Winning Poker Tournaments – Hand No. 17

Winning Poker Tournaments Volume III by Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Jon “Apestyles” Van Fleet, and yours truly, analyzes 50 online poker hands. This article looks at hand #17.

Seat 1: 25,100 Small Blind
Seat 2: 70,285 Big Blind
Seat 3: 51,661
Seat 4: 164,216
Seat 5: 97,523 is sitting out
Seat 6: 47,365
Seat 7: 119,294 PearlJammer
Seat 8: 55,874
Seat 9: 83,154 Button

2,000-4,000 Blinds, 400 Ante

Setup: This is a hand played by PearlJammer in Seat 7. There are 311 players left in a major $215 tournament which paid 495 spots. First place is $105K, and the average stack is 108K. You are not familiar with your opponents and have not picked up any reliable reads. You assume that most of your opponents are satellite winners.
Preflop 7 7 (9,600): Seat 3 limps under the gun.

What do you do?

PearlJammer

I would come in for a standard raise if nobody opened the pot. However, I am in an awkward spot facing an under-the-gun limp from a stack with only 13 big blinds. I cannot justify Seat 3’s limp with a 13 big-blind stack with any hand, so it is very hard to assign him a range. I am keenly aware that he may have limped with a monster like aces, but he may also have limped with any pair, a strong A-x hand, or a strong suited connector. If I were to raise with 7-7, I would be committing myself to call Seat 3’s all-in if he were to re-shove. I would also hate my hand if anyone behind me – aside from the short stack in Seat 1– were to get involved.

Limping behind appears to be reasonable given the stack sizes involved. If I flop a set, I may be in a position to win a big pot, especially if the big blind hits a piece of the flop or if Seat 3 limped with a monster. My postflop position will help me make good decisions later in the hand and perhaps give me an opportunity to pick up the pot cheaply if the action is checked to me on the flop. My hand is certainly too strong to fold given my stack size, so I limp behind, hoping to take a cheap flop.

Rizen

With the UTG limper only having 13 big blinds, I find myself in a really awkward situation. As I’ve stated before, I’m not really a big fan of calling off more than 5 percent of effective stacks with pocket pairs and suited connectors if I’m just playing the implied odds game – flop a big hand and get all the money in. If I raise, I am committed to playing the pot for stacks against the UTG player, and the range he should be limp/pushing with should crush 7-7. It is possible he is a poor player just trying to see a cheap flop, but I have no clear read. Limping behind doesn’t guarantee that I will see a flop, and I’m not really getting the price I need to flop a set. I also don’t have any additional reads that allow me to outmaneuver my opponent postflop. I choose to fold.

Apestyles

This is a very close decision between limping and raising, but I would limp behind because I’m unsure of Seat 3’s range. I’m ahead of most weak players’ open-limping ranges, but also very far behind most players’ limp-reraise ranges.
Action: PearlJammer limps, Seat 9 limps on the button, and Seat 1 shoves all in for 24,700. You expect Seat 3 to isolate in this spot with virtually 100 percent of his limping range, but he chooses to fold!

What do you do?

PearlJammer

Seat 1 should be pushing a very wide range with such a short stack, so with better than 2-to-1 pot odds and a medium pocket pair, I am happy to play for his stack.
If I were to just call Seat 1’s all-in bet, Seat 9 could perceive my flat call to indicate weakness since I only limped behind the original limper to begin the hand. I do not want to entice Seat 9 to play with good pot odds of better than 3-to-1. If he called as well, I would be involved in a big pot postflop, out-of-position with 7-7, a very difficult spot to play profitably.

Instead of over-calling, however, if he chose to play, Seat 9 would most likely push all in behind my flat call. In his shoes, I would be very tempted to shove all-in with a hand like A-J, K-Q, or a middle pair from nines to sixes. I do not want to give Seat 9 the opportunity to make such a play. Although I would be racing against most of the hands which with he might re-shove, I do not want to get involved in such a large race at this point. I much prefer to play my 7-7 heads up against Seat 1. If I shove all-in myself, I should discourage Seat 9 from over-calling both all-ins with the same range with which he may have re-shoved. It would be much easier and smarter for him to re-shove those hands, since he should have fold equity against me, than it would be for him to call off his entire stack with them.

I reraise to 56K, an amount clearly committing myself to play for Seat 9’s stack. At the same time, a bet like this might represent more strength to my opponent than simply shoving all in.

Rizen

There is 44,300 in the pot and calling is 20,700. The impact upon my stack, while not insignificant, is an acceptable risk given the reward. However, I don’t want to just call and encourage Seat 9 to perhaps call too. I prefer to isolate the raiser and play the pot heads up with favorable pot odds. Rather than get tricky, I just move all in. His over-limp of both the UTG limp and my limp represents a very wide range of hands, practically none of which can call in this spot.

Apestyles

Without much thought, I re-isolate by going all in. Seat 9 cannot have a strong range after limping behind on the button with 20 big blind effective stacks. I expect he would have gone all in with 88 plus preflop, so even if he calls I am probably not behind. I am happy to go all in here getting more than 2-to-1 pot odds versus a range that isn’t necessarily strong.

Matthew

Again, this hand demonstrates the importance of stack size. Most players will consider the limper’s stack size in making a decision, but it is important to also evaluate the stack sizes of the opponents behind you. What if one of them raises? What if others call? PearlJammer notes that he would hate his hand if anyone other than Seat 1 got involved. It turns out that Seat 1 did get involved, and PearlJammer was able to isolate against this opponent. PearlJammer won the hand, as the big blind turned over A-3 offsuit.

Winning Poker Tournaments Volume III is available at pokerbooks.InternetTexasHoldem.com in both print and e-book format.