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June 18, 2006

Why playing dominated hands is a good thing.

You know you're having an utterly brutal evening at the table when even your opponents are commenting on how many bad beats you've taken and calling them brutal, but I can't complain too much.

In one of the early hands of the tournament, I put a beat so horrific on three other players, knocking them out, that it could easily be argued that I deserved it. Here it is:

$6 + $0.50 Sit & Go (Turbo), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:29:19 ET - 2006/06/18
Seat 1: Phat Crack Ho (1,455)
Seat 2: sfsamurai (1,455)
Seat 3: Snake Luck (1,470)
Seat 4: ariganello (1,410)
Seat 5: Timmster (1,065)
Seat 6: MALAMMUTE (2,265)
Seat 7: puckett101 (1,500)
Seat 8: Witch-king (1,500)
Seat 9: Menno-Homer (1,380)
Snake Luck posts the small blind of 15
ariganello posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to puckett101 [Ah Qd]
Timmster calls 30
MALAMMUTE folds
puckett101 raises to 150
Witch-king folds
Menno-Homer calls 150
Phat Crack Ho folds
sfsamurai folds
Snake Luck folds
ariganello raises to 1,410, and is all in
Timmster calls 1,035, and is all in
puckett101 raises to 1,500, and is all in
Menno-Homer calls 1,230, and is all in
puckett101 shows [Ah Qd]
Menno-Homer shows [9s 9d]
ariganello shows [Ad Kc]
Timmster shows [3s 3d]
Uncalled bet of 90 returned to puckett101
*** FLOP *** [Tc 5d 5s]
*** TURN *** [Tc 5d 5s] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [Tc 5d 5s 2c] [Qh]
puckett101 shows two pair, Queens and Fives
ariganello shows a pair of Fives
puckett101 wins side pot #2 (60) with two pair, Queens and Fives
Menno-Homer shows two pair, Nines and Fives
puckett101 wins side pot #1 (945) with two pair, Queens and Fives
Timmster shows two pair, Fives and Threes
puckett101 wins the main pot (4,275) with two pair, Queens and Fives
Timmster stands up
Menno-Homer stands up
ariganello stands up
The blinds are now 20/40
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5,280 Main pot 4,275. Side pot 1 945. Side pot 2 60. | Rake 0
Board: [Tc 5d 5s 2c Qh]
Seat 1: Phat Crack Ho didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: sfsamurai (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Snake Luck (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: ariganello (big blind) showed [Ad Kc] and lost with a pair of Fives
Seat 5: Timmster showed [3s 3d] and lost with two pair, Fives and Threes
Seat 6: MALAMMUTE didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: puckett101 showed [Ah Qd] and won (5,280) with two pair, Queens and Fives
Seat 8: Witch-king didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: Menno-Homer showed [9s 9d] and lost with two pair, Nines and Fives

Yup. With A-Qo in early position, I raised before the flop and called TWO all-ins (I didn't know there would be one behind me) - pretty much knowing it was going to be ugly and I'd be facing a couple of things I didn't like - to go to showdown against two pocket pairs and a dominating hand. Naturally, I rivered a queen, knocked 3 people out of a single-table SNG, nearly quadrupled my stack and proceeded to blow half of it by running K-Jo into A-Ko with a king and an ace on the board against the short-stack.

Later in the game, after some ups and downs, I wake up in the big blind with pocket kings. UTG raises to $1,100 with $400 blinds and $800 blinds less than 1 minute away. I push all-in, recognizing that they have been betting big UTG for the entire match and I think they're stealing blinds - even if they aren't, I'm ready to rumble with my cowboys. UTG turns over pocket queens and I'm elated - until our dear UTG hits a set at the turn and I have enough left for one blind.

I hit J-10d in the small blind and pushed all-in. I really didn't have another choice. The big blind, the former Pocket Queen UTG sucker outer, called and turned over A-6o. I spiked a 10 on the flop and it held up through the river, letting me double up. I sat out one hand then found myself UTG with A-Qo and pushed all-in. Again, I had a caller, this time with pocket deuces. I spiked an ace on the flop, caught another at the turn and the hand was done. I was very much back in the game, having gone from $795 to $1,590 to $3,930 (second stack) in four hands. I started pushing hard then, all-in pre-flop for 3 of 4 hands to pick up blinds and built my stack to $4,930, the second or third - maybe fourth - time I had been chip leader in this SNG.

Then came a fateful hand. For the first time in a few days, I had pocket aces and I was in the big blind with $600 blinds. UTG+1 called, the small blind pushed all-in and I raised all-in. UTG+1 folded and the small blind turned over K-8d. The flop brough a king and two diamonds, the turn brought another ace and the river made a full house for me. Bingo - we're in the money.

This is about when I suggested a chop - I was still the chip leader and one person agreed. The other didn't and we kept playing.

This is where dominated hands turned into the nuts. That whole A-Qo bit early on? That was just a warm-up.

UTG, I raise to a little over 3.5x the big blind with K-Qo. The big blind pushes all-in and I call. BB turns over K-8o and spikes an 8 on the turn.

Short-stacked AGAIN and in the big blind with $45 left after the blind, I push A-6o into the powerhouse UTG hand of 6-7o. Naturally, UTG spikes a 7 at the flop and I'm done.

UTG was a sport about it though - having beaten me with a set at the turn that doubled them up and eventually knocking me out with a dominated hand, UTG pointed out that the beats I had taken were pretty brutal since the hands I was playing were actually worth playing. However, I also had to point out that only one of the bad beats I took put me out (the rest just decimated my stack) and since I was so short-stacked, UTG had to call regardless. The bad beat I laid down knocked three people out in one hand. UTG went on to win it all, and I was there to cheer them on.

Earlier tonight, I watched a WPT rerun in which Chris Ferguson went all-in pre-flop with pocket aces and got called by crap that turned into a straight at the river. While the hand was going on and his opponent was congratulating him on a good hand, Ferguson kept saying that he had beaten aces before and it wasn't over. Sure enough, at the end, everyone was stunned. Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten were horrified at the beat Ferguson took, which knocked him out in ... 5th place, I think. And it was ugly. Ferguson played it right - it was just a suck out and that's part of poker, unfortunately. If we all knew we were going to win if we drew pocket aces, where would the fun be?

With all the talk about starting hand selection, bet strategies, etc., the SNGs I played tonight to warm up for Blogger Championship and watching the WPT tonight reminded me that poker is an unpredictable beast, that dominated hands may become dominating and you may drown in the river when you were sitting pretty at the flop.

I've been reading David Sklansky's book on tournament poker tonight and I realize that he is brilliant, clearly knows what he's talking about and offers sound advice for nearly every stage of an MTT or a single-table tournament, including suggestion for how to play if you're trying to win or merely trying to move up a notch on the pay ladder.

But with all that said, there are still probabilities at play and there are always as many sides to those probabilites as there are players in the game. While it is likely that pocket aces will hold up against any two random cards, we also know that they don't and that any two random cards can flop two pair, a set or a full house, or possibly a straight or a flush. These possibilities are unlikely, but they happen. In other words, you can do everything right and still come out on the wrong end.

Tonight, I'm finishing a little down from where I started, but feeling successful nonetheless. I keep finishing in the money in SNGs, and I'm up for the week, especially after my WWDN finish and finishing fairly well in a $5+.50 45-person SNG. More importantly, my play style has changed significantly and, thanks to some coaching from Matt especially, I'm able to mix it up a lot more in later stages of the game.

I'm not an expert by any means (and frankly, I'd love to donate $500 to help put a bad beat on cancer to get 30 minutes of Phil Gordon's time to get a massive crash course on pot odds, implied odds and all the other math because Sklansky just confuses me half the time) but I'm getting better, and could I really ask for more?

The hell with suck outs and brutal beats. I sucked out too and that suck out let me finish in the money (even though I doubt anything will ever beat that rivered hammer straight when I was all-in against K-Qh and caught runner-runner to win, allowing me to play tight-aggressive for the rest of the tournament with a reputation as a calling station which made everyone call or re-raise me with marginal hands).

All things considered, life is good. Brutal beats or not. It's hard to be mad when I still made money at it.

Posted by puckett at June 18, 2006 08:55 AM

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