A few hands I'd like critiqued from AP's 12 K, last night.

[dthorne04]

I had a ridiculous night last night...up and down...I'd like to get some input on some hands. Gabe suggested I start posting hands more often, and I'd like to improve some more soooo...


1. 75 people left. 45 pay. New table, no reads. Is this hand too good to fold due to my stack, even given the EP min raise?

Stage #200262602: Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $1000 [
2005-09-25 23:08:06 ]
*** ANTE [dealer 4] ***
Seat 5 - DTHORNE04 $14780 in chips
Seat 6 - THENUTZ47 $60478.08 in chips
Seat 7 - ALDENPOKER05 $10215 in chips
Seat 8 - 4LISA $28800 in chips
Seat 9 - BCKWHEAT $56200 in chips
Seat 1 - GOALERJ $10470 in chips
Seat 2 - BEAUDROW $52081.84 in chips
Seat 3 - SICK BAY $42800.96 in chips
Seat 4 - JARLAND $23351.32 in chips
GOALERJ - Ante $150
BEAUDROW - Ante $150
SICK BAY - Ante $150
JARLAND - Ante $150
DTHORNE04 - Ante $150
THENUTZ47 - Ante $150
ALDENPOKER05 - Ante $150
4LISA - Ante $150
BCKWHEAT - Ante $150
DTHORNE04 - Post small blind $1000
THENUTZ47 - Post big blind $2000
DTHORNE04 - Pocket [Jh,Jd]
ALDENPOKER05 - Folds
4LISA - Folds
BCKWHEAT - Raises $2000 to $4000
GOALERJ - Folds
BEAUDROW - Folds
SICK BAY - Folds
JARLAND - Folds
DTHORNE04 - ???


2. Still OOTM. Hand involving myself and player from hand 1...His play definitely signals strength, but it could be a SB defense...PP most likely. I wasn't sure if it was a flip, if I was dominated, or I was dominating, though that option was the least likely by far.

Stage #200264777: Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $1000 [
2005-09-25 23:11:31 ]
*** ANTE [dealer 8] ***
Seat 9 - BCKWHEAT $38970 in chips
Seat 1 - GOALERJ $26220 in chips
Seat 2 - BEAUDROW $47481.84 in chips
Seat 4 - JARLAND $22751.32 in chips
Seat 5 - DTHORNE04 $32160 in chips
Seat 6 - THENUTZ47 $107779.04 in chips
Seat 7 - ALDENPOKER05 $6615 in chips
Seat 8 - 4LISA $17200 in chips
GOALERJ - Ante $150
BEAUDROW - Ante $150
JARLAND - Ante $150
DTHORNE04 - Ante $150
THENUTZ47 - Ante $150
ALDENPOKER05 - Ante $150
4LISA - Ante $150
BCKWHEAT - Ante $150
BCKWHEAT - Post small blind $1000
GOALERJ - Post big blind $2000
DTHORNE04 - Pocket [Qh,Ah]
BEAUDROW - Folds
JARLAND - Folds
DTHORNE04 - Raises $2000 to $6000
THENUTZ47 - Folds
ALDENPOKER05 - Folds
4LISA - Folds
BCKWHEAT - Raises $5000 to $16000
GOALERJ - Folds
DTHORNE04 - ???

3. OOTM, still. Getting extremely close, however. 5 to go. I'd seen him push with bottom pair before...push various things before becoming stagnant. Instantly his raise meant two things to me, either a marginal hand(no KK, QQ, AA), more like 99-TT, maybe AJ, etc. (Edit, or big pockets, I forgot to add that, my bad.) and II was faced with decision...I really didn't wanna let this hand go, to be completely honest. His raise screams monster...do you push pre flop, call, fold? Half of me thought I was ahead, half thought I was behind.

Stage #200283910: Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $2000 [
2005-09-25 23:42:20 ]
*** ANTE [dealer 3] ***
Seat 4 - JARLAND $45926.32 in chips
Seat 5 - DTHORNE04 $35110 in chips
Seat 6 - DOCTORBAR $103682 in chips
Seat 7 - ALDENPOKER05 $20230 in chips
Seat 9 - BCKWHEAT $66870 in chips
Seat 1 - GOALERJ $6910 in chips
Seat 2 - BEAUDROW $30256.84 in chips
Seat 3 - JBURLEY $15525 in chips
GOALERJ - Ante $200
BEAUDROW - Ante $200
JBURLEY - Ante $200
JARLAND - Ante $200
DTHORNE04 - Ante $200
DOCTORBAR - Ante $200
ALDENPOKER05 - Ante $200
BCKWHEAT - Ante $200
JARLAND - Post small blind $2000
DTHORNE04 - Post big blind $4000
DTHORNE04 - Pocket [Jd,Jh]
DOCTORBAR - Folds
ALDENPOKER05 - Raises $4000 to $8000
BCKWHEAT - Folds
GOALERJ - Folds
BEAUDROW - Folds
JBURLEY - Folds
JARLAND - Folds
DTHORNE04 - ???


4. ITM. Barely. Am I correct to believe this is a must push? I -could- have live cards, and I'm getting a nice return on investment...I think if I fold this, I leave myself crippled...your thoughts?

Stage #200288099: Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $2500 [
2005-09-25 23:50:09 ]
*** ANTE [dealer 3] ***
Seat 4 - JARLAND $77926.32 in chips
Seat 5 - DTHORNE04 $11480 in chips
Seat 6 - DOCTORBAR $96082 in chips
Seat 8 - NYI12 $22010 in chips
Seat 9 - BCKWHEAT $12413.16 in chips
Seat 1 - GOALERJ $14510 in chips
Seat 2 - BEAUDROW $60513.68 in chips
Seat 3 - JBURLEY $7925 in chips
GOALERJ - Ante $250
BEAUDROW - Ante $250
JBURLEY - Ante $250
JARLAND - Ante $250
DTHORNE04 - Ante $250
DOCTORBAR - Ante $250
NYI12 - Ante $250
BCKWHEAT - Ante $250
JARLAND - Post small blind $2500
DTHORNE04 - Post big blind $5000
DTHORNE04 - Pocket [Kh,7s]
DOCTORBAR - Folds
NYI12 - All-In(Raise) $5000 to $21760
BCKWHEAT - Folds
GOALERJ - Folds
BEAUDROW - Folds
JBURLEY - All-In $7675
JARLAND - Folds
DTHORNE04 -???

[drmcboy]

Hand 1 - bleh spot, but I think you have to go with JJ here. If you were BB I'd be tempted to say stop and go on a safe flop, but if you call the BB gets a huge price. He has enough chips that the min raise doesn't scare me as much as if he had, say, your stack. Push or re raise.

Hand 2 - also bleh. You have low fold equity if you go over the top... about the right price to call and pray for a pair... neither is all that great. I mostly push here. Folding in a vacuum is OK, but I don't really want to try a steal after I fold to (basically) a min raise.

Hand 3 - your read is really weird here - no AAQQKK but half of you thought you were behind? I push. In the BB with these stacks, someone picks up a pair bigger than my JJ I say gg. Especially since he may lay down. When they get up this high people will min raise steal.

Hand 4 - mostly push the hand you had before this one, unless it was really awful and your image is loose. Call here for sure.

[Sed]

1) push, 7bb and, JJ, sounds like a dream to me
2) tough hand, I usually fold that one. A smaller pocket pair would push you all in or call, smells like KK/AA from the 3x re-raise. Probably not a defense move esp since you are not CO/Button raising
3) see 1) except change 7 to 9....
4) 2 all-ins before you. Your K7 is dominated often. I would prefer to call that action with a 67s b/c K7o is probably needing 77 on the board to win. You probably have a better chance punching anything on the SB the next hand... then again you are going to have to get very lucky to come back so why not start when you already are 50% invested in the pot. These situations I don't know what is more +EV...

- sed

[dthorne04]

Hand 3 - your read is really weird here - no AAQQKK but half of you thought you were behind? I push. In the BB with these stacks, someone picks up a pair bigger than my JJ I say gg. Especially since he may lay down. When they get up this high people will min raise steal.

I guess we got mixed up...or I mixed it up. Regardless, what I mean to say is, he COULD have AA, QQ, KK. It's an extremely weird hand, IMO. The way he played this had me in a tough spot, he had gamble in him obviously, so it could mean a lot of things. If he's brave enough to push bottom pair in a raised pot, who's to say he couldn't have a wide range of hands here? Looking back, I still don't like this hand. I got JJ in so many tough spots last night, it was ugly.

[gabe]

1) push, 7bb and, JJ, sounds like a dream to me
2) tough hand, I usually fold that one. A smaller pocket pair would push you all in or call, smells like KK/AA from the 3x re-raise. Probably not a defense move esp since you are not CO/Button raising
3) see 1) except change 7 to 9....
4) 2 all-ins before you. Your K7 is dominated often. I would prefer to call that action with a 67s b/c K7o is probably needing 77 on the board to win. You probably have a better chance punching anything on the SB the next hand... then again you are going to have to get very lucky to come back so why not start when you already are 50% invested in the pot. These situations I don't know what is more +EV...

- sed

i agree with everything sed says

[konahead]

1 - push
2 - I push there cuz I want to win, not barely make the money (but fold's ok too).
3 - push
4 - fold for sure - not even close

[drmcboy]

folding hand 4 is a disaster. The odds are much better than you win this hand than ralling back from having 1 BB. Maybe if one opp showed me AK and the other 77 I'd fold. The is a reasonable chance you have a live over here, you must play.

JJ/TT and AQ IMO toughest hands to play late.

[konahead]

my bad. I didn't realize he was the bb for 5K. Yes - push on hand 4. Folding WOULD be a disaster, as my esteemed colleague states.

[baudib]

1. Reraise or push. If you reraise and he pushes, call and pray he only has AK. Folding not an option.

2. Folding's OK if you have him pegged as a pretty straightforward player. I'd probably call and only continue if you hit an A, in which case you're busting out or winning a nice pot.

3. If I'm reading this correctly, you have him covered almost 5-1? Push.

4. Fold. (edit) OK, push in that situation.