The Poker Mag

This is a very interesting hand I watched recently, and one which had a discussion thread attached to it.
Our player in question (who we shall call player K) had been dealt (10s,10h) from the position adjacent to the button. The third player after the big blind seat was the first caller, the next player raised from 40 to 120 in chips. Player K then flat calls with a stack of 3,500, the blinds fold, and the original caller matches the bet. The flop then falls (10c,6s,Ah).

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT POKEROOM.COM

The first player to act checks, our second player checks, as does player K with his set of tens. The turn is a seemingly harmless (5c) and the first player checks, after which the second player raises it 160. Player K reraises to 480, the first player folds, and our original raiser reraises again heavily, causing all the chips to go in. The set of Tens are beaten by a set of Aces, and as the players disscussing the hand pointed out, it was very unlucky for player K, who played the hand reasonably well.

It was not an impossible situation to avoid though. If we go back to where our player raises to 120 preflop, pocket Tens are very playable, but your key danger is from an overpair. If you reraise to 500 here, your opponents reaction will tell you a great deal. In this type of game ($1 tournament) you will find that almost every player with an overpair to Tens, will then shove all in over the top when the action gets back around to them. You are still left with a tricky fold, but it is very possible due to the information you bought for 380 more chips. The result, in all probability, is that you get away from the hand with a relatively healthy 3,000 stack still intact.

For Poker click the link

This hand is a prime example of why players often check a hand down when there is a short stack all in. Usually, it is in the best interests of both players to not bet unless they hit well, as it maximises the chances of a player being eliminated, which is beneficial for both players.
Having just suffered a terrible beat with (K,K) I pushed my last 700 chips in with (Jc,8s) knowing that I needed to gamble with a hand before the big blind hit me.

PLAY NOW

I was quickly called by a player who it later turned out, was holding (Q,Q). one other player also called though with (Q,10). The flop came down (4,8,9) and our player with (Q,Q) checked. For some reason, the second player immediately shoved his entire 15,000 in, and after some thought the other player folded (Q,Q) face up. Needless to say when he saw the all in raiser had nothing but a weak straight draw he wasn’t too pleased, because if they had checked the pot down, he would have eliminated me. As it turned out, this absurd all in bet saved me from elimination, as my pair of Eights held up. The person who made this all in bet is not overly experienced, and so I guess you can forgive him for making such a move. It is easy for me to say that though because it threw me the lifeline that eventually led to me fighting back to win the tournament.
This move also came back to bite the player who had forced (Q,Q) out too, as it was me who went on to seriously damage his chipstack later, and it was the player who had been forced out, who eventually eliminated him.
Although you can certainly say that everyone has the right to play their cards how they wish, this just goes to show the fickle nature of fortune in poker. When you are in this position, the best option I feel, is always to maximise the chance of eliminating a player.

For Poker click the link   

This was another hand from my recent live game, and as it transpired, was the hand that put my opponent on the brink of elimination. After a tournament of amazing hands and plays, I had hung on to survive in the early stages from as little as 300 chips, and one hand from that part of the tournament returned to me when I was heads up at the final table. I am not usually one for superstition, but given the nature of the game that evening, and the fact that I was pressuring my opponent preflop to try and overturn a slight defecit in the chip counts, I pushed all in with (Jc,8c).

PLAY NOW

This hand had trebled me up earlier in the tournament when I was all in for 700 chips, and as I sat at the final table with 48,000 I felt that playing it aggressivley heads up, would allow me to pick up the blinds preflop. My opponent had only flat called and so I didn’t feel her hand was very strong. The fact was though, that she was slow playing a monster of (A,A) and just waiting for me to continue with my preflop aggressive play. Needless to say, my all in was instantly called.
Whatever had happened up to that point in the tournament, it had always seemed that somehow, I had survived, and so part of me still felt, even as the flop didn’t seem to help me in the slightest, that a miracle would happen. Sure enough, something mirculous did indeed happen, as I first picked up an inside straight draw on the turn, then hit my four outer on the river as the (5d) fell. I immediately apologised to my opponent as getting lucky is not the way I would rather win. But after the way the tournament had unfolded, I somehow knew that the story was never going to end with me finishing second place.
Oddly enough, I had hit running cards to make a miraculous straight, and that was the exact same way in which my chipstack had initially been almost wiped out by an opponent, when I was holding (K,K) early in the tournament.

For Poker click the link   

Anyone who plays poker can tell you, that the difference between playing poker successfully, or losing money over a period of time, is your ability to understand why your opponent is making a play that they are. Each hand has a story behind it that can be unscrambled, as there is almost always logical reasoning behind every decision a player makes. The moment a player raises preflop, you can usually narrow their possibilities down for the cards they are holding.

PLAY NOW

They will almost certainly not be raising from early position with a weak hand, and the size of the bet gives it’s own clues too. Each subsequent betting round and decision they make, gives you more information to work with. If you are the one who raises first preflop, and you are faced with a reraise, you can say that the hand you are up against is likely to be stronger than if they had simply made the first raise.
If you are starting to feel that your opponent has a particular hand after they make certain moves on the flop, work backwards, considering if they were holding those cards, would they have made the previous moves they have in the hand. You couldn’t say that a player probably has two pair or top pair on a flop of (2,4,8) if they have reraised you preflop, for instance.
The key to reading in my opinion, is logic. Do not simply guess at what they might have, examine each possibility in your mind and you will find it’s not as difficult as you think to discount some hands and accept others as more probable scenarios.

For Poker click the link