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RunnerJohn · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 10:29 am Post subject: Strategy or Just Bad Play?

I have a habit. I'm not sure I'd quite call it a strategy, but it is a habit I find myself repeating when I'm the short stack and starting to worry about being blinded out. I find myself calling all-in raises in this situation pretty often. I've been very lucky. The majority of the times I've done this, it has paid off for me and I've put myself back in the tournament. Here's one hand where I had 97s and called an all-in raise by a guy holding AQ. I'm sure he would call this a bad beat, and maybe it was, but in my opinion, it was a call I needed to make.

I was short stack, with only 890 chips. The Big Blind was 100, but would be 120 when it got back to me in a couple of hands. I felt like if I didn't make a move soon I would be blinded out. I was dealt 97s, which I normally consider a folding hand. But one guy went all in. He was then second lowest stack, and from his previous play, I was sure he might push with any twenty. If anyone else had pushed, I probably would have folded. In this case, however, I started thinking about the cards I was holding. Suited middle semiconnectors. There's a lot of possibility with that hand. Plus, if he was calling with just two overcards, then I wasn't really a huge underdog. So I made the call. I hit a nine on the flop and he missed, so I doubled up. That hand put me second in chips, where I stayed until heads up. I got some good cards heads up and won the tournament.

Does anyone else agree with me that this was a reasonable call, or do you all think I was a jackass who put a bad beat on another player?

Full Tilt Poker Game #6596816236: $6 + $0.50 Sit & Go (Turbo) (50138837), Table 1 - 50/100 - No Limit Hold'em - 9:11:01 ET - 2008/05/28
Seat 1: fylhbzy (1,190)
Seat 3: old matt (1,255)
Seat 4: HokusPokus99 (1,345)
Seat 6: Sporty-Titus (1,990)
Seat 7: Jason Levant (1,090)
Seat 8: jojo59130 (5,740)
Seat 9: RunnerJohn (890)
fylhbzy posts the small blind of 50
old matt posts the big blind of 100
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RunnerJohn [9c 7c]
HokusPokus99 folds
Sporty-Titus folds
Jason Levant raises to 1,090, and is all in
jojo59130 folds
RunnerJohn calls 890, and is all in
fylhbzy folds
old matt has 15 seconds left to act
old matt folds
Jason Levant shows [As Qd]
RunnerJohn shows [9c 7c]
Uncalled bet of 200 returned to Jason Levant
*** FLOP *** [9h 2c 6s]
*** TURN *** [9h 2c 6s] [5d]
*** RIVER *** [9h 2c 6s 5d] [Ks]
Jason Levant shows Ace King high
RunnerJohn shows a pair of Nines
RunnerJohn wins the pot (1,930) with a pair of Nines
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,930 | Rake 0
Board: [9h 2c 6s 5d Ks]
Seat 1: fylhbzy (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: old matt (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: HokusPokus99 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Sporty-Titus didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: Jason Levant showed [As Qd] and lost with Ace King high
Seat 8: jojo59130 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: RunnerJohn (button) showed [9c 7c] and won (1,930) with a pair of Nines

jamesq70 · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 11:42 am Post subject:

No denying u got lucky, but as you said the dude was loose so you had a reason to think it was a close flip. I call here a lot; as most good players say "play to win, not to survive" and the blinds had you in an 'any two cards' situation.
I say "Nice gamble, sir"

Big Slick x13x · Forum Icon Joined: 18 Jun 2006 Posts: 4324 Location: ROK

That's a disgusting call. SNGs are about surviving. CALLING all your chips off with that hand is terrible. Nice to see it worked out for you here, but this should be an insta fold. I don't think it's a "bad beat" but I think it's a terrible, horrible, awful, play.

The play you made was terrible from an equity stand point and that's what you should be going for. What play will make you the most money in the long run. I really don't want to do all the math right now because it's 2am and I'm really tired. If I remember to come back to this thread later I'll get the math worked in.

dontmarryher · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 1:29 pm Post subject:

Hello
I agree , this was a bad call.
Why? I think you overworry about your few chips.Look at everyones chips,you are in effect 3rd. One guy has 5000 plus , another little under 2000, and you and the rest are all within 300 or 400 of each other,between 890 and 1345.
Also, from point of view of winning chance , your hand is a bad hand . 9 high ?! You often play 9 high ?! I would advise against it in most situations. Forget you are suited,I mean this, people fall in love with suited cards like this, and why? because it adds about 2 percent to your chances ? This is not good odds.!
Even if you think he is on steal,it is not good call with 9 high when your chip stack is not desperate.You still have another 20 hands or so (7 people left) before I will consider a desperate move like this.
You did get lucky,but I have to say that the next 9 times from 10 you will not. Is this good odds ?
I have been beaten like this when I hold A K A Q pair etc and someone call with your hand or similar. I do not mind, because I know I will win next time,and the times after that.
Anyway, this is just my opinion I wish you luck.But I would advise you to tighten up a bit .

KGBlovesOreos · Moderator Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 5319 Location: VA

Although you are short-stacked from a big blind:blinds you have ratio, you still aren't in desperation mode. You have enough chips to put an enormous amount of pressure on four of the remaining players, and enough chips to put a significant dent in Sporty-Titus' chip stack as well. Use that power of fold equity to (attempt to) steal blinds yourself rather than call off your chips and have no fold equity.

To go into detail, calling your chips off here is a bad play because you are, at best, begging for a 60-40 situation. At worst, you are an 81-19 underdog. On top of that, you give your opponent no chance to fold, while you also put your SNG life in danger.

Now, for instance, you had folded in this spot and pushed on just the next hand, you do the following:

- ensure that, over the long run, you have created some fold equity for yourself
- your chips aren't at risk unless someone calls
- narrow four or five of your opponents' calling ranges to a top ten hand or something close to it... this is definitely a good thing

RunnerJohn · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 2:57 pm Post subject:

KGBlovesOreos, I think you hit my problem on the head. Any time I get below 1000 chips, I start to go into panic mode and my play changes. I loosen up too much. I need to relax and just concentrate on playing my game until I'm really about to blind out. In one book I read, the author said that any time you're below 7 BBs, you're basically already blinded out. That's kind of what I was worrying about in this hand. Even though I knew I had about 9 BBs at the time, and even after the next blind increase I would still have 7, I was worried and I let that cloud my judgment.

Thanks for the advice. I'm trying to plug the leaks...

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