well, there's not a lot to be said for that if you don't win. It sounds good, but if you play all day and go out on the bubble when you "get your money in with the best hand" it really doesn't mean much.... you get paid the same as the guy who went out first. There are times when you don't have a lot of choice.... today in donkey-dom at the 60/25/25 Tournament at PKR. I've played well most of the day and had only been all-in a couple of times and they had held up. I won twice by getting all-in pre-flop with pocket Queens and amazing as it may sound, they held up. My last hand of the day.... I'm the big blind (1000/2000) with four players remaining and Jason, under the gun, raises another 4,000 on top. The table folds to me and I have pocket Queens again! At this point, it's going to cost me 4,000 to call and my total chip stack is 18,000. Jason has 15,000 remaining so if I push all-in and he calls and loses, he'll have 1 chip remaining. So I figured that he could even lay down big slick to my all-in raise.... W-R-O-N-G! He mumbles for about 3-4 minutes and makes the call with Kd, 10d.... Yep... the flop is Kh, Js, 10h.... the turn another 10 and the river a meaningless 9.... I would love to know what he thought I would have made that push with..... did he think he had two overs? did he think I had slick? was he tired of playing and ready to go? We'll never know.... I know that I could have laid down the Kd, 10d with an all-in raise for practically all of my chips.
He apologized for the bad beat and I gave him my usual.... "you tried to give me all your chips but the poker gods just wouldn't let you!"
So.... I got my money in with the best hand, but missed getting paid by one spot when I ran into someone, who in spite of the poor pot odds and likelihood that he might be completely dominated... calls and sucks out on me.
I guess that I could have just smooth called the 4,000 raise pre-flop and when the King hit the flop gotten away from it. I did that math and deduced that my all-in S-H-O-U-L-D have been enough for any mere mortal to have mucked and moved on to the next hand! Maybe someday I'll run into the guy that makes the correct lay-down there, but for now..... I didn't win any money, but..... I did get my money in with the best hand! Somehow.... that doesn't make me feel any better!
While writing I was wondering how Jason will take reading this post? I'm not trying to fire him up and I am not certain that I ever want him to NOT make that call.... because under normal circumstances, I win! But not in donkey-dom!
Back to the felt!
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5 comments:
I guess he put you on K-9... :-)
Phil Hellmuth called....he wants his ego back.
Nope.... I'm keeping it!
Maybe, but I think that on this particular day, his "lucky" scale got him further than his "poker skills" scale.... we all need it, because it is poker, and no one really knows what cards are coming. But pre-flop, if we were on TV, the percentages beside our televised pocket cards would have been heavily in my favor.... but then there was the flop. That sort of changed everything!
But I won't be calling all my chips off knowing I'm behind hoping I get "lucky".... but J is a gambler! And PKR is almost like a black hole in the universe when it comes to the worst hand sucking out on the better hand.... but.... that's poker!
Kidding aside (only for now though...), this was actually quite an interesting hand. Taking a critical look at the hand, Jason really didn't make a terrible play. He raised four-handed UTG 3 x the BB with a suited K-10. Pretty standard play. Once you raised all-in, he had to call $15K into a $27K pot, so he was getting 1.8:1 on his money.
There are only a few hands you could have that make him much more than a 2:1 dog. You could easily raise all-in with A-Q, A-J, 9-9, etc, giving him a great price to call. You also have to factor in the chance (however small, in this situation) that you're bluffing, and that he has the best hand.
In fact, your queens were almost exactly a 2:1 favorite, and he was almost (but not quite) gettng the right price to call. If he folds, he has just $15K left (7.5 x the BB). I don't know how much time was left before the blinds doubled to $2K/4, but he might have just felt like this was the time to make his stand. I believe many good players would've called even if you turned up your queens.
Personally, I don't know what I would have done here. It would probably depend on my read, of the chip stacks and skill level of the other two players, the time remaining in the blind level, etc. I'm fairly comfortable playing a short stack (too much practice, sadly), so I might lean towards folding if I was otherwise on the fence.
I guess the point is that I don't believe there is a cut-and-dried correct play in this situation. While tighter players like you or I may fold if we had the K-10, Jason is obviously from the other side of the tracks.
As you said, you would probably want him to call if he turned up his cards, so you shouldn't be mad at him. The person you should get pissed at is that crooked, rat-bastard dealer (yes, you Ed) who obviously takes great pleasure in passing out suckout cards like they were Halloween candy! :-)
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