the chip leader at this point.

Ok I don't need to take any risks. As long as I don't lose any big pots along the way I can wait untill the final table to do any gambling.

with the blinds still at 500-1000 I get QQ in middle position.

UTG limps in
-2 seats to my right makes it 8000 to go he has around 25000 tc(this guy hasnt played alot of hands he has a big hand here i figure AA KK QQ AK are his likely holdings )
-I fold (no need to take a chance here since the best I can hope is that he has AK where Im a slight fav)
- every one folds he shows AK

The blinds go to 2000-4000
I have around 60000 tc
in early position I get AK
-UTG makes it 8000 to go
-I fold ( I considered moving over top of him here since I knew he was afraid of me. I only showed premium hands so far he might lay down his hand. I decided it wasn't worth the risk)

there are 14 players left now I still have 60000tc. I manage to take the blinds once or twice a round. Good enough to maintain my chip position.

When we move to the final table I have 66000tc
the blinds are 1500-3000
I play no hands for a while
the floorman tells us the blinds will now double every 20min (WHAT? the stucture up to this point was so gradual why the increase in the blinds)
Blinds 3000-6000
- I pick a couple of players who seem to be trying to hang on for a higher finish. I attack their blinds whenever I can.
Blinds 5000-10000
7 players remain
I have 65000tc

Im UTG when I get 88
-I make it 20000
-folded around to the BB he moves over top of me to 40000 (I have played with this guy since the blinds were 300-600 so I know without a doubt he has a higher pair. I cant make him lay it down since I only have 65000 and if I call and miss the flop Ill have 20000 left.
-I fold
-he shows JJ

I get TT A6 and KQ I raise and take the blinds with all 3

I have 60000tc
the blinds go to 10000-20000
There are 5 players left
I am big blind with A7
everyone folds to the small blind
-he raises to 90000
-I know he is trying to steal I am sure I have the best hand
-I call
-he show Tc8c
the final board is 79367
-he makes a straight and I am out in 5th place

I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed that I didnt get farther but I am happy overall with the result.

Aprox Pay Out 1st $8600
2nd$4100
3rd $2000
4th $1400
5th $950
6th-10th $380

I look forward to any comments

__________________
Mark Howie

"With a little luck anybody can sneek into the money. The real skill is being able to win enough chips to finish in the top three. Go for it! Play to win, not to place."

RoyalFlush

You were playing very tight, even folding AK and QQ. Why the sudden jump and call the guy with A7

Dick Hertz

With 60 000 in chips and blinds of 10 000-20 000
i was big blind so i had 1/3 of my stack in the pot.
the small blind raises me all in. I figure its an automatic call with any hand. Never mind that I have an Ace against what is most probably a blind steal attempt.

__________________
Mark Howie

"With a little luck anybody can sneek into the money. The real skill is being able to win enough chips to finish in the top three. Go for it! Play to win, not to place."

rezdog

certainly had great cards all night, AK, AA , KK, QQ, JJx2, I have palyed a lot of tourneys, online and home, never seen one person get that many great hands in one sitting. Great read on last hand, I would have call also.

Systine

Geez! I was in that same tourny and all I got was 72, 94 and 83... Must have been nice. BTW I finished 43rd.

kwplayer

Good job! It sounds like those multis at blue heron are fun ... maybe I should go down and try to get myself a nice 50th finish. I like the decisions you made with your "biggish" hands in the middley part of the tournament. Often it is better than steal the blinds in good spots than to take a 50:50 shot with a hand like AK (which most of us would probably take).

.kw

Dave Scharf

I prefer the check-raise right now. In this hand you called and an ace popped off on the turn. If you are putting him on J-J or Q-Q then you know that you are going to have to get him to lay it down.

Personally I am unlikely to make this play. Seat 8 has flat called a three bet and called a bet on the turn. An underpair must be in a marginal position at best. If he has a flush draw you have to think he has at least 12 outs (nine suited and one over).

with the blinds still at 500-1000 I get QQ in middle position.

I don't put these down. I flat call and play the hand. At 66,000 chips you can afford an 8K loss. The upshot of winning this guys $25K is that will will put you in a HUGELY dominant chip position.

Having said that, if I have the raiser in a "tiny little box" I could lay the queens down.

This is an interesting situation. If you are willing to raise with 8-8 and then put it down to a re-raise then you probably should be raising with ANY TWO cards. In other words, you believe that the steal equity is such that what you are really doing is stealing.

Having said that, nice fold.

Automatic call. Bad luck.

Your post is also an excellent reminder of a simple fact of tournaments -- you will have to play well AND get a little luck when you need it. Had you won with A-7 you would, again, have been RIGHT in contention. YOu got your money in with the best of it. That is NEVER a horrible mistake.

__________________
Fear the beaver, baby. Fear the beaver.

ScottyZ

I'm surprised that no-one has (directly) commented on this hand yet.

Limping might be okay with this hand, but I think the assumption is that you should play it like a drawing hand if you do.

When the BB moves all in for 4000 into a 3000 or so pot, I think you've got to make a (admittedly tough) fold here. I think this is *exactly* the type of tournament situation people are talking about when they use the saying, "Sometimes you've got to fold the best hand."

In the best case for you, your opponent probably at least a 5 out draw where you may have 2 pair re-draw chances, or he might possibly have just a significant draw. By all means, good situations if it's heads-up. You're probably not even going to be too thrilled if the BB turns up something like Kc Th. Also, you have an opponent (two opponents I think) behind you who may end up calling behind you possibly just because of pot odds, depending on their stack sizes. You're (probably sickeningly) out of position here.

Also, you seem to have a knack for reading players, so I'm wondering what you thought of the AK behind you. Was his stack so small that his call would be pretty much automatic? If he did have a significant amount of chips (say just slightly less than 4000), then I think the call with AK is completely *on drugs*, so did this surprise you that he would play this way? If you actually did read him as the sort of psycho who would call here with a hand as bad as AK, you have all the more reason to fold in this dangerous spot.

I'm also pretty amazed that an AKs would also limp in here. You generally don't expect to find both JJ and AKs too often in a multi-limped pot. Although AKs may be a more "natural" limping hand, I think that the pot is pretty big already (1500) with one limper in, so I'd probably be inclined to take a shot at simply picking up the pot with a hand as strong as (and as fragile as) AKs.

But back to the JJ. Basically, you played JJ as a drawing hand, and while undercards is a *decent* flop for your hand, the fact remains that you missed. The combination of your playing it softly pre-flop, the undercards being quite co-ordinated, and you being out of position with two players behind you makes folding a strong play here I think.

I think limping pre-flop with JJ is a reasonable play on its own. Though I'd personally raise with it most of the time, it's a nice hand to occasionally vary your play with. It will certainly be well hidden if you do spike your J, so you'd probably expect to get action more often than usual if you do hit.

ScottyZ

__________________
You've been training for this moment your entire life. The universe has been conspiring, if you think about it, to put you right here, right now.<br /><br />Off you go. We're all waiting on you.<br /><br />-from &quot;The Unit&quot; (episode written by David Mamet)

Dick Hertz

Thanks to all who responded to my post.
A special thanks to Dave and Scotty for their thoughtful analysis.

It has been 8 months since I played the tournament referred to in my post and my game has improved in most areas since then. I found the process of going through the key hands played during a tournament to be a great learning tool. To be able to use a site like pokerForum.ca to analyze hands can only improve my game even more.

So thanks again!

__________________
Mark Howie

"With a little luck anybody can sneek into the money. The real skill is being able to win enough chips to finish in the top three. Go for it! Play to win, not to place."