1650 EUR Round of Each OUT
Lost a ridiculous one. I normally beat myself up, but I like every decision to be honest.
French guy raises 22k at 5-10k. We have
in the big.
(French guy turns out to have
)
Small blind calls. I decide to call.
Flop
(second nut flush draw)
SPR of 0.8, small blind checks. Obviously, completely standard
move in for me
However, I think sometimes, where you still want folds, you can do a little better here than the standard ship, specifically against inexperienced players.
I feel that moving a chunk, but not all, of your stack in, can create a different psychology where they become more likely to fold. These kind of players, I feel, often are more likely to simply call the all in if faced with it, rather than have to put me all in, if I bet a chunk of my stack. There's a different psychology to it. It's also, obviously, an attempt to feign strength from me. It would be transparent against really sharp players, but that wasn't what we were dealing with.
So, I bet 28k, from my 50k
French guy calls. (ridiculously, what turns out to be KT off)
Sadly, my deviation from the standard plan turns out to change absolutely everything. I would have got it through if I just move in. However, (I'm nearly) absolutely fine with it. I think the plan is right overall, and has shown a surprising amount of success in the past. There have been a number of times where someone has commented along the lines of "well I would have called the all in," to make me feel that it has weight. It just turned out the French guy is a different level of "inexperienced," and the 28k prompted him to make a call that he wouldn't have done to the all in..
.
At this point, with 20k left, there's no hope to bluff. I may as well hope that if he does have ace high, I get two checks behind, and remain with 20k if I miss. It goes check check.
. Can't bluff, obviously. I check
This is the ridiculous bit. He now bets 15k (with what turns out to be a KT high bluff). We have 20k.
I think for a while, but I mean, getting 9 to 1, this is actually a really easy call. There's not much that checks the turn behind that has value now. There's obviously a horrible fear at this point that he's misunderstanding enough to turn ace-high into a Bluff. But he has enough bluffs (lower spades, 67, 87, and 86 that this has to be a call)
We call
, and get the horrible news. He has (inexplicably, obviously) bluffed with KT high. It was always possible that he would bluff a "pointless bluff" hand, but I'm overall very happy with the call. Obviously, the massive decision (and the one that in reality did change it) was the decision to not simply move in on the flop. Saying that, he called the 28k quick enough that he may actually have called the all in on the flop.
That leaves me with only 2 thoughts :
1) Should I bluff the river, getting 11 to 2 on my bluff, given he looks like he has a lot of ace highs after he checks the turn behind? The fact he's completely random ironically means he might fold where a good player would call, but I don't think it's quite likely enough.
2) Rather than call the 15k and leave myself with 5k, should I actually move in for 20k, and hope he folds for the 5k? I think he always ends up calling with ace high. KT is the one hand that he may actually fold, but even then, it's probably unlikely enough that my "bluff" of 5k to win 130k doesn't have the long odds it requires.
So, I'm definitely happy with the river call. Good to know that he was bluffing, and I ran into the one part of his bluffing range where he misunderstands what's going on. The regret is potentially not realising just how cally he was, and that me betting 28k rather than 48k may have caused him to call KT high
That left me with 5k. Forced all in from small blind next hand with
. No good
Great fun tournament. "Stalling guy" showing the King moment, and it transpiring to change the whole big pot vs Ian Bradley , was disappointing obviously, but all good.
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