Pokerlogy

When reaching towards the end of your single-table or multi-table tournament it’s important to start playing aggressive because with the blinds going up and your stack being proportionally smaller every blind you win will add big to your stack so you don’t want to take chances when you raise you want to make a decent raise. Minimum raises are usually out of the question unless you are hiding a monster hand such as Aces, Kings or Queens. Here’s a situation where minimum raising with powerhands such as Ace-King, Ace-Queen, Ace-Jack or even Ace-rag should’ve cost you.

- Level VII (100/200) -
9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 3: iopå (8795 in chips)
Seat 6: WhiskeyR (2495 in chips)
Seat 8: ME (2210 in chips)
iopå: posts the ante 25
WhiskeyR: posts the ante 25
ME: posts the ante 25
WhiskeyR: posts small blind 100
ME: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [9d Th]
iopå: folds
WhiskeyR: raises 200 to 400
ME: calls 200
*** FLOP *** [9h Qd Ts]
WhiskeyR: bets 2070 and is all-in
ME: calls 1785 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (285) returned to WhiskeyR
*** TURN *** [9h Qd Ts] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [9h Qd Ts Jd] [Jh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
WhiskeyR: shows [Kh Ah] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
ME: shows [9d Th] (two pair, Jacks and Tens)
WhiskeyR collected 4445 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4445 | Rake 0
Board [9h Qd Ts Jd Jh]
Seat 3: iopå (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: WhiskeyR (small blind) showed [Kh Ah] and won (4445) with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 8: ME (big blind) showed [9d Th] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Tens

By the way he’s a very strong player, only mistake he made was that one and he was rewarded for it. Anyways Ace-King is pretty strong and will usually help you alot in winning hands without showdowns but at this point in the game Ace-King is not that strong because with our stacks being so small and the blinds being high you can see that odds are both players will put all their chips in and go to the showdown.

In this case if he had pushed preflop there was no way I could’ve called but giving me a cheap flop to see was his mistake. After I made two pairs on the flop WhiskeyR still had many outs but he had to either hit runner cards for a better two pair or hit one of the 3 Jacks remaining in the deck. Hitting a King or an Ace was not enough. Well obviously he had to hit one of the remaining 3 Jacks to complete a straight and hit one of the remaining 2 Jacks on the river to add insult to injury.

Preflop is very important and this is another player who couldn’t see that because he gave me a cheap flop. Yes it’s possible my opponent could’ve made a straight already but if he had a marginal hand or King-Jack he probably would’ve pushed all his chips and I would’ve folded avoiding a bad beat.

So did I make the right call? Well in a heads-up situation two pairs on the flop is pretty strong and even if he did make his hand I was still good to hit one of the remaining 4 outs for a full house or a runner-runner for a straight, better full house or even four of a kind. Either way I had more outs than he did so pushing all his chips with Ace-King after the flop came out was his mistake and I couldn’t have played this better. Another situation where the better player gets it handed to him.