Saturday, January 31, 2009

How Ironic: Pocket Jacks Knocked Me Out Today.

I entered the $330 NL event today at the Oaks.
Only 85 entrants. Starting chips $6,000

At the start of the event, I like to put 20% of my chips aside to play speculative hands like suited connectors. I didn't hit any of these hands today.

In the first round, there were 5 callers and I limped with pocket 2. The flop had a 2 and the turn was a 2. Four deuces! There was no action on the hand, so it was a little disappointing. It was also the only hand I won for the first three rounds.

I got moved, thankfully, to a new table. My chips were being bled out, until I found A-K and doubled up to $3,500. But, I was card dead and with players pushing all-in, there was nothing to do but wait.

I was down to $1,600. And pushed again when I found pocket Queens. I tripled up to about $6,000. I finally was even with the buy-in of chips!

I got moved again. We were down to 3 tables, and I was low in chips. There was nothing to do but be patient. When I was down to $4,500 I pushed all-in under the gun with A-K. I got two callers. One had A-Q, and the other A-J. The K flopped and I tripled up again.

I called from the small blind with pocket 9's--the raiser was tight, and tended to make all-in calls. The flop came Ace high. We both checked. And the turn was a Q. I checked-folded. Perhaps I should have used the stop and go on the flop, but I didn't feel the time was right.

Two hands later, I moved all-in with pocket Queens and won most of my chips from the prior hand.

The blinds were now $800-$1,600 with a $200 ante. I was in middle position. Everyone folded to me. I had about $17,000. I found--those freaking pocket Jacks. I flashed back to the blog and the discussion about this hand. We were down to 17 players.

The right play is to push all-in. Which I did.

The player to my left insta-called with A-K.

The flop hit the Ace and I was out.

I did get back $265. Oh well...a win in that hand would have probably put me in the final table.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mitchell, I am one of those people that might have caused your pain. Last week on the TPT The_Gov shoved all in and I called him with a weak AJo. He had pocket 10's and I won the race. Almost a week later and I still remember that. Hopefully, I will remember that next thursday as well. You did what you could but there are those out there that will call with Ace any.

Mitchell Cogert said...

Players tend to overplay any Ace starting hand.

In the Oaks tourney there was only 17 players left. My opponent should not have insta-called with A-K. He needed to think about the situation. He should have thought about how much it would cost him to call, how much of his stack he was risking, how soon the blinds were going to increase and to what blind levels, and what range of hands he put me on.

If this was a major tournament and both of our stacks are deep, the right play would be to fold. The reason is that there is no need to take a risk with a deep stack relative to the blinds, when there is time to build chips without crippling your stack.

At the Oaks event, the blinds were going up to $1,000-$2,000 in a few minutes. He had about $25,000 and I had $17,000. Neither one of us could wait around much longer. He made the right play--if he lost he still had a stack to build from, and if he won he would be one of the chip leaders.

Raleigh Dentist said...

Sounds like you had some good patient, intelligent play throughout the day. Good luck next time!

Anonymous said...

lol donkaments.

you really think that guy should not be snapping AK?

your range to shove there with 10BBs 17 left in a $300 tournament is like 66+, KQs, AJo+, A9s+

games are dead imo.

Mitchell Cogert said...

Actually I mentioned in the comment before yours that he made the right play.

The important point is that there are many situations where risking most of your stack with A-K is a mistake. See prior post for an explanation.

Anonymous said...

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 55.633% 50.50% 05.13% 88200203 8966254.50 { AcKd }
Hand 1: 44.367% 39.23% 05.13% 68522296 8966254.50 { 66+, A9s+, A5s, KQs, AJo+, KQo }




clearly this is a snap call, no reason for him to think about it imo

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