07- 7-04, LearnTexasHoldem:
Playing JJ In A Tourney
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I was playing a Multi table fixed limit tournament about an hour in and over half the entries are gone...stakes 50/100 I had just been moved to a new table and had about 700 chips (fairly low) but not lowest, 9 players at table.
I had a couple of decent starting hands but the flops came up empty so I bailed. Now I'm down to around 465 chips and on this next hand I'm UTG with the blinds coming and stakes going up.
My hole cards are Jh, Js I call. There are no raises. 5 or 6 players in.
Flop is Jc, Qc, Th I either called or led the betting no raises 3 0r 4 players in
Turn is 8h I led the betting and 2 called......I mentally said yippee, that I was probably saving my exit and my luck was coming back around....some hindsight has got me second guessing whether I played this right or not. Even though I had good odds(I think) for the river with the possible full house, quads, flush or even by golly wouldn't the 9h look pretty at showdown.
River 3h I bet, one folded and one raised I figured he had the flush but with only 165 chips remaining and the blinds coming I went all in, he called and won with the Ah and 9h .
Please comment on how you might have dealt with this one or was it a case of simply one good hand beaten by another.
Also what are your thoughts on how to play when you first join a new table in a multi? At the moment as a relative beginner this table change throws me a little.
Look forward to your reply.
Barrie Franklin
Answer: Thanks for the question Barrie. Jacks and Queens are notorious for being hard to play. It's easy to misplay them by not being aggressive enough or by being too stubborn. You prefer to have at most two opponents when you have Jacks. I would recommend raising preflop with them -- about 3 times the big blind. You are still playing at a full table so you don't want to let people in with weak Aces, Kings or hands like KT and QJ.
You're looking for a flop with T high and below but a flop with just a Queen on it may be ok. If there is an Ace or a King on the board and you have just one opponent, I figure it to be about a 50/50 as to whether they have it or not. With just the Queen high flop usually you are ok. So the first way I would have played differently would be to raise 3 times the big blind. Secondly, on the flop I would have gone all-in. Let me explain why.
With a flop that is so coordinated you are bound to be up against an open-ended straight draw or flush draw. With trip Jacks you want to put the pressure on them and make it unprofitable to call. Worst case scenario is that you are up against AK and they have the straight already. That's not horrible since you have a redraw to the full house. What you don't want to do though is play it weakly and let someone in with A9. Notice how you ended up all-in anyway; that's something else to take note of.
When you have a limited amount of chips left and you are going to go all-in by the end of the hand, it is almost always better to do it quickly since you can win by them folding as well as with the best hand. The person may not want to call 500 with just middle pair but if you only bet 200 and then 300 on the next round he may have caught you.
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