Dakota Kid Presents - Deadwood Nuts

A Tournament Played Well, Until....

By
Mike Randall

I played in the second Silverado free roll no-limit hold�em tournament which was filled with fifty five players at five tables. The final table would be in the money with an increase in winnings beginning at 5th place on up to 1st place.

I started out slow winning an occasional blind with a raise and no one calling, just enough to stay even in chips. I finally was called after a raise with good cards in two different hands, but had to fold on the flop when my opponents bet when I had nothing Or there was an over card on the board forcing me to fold. This left me down about 800 from our starting count of 3000.

The turning point in the tournament came for me with this hand. I was holding ace queen off suit in middle position when the player to my right went all in with about 1000. I�m not particularly found of calling with ace queen especially in tournament play, but I considered the factors and rather than call pushed all in myself with an additional 1200. Even though I considered him a good player I felt there was some weakness in his hand to go all in when the blinds were only 50-100. I felt he could be as weak as ace ten or a small pair. Even though I can�t beat the pair it will be a race and I�ll still have chips if I don�t win. I raised all in to discourage anyone else from calling so I would heads up with the all in player. He turned over pocket nines, but I got lucky and flopped a queen to win the race. Now I was back to a little over the starting chip count.

A few hands later I picked up pocket jacks in late position and make a raise. Everyone folds and the big blind call. But wait, he only has to call a little over double the big blind. I had intended to make the raise three times the big blind as I really had not wanted the blinds to call. The flop is perfect though with ace jack rag. The blind bets about double the minimum and I smooth call. On the turn he again makes a good sized bet and I take some time and then go all in. He thinks about it flashes ace queen and mucks his hand. Toward the end of the same round I again have pocket jacks in the big blind The second player to act behind me goes all in with something between two and three times the big blind. The player on the button calls and I call. I again flopped a set of jacks with a queen, jack, rag on the board. I check and the late position player makes a healthy bet and I just call. I check and the other player makes another large bet. I check raise all in as I believe he has a hand he will call with as he has put quit a few chips in the pot. He thinks about it and finally folds. I show the set to win the main pot from the all in player and the other player tells me he had ace queen for top pair top kicker. Man these two guys made some great lay downs to me in those two hands.

After that round it looked like I had enough chips to make it to the final table baring any huge bad beat. When it looks like can get in the money I try not to get in a situation where I will put my big stack in jeopardy. That�s not to say I will play too tight, as I will still make raises with premium hands so as to advance my position and keep other players from attacking me. When I got to the final table I played some what of a waiting game and some players busted out and we got down to five players at which level the payout increased. Thus I was able to advance to a higher level of pay when other players made mistakes and busted out.

At four handed the short stack went all in and I made an easy call with an ace with a good kicker and won with the high card. I still had fewer chips than the other two players as I had been for most of the final table. Then I won two hands that turned the flow of the game my way. In the first one I raised all in on the button with king jack and was called by the big blind with a small pair. I got lucky and flop a king to double up. This was only the second time I won a race when I had started behind. Usually you have to win some of these to win a tournament. A few hands later I went all in with pocket sixes in the same position and the same player called me, putting him all in with pocket fours. I won the hand when nether player improved and now I am heads up with Ron.

The heads up play was a back and forth �chess match� as each player took there turn at attacking and defending or retreating which lasted for about one and a half 30 minute rounds. I was playing a good aggressive heads up game without getting careless with bad cards and had gained a good chip lead until the following hand. At this point the blinds were 5000 � 10,000 with total chips in play of 275,000. I was in the big blind holding king ten. Ron made a minimum raise of 10,000 and I called. The flop was ace jack rag. I checked and Ron checked. The turn was another rag and I quickly determined that the 40,000 in the pot was about 15% of the total chip count. I would have a commanding lead if I won this pot. My opponent had showed weakness when he checked, apparently the flop had missed his hand. I decided to try and win the pot with a bluff and went all in. Ron immediately called and we showed are hands. Ron showed king queen for a gut shoot draw to a strait. I also had a strait draw, but nether hand improved and Ron won with the higher kicker. Now I was way behind and even though I won the next hand I never recovered from that loss and Ron won the tournament.

I don�t believe one should say what if I would have played differently when loosing a hand, after all no one knows for sure if it would change the final out come of the contest.

But to improve your game it is good to go back and analyze key hands that you have lost to see if there was a better way to play it and why. In this hand the first thing to remember is that the player on the button raised. In heads up you need a feel for the other player as to how aggressive they are. In my opinion a minimum raise from Ron could be a face card rag or two face cards. He would fold two rags and move all in with any ace face card or any pocket pair. So when he checked the flop I�m sure he doesn�t have an ace and he didn�t pair one of his face cards as again I�m sure he would have bet it. So far this looked like a chance to bluff and take down the pot if Ron will lay his hand down. The one thing I didn�t consider was the fact that Ron could not easily be bluffed and most certainly not if he had a strait draw. Because he had raised pre-flop and checked the flop makes it most likely that he had two face cards that weren�t paired giving him a strait draw. This analysis shows that I should have checked it down.

Analyzing past hands is an important tool in improving ones game and keeping from making the same mistake again.