What Would Jesus Do?

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1. • Posted by Jason M 2008-05-16 06:58:01
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   • Ferguson, that is. Or any other pro, for that matter.

     It's late in the tourney, the blinds are eating you up, and you have a relatively reckless image, including the ability to go all in with nothing and/or be generally crafty. You've been folding for a while now, but your Harrington M is getting low.

     Preflop

     You pick up in the SB, everybody folds to the button, who calls. The button is not a super-aggressive player, but will raise with most decent hands. The big blind is standard tight/aggressive. They both have you covered, but you have maybe half of their stacks. What do you do?

     I limp, since I'm getting 5:1 pot odds.

     Flop

     The flop is . I have bottom pair. What now?

2. • Posted by Krishna 2008-05-16 16:54:56
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   • The exact answer depends on the tourney payout structure, how far you are from bubble. and what everybody else has in their stack.

     But in situations you are close to cash (1-3 players left) and lot of players with same stack as yours I would do following.

     c/fold, c/f, c/f on all streets.
     I would have even folded preflop (if the blind is significant) to avoid tough situations in later streets.
     Q2s cannot flop monsters easily unlike suited connectors.
     I would complete the blind only to flop a monster (trips, pair +flush draw) and bottom pair is not a monster.

     If you can get through this hand, you have one complete orbit to pick up a hand.
     You never know what might happen in this orbit.
     Sparks can fly in one hand and 2 people can get eliminated putting you in the money.

3. • Posted by Krishna 2008-05-16 17:13:16
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   • Ferguson is actually very careful though I have seem him get eliminated on a bluff.
     I bet he would check fold to any bet (95% of the time).

4. • Posted by Jason M 2008-05-16 18:06:24
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   • I think we were still 8 handed and my M was 5. Most players had 50% to 100%+ more chips than me. Payout was to 4th.

     I hate folding on a 5:1 bet preflop when I feel I have a good chance to play well on the flop, but you are right when you say to avoid getting into sticky situations. Sometimes the cards just come out in ways that the only way you could not lose your money is if you folded before they came out. Not necessarily this case (check/fold for the win!), but in other cases for sure.

     I like the thought of only limping in only on hands that can flop a monster. Probably raise with anything quality. Folding preflop makes that double-up that much sweeter when I go all in after the button passes... Thanks for the thoughts!

     BTW, the opponent on my left decided to limp in with and had I gone all in preflop he would have called and the button would have folded. I would have won :)

5. • Posted by Krishna 2008-05-20 23:12:33
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   • With M=5 its is push fold time. There is no post flop play.
     Your post flop skills are negated by lack of position and stack sizes.

     Even completing from small blind is costing you money. If you do that couple of orbits and check fold on flops like this you will find yourself with M=3 instead of M=4. When you actually pickup a hand and double up those chips you lost would have doubled up too.

     I am not advocating super tight play and folding into money.
     In this situation, tight is right being out of position with people still left to act.

6. • Posted by Jason M 2008-05-20 23:26:11
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   • The fact that completing will reduce my M and that it's push/fold time, I guess limping in was the worst thing I could do, even in the fact of 5:1 pot odds. Next time in the same situation I'll probably push there more often than not. The opponent on my right was probably not trapping and could release most hands that have me crushed. Folding it a fair amount of the time seems okay, too, especially if I feel I can get a good blind-steal opportunity in a few hands.

7. • Posted by Nick L 2008-05-26 10:26:26
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   • No choice but a push or fold tactic here. You have no post flop options I really like the idea of pushing here though, because if everyone folds your M moves up maybe to 7 depending on how big the blinds are.

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