Readers' Hands

I typically write about hands I've played in my columns. It occurs to me that readers don't get to play my hands; they have to play their own hands. I thought it might be fun, for a change of pace, to try to put myself in my readers' shoes. Following are a couple of e-mails I've received from visitors to www.mattmatros.com. I'll answer the questions as if I were playing their hands. Feel free to e-mail your own poker questions to [email protected].



Hand No. 1: From Chris C.

At the final table of a $200 tournament, there were six players left and I was the short stack with $18,000 in chips. There was $135,000 in chips in play. The blinds were $800-$1,600 and everyone folded around to me in the small blind. I had A-J, and the big blind had about $30,000 in chips and had been playing well. In the previous orbit, I had raised to $3,000 and the big blind had folded. Should I (a) fold, (b) raise to about $3,000, or © move in. If (b), what should I do if he reraises me all in?



Matt's response: Thanks for the e-mail, Chris, and thanks for providing quite a bit of information. First, an observation. The minimum raise with these blinds is to $3,200, so I'm guessing that if you raised to $3,000 in the previous orbit, the blinds were $600-$1,200 or $500-$1,000, and have just gone up. It's important to constantly be aware of the changing blinds in tournaments. These "small" differences that take place as the levels increase can vastly change the strategy, as you'll see in this example. (Note: Chris told me later that he had raised to $3,800, not $3,000. See, the details matter!) Let's say, for instance, that the blinds were still $600-$1,200. In that case, you'd have 15 big blinds in your stack, and you probably wouldn't want to open-raise all in if everyone folded to you in the big blind. After all, you increase your stack size by only 10 percent (you gain $1,200 + $600 = $1,800 in chips) if your opponent folds. With blinds of $600-$1,200, the best play would be to open for $3,000 and, if your opponent is indeed a good player, hope that he reraises you all in, so that you can call. A-J is a very big hand in a blind-versus-blind situation when your stack is so small. You can expect a strong opponent to reraise you all in with any ace there, so you'll often find yourself a 3-1 favorite when you call him. Sure, sometimes you'll be crushed, but generally speaking, you're very happy to have A-J in this scenario.



With blinds of $800-$1,600, I would change strategies. Now, instead of 15 blinds, you have just 11 blinds. If you want to open for a small raise of two and a half times the big blind, it will cost you $4,000, which is almost a quarter of your chips. Because you can expect your opponent to reraise you with a large range of holdings, you really can't open for $4,000 and then fold when he moves you in, no matter what you've opened with. You'd be getting 22-14, or about 1.6-1, on that call, and there's almost no way you'll ever be that far behind against a good opponent's range. Your best play, therefore, is to simply move all in yourself to begin with. Again, when you have A-J, you're hoping for action, as you expect to be a sizeable favorite even when called.



Hand No. 2: From Terence

I had a hand that came up recently in an online sit-and-go (SnG) tournament that made me think of your column, "The Must-Call" and I was wondering if this was one of those situations. There were five players left, and the shortest stack at the table moved in for $620 with blinds of $100-$200. In the small blind, I had the second-biggest stack with $3,380, and the big blind had the third-biggest stack of $2,280. I had K-10 offsuit. I was getting better than 2-1 on my money to call here, but I thought that, after weighing the situation of the size of my stack in relation to the blinds, and not wanting to double him up to make him healthy, a fold was the best move here. I'm sure that over the long run, this is probably a positive expected value (EV) call as far as chips go, but with the situation as it was in this particular sit-and-go, I thought it was better to wait for a better spot.



Matt's response: Thanks for writing, Terence, and thanks for giving me the chance to say something that I've been meaning to say for a long time. Sit-and-gos are a completely different animal from multitable tournaments, and no one should ever assume that my tournament philosophy and advice applies to SnGs. They are unique in that they pay 30 percent of the field (three out of 10 players), and the pay jump from fourth place to third place is twice as big as the jump from third to second, and the same as the jump from second to first! This is thanks to the 50 percent-30 percent-20 percent pay structure, which turns into a 30 percent-10 percent-0 percent structure when it gets threehanded and everyone has locked up 20 percent of the prize pool.

Now, let's get back to Terence's question. While you would absolutely have to play this hand in a real tournament, it's not immediately clear to me what you're supposed to do in SnGs. My guess is that you can't fold in a sit-and-go, either. Remember, you're not going to "double him up" if you call and lose. If everyone folds, he has $920 in chips. If you call and lose, he has $1,440. That's better than $920, but it's not a double-up to $1,840. This is also a good spot to point out the pot odds. You had to call $520 to win $620 + $200 + $100 = $920, so you're not quite getting 2-1 on your money; $920-$520 is about 1.8-1. It's a small difference, sure, but a difference worth taking into account.



I don't play SnGs, and that's largely because I don't like trying to sneak into third place with four players left. I like to play to win, and that strategy is most rewarded in top-heavy payout structures. I'm therefore not an expert on SnGs, and don't feel comfortable saying that I have the correct answer to this question. What I would do, though, is move in here to isolate the short stack. It will be almost impossible for the big blind to call here without a monster hand, as he doesn't want to bust out in this spot any more than you do. If, however, you're interested in a better analysis, my advice is to learn about the Independent Chip Model, and to purchase some good SnG software. (You can Google both of these things and find plenty of information.) I personally don't spend a lot of time studying SnGs, but armed with your own knowledge and software, I'll bet you could come up with a pretty well-reasoned plan for this and many other SnG situations.



I hope you enjoyed my responses to other people's hands in this column. Next time, we'll return to tales from my own poker universe.



Matt Matros is the author of The Making of a Poker Player, which is available online at www.CardPlayer.com.