I just read this from a blog i often read, thought it was very interesting......
In the most recent CardPlayer magazine (Oct 14th, Vol 2/No 20), AJKHoosier1 discusses a hand he played in Full Tilt's $14k Guaranteed tournament ($75 buy-in/6-max).
Blinds are 600-1200/150 ante, 5 players are seated with three players seeing the flop
Player/Stack sizes/Hole Cards:
AJKHoosier1 / 43,003 /
-8d
LegalEagle1 / 122, 452 / unknown
Eazy1Mike / 41,985 /
-9d
LegalEagle1 limps in pf, easy1mike completes from the SB and AJHoosier1 checks his BB. the flop brings
-7s-4c and eazy1mike leads out with 2,222. AJKHoosier1 smooth calls and LegalEagle1 calls behind. The turn is
and easy1mike who led out on the flop OOP now checks. AJKHoosier1 bets out 4,400, LegalEagle1 calls and Easy1Mike check-raises to 17,989. AJKHoosier1 obv calls and LegalEagle1 folds. The river is a
and eazymike1 ships it all in, AJKHoosier1 calls.
When i was going through this hand, it was apparent to me that i would've played it differently pre/post flop. With two limpers in the hand, it seems like a good spot for a squeeze with 8-8 and the flop is very draw heavy. Even though he flopped a set, i would've re-raised Easy1Mike's donk bet instead of smooth calling.
But, that's why i'm writing here and not for CardPlayer.
Here are AJKHoosier1's thoughts pf:
"It does figure, i'd bump it up, i'm going to get flatted (flat-called) a lot, which would basically be a nightmare with a medium pocket pair OOP, since most flops are going to be ugly and really tough to play. So, i keep the pot small, treat my hand like 2-2 and just try to hit a set and get paid big since for the most part, these guys are calling stations."
AJKHoosier1's thoughts after the flop (
-7s-4c):
"I only lose to 6-5 and yeah, the board is draw-heavy, but you can't play your hand out of fear. You need to play your hand optimally. Also at this point, there's really no reason to assume that anyone has a big draw of any kind and I thought i'd look too strong if i bumped it up here in a limped pot against the guy who's leading out into two other players and a guy left behind me. I wanted to keep him in and give him a chance to do something silly, like a post-flop squeeze.
"it definitely paid off to play my hand counterintiutively on literally every street, since most people would raise pf with 8-8, then raise the flop with a set and slow down when they filled up. So, I did the opposite."
AJK just described exactly how i would've played this hand. I guess i need to be doing the opposite more often.
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