Early rounds in tournaments
Playing the early rounds in tournaments / sit & go's can be one of the most difficult and frustrating experiences in poker. It also offers one of the most unique poker experiences, where hands get overplayed to shit and terrible play is rampant.
One of the reasons I feel that bad play is so common, is due to the simple fact that bad play is expected in early rounds and therefore people will adjust their regular game to their preconceived notions about others bad play. Confused? So am I, but bear with me, I have some sort of point.
Ok say its within the first 10 hands of a tourney, the blinds are still extremely low and you've already witnessed a few big pots being taken down by 2nd pair and such.
You pick up AK in mid position. You raise and get just 1 caller from the big blind who has shown a lot of loose tendencies. The flop comes K95 rainbow and he checks to you - you make a standard continuation bet and to your surprise he re-raises you all in. Now, at this point his all in is a supreme overbet, and you go through your standard poker logic as to what he could have to make this play. Your first thought is that his over bet represents a weak holding - possibly a king and you are way ahead. And since you've seen him play a lot of pots, combined with the fact that it’s early and people are seemingly overplaying everything, it would make a strong case that your AK is good. You make the call and he flips over 55 for the set and you are first out of the tournament going out just top pair after calling a massive re-raise.
My point? Sure, early in tournaments people overplay hands, chase like mother fuckers and suckout like no tomorrow, but you can’t assume that’s what they are always doing. I know, it’s extremely hard to lay down top pair with AK, especially on a non descript board, but do you really want to put your entire tournament at risk to catch a weak hand/bluff? You really don’t know who you are playing against, and despite your best observations, you can’t get a sense of your opponents after 10 hands. Now, I’m not saying I would laydown that hand, certainly trips are the only thing you fear, and you should take that chance to double up when you think you have a high percentage of being ahead, but when it comes down to more marginal decisions, it may not be worth it to put too much weight on your early game “reads”. I cant tell you the number times I’ve played QQ early tournament, seen a flop of 952 and lost all my chips to a set, overpair or turn/river suckout. It's real easy to come up with scenarios that would merit your opponent doing whatever play you are imagining, but the fact is, you have to respect their raises early game, even if you just saw them call to the river with pocket 2s unimproved. Better wait for an extremely strong hand, close to the nuts to call a massive reraise early game, as it’s just not worth it to be out that early, without giving yourself a chance. Yes it stings laying down top pair to someone who reraised all in with 2nd pair, but just keep a level head, isolate the maniac and try to get his chips before someone else does later on. I guess I could have avoided this whole post by saying:
Early in a tournament, play the cards, not the player.
*Edit*
During the writing of this post, I ate my own words.
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Qd Tc]
lewis5199: folds
RGow8: folds
cambria999: calls 50
twelvem: folds
dogpuppy: calls 50
PacoML: folds
RikkiDee: calls 50
wstr8man: calls 25
mcola66: checks
*** FLOP *** [Qc Td Ks]
wstr8man: bets 100
mcola66: raises 250 to 350
cambria999: folds
dogpuppy: folds
RikkiDee: raises 450 to 800
wstr8man: folds
mcola66: calls 450
One of the reasons I feel that bad play is so common, is due to the simple fact that bad play is expected in early rounds and therefore people will adjust their regular game to their preconceived notions about others bad play. Confused? So am I, but bear with me, I have some sort of point.
Ok say its within the first 10 hands of a tourney, the blinds are still extremely low and you've already witnessed a few big pots being taken down by 2nd pair and such.
You pick up AK in mid position. You raise and get just 1 caller from the big blind who has shown a lot of loose tendencies. The flop comes K95 rainbow and he checks to you - you make a standard continuation bet and to your surprise he re-raises you all in. Now, at this point his all in is a supreme overbet, and you go through your standard poker logic as to what he could have to make this play. Your first thought is that his over bet represents a weak holding - possibly a king and you are way ahead. And since you've seen him play a lot of pots, combined with the fact that it’s early and people are seemingly overplaying everything, it would make a strong case that your AK is good. You make the call and he flips over 55 for the set and you are first out of the tournament going out just top pair after calling a massive re-raise.
My point? Sure, early in tournaments people overplay hands, chase like mother fuckers and suckout like no tomorrow, but you can’t assume that’s what they are always doing. I know, it’s extremely hard to lay down top pair with AK, especially on a non descript board, but do you really want to put your entire tournament at risk to catch a weak hand/bluff? You really don’t know who you are playing against, and despite your best observations, you can’t get a sense of your opponents after 10 hands. Now, I’m not saying I would laydown that hand, certainly trips are the only thing you fear, and you should take that chance to double up when you think you have a high percentage of being ahead, but when it comes down to more marginal decisions, it may not be worth it to put too much weight on your early game “reads”. I cant tell you the number times I’ve played QQ early tournament, seen a flop of 952 and lost all my chips to a set, overpair or turn/river suckout. It's real easy to come up with scenarios that would merit your opponent doing whatever play you are imagining, but the fact is, you have to respect their raises early game, even if you just saw them call to the river with pocket 2s unimproved. Better wait for an extremely strong hand, close to the nuts to call a massive reraise early game, as it’s just not worth it to be out that early, without giving yourself a chance. Yes it stings laying down top pair to someone who reraised all in with 2nd pair, but just keep a level head, isolate the maniac and try to get his chips before someone else does later on. I guess I could have avoided this whole post by saying:
Early in a tournament, play the cards, not the player.
*Edit*
During the writing of this post, I ate my own words.
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Qd Tc]
lewis5199: folds
RGow8: folds
cambria999: calls 50
twelvem: folds
dogpuppy: calls 50
PacoML: folds
RikkiDee: calls 50
wstr8man: calls 25
mcola66: checks
*** FLOP *** [Qc Td Ks]
wstr8man: bets 100
mcola66: raises 250 to 350
cambria999: folds
dogpuppy: folds
RikkiDee: raises 450 to 800
wstr8man: folds
mcola66: calls 450
(early in a tournament, this call by him tells me that he does not have the straight, I should be good. 99% of players would go all in at this point with a made straight.)
*** TURN *** [Qc Td Ks] [5d]
mcola66: bets 1510 and is all-in
(this type of bet always arouses my suspicions. Why not reraise me on the flop? Surely that 5 didn't help you, usually this bet means that they picked up a draw of some sort, in this case a diamond flush draw. I'm calling)
RikkiDee: calls 1510
*** RIVER *** [Qc Td Ks 5d] [8c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mcola66: shows [5s Kh] (two pair, Kings and Fives)
(Hopeless play, but I guess I deserve it for calling, have to respect big bets no matter what)
RikkiDee: shows [Qd Tc] (two pair, Queens and Tens)
mcola66 collected 4970 from pot
posted by RikkiDee at 4:14 PM
1 Comments:
Perfect example smith. I try and push hard with hidden hands trying to trap as much as possible. Nothing like call a 4-5BB raise in LP (holding J10) and flopping 2 pair and the raiser make the continuation bet, followed up by ALL-IN for me! Hehe
Post a Comment
<< Home