Winning Poker Tournaments III – Hand #5

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 #5.

Seat 1: 184,688 Small Blind
Seat 2: Hero 329,786 Big Blind
Seat 3: 291,444
Seat 4: 345,439
Seat 5: 158,936
Seat 6: 470,798
Seat 7: 59,904
Seat 8: 346,185
Seat 9: 299,254 Button
6,000/12,000 Blinds, 1,500 Ante

Setup: I am deep in a tournament. So far, Seat 1 has played a straightforward game.
Preflop 9 4 (31,500): The small blind completes the action.

What do you do?

PearlJammer

With only 15 big blinds, the small blind chooses to limp in. If I have seen him do this several times before under similar conditions and then fold to a raise or show down weak hands, I’ll shove. My goal is to get him to fold and pick up the 37,500 already in the pot. This is a very risky play, because if he’s trying to trap me, I’ll probably lose half my stack. Without knowing how my opponent plays in similar spots, I am much more inclined to check behind and avoid unnecessarily risking more than half of my stack. I check.

Rizen

Against a player whose stack is about 15 big blinds, who plays straightforwardly and merely completes the action, I will raise almost 100% of the time, regardless of my cards. It’s possible he’s going for a tricky limp and reraise, but against a straightforward player, this is most likely to be exactly what it looks like: a mediocre hand trying to see a flop. I raise to three times the big blind and I will fold to an all-in bet. I only do this against an unimaginative opponent who is unlikely to be making the limp/reraise all in as a “move” and who is also very likely to be limping with a mediocre hand.

Should the small blind call my preflop raise and then check the flop, I would make a continuation bet almost every time. This sort of limp/call play out of the small blind from a straightforward player is almost always a mediocre hand that wants to see a flop, and he’s going to miss the flop the majority of the time.

Apestyles

With effective stacks of 15-20 big blinds, and against good players, I’m more hesitant to raise lightly out of the blinds. This is because many players limp-shove with a very wide range of hands in a blind versus blind situation.

Even straightforward players occasionally limp-shove a wide range of hands in these spots. The “standard” and lower variance play is to check a hand as ugly as 9-4 suited. However, there are other options: 1) shoving all in; 2) raising small – between 28,000-32,000 – and folding to an all-in; or 3) raising more – around 36,000-40,000 – and folding to an all-in.

Going all in versus a straightforward player is probably +EV, but it is a high-risk play and not optimal. Without knowing Seat 1’s trapping tendencies blind versus blind, I don’t know how often he folds in this situation. I think raising and folding to an all-in is clearly preferable, as I will often win the pot uncontested with little risk.

Players will call a smaller raise of 28,000 more often preflop than a raise of 36,000-40,000, but they will most likely limp-shove similar ranges against either raise size. Although I would prefer Seat 1 to fold preflop when I hold such trash, if he calls, I’ll usually pick up the pot with a continuation bet.

Of the two raising options, I prefer raising to around 28,000-32,000. I’ll risk less against the same limp-shove range. If I were deeper-stacked, I would prefer a larger raise to discourage calling preflop.

None of the options are bad, but I think the easiest, lowest-variance play is to check. A lot of “straightforward” players go nuts blind versus blind, and it’s good for my table image to show that I check in a spot where a lot of people get carried away raising. Everyone, even the least experienced and straightforward players, understands blind stealing. Also, I can outplay most “ABC” players post-flop in a spot where they may have played back preflop.

Matthew

It was noted that this is a straightforward player, so there is definitely some merit to just checking and seeing the flop. If he checks the flop, you’ll often be able to take the pot down with little risk. However, I want to discourage my opponents from limping in the small blind, and the way to do this is by raising preflop. Of course, I open myself up to a trap and need to be careful depending on who the small blind is, but until they prove otherwise I assume, as Rizen did, that most of the time plays are exactly as advertised: a mediocre hand trying to see a flop. I raised to 40,000 and the villain folded. ♠

Matthew is the owner of Dimat Enterprises, “Publishing Today’s Best Poker Books”. Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time Volume III is available at pokerbooks.InternetTexasHoldem.com in both print and e-book format. You may also try our new iPad app for free, Poker Coach Pro, based on content from the Winning Poker Tournament series.