A tournament tip for beginners

[pirates831]

OK, I'm going to give a poker lesson from my mistake in a tournament tonight.

About 50 entries. Starting stack of $2,000. I am in 2nd place with $24,000. Leader is $27,000. We're at the same table and its 3-handed as we battle down to the final 10 (13 are left now).

I'm in the BB and I'm dealt TJo. Chip leader is in the SB. He raises. He raises A LOT. More than he should. I'm waiting for the chance, playing patiently. i decide to take the flop with this hand in position. I'm not a big advocate of calling preflop raises. I probably smooth call about 10 percent of the time. Reraise about 20 percent. Fold the other 70.

So I call.

Flop is T8J. Rainbow. I know I've got him crushed on the flop. He pushes allin. Sure enough, I call and he shows 10 9o. Hits a Q on the river to bust me in 12th. Two spots out of the money.

I don't want to turn this into a bad beat thread. I want people to realize the mistake I made. I got involved in a hand with the only person left in the tournament who could bust me when we weren't in the money yet. This is extremely important. Always be aware of what's going on ... how many people are left; who's at your table; etc.

Protect your stack.

[Arjonius]

The principle of considering your tournament situation as well as your hand is certainly sound. However, I don't see this hand as necessarily a great example.

Since he shoved on a draw, it seems reasonable to assume his range includes quite a few hands you're ahead of. If he flopped the straight, he might bet for value instead of shoving, and perhaps with a set as well, so he's at least somewhat less likely to have these hands. As roughly a 2:1 favorite if he's drawing, and better than that if he has only a pair. calling seems pretty reasonable. Yes, you risk bubbling, but you take a solid chip lead if you win, and put yourself in a very strong position to place high or win.

I'm not saying calling was right or wrong, but it strikes me that if you don't call here, you should have protected your chips even more by simply folding pre-flop instead of playing a speculative hand.

[pirates831]

yeah, that was kind of my point - to fold preflop and let the bigger stack bully you with something like 10 J. people who get raised 2, 3, 4 times in a row tend to try to pick a hand like this and defend their blind. its fine if you're willing to go broke with it. had i reraised preflop, i probably would have taken down the pot. had i folded, i wouldn't have been elimianted from the tournament and would have had a very big chip stack still. my thought was i could have outplayed this guy over the long run.

[pakino]

I think that 90% of players are eliminated in such hands. Well played hand but lost.

[willie beaman]

Play tight and aggressive until you get more comfortable playing tournaments. You should also focus in on your opponents to see if they are giving off tells and how they are playing overall. Look also at the image you're projecting to your opponents and the way they are playing you.

[ND1991]

Rough outcome. Good lesson. However, if he raised a lot pre-flop, I'd lay down JTo 99.9% of the time. I am all for taking a stand, but I am curious why you picked that hand and that moment?

[rgchan]

Your point is valid.You even see the PRO,s with Big Stacks lay down good hands because they just don,t want to get involved with 2 similar sized stacks.Or in this case I hate when its just the SB against the BB.You never really know if they have a REAL hand or not.If the raise was very Big i would have laid the hand down.If reasonable I may like to see the flop but then things like this can happen.I usually like to wait for the final table to start making my moves.Also then the other Big stacks can help you out by taking out the smaller stacks there.
Rg

[spowers454]

While I understand what you are saying I am not sure if I can agree that you did anything wrong. You made a call in position with a marginal hand, not a great hand by no means but playable from position. Then you made a call on the flop and yea you busted out but it took a suckout to do it. You got your money in good preflop and flop and that is all you can do. As far as the idiot at the table. He is a complete moron. Just like your saying about not getting involved with the only one at the table that can bust you he should have also realized that you were the one that could do the most damage to him as well. and the fact that he decided to try to steal your blind out of position vs the other big stack at the table is just beyond belief. I am sure there were other people there short stacked to bully without risking about all of his chips to try to steal a few more. Guess I am just looking at it from both sides of the fence, you both prob had enough chips to coast to the money so why would he risk losing his stack with crap like that. Very unlucky for you better luck next time.

[Whatsthepassword?]

Yeah, I don't think you did a great deal wrong here - except get unlucky. Whenever you get your chips in when you're ahead you've done the right thing.

The only criticism would be the time in the tournament you did it. At this stage I would be looking to ensure I got something out of the tournament in terms of cashing, which is probably why I would have folded in your position.

But it is equally valid to argue that you were very unlucky to lose this hand and if you had won it you would be in a great position to win the tourney.

It was a gamble that didn't pay off on this occasion.

[zzzzisme]

i like to say in tournament poker, its not about winning the hand, its about winning the last hand