Monday, January 5, 2009

Please Don't Make This Tournament Poker Mistake

I was playing in the local Sunday no limit event.

It is down to two tables.

The blinds are $2,000-$4,000 with a $500 ante. There are 8 players at the table.

The player in the cut-off (one from the button) is very tight. He has $25,000. Everyone folds to him and he raises to $12,000.

An aggressive player who has $28,000 is in the small blind and he moves all-in.

The big blind has only enough to post the blind, so he is all-in.

The tight player thinks for a while and reluctantly folds.

Major Mistake! He is committed to this hand and can't fold. He has already invested almost half his chip stack. Plus, it will only cost him another $13,000 with $40,000+ in the pot. It's a no-brainer call.

The cards are turned over. The aggressive player has pocket 6's, and the big blind turns over Q-8.

After all the cards are out, the player who folded says he would have won the hand with his A-10. He is annoyed.

The next hand he moves all-in with pocket 10's. The same aggressive player calls with A-J, and hits his Jack taking this opponent out.

Even if this tight player was stealing with 7-2 offsuit he must call that all-in bet. He is committed to the pot when he raised for his half his stack.

In fact he made his first mistake by not moving all-in pre-flop as he has only a little over 6 times the big blind. His second mistake was not calling the all-in bet. And his third mistake--it changed the outcome of the event since I ended up being eliminated in 12th place rather than winning!

1 comment:

OhCaptain said...

I've seen this mistake in many tournaments. I find it very important for the others at the table to realize that you will never back down and their tournament will be over if they try to move you off a hand.

Committing half your stack and being willing to fold is just crazy.

What's Your Poker IQ?