I mean the (t) in (t1500). I’ve seen that before, never knew what it represented, but I’m dumber than a box of rocks.
The t stands for tournament. Tournament chips and not real money. You had it right.
Hmm. I don’t mean to sound callous, but if you want to play much poker then you’re gonna have to get used to such things.
People doing ridiculous things like this is why poker is so profitable for the non-crummy players. Unfortunately, you have to put up with crap like this sometimes.
And no, you don’t need to be suspicious. There are some amazingly stupid people out there, and they sometimes get lucky.
As for how you played the hand, it was basically fine, but the raise to t80 was too small. Just a minor nitpick though.
Oh yes, one more thing.
I recommend the forums at www.twoplustwo.com to post your hands on. You’ll usually get good advice there.
Interesting, I raised the pot to four times the big blind. I am not sure how that is too small. Can you elaborate why you think that is the case with two limpers and the SB being in. I suppose it is really just a matter of opinion.
TommyTutone is right the buyin makes a big difference. Since they started all the $1, $2 and $3 tourneys at PP with no fee, I enter them and just hope for an early hand where everyone in front of me wants to go all in. I play whatever I have and hope to triple or quadruple up. With proper buyins I try to stay away from getting all in early on.
Thanks for the translation from greek to hebrew…
By the time it got to you the pot was t80. Yes, you raised to 4xBB but only doubled the pot. You’re pricing someone with a weak hand in. In this particular hand it probably wouldn’t have made any difference because UTG was going to call any raise, but I would’ve made it 150 to go.
I say!
What about my translation?!
But I also did not want to price out all te other hands, considering I got to act last pre-flop, many folks had already folded. If I bet too agressively I figured I would bet folks out of the hand, Considering all the limping, which I did not really want. Ideally I would have gotten down to head-to-head, but given the hands that were played, it is doubtful anything I would have bet would have changed the outcome, as you said.
I appreciate the comments though, I will take them to heart. I do get a little annoyed at the implication (which is probably not meant to be there and just my paranoid fantasy) that there the play is necessarily “wrong” or “right”. Every bet has pros and cons, and even what is deifned as a pro or a con is flexible to a large degree. Hindsight is 20/20 of course.
It is a balancing act. You definitely want action when you’re clearly ahead in the hand but you don’t want to make it too cheap for people to draw out on you.
They did end up going all-in pre-flop, so it wasn’t cheap after all…but are you (and FenneF) saying GO should have done a stronger first raise to bump off the trash hands when the trash-holder ended up all-in anyways? I’m not so sure that the trash-holder would have folded on a t150 raise either. I mean if this guy had pocket pair or A-paint, then I could see him calling on GO, sensing some lack of confidence in GO’s hand with a t80 bet, but this guy was not gonna be deterred no matter what GO or CO’s bet was (short of raising all-in).
Right. In this particular instance, GO could have probably pushed all in from the jump, ripped off his clothes, jumped up on the table and done his patented “I have pocket cowboys” dance and the UTG is still going to call. That would have been as big a mistake on UTG’s part as his continual calling of the raises was.
Normally, however, when the other player is not an idiot and is instead playing the 93 because it’s cheap to call 20, or it’s suited, or it’s his favorite hand that he always calls with or whatever, a raise of 150 should be enough to shake him off the crap hand. Raising another 60 chips into an 80 chip pot means it costs UTG 60 chips to try to win 140, or about 2.3:1 on his money. That’s a decent price with any two cards pre-flop. Raising 150 makes it 130 to win 230 and that’s a bad price. After UTG calls CO has an even easier call, 60 to win 200, or better than 3:1.
GO played the best of all the players. UTG was just an idiot and should have folded to the raise and reraise. He can’t reasonably believe that his hand is playable at that point. CO played cutesy with the call, trying to get someone else to do his raising for him. I don’t mind the re-raise, because GO could easily make the same play with a smaller Ace or an underpair. However, once GO puts in his second raise, rather than re-raise all in CO should have IMHO just called or folded depending on his read. He shouldn’t be thinking that he’s ahead after GO’s second raise, and if he puts GO on AA, KK, QQ or AK then he should get out. If he puts him on a smaller pair then call and take a flop.
But I want that 93 to stay in the hand, at least that is my opinion. I am a 5 to 1 favortie. The more chips they put in the better. Yes I can get outdrawn, that’s the nature of the game.
That’s certainly one way to play it. Here’s why I wouldn’t.
I would rather win a small pot than lose a large one.
I want to make right plays and for my opponents to make wrong ones. Calling 60 to win 140 is not a mistake. Calling 130 to win 230 is. Of course I would rather win, but even if I don’t win I still want for my play to be right as often as possible. The more right plays I make and the more mistakes my opponnets make, the more likely I am to win in the long run.
I don’t want to play pocket Kings against three other opponents. I want to get heads up or at most a three-way pot, and giving all of my opponnets the right odds to call isn’t going to accomplish that. Had CO not re-raised, chances were good that you’d have been facing CO, UTG and SB. Against three other players you’re only about 43% to win. Even against the two you were facing you were only about 55%.
And upon reading this again, this line comes off really snotty. Not my intention, sorry about that.
4x BB is my standard raise in the early stages of these low-buyin tournaments. With three limpers already, you want to raise significantly more.
The general rule I hear quoted is 3+number of limpers x BB, but at the lower buyin tournaments this is usually not enough to get rid of people. I would probably raise to somewhere in the vicinity of 150-180.
Yes, this is a matter of opinion to an extent, but I think the raise was clearly too small.
Whoops, I probably should have read the rest of the thread before I replied.
Otto’s advice seems very sound to me.