First we will start off again by answering last weeks dillema. If you need a refresher, please scroll down and read through the hand before going any further. This was a seemingly great hand for our hero Rock Lobster. We had a great draw, we hit our ace with a decent kicker and still had an out if we were beat on the turn. But instead we had a perfect storm brewing from the beginning. We have to give props to the Villian here whom played this hand perfectly. (that may or may not be the correct use of the word "whom" there. I so rarely get a chance to use it.) There are any number of hands that he could have here at the end and his bet of 1500 is such that it begs to be called. So if he was trying to bluff our hero off the hand, he has to be worried that it will get called. Unless, he caught his flush too and doesn't figure us for the nut flush. We have committed too much to the pot at this point to not call 1500 at the end when we have what could be good enough to win here. True, the board looks scary but can't let this one go. We will still have 2450 left after the call and for me that's good enough to come back with. Unlike last weeks hand, our tournament will not be at stake by paying this guy off if he does have a full house. So, we put in a lot of thought and run through our timebank and finally put the chips in the pot. He flips over pocket nines and takes it down with a full house. A very well played hand to the end for the villian who was ahead the entire time.
Now onto our hand of the week for week 3:
We are sitting in an 18 player 20 dollar sit and go and the blinds are at 150/300 with 5 people left in the game. For those unfamiliar with this game on full tilt this would be known as the money bubble. A dangerous place to be in any tournament especially when you have less then the average chip stack. We have 3950 in chips and need to pick up some ground in this tournament. There is one person with less chips then us at 1710 sitting on the button and has been folding his way into the money for the last 20 minutes. Just over 10 times the big blind we have too much to expect a call from a pre-flop all in and too little to be messing around with too many non-premium hands. Our hero Rock Lobster is under the gun and picks up 2 red aces. Nice. Getty as a 10 year old in a candy store we start dreaming of all the things we could do with the chips we are going to rake in on this hand. Not wanting to scare anyone away, because we do need at least one caller here, we raise to 1050. It folds around to our villian in this hand who is sitting in the big blind with 7320 in chips. The flop comes As 10s 2s. Our hero crys out "why me, why me". Not the flop we were hoping for here even though we have a set. We could either go forth cautiously, not wanting to get knocked out on the bubble or move all in here hoping the chip leader isn't holding at least one spade. In a situation like this I like to act as if I may or may not have hit something and proceed cautiously. I think if we push all in here he's going to know we don't have a spade and is going to call even on a draw hoping to hit his flush. Our villian checks and Rock bets out 1050 again. This is for two reasons. It still leaves us with enough chips to get away from the hand if another spade comes on the turn and it says to the big blind that I'm not betting enough to try and scare you away so I might have something here. Almost as if we are trying to draw him in. He calls and the pot is now 4350. If he's on a flush draw we just gave him 3 to 1 to call to catch his flush which is exactly the odds he needed to call in that situation with two cards to come. The turn is a Jc. Ouch! Now there is a straight and a flush on the board. Our villian now bets out 2000. Enough to put us all in. The fourth spade didn't come but the board just got even more dangerous. Are we good enough to get away from this hand and survive being knocked out on the bubble or do we roll the dice in this treachorous terrain and see if we have the best of it doubling up through the chip leader. If we fold we will still have 1850 in chips and doubling up gets us back to where we were. Do we really want to play for an hour and a half and walk away with nothing because of the endless allure of our two red aces? Remember, there is good money to be made here if we can make it to the cash. What do we do?
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CPL Director Mark Cardenas
and
CPL Co-Director Phil Fuehrer
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7 comments:
As I mentioned on the podcast, Rock has me in "No-Lobster" land with the previous bets, so I opt to lay down the hand and try to get into the money with about 300 chips more than the person on the money bubble. Yep! I said to muck Rock's trip aces and move on.
The Verbal.
It's the money bubble and villian is the chip leader. In the end, I think he's bullying us hoping for the fold - I call off with the rest of my chips (for me, I've put too many in to fold). I really think we're ahead anyway, but if not he likely has K/Q for broadway (probably off suit with the K of spades for flush draw as well).
I'm hoping he's on the flush or straight draw and doesn't hit or, if we're behind, that we pair the board to suck out (up to 10 outs).
Wow, funny this hand should come up tonight! I just finished a Full-Tilt $10 buy-in 9 player game with a similar hand.
We are down to four players (the infamous money bubble). I’m big blind and virtually tied with the 1st position player for the low stack. The button and small blind each has us covered about 3 to 1.
The cards are dealt, I get Ac Ah. The 1st position folds, dealer & small blind each limp in. Now the dilemma. Do I push now or slow play the AA? Play has been pretty tight since this is the money bubble, so I put both of these guys on some sort of hand. Even though they were chip leaders, they haven’t been trying to steal blinds.
I want to milk these AA for all they are worth so I slow play them. If I can triple-up I’m in great shape. Flop comes up with Qd, 7d & 4d. Not a good flop for me. Small blind checks and I decide it’s time to pull the trigger and get rid of the chasers. Too late, the dealer insty calls. Small blind folds and the dealer flips over two diamonds! (I hate to say it here, but if I recall they where Jd & 10d).
I’m out with empty pockets! BUT, I would play the hand the same way again. Same with the Hand-of-the-Week. Work those aces, but as soon as they show signs of vulnerability, you gotta push and hope for the best!
These hands might be getting easier to answer - as you appear to be more inclined to present hands which have ended in diaster. That said, I agree with the Verbal in that I don't like how we've played the hand so far. What did we want to happen with our bet after the flop of 1050? Did we want a call? - which puts more than half our stack in the pot...i say no. Do we want him to come over the top - which we're gonna have to call...no. I think we want the pot now. Go all-in with the best hand. There aren't many suited connectors he could've (or should've) called with your 3times-plus raise. At worst, If he has a flush - you have at least some outs.
I'm going to break silence midweek and chime in on the hand. Don't assume that because the first two hands ended in disaster that this will as well. Although, with that said, I can't say that it won't. It just happens to be a very tricky situation that we have gotten ourselves into here and we need to know how to handle it. These hands aren't meant to be easy answers, they are meant to create problems at the end that we need to work through. I have hands saved away (and this may or may not be one of them) that have happy endings for the lobster.
As far as Gregs post goes. We talked about this on the phone last night and I have to say it again. I don't think that limping with the aces is the right thing to do. You're just begging for too many people to come into the pot when you really only want to be heads up. With multiple people in there you are going to be more prone to being up against any two pair after the flop, straight possibilities and flush possibilities that you won't be able to determine with the proper post flop bets. I think, as in the hand I described, you need to find the line where you are betting just enough for only one person to call and hope they have a top ten percent hand only. I think its easier to smell danger that way. If you only take down the blinds, its better then losing it all to a straight because someone called with 7 8 suited and you thought you were safe because they were all under cards to your pair.
Anyway, keep the posts coming.
Mike, as we discussed last night, I still feel the limp on the button was the right play. Granted the ideal scenerio would have me go all-in pre flop and have three callers with junk and nothing hits but that wasn't likley.
I was on a short stack. By just stealing the blinds, I may have made it through that hand but I would still be near the short stack. I didn't want to be a "Blind Me Down" player. This was probably going to be my best shot at getting into a position to win.
The pre-flop bet wasnt enough, I know it may be overly aggressive, but I would have gone all-in under the gun preflop. You may only take the blinds, but it still lives you in solid shape to make the money........ if someone HAPPENS to call, your fate is in the DEALERS hands. With the 1050 bet Lobster made, the big stack in the big blind would likely see a flop with mid to high pocket pair, or high suited connectors. Now after the flop....when Lobster hits set Aces but with a flush draw on the board....YOU HAVE TO GO ALL-IN AND CROSS YOUR FINGERS.
Saying that, I'm thinking Villian might just have hit a set of Jacks on the turn (one Jack being a spade) I'm definitly NOT a fan of how the hand was played, but in the end I believe Lobster should call, cross his claws, and hopefully Villian doesnt hit the flush.
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