Winning Poker Tournaments – Hand No. 16

Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time Volume III by Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Jon “Apestyles” Van Fleet, and yours truly, analyzes 50 online poker hands. In Volume III, PearlJammer, Rizen, and Apestyles analyze the same hands and then I give a summary of lessons learned at the end of the hand. This article looks at hand No. 16.

Seat 4: 1,614,180 Button
Seat 6: 1,860,036 Small Blind
Seat 7: 2,987,048 Big Blind Hero
Seat 9: 4,416,736
80,000-160,000 Blinds 20,000 Ante

Setup: This is hand No. 665 of the tournament, and four players remain. Seat 6 and I haven’t had a small blind (SB) versus big blind (BB) battle since several round earlier. He min-raised that time with A-2.

Pre-flop K J (320,000): Seat 6 raises to 400,000.

What do you do?

PearlJammer

With fewer than 12 big blinds (BB), Seat 6 open raises to 400,000 from the SB. With K-J suited in the BB and given his short stack, my only decision is whether to reshove all-in or fold. Blind versus blind, I am simply not going to fold this strong of a hand with effective stacks so short, so it’s an easy shove. I shove all-in.

Rizen

With fewer than 12 BBs and a hand that is very strong against his opening range, I just move all-in. Calling with such shallow effective stacks is a poor play unless I have some sort of read that he will usually check and fold the flop. Any flop bet is going to commit him, and I’m not going to hit the flop often enough to make calling preflop profitable. He has put in less than 25 percent of his stack, so I still have some fold equity, and my hand is too strong against his range to fold. I move all-in.

Apestyles

I would reraise all-in. I have a premium hand blind versus blind with effective stacks of 12 BBs. It’s tough to guess what Seat 6’s calling range is preflop, since most good players will shove or fold in this spot. I would guess his calling range is 2-2 plus, A-x, K-9 offsuit plus, J-10 suited plus, and Q-J offsuit plus. I have around 46 percent equity against this range, which gives me sufficient pot odds to get it in. This shove becomes even easier because he may be folding after raising, a spectacular result which would give me 640,000 chips uncontested.

Action: You called.

Flop 7 5 4 (880,000): Seat 6 pushes all-in.

What do you do?

PearlJammer

Somehow I clicked the call button and find myself heads-up postflop with extremely shallow stacks! Thankfully, I flopped a flush draw, and with two overs and this draw, the chips are getting in no matter what. Although I would rather be the one doing the shoving, not the calling, I have no choice but to call with such a strong draw, likely either 12 or 15 outs, and perhaps even the best hand! I call.

Rizen

There is 880,000 in the pot and he pushes all in for about 1.4 million more. I definitely have enough equity against his range to make calling profitable from a chip perspective, but part of the reason I hate flat-calling preflop in this spot is precisely because of these sorts of decisions. I probably have 15 outs, but I have no way to win, except by showing down the best hand, and if I lose, I’m down to about seven BBs and in a really bad position in the tournament.

I think I have too much equity in the pot to fold, but I will be in a bad position if I lose this pot. However, if I win, I will be the chip leader three-handed.

Apestyles

I’m not calling a raise preflop with such short stacks only to fold when I hit the flop. I have a flush draw and two overcards, and I am in a coinflip against most of Seat 6’s range. For instance, if he has tens, I am actually a 53.6 percent favorite. The worst possible scenario is if he has a hand like A 6 against which I’m an 83.6 to 16.3 underdog. But he’s about as likely to have a lower flush draw as he is to have an ace-high flush draw. He has more aces in his raising range preflop, but there are more combinations of lower flush draws in the deck. I’m happy to call his overbet shove.

Matthew

Here I go again calling raises in the BB with short stacks — a leak I’d corrected a long time ago. Enough said. However, I will go back to one thing I mentioned earlier from PearlJammer: “You lose more often than you might think when you hit a pair.” In this hand, if I do hit a pair on the flop, it had better be the king, given my opponent is sitting on pocket queens — a good example of what PearlJammer meant.

I called the flop bet and hit a flush on the river to beat queens.

Even though I won this tournament, I was able to learn a lot about my play by sharing it with others for feedback. The best way to plug leaks in your own game is to get players who you respect to evaluate your play. Poker forums and coaches are invaluable for this type of feedback. ♠

Matthew is the owner of Dimat Enterprises, publisher of Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time Volume III available at Amazon, iTunes, and other book stores in both print and e-book format. Also check out our iTunes app Poker Coach Pro for iPad or Holdem Pro for iPhone featuring automated analysis for the Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time series.