Mike Johnson History Buff

About two years ago, my friends and I started to gather together every Friday night for some friendly tournament poker. Over the past two years the skill and intensity featured at these games has risen dramatically even though the stakes have stayed very low. We became so obsessed with the weekly game that we built a 10 person felt table and set up a website to track the results. While we do keep track of how much everyone wins and everyone looses, the real prize is bragging rights.

Tonight we held two 7 person tournaments with a $20 buy in. Most of the players in this game play for much higher stakes online or at casinos but like I said before; we're playing for bragging rights. Each player started with 8000 chips and blinds at 25/50 and doubling every 20 min. There was one hand for me in each game that I'd like to break down for analysis.

Tournament #1 50/100 blinds, 7 players remaining. I have 8500 chips and am sixth to act. Earlier I had shown pocket Kings, pocket Aces, and J7 after taking the blinds with a 4x BB bet. My buddy "six" is under the gun and raises to 400. Everyone folds to me and I look down to see pocket Kings. I think about smooth calling but see little value in the play. I raise to 800 and Six calls. I am now ruling out QQ, AA, or KK from Six's list of possible hands. He might have AK, KQ, or any pocket pair from JJ on down to 55 or 66. That's a wide range of hands and I am leaning more toward the AK, JJ, 10 10 range since he raise from early position. His 4xBB bet vs a 2.5 or 3XBB makes me think that he doesn't want to see a flop with this hand.

The Flop brings 5 2 6 rainbow. This is a fairly good flop for me against most of the hands I put six on. If six has a high pocket pair like JJ, 1010, 99, or even 88 and 77. He might think his over pair is best. If six has AK then I'll only get more action out of him if he decides to bluff, and if he has a small pocket pair then I might be up against a set. I have two options, check or raise. If I raise then I might scare out some of the over pairs and the AK. If I raise and Six has a set then he will probably re raise me, or maybe slow play the hand. I felt the better play was to check and encourage a bet. I was hoping that my check would make six think that I had AK and missed. I check and six bets 1200.

That worked just like I wanted. Still I'm kind of worried about the six on the board. Six loves to play pocket 66 since his nickname is "Six". Still, I can't deviate from my plan just because of a silly nickname. So what is my goal now. If I had a dominate hand like a set i'd just call hoping to get more money in on 4th and 5th street, but with just a pair I decide that I want to take the pot down right now. I raise to 4200.

Six goes all in almost immediately. It costs me 2500 more to call his all in and there is 12500 in the pot. So should I call? Well what are the hands he could have that would make his move make sense? I already ruled out AA, KK, QQ based off of the pre flop play, but maybe six was trying to be cagey with one of those hands in hopes of getting me to over play a medium pocket pair. Still I rank that pretty low. What about the medium pairs like JJ, 10 10, 99? I think it's important to analyze my betting as viewed by six. Six raises I re raise. I call. I check raise him on the flop. If I'm six and I see that series why would I go all in? If I was six, I would have to put my opponent on a high pocket pair like AA, KK, or QQ. For me to push all in I need to have those hands beat. So what's left? The low pocket pairs, 88 on down. Three of those hands beat me, the 22, 55, and 66. So would he play any of those three hands the way he played this hand. Heck yeah.

Small pocket pair in early position you raise 4xBB hoping no one calls, or if someone does maybe you'll get lucky and hit a set. Someone raises (only doubles the pot) and you think they have a big hand. IF you call and hit a set you might be able to double up through that person if he can't get away from his hand. The flop brings a set with no high cards. The opponent checks and you bet to build the pot. The opponent re raises with what he feels is a strong hand. You go all in for not much more, knowing that the pot will offer great odds to your opponent.

I looked at six and said, you have to have pocket sixes, or maybe fives. The odd thing about this home games is that laying down the best hand hurts so much more than it does when playing against strangers. If I folded I'd only have 3000 or so left, plus if I lay down the best hand it would kill me. I also think, is there any shame in over playing KK or AA with a flop like that? It's amazing how much your pride can influence your decisions. I make the call and six flips up 55. The turn and river fail to bring a king and I'm down to 500 chips.

Even though I was able to build my stack up to 3000 I didn't last long once the blinds hit 400/800. Looking back on the hand I can think of a couple things I did wrong aside from making the all in call. Analyzing this hand should help me with later plays which brings me to the second hand of the second game. Well actually the second hand will come in tomorrows blog update. It's three in the morning and I'm tired from finishing a couple of prop bets.

Later
Mike