32Red Poker Blog

Having a fun time in Portugal. I took 69,000 chips to day two, but got knocked out about three hours into it. I was super gutted for a while, but it’s always easy after a few minutes to put things in perspective.

I’m going to use some of the frustrated energy to write up a few interesting hands on the blog:

Portugal repeated a pattern that has happened a number of times before, where I have felt I played OK, but there have been 3 or 4 spots I would love to have treated differently. Here are some of the crucial hands:

The final hand:

My stack: 32,000
Blinds 800/1600 (200)
Pot pre-flop: 4,200

I have AsJs UTG, and raise to 3,600. It comes round to a young French guy on the button, who is playing 70k. He is pretty good, but has not been as aggressive as I might have imagined. He asks to see my stack (about 29k more), and just calls.

He has not been doing any calling in position at all, and so I feel that I can now put him on a very specific range. Getting a slight bit of discomfort from him as well, I felt 100% that he had the type of hand specfically that could not pass, but did not want to 3-bet me all-in for 28k more.

I had a real feeling for ace-queen, and should maybe have put a dead read on this hand, but added differing size chances to:

AJ- much more likely if suited
A10/KQ- probably only if suited
88-99- but almost definitely not 77 (pass) or 1010 (all-in)
A random speculative hand (e.g. QhJh)- it did not feel likely, but had to be some kind of small possiblity.

So, there was 11,400 in the pot and 29k in my stack, as we saw a flop of Ah5d3d.

This is a disgustingly tough spot for me to try to play correctly. There seems to be little need to protect my hand (apart from the two outer of a pocket pair), but could I find the right combination of value and still possibly getting away from the hand, given my strong feeling that he had ace-queen?

I bet 7k, and the young French guy insta-picked up a stack of yellows and threw them in. It would be 22k to me, and a pot that would total 68,200. It would be a very thin pass at this point, but the way he threw in the chips was so confident that it just seemed to pinpoint my read on ace-queen. I think thoughts of passing my hand given this spot would be insane against most players, but I just wonder whether I can put a read on the French guy’s pre-flop call given that he is a very good and solid tournament player. Just possibly, he’s never making the same play with anything other than ace-queen.

I sigh-called, and he did indeed have it. With just a 29k effective stack into a pot of 11.4k, is there any other way I can possibly get away? I think the two options would be:

-Bet 4k, and at least get a situation where I am calling 25k more, and a spot where the pot is small enough that I can pinpoint his all-in much more on ace-queen.
-Check, and probably face a 7k bet. This would be a difficult pass, but just possibly I can call and pass the turn, when he moves the last 22k in?

It’s a really tough spot (not least because he never has AK or a set), but hopefully there will come one day when I can progress in these very specific spots from heavily suspecting ace-queen to “knowing” the guy has got it.

Day 1

Unusally for an EPT, we had two pretty massive fish at different points of the day. I had already established a good suspicious dynamic with the second guy, who was two to my left, before this hand:

Blinds: 300-600(25)
Effective stack: His stack of 50k

He raised to 1.600 on the cut-off, as he had done quite regularly, and I looked down at a beautiful KK in the small blind. I made it a massive 9,000 to play (which would mean a pot of 19k, and an effective of 42k). He thought for ages, seemed to be going to re-raise at one point, and eventually passed.

This pot of definitely the worst of the tournament. Making it 9k is tantamount to wimping out. I thought there was a 70%+ chance that he would at least call 9k, but should have just raised to 6,500 which he would definitely have called. Even that would built a pot of 14k and an effective of 43.5k going to the flop.

I think I need to think hard about the possibility that I wimped out of playing a big pot against a “livewire” player out of position, and whether this emotion affected my judgement of the chance of him calling 9k.

Day 1

Blinds: 300-600 (25)
My stack: 52k

I raise A8 offsuit to 1,800 UTG+1, as a fish is in the big blind. Busto_soon (sick online MTT player) calls in mid-position, as does Jon Eames, and the fish calls from the big blind.

Flop pot: 7,800
Flop As5×4s

I bet 3,600 with A8, and busto_soon calls. His range would seem to be (likely: AJ/A10, flush draw, 67 for a straight draw) (unlikely: set, two pair, random gutshot float)

Turn As5×4s8x.

I turn a sick card, for two pair, and decide to check the 15k pot (reasons later). He checks quickly behind.

River As5×4s8×5x.

Another great card on the river. I value bet 9k, and he passes pretty quickly ,which looks a lot like a busted flush.

So, I managed to get both the turn and river action wrong, which is disappointing. I’ll take a look at each street in turn:

Turn- there is now 15k in the pot, and the effective stack is 47k. If I am betting, it will be 9k. Obviuously, he has the opportunity to give me the decision from hell by re-raising, which will effectively be an 47k all-in, and can never leave me in good shape (best would be sweating flush draw+gutshot). The other advanatge of checking is that he might bluff either one or two streets. It seems that, if he has AJ, I can only get one street anyway, and that will be on the end (as long as it’s not a spade). I think on balance a check is probably right, but would not be against a predictable player.

River- I now have the choice between value betting 9k against AQ/AJ/A10, or checking, and picking up a bet that will be either a bluff or him value owning himself with AJ/AQ. He has previously re-raised for very thin value on the river with the bottom two pair, and so there is a good chance he will value own himself, especially with ace-queen. If he bets, I will of course be check-raising, and may even get a call. I think a check is probably just about right for these reasons, though of course he is not necessarily pulling what would be a bad bluff with a busted flush.