Wee, this is a fun post, ahsoccer. Excellent questions.

Quote Originally Posted by ahssoccer23
#12: Once you hit your set on the turn, facing a raise, why do you not reraise? Scared of kicker, scared of straight, or did you plan to raise the river? Knowing me, I would have been tempted to lose a lot more money with the weak kicker in that situation. You were smart to not lose more chips.
I basically planned on check raising the turn or river, but he also surprised me with his turn bet. Not only did he show no fear of the 9, where a lot of good players would check there with a hand like AT, but he actually increased his bet size a good deal. I had a feeling that he may have me beat with the jump in bet size, and that he was scared of losing to a straight or a flush draw. On the river he then bet small, exactly what he bet on the turn into a much bigger pot, and then it seemed like he was begging for action. I certainly thought about raising, but I just sensed some big strength from his play, and with the deep stacks and my weak kicker, I decided to just play it safe.

#15: What prompted you not to raise that on the river? Is it because you doubt your opponent will lay down his hand and you might be outkicked?
Kind of similar to the last hand, but this time it was extremely obvious that he had trips as well, although I did have a good kicker this time. He bet the turn, and then rereraised me on the turn, so clearly he had a T, but honestly I felt like I likely had him outkicked here, as he was in the SB preflop. Still, I just decided it wasn't worth the risk. It was very obvious I had a T as well, and if he had a low Q he'd probably be able to lay it down if I raised him big on the river, and if he had a bigger Q or a boat I'd be fucked, as he wouldn't lay it down. Its just one of those hands where I think I have the best hand but I'll just call on the river to be safe plays, and again, the deep stacks are a large part of that. I would've been more than willing to get all in at the flop, but by the river there's more chances that he's filled up with the junk he's likely to complete from the SB, etc.

#24: Good laydown with that hand, I don't know if I could have done the same. But after reading your thoughts on the hand, I defintely think you made the right decision.

#37: I like limping small PPs in EP to limp to set, why raise in EP when you have such a good chance of running into a reraiser and most likely a tough decision post-flop if you get any cards higher than 7?
I really felt I played this hand (#37) perfectly, just got crazy unlucky. Many good aggressive players will usually raise hands like this in early position instead of limping, because really to a good player its just too obvious that you have a middle / small pocket pair when you limp in early position. The number of hands I'll raise from UTG and UTG+1 are pretty damn small, so I throw in mid and small pocket pairs for 2 big reasons:

One, to hopefully get more action from my AA-QQ hands that I raise in early position, as they see me raising hands like these weak pairs in early position and start to fear the raise less when they have JJ or whatever. Two, it disguises my hand very well. Lets say they're putting me on a big pair and call with something like 87s to try and bust me, and the flop comes 872. They're absolutely willing to give me my stack here every time, no matter how deep the stacts are (with non-deep stacks, of course they would here, but with 10/20 blinds, that's a very different thing really). They'll also play the flop aggressively usually, raising over the top of me and trying to get all of the money in quickly, since they're putting me on a completely different type of hand.

Its honestly just too damn obvious to me when a good player limps UTG. 99% of the time they have a low pocket pair, and not the AA type hands that most people expect, especially if that player that limped UTG is known and feared. If you play with a guy like Devilfish in some big event and he limps UTG, he has a small pocket pair over 90% of the time, trust me. He's counting on you to be so afraid of him and so afraid that he's slowplaying AA that you just limp along with TT or AK or whatever, and that he can then hopefully flop a set and bust you.

Bad players limp all the time, so that's very different for them. Anyway, with this low of blinds, I really wouldn't have minded a reraise preflop either, as it'd still be a very small percentage of my stack, and then I'd know that I was up against a big overpair. I'd call just for the implied odds on hitting a set, but dump the 77 if I didn't catch a set in that case. I also don't really mind being in tough positions post flop. I'm pretty confident in my post flop ability, to both make tough laydowns and tough calls, so I don't worry about it too much.

(#37 cont.) After you made your set on the river, what were your motives on the check / call if you were scared of the straight why call the river bet?
This is basically your standard high buyin river play here. I put him on a flush draw the entire hand, which did not get there. If he just had a straight draw, like a 4, I felt that he probably would've folded on the turn, as I threw a pretty big bet out there. So basically, I checked to him to see what he'd do, and largely to give him a chance to bluff if he had missed a flush draw. He threw out a very big bet, near the pot size, and it looked like a probable bluff to me with two high spades that had missed the flush but now saw the opportunity to represent a straight. So I really wasn't that scared of the straight, I just thought that was my best chance of getting money out of him if I had the best hand. Also, consider my river pot odds for me were like 3-4 to 1, and it was a pretty damn easy call, to be honest. I even could beat some real hands that he would possibly value bet, like a rivered two pair (with 76 for example, that would've had top pair and a gutshot on the flop, a pair and a double gutshot on the turn, etc.), as he could be putting me on a big pocket pair for the reasons I stated above.

As I said in the chat, it was pretty horrid luck that he missed his flush draw but hit runner runner straight on me, including the river 7 that gave me my set. I wouldn't have given him a dime if a spade came, while the cards that did came gave too good of a bluffing opportunity to him to not pay him off.


#38: After checking the river, did you put your opponent on a hand like KQ or AQ, or were you sure he would take a stab at the pot where you would come over the top of him?
Yes. Absolutely postively sure. I still can't believe that river check, I'd have bet that hand every time, on the river at the very least.

#40: Nice laydown.

#82: Unlcuky...

Michael, I have a lot of respect for you with the tournaments you have won online, and with how well you did in the WSOP 2005 main event. I'm not criticizing your play, I just wanted to see what you were thinking in these hands. One of the weakest parts of my game is analyzing every hand and thinking things through before I do them, so any insight would be helpful. Very, very unlucky tourney, however. You were dealt some nice cards, made some good laydowns, and played your hands fine, but just ran into some bad luck...
Thanks. And its no problem questioning my plays, I enjoy debating hands and all that. Gives me a good opportunity to review my plays, etc.

What was sad was I thought I played almost all of these hands beautifully, and was doing my best to try and minimize my risk, and minimize the luck factor, by not reraising with the big hands when I thought I was probably ahead and making big laydowns when I thought I was probably behind. But honestly, I've never had that much bad luck in just over an hour of play before in my life, in a MTT at least. I was pretty doomed by the way the cards were dealt, and can't really regret much of anything I did here.