I spent this past week in lovely Reno, Nevada playing my
very first HPT tournament at the Grand Sierra. I’ve played here (and stayed
here) before, done well, and had high hopes. Sadly, I finished out of the
money, but it was a good experience nevertheless.
The Main Event was a $1650 buy-in, and the stars were
definitely out. They had three starting flights, and I played the first one. The
pros in the field included Howard “Tahoe” Andrew (on my left); Pendleton
triple-crown winner Angela Jordison (on my right); Dutch Boyd; and 2015
November Niner Neil Blumenfield.
As is usually the case, my bust-out hand was rather
inconsequential. I pushed AhQd against KK and lost. It was a previous hand
which was actually the key hand. Losing it knocked my chipstack down to under 25BB,
giving me considerably less maneuverability and preventing me from being a
factor in the game.
With blinds of 250/500 and 50 ante, I was on the button
and after several hours of solid grinding was one of the overall chip leaders
with roughly 60k. The player under-the-gun limped in. He was a passive player,
frequently limped, and quite honestly was what one would refer to as a calling
station. He was way out of his league against these players, and if he hadn’t
already hit a few miracle board cards he would have been long gone. As it was,
he started the hand with around 40k in chips.
Cary Marshall was in middle position with the smallest
stack at the table of around 10k, and he limped behind. He’s an older player; tighter
than average and very tough. He had knocked me out of a previous tournament
(which he went on to win), and I definitely did NOT like seeing him at my
table. He’d lost a bunch of chips in a couple of bad beats, but I’d seen him
grind it back up before and knew he was just as dangerous now as he was when he
was chip leader.
The next player was Ian Steinman, a 25-year old pro from
the Bay area. He had around 20k. He had a good, solid game; a bit on the loose
side, but definitely good competition for this field. He thought about his
action for a bit, and then raised it to 2.5k.
It folded to me, and I looked down to see AsKs. I thought
carefully about what I wanted to do with this hand. Folding was out of the
question. Should I raise to thin the field, or just call behind to see if I can
encourage some additional players? AK suited plays well against many opponents,
so I decided to just smooth-call and see if I could get more folks into the
pot.
Everyone else folded back to the UTG limper, who also
called (as I totally expected him to). Then Cary was next. He shoved all-in for
a total of 10k. Ian thought about what do to next; it was pretty clear that he
didn’t expect to see so much action on top of his raise. Finally, he folded. He
told me later that he had Ace/Jack offsuit.
I was next, and once again I was facing the same question:
Re-raise to (likely) get heads-up against Cary, or just call and let the UTG
player tag along? I really felt that I had a premium holding, and getting as
many chips as possible is so important in a tournament, so I went with the call.
I felt that if I missed the flop completely, I could just release if I came
under pressure. UTG called also, so it was three players to the flop (one
all-in).
The flop came Kh 8d 3d. Immediately, UTG shoved all-in
for his remaining chips (around 40k total). I knew instantly exactly what he
had. When a player acts quickly, it almost always means that he is on a draw.
If UTG had a set or some other big holding, he’d have thought about how to play
it for a bit before acting. I was convinced that I was ahead, so I called
without much delay.
Sure enough, UTG had 9d 6d. Cary had Kc Qs and was drawing
nearly dead. I had a huge lock on the hand. The turn card was a brick, but the
river was … another diamond. Cary was knocked out of the tournament and I lost
over half of my chipstack and was nearly crippled.
I’ve given this hand quite a bit of thought, and here’s
what I’ve concluded:
I really don’t like the way Cary played this hand.
King/Queen offsuit is not a good preflop holding -- as this hand makes obvious;
he was completely dominated. He hit top pair and was still behind. He should
have folded and waited for another opportunity.
On the other hand, I really like Ian’s play. He took a
stab at the pot with a good hand, and then released once he realized that he
was beat. I can’t fault his play at all.
At first, I really didn’t like UTG’s flop shove. I thought
it was way too spewy, and he’s only called when he’s behind, such as with this
hand. But after thinking about it some more, maybe this judgment is a bit harsh.
Although he’s behind, the pot is laying him pretty much the correct odds to
make a play like this. I still think it goes against ICM strategy, but
mathematically it’s not a disaster. On the other hand, deciding to play 9/6
suited under the gun is not the kind of thing I would do.
So that leaves my play. The only adjustment I could
reasonably have made at some point pre-flop would have been to re-raise (or
over-shove) rather than just call. But I think the preflop call, overall, is
going to have a higher +EV than those alternatives. (At no time did I consider
a fold.)
