Here's to set the scene... It's a £25 freezeout with 5k starting stack and 26 runners... I'm sitting at a 8 handed table with the biggest stack of 12k and the next biggest stack is about 8k... I've been playing pretty tight and aggressive... Haven't had any real hands... Just stealing here and there... Playing with position etc... Had
once but that's about it... Nothing to get excited about really... Haven't needed to show down much either...
The hand in question goes like this... I have 12k on the button... Hijack has 3.5k... CO has 6k... Blinds 150/300... Hijack raises to slightly more than his raise in previous hand to 950... CO flats and I look at CO's stack and decide to call with
on the button... I feel that I could take their whole stack with the right flop... I've been playing with these players for about 90mins and I'm pretty comfortable with their tendencies and playing flops with them... Calling stations really... Not very aggressive after the flop... Gives free cards away pretty easily...
Flop comes
... Hijack shoves for 2.5k... CO flats and I shove and CO calls...
Hijack has
... CO has
...
Turn was an irrelevant
and River was
... CO takes the whole pot down with the gutshot hitting...
Thinking back I was questioning my flop push...
Maybe I should've flat and then shove the turn?...
Maybe I shouldn't have been in the pot in the first place?...
So that's the first hand...
Now the next case...
I then moved table and was sitting to the left of the chip leader... I worked my way up to about 8-9k and picked up
UTG... I raised to 1200 with blinds at 200/400... and the chip leader shoves in the BB... I was pretty sure he had a pair but wasn't sure on which one... Medium to higher was most likely... 8's or higher... I saw him shoved with
earlier and busted
so I did think it was a similar hand... Especially hearing him say how much he hates playing flops with those kind of pairs... One of the reasons I don't like using my ipod... I declined the race as I don't like to race for my tournament life... The BB had about 25-27k so I didn't feel as if it was some kind of move... He did show me
but that's irrelevant really... I later go out with a race anyways with my
into
...
In the last few tournaments I have declined races and then end up running dry of hands and/or situations to gain chips to bust out... Should I take a few more races?... Is that bad poker to call to race?... Well, I'm pretty sure it's bad... I don't mind shoving to race but calling doesn't seem right... Shoving 8-9k into a 600 pot is slightly unneccessary really... but some guy did shove
into my BB the hand after for about 5k which made me fold
...
Any advice is appreciated... I want to learn more and I want to improve at this game... Thank you, Rubin...