Monday, April 6, 2009

Bay 101 Midnight Tourney: counter to small ball

Used my winnings from friday's game to enter this tournament.

For some reason without realizing it, I totally threw my small ball style out the window tonight. I guess I shouldn't have kept psyching myself out by saying over & over "chip up fast or leave early!" before the tourney even started. I was playing a super aggressive game with tons of bluffs.

As usual, I tried to control the table with my small ball playing style, but kept getting re-raised and I kept calling the raises. My cards varied from suited cards to connectors. I missed a bunch of flops or missed draws with the occasional top pair here and there that won without showdown. I stayed at the constant $10,000 until level 3.

I lost more than half my stack on a big bluff I tried to pull on a guy. With blinds at $100/$200, I call holding Q4 suited. Three to the flop. I flop a flush draw and bet out $300 into the $600 pot. Get re-raised to $1200. One guy folds. I call. Turn is a miss for me, but I bet out $1000. He looks scared, but still calls. River is another blank for me and I bet out $4000. He goes all in for $6000 and I'm forced to fold, despite pot odds.

I gave this hand a deep analysis when I was done. I didn't use my small ball style at all in this hand, which was a big mistake. I should have bet only $600 on the turn for a cheap draw and I don't think he would have raised. If I was to bluff on the river, I think I should have only bet out $2200. At least, it would look more like a value bet and I wouldn't have risked so much of my chips.

After that hand, I was left with about $4000 and soon lost another $2400 by calling a big raises on my big blind with 2 7 and hitting mid-pair. The guy had bet $2000 in the dark preflop. I folded and he shows me an Ace. Urg!

Soon, I had no choice but to try to steal on the button with 3 8 offsuit. I push in $2400 with the blinds only at $200/$400 and get called by the big blind, I say out loud "shit!" and get some laughs after I show my 3 8 in my all-in moment. Big blind (tight player who always raises super high with good cards had called instantly, so I knew I was pretty much dead when he called my overbet.) shows me ACES!!! Flop comes out A 4 5. He hits his set and I'm getting ready to leave, until someone says "you need a 2". I touch my 3 of hearts and move it around the table asking the dealer to "do it!" and he tells me to stop touching the cards and let him deal. Haha! Turn is a blank...and the river is a 2!!! I double up. I tell him "I hope your remember that" hoping to put him on tilt and catch him again later.

Played a couple more hands and was chipping up slowly, but again. Called big re-raises with nothing and missing the flop or getting a piece, but folding anyway. I could tell my small ball wasn't working on this table of gamblers who love making pots big. I wish I had realized earlier that I was playing this way, so I could get out and sit back more. I think I was basically in about 80% of the hands I was dealt.

Later had AJ of spades in the little blind and opt to cold call. Same guy with aces earlier re-raises to $1000 with blinds still at $200/$400. I'm pretty sure he wanted to raised more, since it was only $600 more to both of us who called the $400 earlier. Three to the flop. I flop a spade draw and check. Big blind raises to $2000. And I push all in for $3500. He shows ACES again! and I miss my draw.

This is my earliest out of a tourney to date and I know what I did wrong, which was not sticking to my game and calling too many re-raises. I hope to do some more research into what to do next time I encounter this.

Until next time.

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update:

Advice from Daniel Negreanu I found about reraises:
In small ball poker, you must get involved in a lot of pots. And in many of those pots, you’ll get reraised. Make sure to maintain your composure when that happens. Don’t get away from your strategy by making sloppy calls.

Okay, say it’s early in a tournament. You raise to 150 on the button with 7h-8h, leaving you with 9,850 in chips. The small blind then reraises to a total of 500.

Not only do you have position, you also have the type of hand that could hit a home run if you get lucky on the flop. Go ahead and call with this hand, hoping to win the pot by hitting the flop or bluffing your opponent by using board cards that may scare him away.

Generally speaking, though, you don’t want to jeopardize more than ten percent of your chipstack on a hand like middle suited connectors or middle pairs.


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