Winning Poker Tournaments III – Hand #37

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. This article looks at Hand #37.

Seat 8 CO: 54,104
Seat 9 BTN: 64,173
Seat 1 SB: 48,528
Seat 2 BB: 76,764
Seat 3 UTG: 144,424
Seat 4 UTG+1: 34,300
Seat 5 Rizen (UTG+2): 136,473
Seat 6 MP1: 131,372
Seat 7 MP2: 143,443
2,000/4,000 Blinds, 500 ante

Setup: There are two tables remaining in a $65,000 guaranteed tournament. First place is almost $18,000, while the 18th spot pays only $600. Play has tightened up a fair amount, as players are trying to make the final table where the real pay jumps start to come into play. You have been fairly active up to this point, although you have not shown down any hands. You have two very good, aggressive players to your immediate left. They have already shown the ability to very frequently come over the top of your late-position raises, putting a great deal of pressure on you, given your relatively big stacks compared to the rest of the table. Their aggression has really impaired your ability to pick up pots in late position without a legitimate all-in type of hand.

Pre-Flop (10,500) A 4: The action folds to you. What do you do?

PearlJammer

Because the strong players to my left have been making it very difficult for me to steal in late position, I am considering opening my raising range in early position, from which they will be much less likely to play back at me. This strategy is reasonable, however A-4 offsuit is too weak to raise in early position. I would have to fold to any of the six players behind me who may pick up a hand. My hand has terrible reverse-implied odds, thus I will find myself in a bad spot post-flop almost every time I am called. I would be better off raising in this position with a hand like K-10 offsuit or 8-7 offsuit if I feel I must open my early-position range. I fold.

If I find myself in a tough spot because I have very good, aggressive players on my left, I will usually find other ways to adjust than opening my early-position range. The best way is usually to open my four-betting range when they play back at me, especially when we are both in late position. Sometimes, however, I’ll just have to play a lot tighter than usual and hope they make a mistake when I have the goods and just tough it out until the situation changes.

Rizen

A-4 offsuit is not a very strong hand in relatively early position. I would normally fold it without any thought; however, it is worth considering playing due to my interesting table dynamic. All of the big stacks except for one are to my immediate left and are hindering my ability to pick up pots with late-position raises. Given their stacks and aggression, I basically can only play strong hands when in late position to hopefully trap an aggressive opponent who comes over the top of me. This strategy works when I get some good hands, but I need to explore other opportunities to pick up chips.

The shorter stacks at this table have between 12 and 20 big blinds and will be under a tremendous amount of pressure to fold to an early-position raise with all but the best hands, and the big stacks will have to respect my raise precisely because it comes from early position. They also will be more reluctant to reraise lightly in this situation, as they would essentially be committing around half their stack to call any all-in, should a short stack wake up with a hand behind them. Having an ace in my hand helps a little because it makes it less likely that anyone else is going to have a big ace.

By using the relative stack sizes at the table and the power of position, I was able to make a raise that was less than the size of the pot and still win the pot. This play becomes profitable as a pure steal if it works slightly less than 50 percent of the time. If I ever get called, I can often steal the pot with a continuation bet, making the play even more profitable. It also keeps you “active” at the table, so when you pick up a real hand (hopefully in late position where it’s underrepresented), you can get the action you need on it.

Apestyles

There are very few things more frustrating in poker than having aggressive players to your left who won’t let you run the table and force you to open less in late position. However, for every player type there is a counter. One way I counter aggressive late-position three-bettors is to tighten my opening range and loosen my four-bet range, especially with these stack sizes.

Another way of adjusting to strong players who three-bet often from late position is to steal more from early position. This is especially effective when the blinds and other players are playing tight and the stacks are shallow. I am more likely to steal with garbage when the stacks are shallow because I don’t then find myself in tricky spots post-flop. This is because:

a.) reverse-implied odds aren’t a factor, and
b.) because most people call less with speculative hands preflop when the stacks are shallow.

In this particular hand, I am under the gun+ 2 holding a weak ace-rag. All of the stacks other than the two aggressive players to my left have less than 20 big blinds. I don’t usually play ace rag from early position, but this is a perfect spot to attempt an early-position steal. First, the two aggressive players to my left, who are making my life miserable, cannot three-bet light from middle position because they would be forced to call if any of the five short stacks behind them went all in. Second, the short stacks behind them will rarely call to see a flop since they are so shallow; thus, my position matters less. And last, having the ace “blocker” reduces the number of A-J+ combinations by 25 percent, and reduces the amount of A-A combinations by half. With effective stacks being so short, my opponents should be reacting nearly identically to a small raise as they would a large raise since it still represents a large percentage of their stack. I like a raise of the minimum, or slightly more than the minimum, around 8,400-9,000, and would never raise more than that.

Matthew

Every tactic has a counter-tactic. In this case, Rizen is in a tough spot, with two aggressive players to his left. One option is to just sit back, do nothing, and hope that the table breaks, but top players are always looking for ways to accumulate chips. The three pros discuss a couple of options: (1) Tighten their raising range in late position while loosening their four-bet all-in range; and (2) Raise more frequently from early position. Sometimes you have no choice but to adjust your game based upon how your opponents are playing against you.

Whenever you find yourself against an opponent who is giving you fits, it is an opportunity to improve your own game. First, come up with a counterattack so that you’ll be prepared in the future against a similar type of opponent. Second, try to incorporate your opponent’s tactic into your own game. If it is giving you fits, then it will likely also give your opponents fits.

Rizen raised and picked up the pot.

Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time Volume III is available in both print and e-book format. ♠

Matthew is the owner of Dimat Enterprises, “Publishing Today’s Best Poker Books.” The latest Dimat release, The Math of Hold’em, is now available in bookstores everywhere.