Friday, September 18, 2009

Tournament Poker: What happened with that 6-4 hand

Jenna Jameson vor den AVN Awards 2006, Venetia...

Tournament Poker: Did I make a mistake here?


A long time ago, I entered a deep stack tournament in Vegas where I started with $10,000. (The photo is this crazy woman who kept flirting at me while I was playing poker at The Venetian. It may explain my poor play below...lol)

For the first round or 30 minutes, I did not get a playable hand. I was getting a little impatient, when this hand came up.

Blinds are $100-$200 with a $25 ante.

I am in the cutoff.

Everyone folds to me. I have 6d-4h offsuit. A big hand! I raise to $650.

The big blind calls. Such respect.

The pot is $1,625.

The flop is Kc-8h-4d.

My opponent checks. I check without thinking. I mean, I was just trying to steal the blinds. However, after I checked, I wished I had bet. Oh well...

The turn is a 2s.

My opponent bets $1,500. Did that 2s really help him? Or did he hit his King on the flop? Or is he just bluffing.

This time I think about the hand. My read is that he is trying to steal. But, it is going to cost me some chips. Oh well, sounds crazy but I called.

There is $4,625 in the pot.

The river is a 7d.

My opponent bets $1,500 again.

What should I do?

What happened....

My opponent bet $1,500 on the river which is less than one-third of the pot. I thought he had a hand like A-9, A-10 or A-J because I didn't think he would have called my pre-flop bet with a weaker hand.

While I regretted not making a flop bet, I still thought I had the better hand on the river. His bet was what I would call a weak c-bet on the river. But, did I want to jeopardize more chips with such a weak hand?

Frankly, I was going to fold when I remembered to look at the pot in the middle. It was a decent sized pot and if he was bluffing, my fold could be a disaster.

I called.

He said, "you got me."

I revealed my pair of 4's and he mucked.

One positive that came out of that hand was that the next round when I was in late position, I was dealt pocket Kings, and made a pre-flop raise first in the pot. The small blind, thinking I was stealing, moved all in with A-J. I insta-called, won the hand, and my stack got a big boost.

Later on, when it got down to 4 tables I was running low on chips and had to push all-in with pocket Jacks. The big blind found pocket Kings. I was pushing my chair back when the Jack hit the flop.

It ended up being a good event for me.

2 comments:

GiJoeValdez said...

showing a weak hand is always good for later on. Its a chess game and you need to plan future hands. I will sacrifice some chips by raising with 72o. I will not show my hand only if its a show down. Like in any long term investment such as buying a house, you need to put some money down first.

Good post and great move.

Jonathan Gelling said...

Nice hand! I think you'd say though that either betting the flop or raising the turn and/or river would have been better lines to take in this hand, and probably would have won it without a showdown. Going to showdown is always an undesirable result, especially with a pair of 4s!

I wouldn't have been surprised if he accidentally had the best hand on the river (even if in his mind he thought he was bluffing). It was a good call on the end though, and next time you play him you can watch out for the post-oak bluff.

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