Tournament Hand of the Week: August 27th

[TightEnd]

I suppose Chandler is the worry here, does he have a completed hand with 77, 88 etc and thats what all the speech guff is about?

I would have bet $20-25k I suppose,but I feel the all-in might not be the worst option

[MANTIS01]

Part III

As the river card comes down I am watching Maple Syrup closely...there is little point in watching Chandler's reaction because he is staring intently at ME. So we have the rather bizarre sight of Chandler looking at me...me looking at Maple...and Maple looking at the board.

The River

The river card hits and it is....

 

Maple glances at her chips and quickly checks. It comes to Chandler who is already cutting down chips...and a lot of them by the looks of it. He prepares $40,000 ready to push and then returns to his stack for two $5,000 chips...puts them on top and announces "Enough of playing softball poker" before shoving $50,000 into the middle. We throw a glance at Maple who is already counting out chips. It is impossible to say for certain what she is planning but it is safe to say that the serial check-caller is definitely putting chips in here...and it does not appear our involvement is relevant to her. So what do we do?

Do we call Chandler's big bet? Considering Maple has check called with a massive range does her involvement worry us? If we call it's because we think we have the best hand right? So why don't we shove here to get paid in full? If we are not prepared to shove why are we prepared to call? If we do call and Maple pushes what do we do then? Does the poor standard of play in this tournament affect your reading of this individual situation?

[TightEnd]

Now I've got a headache!

[snoopy1239]

I think there's a chance we've run into two monsters here, Chandler with Pocket Sevens and Maple with Pocket Kings. That's a big assumption though, so a call could be justified, however, I certainly wouldn't re-raise. It's a fold for me.

[Flea]

I'd like to think I'd fold - from what you've said I think Chandler may have been overplaying AK but may have had KK all along and maple has in my opinion got at least a full house and maybe quads, definitely think you're beaten by at least 1 of them.

Would find it hard to fold but do think it's the right play (although I wouldn't be wholly surprised if you did have the best hand, board is  just a bit too scary to want to risk your tournament life on it).

[doubleup]

Bad bad card, but with the likely overcall this pot is massive - surely C can't be betting a pair here?  I fold - if he is that bad I still have enough chips left to get him later.

[TightEnd]

well I suppose one of them beats you (KK,88,77 somewhere)but with the likelihood that MS will only check call you can call here

[pswnio]

Bad card the king. I think against these two you'll find a better spot. I fold on the hand analysis board and in real life can't get away from it, call and curse.

[AlexMartin]

Im a station and the pot is huge, call

[snoopy1239]

The reveal to this hand can be found by clicking the link below. Also at the foot of the page are some concluding afeterthoughts from Mantis which are always fascinating and certainly worth a read.

Many thanks to Mantis for posting this hand, I think it's one of the most interesting to grace this board thus far, and perhaps a bit more fun due to the location and characters. Maple Syrup sounds like a right sort to me, and she's now rich! 

Personally, I think Mantis played this hand well - which (ahem) basically means he played it the same as I would have. Anyway, enough of my babbling, find out for yourselves who had what. How close were you?...

http://www.blondepoker.com/index.php?q=node/11932

[action man]

people who pass this hand i doubt will be long term winners in mtt play. If C has us then Its truley unlucky, we have called preflop to hit a big hand in position, We have hit the nut straight and only a house beats us.

[MANTIS01]

I'm not sure about that action man. I think each situation in tournament play is unique and the situation is often more than just the cards on display. There are many other factors to take into consideration here. Hitting your card and then mentally committing your tournament life to a hand that is beaten by 7 other hands regardless of the other factors involved is a debatable mentality. It seems a bit one size fits all to me.

I don't think you can call this bet. If you believe you have the best hand you MUST push. But in order to push for your tournament life you would need to put the other two on hands you can beat.....what are those hands??

If you fold and make a mistake you are still is a strong tournament position but if you call and this is a mistake you are out. Successful tournament play is about more than just one hand in my mind.

[JungleCat03]

I'm not sure about that action man. I think each situation in tournament play is unique and the situation is often more than just the cards on display. There are many other factors to take into consideration here. Hitting your card and then mentally committing your tournament life to a hand that is beaten by 7 other hands regardless of the other factors involved is a debatable mentality. It seems a bit one size fits all to me.

I don't think you can call this bet. If you believe you have the best hand you MUST push. But in order to push for your tournament life you would need to put the other two on hands you can beat.....what are those hands??

If you fold and make a mistake you are still is a strong tournament position but if you call and this is a mistake you are out. Successful tournament play is about more than just one hand in my mind.

These statements contradict each other.

If you decide to play then calling is fine. The extra 30k or possibly 60k of chips you potentially lose out by pushing are far less important than denying yourself the opportunity to recover should you be wrong. If you win this huge pot without raising, then even a relatively incompetent player should be quite capable of winning this tournament from such a strong position. If you call and lose, without committing your last $32k of chips then you still give yourself the chance to spin these up to a win or improve your position at least.

It's the classic case of the depreciating value of chips in tournaments, risking chips of great value to win chips of far lesser value.

[MANTIS01]

I don't agree JungleCat and I also fail to see the contradiction.

You place a lot of value on your remaining $30k tournament chips and that's fine...but what about the minimum $50k tournament chips you are about to commit to this pot? How much value are you placing on those? You are about to call off the majority of your chips HOPING you have the best hand, not only that, considering your other opponent is already COUNTING CHIPS, you are also HOPING it doesn't get any more expensive. For me that is a lot of hope. Especially considering your strong position.

If, as you say, a competent player can win with $30k then the same player can also win with $80k. If you call the $50k what are you going to do when faced with the push from UTG? Are you now folding....and if you are why did you call....and if you're not why didn't you push?

I think the time to decide if you have the best hand is before you commit a cent more on the river. If you don't think you're ahead then folding leaves you in a strong position, but if you do think you have the best hand then why are you just calling? This is a crying call where you are not sure where you are and just hoping for the best. That might fair enough for some but when you place much value on $30k....to treat $50k with so little regard is in fact the contradiction you speak of.

[TightEnd]

this has been a really good HOTW.

Snoops nailed it huh?