PokerStars.net Sunday Warm-up

October 29 2008, Joep van den Bijgaart

As some of you may have heard or seen I came 6th in the Sunday Warm-Up on October 12th, which made it quite easy to choose a topic for this week's article.

PokerStars Game #21142729122: Tournament #112186201, $200+$15 Hold'em No Limit - Level XVIII (4000/8000) - 2008/10/12 17:33:46 ET

Table '112186201 442' 9-max Seat #8 is the button

Seat 1: mikke04 (54640 in chips)

Seat 2: fridhem (346791 in chips)

Seat 3: EdgarFrog (98346 in chips)

Seat 5: Voodoo (195576 in chips)

Seat 6: bervad3 (133651 in chips)

Seat 7: GiveMe$10Plz (183801 in chips)

Seat 8: Pappe_Ruk (367506 in chips)

Seat 9: igoturchips4 (264495 in chips)

mikke04: posts the ante 800

fridhem: posts the ante 800

EdgarFrog: posts the ante 800

Voodoo: posts the ante 800

bervad3: posts the ante 800

GiveMe$10Plz: posts the ante 800

Pappe_Ruk: posts the ante 800

igoturchips4: posts the ante 800

igoturchips4: posts small blind 4000

mikke04: posts big blind 8000

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Pappe_Ruk

fridhem: folds

EdgarFrog: folds

Voodoo: folds

bervad3: folds

GiveMe$10Plz: folds

Pappe_Ruk: raises 11875 to 19875

igoturchips4: folds

mikke04: raises 33965 to 53840 and is all-in

Pappe_Ruk: calls 33965

*** FLOP ***

*** TURN ***

*** RIVER ***

oblowski512 is connected

*** SHOW DOWN ***

mikke04: shows (a straight, Ace to Five)

Pappe_Ruk: shows (high card Ace)

mikke04 collected 118080 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 118080 | Rake 0

Board

Seat 1: mikke04 (big blind) showed and won (118080) with a straight, Ace to Five

Seat 2: fridhem folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 3: EdgarFrog folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 5: Voodoo folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 6: bervad3 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 7: GiveMe$10Plz folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 8: Pappe_Ruk (button) showed and lost with high card Ace

Seat 9: igoturchips4 (small blind) folded before Flop

The hand above is not so much about myself, but rather about the play from my opponent. I'm raising to 20K on the button here and the big blind pushes all-in for 55K with . During this phase of the tournament I wasn't being very active. The stacks at my table were, as you can see, not ideal. There are a lot of stacks at the table that will often push against a raise form me. That doesn't mean that I never steal, but it does mean that I take into consideration how my opponent may feel about me and the situation. The big blind obviously didn't do this. He knows I have to call his all-in with any 2. I have therefore obviously adjusted my opening range from the button and will not try and steal the blinds with a random hand, like I would do if the stack sizes were more favourable. Even if he was ahead, he would always have a maximum of 55 to 60%, but often he will be dominated by a better Ace or a pair.

PokerStars Game #21147836509: Tournament #112186201, $200+$15 Hold'em No Limit - Level XXXI (80000/160000) - 2008/10/12 21:06:09 ET

Table '112186201 206' 9-max Seat #7 is the button

Seat 1: IBLUFFULOL (2662106 in chips)

Seat 2: mozitas (3310637 in chips)

Seat 3: Puniponken (2408892 in chips)

Seat 6: noid83 (1386692 in chips)

Seat 7: wildman22222 (1511562 in chips)

Seat 8: Pokky Star (3022189 in chips)

Seat 9: Pappe_Ruk (2591741 in chips)

IBLUFFULOL: posts the ante 16000

mozitas: posts the ante 16000

Puniponken: posts the ante 16000

noid83: posts the ante 16000

wildman22222: posts the ante 16000

Pokky Star: posts the ante 16000

Pappe_Ruk: posts the ante 16000

Pokky Star: posts small blind 80000

Pappe_Ruk: posts big blind 160000

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Pappe_Ruk

IBLUFFULOL: folds

mozitas: folds

Puniponken: folds

noid83: raises 1210692 to 1370692 and is all-in

wildman22222: folds

Pokky Star: folds

Pappe_Ruk: calls 1210692

*** FLOP ***

*** TURN ***

*** RIVER ***

*** SHOW DOWN ***

Pappe_Ruk: shows (two pair, Tens and Eights)

noid83: shows (a pair of Eights)

Pappe_Ruk collected 2933384 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 2933384 | Rake 0

Board

Seat 1: IBLUFFULOL folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 2: mozitas folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 3: Puniponken folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 6: noid83 showed and lost with a pair of Eights

Seat 7: wildman22222 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 8: Pokky Star (small blind) folded before Flop

Seat 9: Pappe_Ruk (big blind) showed and won (2933384) with two pair, Tens and Eights

If you want to go deep in a tournament like the Sunday Warm-up, you can't avoid this kind of situations; calling an all-in in marginal spots. At this point we were down to 13 players in the tournament and the CU, who was being very active when it came to pushing all-in, went all-in again. For me AT is a pretty easy call in this situation, even though I'm risking half of my stack. The range of the CU is so wide in this situation that you will always be ahead against this type of player. Especially because we are close to the final table bubble and noid83 has been very active up to this point, I decided to make the call here. I would have probably done the same against Wildman and Pokky Stars in that moment. There are still too many people (luckily) who will fold AT in this spots. It is always my goal to win a tournament by looking for situations which, in my eyes, offer the most EV, and I decided that this situation was one of them.

PokerStars Game #21148560729: Tournament #112186201, $200+$15 Hold'em No Limit - Level XXXIII (125000/250000) - 2008/10/12 21:38:42 ET

Table '112186201 206' 9-max Seat #3 is the button

Seat 2: mozitas (10274529 in chips)

Seat 3: ael1979 (10248612 in chips)

Seat 4: wdrzich (3228380 in chips)

Seat 7: wildman22222 (1688108 in chips)

Seat 8: Pokky Star (10046378 in chips)

Seat 9: Pappe_Ruk (683993 in chips)

mozitas: posts the ante 25000

ael1979: posts the ante 25000

wdrzich: posts the ante 25000

wildman22222: posts the ante 25000

Pokky Star: posts the ante 25000

Pappe_Ruk: posts the ante 25000

wdrzich: posts small blind 125000

wildman22222: posts big blind 250000

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Pappe_Ruk

Pokky Star: folds

Pappe_Ruk: raises 408993 to 658993 and is all-in

mozitas: folds

ael1979: folds

wdrzich: folds

wildman22222: calls 408993

*** FLOP ***

*** TURN ***

*** RIVER ***

*** SHOW DOWN ***

wildman22222: shows (a flush, King high)

Pappe_Ruk: shows (high card King)

wildman22222 collected 1592986 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 1592986 | Rake 0

Board

Seat 2: mozitas folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 3: ael1979 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 4: wdrzich (small blind) folded before Flop

Seat 7: wildman22222 (big blind) showed and won (1592986) with a flush, King high

Seat 8: Pokky Star folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 9: Pappe_Ruk showed and lost with high card King

This was my last hand at the final table. With hindsight I can say I made a mistake by pushing this hand. My best hand at the final table was my first hand, where I pushed 88 on the button. Then that I got AT once when sitting UTG, where I couldn't really do much with it. Besides that I just let the blinds eat me away. There wasn't much I could do about it, as there was always action in front of me. I did once fold J6o on the button because I didn't think the blinds, with stacks of 10 and 15, where going to fold against my puny 700K. was therefore pretty much a monster for me at that stage, which doesn't make any sense because you're going all-in with 5(!) high. It would've been better to wait for the big blind and then push with any 2. Problem with that is that many players would probably call the big blind and then try to check him out. Then again, I was quite lucky that some people were getting eliminated at the final table after suckouts (AQ vs. AK and 83o vs. AA), which made sure I still walked away with around $23K, my biggest cash ever in a tournament.

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