Knocked out of 10$ MTT

[Iwind]

PokerStars Game #2686225287: Tournament #12956810, Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2005/09/29 - 04:00:10 (ET)
Table '12956810 64' Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: BIGLOU72 (1505 in chips)
Seat 2: cakemaker (1795 in chips)
Seat 3: bakers15 (2345 in chips)
Seat 4: jtthurb (750 in chips)
Seat 5: Iwind (1010 in chips)
Seat 6: desmond9 (2460 in chips)
Seat 7: ChrisP (3480 in chips)
Seat 8: smooooth (3605 in chips)
Seat 9: kdluck (2760 in chips)
jtthurb: posts small blind 50
Iwind: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Iwind [9c Ah]
desmond9: folds
ChrisP: folds
smooooth: folds
kdluck: folds
BIGLOU72: folds
cakemaker: calls 100
bakers15: folds
jtthurb: calls 50
Iwind: raises 910 to 1010 and is all-in
cakemaker: calls 910
jtthurb: folds
*** FLOP *** [Qh 8h 8d]
*** TURN *** [Qh 8h 8d] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [Qh 8h 8d 5c] [9s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Iwind: shows [9c Ah] (two pair, Nines and Eights)
cakemaker: shows [9d 9h] (a full house, Nines full of Eights)
cakemaker collected 2120 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***

Joined the 10$ MTT at PokerStars this morning. Cause of making a silly decision I got knocked down to 500 chips, then doubled up and before this hand sitting on 1000 chips. Blinds are already 100, so I figured this would be a good chance to get some extra chips. This cakemaker had been raising the last 2 pots and won them preflop so I didn't think she had anything good when just calling. What do you think of my play on this hand, just bad luck to be knocked out or bad play?

[Andy Holt]

Bad play.

In the first hour of the tourney you should set your pace as mostly on autopilot, taking cheap flops when you can and only betting big when you have the goods. In fact, if you're routinely pulling a big bluff in the first hour of an MTT, you're not doing it right. It's just not worth the chips you stand to gain. Seems like you play pretty wild in the early stages:

Cause of making a silly decision I got knocked down to 500 chips, then doubled up and before this hand sitting on 1000 chips.

Some would say these "silly decisions" build you an edge that can translate into a big stack. I disagree. You need to look at the bigger picture. You're not there to WIN FLIPS AND GET LUCKY, you're there to OUTPLAY EVERYONE and to make BETTER DECISIONS THAN THEY DO!!!

I summarize:

-Don't risk it early on without a made hand. Preflop suicide is what the OTHER guy wants to do, make him pay for such stupidity.
-Don't put your tournament life on the line so early based on a "read" preflop. In lower buyins, chances are about 75% that you're either way off with your read, or they will call anyway.
-Read all the MTT stickies here. If you have already, reread them after you play an MTT. Buy HOH or Cloutier's book. Just absorb all the knowledge you can and it will improve your game times a billionteenmillikanmillion. FTR is about learning from other people, use it to your advantage.

Good luck at the tables, PM me if you need anything else.

[chardrian]

I agree with everything Andy wrote except for the fact that your play on this specific hand was not bad. It was fine.

He only has 10xBB. CO made a terrible, horrible limp. Majority of the time CO and SB will fold to that push. And if not - oh well, you have a shot to double up with cards that could very well be the best you are going to see in an orbit anyways.

[Drewbie]

A-9 off suit
To an all-in raise = FOLD!!!
Lay it down man.
As others have said, not worth the risk.
You got to pace yourself early on, let the fish eat the fish, and play ball when it counts (aka hour 3 or 4)

[chardrian]

A-9 off suit
To an all-in raise = FOLD!!!

Huh?

Is it me - or is everyone else reading this hand wrong? He didn't call an all-in with A9 (that would be horrendous) - he pushed with it when he had 10xBB with one limper and a SB who completed. That = totally fine play.

I don't care what hour of the tourney you are in - once you get down to 10xBB you need to get active and make some chips (without spewing them).

[Iwind]

Thanks for feedback on my play, I agree I played this MTT badly, but I thought this hand was played well, I mean, I'm down to 10BB after all.
And at 10BB I have to push when I have a good chance no matter when in the tourny it is, don't I? If they had folded I'd be at 1200 instead of 900, quite big increase.

Another thing, I should never have been down this low in the first place I agree, I do try to avoid coinflips this early, got a 215$ seat in an MTT sattelite last night with just 2-3 coinflips close to the end. The guides and imput from people really does help. However, I still don't play well enough from the start and I'm working on improving that. And MTTs are a lot of fun!

[Theeggman]

One reason I think you lost all of your chips here is simple: you were on the BB. I don't have my exact stats but my estimate is that I've busted out of about 50% of MTTs from the blinds. About 3 weeks ago I realized this and decided to play weak/passive from the blinds so I can turn this trend around.

Your move here was fine imo though. You should've gotten folds from these limpers once you pushed. Unfortunately you were up against another smallish stack who was willing to gamble with a mid PP. My theory is that your PF decision would probably have been different if you didn't have 10% of your stack in the pot already. If it was me who called your bet though, you surely would've spiked your ace.

[drmcboy]

standard.

[Zidane18]

I agree with everything Andy wrote except for the fact that your play on this specific hand was not bad. It was fine.

He only has 10xBB. CO made a terrible, horrible limp. Majority of the time CO and SB will fold to that push. And if not - oh well, you have a shot to double up with cards that could very well be the best you are going to see in an orbit anyways.

while i definatly would of raised with the 2 9's in cut off, i still think his limp in wasnt a 'terrible play'

[chardrian]

while i definatly would of raised with the 2 9's in cut off, i still think his limp in wasnt a 'terrible play'

U r right. It was, as Alexander in one of the books I remember that I read as a yout' said, a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad" play.