06-12-07, LearnTexasHoldem:

Poker Tournament Question

Question:

Hi

I've been reading your emails and website for quite the while. I love the new webpage format.

Top 3 Beginner Rooms

Though I've only played home games and $3/$6 ring games, I played in my first casino tournament last week. I busted out fairly early and really want to know if I screwed up, or if this is just one of these things. Given all the points of the tourney and hand I keep asking myself "will I do the same thing again given the same situation". I would love to have a poker expert give his opinion on what happened.

The facts:

  • 3rd round of no limit holdem tourament.
  • Blinds $10/$20 and will double every 15 minutes!
  • Starting chip stack $200
  • My current chip stack $300

I notice the blinds are escalating very quickly. Very soon they will be a large proportion of my stack.

I have played fairly tight so far. Won a couple of small pots but do not want the blinds to get up to the $100 mark when I only have $300 or so in chips.

I believe I have a tight table image.

I am dealt pocket Jacks in 2nd poistion. UTG folds, and I raise to $60. Everyone folds but the button who calls. I believe I have a read on this player. He has been stealing pots quite a bit (he bet in late position several times to win the pot uncontested. Twice recently, he was caught bluffing at the pot). Also, I've noticed that when he flops a good hand he looks eagerly at the person who raised preflop. When he hasn't flopped anything and eventually folded, he didn't seem interested in the hand. I've caught this behaviour twice. Not sure if this is an actual tell or just a random thing, but I've remembered it.

I was watching my opponent instead of the flop, waiting to see if he would look straight at me as I played with my chips when the flop came. He didn't. He saw the flop and slightly looked away from the table.

The flop is Q-6-2. I bet $60, and he raises to $150. I reraised all-in because:

1) Based on my read on him and the fact that he was a bit of a pot stealer, I didn't believe he had a queen or a set.

2) Almost half my chips were already in the pot, and if I folded I would be hard up to continue further in the tournament.

3) If he were on a steal he would fold (which is what I wanted)

4) If he were on some kind of draw he would call (which is what I wanted)

He called almost immediately with Q-9, my Jacks didn't improve and I busted out.

Can I get your thoughts on this hand? I feel bad about it, but keep telling myself that I believed I had a read on my opponent and that I followed through on that read, which is a good thing. What would you have done differently if you were playing my hand? These tournaments are difficult with such quickly escalating blinds and I think I need to make dramatic moves like these otherwise the blinds will eat you up.

Answer:

The classic behavior when you flop something you like is to look away from the table and act uninterested. The problem here is that you have noticed the player act in quite the opposite way. He looks at the person eagerly when he hits the flop, and I think you are right to use that information in this situation.

After you raised, you had 240 left with the blinds at 10 20. When you bet 60 on the flop you became pot committed in my opinion. The other play you could do here is to check, call one bet of like 80, and then fold if your opponent bets again. It works better against normal players though, and since you are facing aggressive player, you just might have to loose your money in this situation. After all, this is a typical bluff-flop that aggressive players will make a move at.

Your rating:

Click on the clover of your choice

User Rating: (0 Votes)

  • Share on Facebook
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us