My wife played in a low buy-in tourney on PokerStars this morning and played very well, finishing in the top 3% and winning more than 4x her buy-in. The key to her success was patience, especially late in the tourney. At one point she was short-stacked (about 9 big blinds) with about 90% of the field out and held KJ suited in the big blind. The big stack on her left made a standard 3x the BB raise pre-flop and she was tempted to push, but realized that the big stack would have to call a push because of the 2:1 odds and that the only hands she could be ahead of at this point were King Ten and Queen Jack, so she passed. The patience paid off as she got KK about 3 hands later, went over the top of an all-in from the UTG player, and actually got an overcall from another small stack. the UTG had AQ suited, so no fault with that play at all, but the other caller had 99, which is a terrible call vs. two all-ins. The kings held, she tripled up, and went on to a great finish, which would have been higher had she not gone 0-3 in coin-flips for chunks of her stack in the next couple of rounds.
I played a $5 value-added tourney on Bodog later in the afternoon and did not finish in the money but I did have a hand that reinforced a lesson previously learned. My wife played in the Ladies NLHE Championship at Foxwoods late last year and got bounced when her Kings fell victim to Aces. She had raised, got reraised by the big stack (who had been loose reraising a LOT and had just had aces several hands before), and pushed all-in. The unfortunate fact about the hand was that an ace flopped, so if she had flat-called the reraise she most likely could have gotten away from the kings on the flop. We discussed this, and she then went on to play a $200 sit & go in which the same hand - almost - developed. She raised with KK, got reraised, and flat-called instead of pushing. The flop came Ace high and she folded the Kings face up to the other player's bet. He was kind enough to flip over AA, and she went on to chop first and second. So today I had a similar hand develop: my stack was about average at 2100+, blinds 75/150, UTG limped for 150, I had KK and made it 500 to go. The player two to my left pushed all in for 1400+, and then the big stack, new to the table and with 8000+ chips, flat-called. What to do? I of course pushed the rest of my stack in a heartbeat and the big stack called with AA (other guy had 99). Could I have played it differently ? YEP. Consider:
- The big stack had a reraise and an all-in in front of him and he flat-called. Whay would he want to put 20-25% of his chips at risk vs. two likely opponents without a HUGE hand? And wouldn't he most likely push over the top with AK or QQ? AA was the only hand it made sense for him to flat call with, with AK suited a slight possibility, but since I have KK it's unlikely.
- If I fold I still have 1600+ chips meaning I still have room to maneuver a little.
- If I flat call pre-flop I still have 700+ chips AND WHEN THE ACE FLOPPED I could have gotten away from it KNOWING that one of the two players had to have an ace.
If I had had a bigger stack I probably call pre-flop and fold on the flop, and if I had a smaller stack I'd have been pot-committed and most probably would have pushed all-in in the first place rather than just reraise to 500. Overall, it's DAMN hard to fold Kings. But they SUCK.
I played a $5 value-added tourney on Bodog later in the afternoon and did not finish in the money but I did have a hand that reinforced a lesson previously learned. My wife played in the Ladies NLHE Championship at Foxwoods late last year and got bounced when her Kings fell victim to Aces. She had raised, got reraised by the big stack (who had been loose reraising a LOT and had just had aces several hands before), and pushed all-in. The unfortunate fact about the hand was that an ace flopped, so if she had flat-called the reraise she most likely could have gotten away from the kings on the flop. We discussed this, and she then went on to play a $200 sit & go in which the same hand - almost - developed. She raised with KK, got reraised, and flat-called instead of pushing. The flop came Ace high and she folded the Kings face up to the other player's bet. He was kind enough to flip over AA, and she went on to chop first and second. So today I had a similar hand develop: my stack was about average at 2100+, blinds 75/150, UTG limped for 150, I had KK and made it 500 to go. The player two to my left pushed all in for 1400+, and then the big stack, new to the table and with 8000+ chips, flat-called. What to do? I of course pushed the rest of my stack in a heartbeat and the big stack called with AA (other guy had 99). Could I have played it differently ? YEP. Consider:
- The big stack had a reraise and an all-in in front of him and he flat-called. Whay would he want to put 20-25% of his chips at risk vs. two likely opponents without a HUGE hand? And wouldn't he most likely push over the top with AK or QQ? AA was the only hand it made sense for him to flat call with, with AK suited a slight possibility, but since I have KK it's unlikely.
- If I fold I still have 1600+ chips meaning I still have room to maneuver a little.
- If I flat call pre-flop I still have 700+ chips AND WHEN THE ACE FLOPPED I could have gotten away from it KNOWING that one of the two players had to have an ace.
If I had had a bigger stack I probably call pre-flop and fold on the flop, and if I had a smaller stack I'd have been pot-committed and most probably would have pushed all-in in the first place rather than just reraise to 500. Overall, it's DAMN hard to fold Kings. But they SUCK.
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