Short Stack Donkey
As a poker player I figured the best way for you to learn anything is by learning from my mistakes… or other people’s mistakes. Well in this case you can see that I’m going to be mentioning a lot of donkeys in this category. Don’t worry though I’ll try to be unbiased =P.
So let’s took at a recent hand history from Pokerstars (by the way I only play SNG tables at Pokerstars for now). Also for privacy and security reasons I took out the tournament number as well as my account name. Now take a look at this following hand, I’m the orange one and my opponent is the green one.
PokerStars Game - Level V (75/150)
Table 1 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 3: accuser (3000 in chips)
Seat 4: CerebralTrap (3315 in chips)
Seat 6: ME (1265 in chips)
Seat 7: mrcashman222 (930 in chips)
Seat 8: krazyeyz (4590 in chips)
Seat 9: Iceman1278 (400 in chips)
Iceman1278: posts small blind 75
accuser: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [Ad Qh]
CerebralTrap: folds
ME: raises 1115 to 1265 and is all-in
mrcashman222: folds
krazyeyz: folds
Iceman1278: calls 325 and is all-in
accuser: folds
Uncalled bet (865) returned to ME
*** FLOP *** [8d 6h Th]
*** TURN *** [8d 6h Th] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [8d 6h Th 6c] [7h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Iceman1278: shows [2h Jh] (a flush, Jack high)
ME: shows [Ad Qh] (a pair of Sixes)
Iceman1278 collected 950 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 950 | Rake 0
Board [8d 6h Th 6c 7h]
Seat 3: accuser (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: CerebralTrap folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 6: ME showed [Ad Qh] and lost with a pair of Sixes
Seat 7: mrcashman222 folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 8: krazyeyz (button) folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 9: Iceman1278 (small blind) showed [2h Jh] and won (950) with a flush, Jack high
I didn’t go broke yet but lost a lot of chips and eventually did not finish but that’s beside the point. My point is why would someone play all their chips with a hand like J-2 of hearts. You would probably say a donkey and I couldn’t agree more but this WASN’T A BAD BEAT. I repeat, NOT A BAD BEAT. It’s a tough one to swallow but I was only a slight favorite in this hand. Did he make the right move? The answer is unfortunately yes and here’s why.
First of all this player was more than short stacked which means he was going all-in on any cards when he was in position. In this case he didn’t but what made him call is because he was the big blind and had to cough up 150 out of his remaining 400. At this point in a SNG he couldn’t fold and wait another hand because with only 250 left even if he had pocket aces anyone would call him and he would risk being outdrawn. He wasn’t necessarily pot committed but pretty darn close.
Before looking at what I did, I need to mention that this was an average player because he played too many marginal hands and risked a lot of chips for weak hands which is why he ended up with 400 chips in the first place. Now looking at my all-in move, was it correct?
Some would disagree while others would agree. Again it depends on your situation. In my case we were 6 at the table and I had less than 10 big blinds or BB. I could have made a standard raise to 450 chips and folded the flop if I missed but I didn’t want that. With only 4 players left to act behind me and knowing that none of the players would call me unless they had a powerful hand except for the short stack I knew pushing all my chips was the best move. The reason why I knew no one would call me except for the short stack is because the big stacks don’t need to take risks right now so they can just sit out and wait for monsters to outplay me.
As for the two small stacks, the first one would only call and take a risk if he had high cards which he didn’t and as for the small one I was hoping he would make a desperate call so I could add his chips to mine. As it turned out I was right, the board just didn’t agree with me.
In the end I lost to a flush, and eventually didn’t have enough to survive to the end because it crippled me big time. My opponent did make the right decision of calling but the only reason why I consider him a donkey is because he put himself in this situation early and got a lucky break.
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