Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Middle Game Does it Elude me?

I played another stellar Mookie.. staying in first most of the game and finally going out against THG. I am totally convinced that I am getting closer to a good end game in these things but either not getting the luck when I need it or missing out on a key part. Take tonight. I had 7K in chips. The blinds are 500. I have the chips to be a pussy and fold to the money like JJ. The game got wild at this point obviously with 13 people left. The table I was on was big time aggro raising every orbit and re-stealing alot. Now this is not my ideal environment. I finally have THG raising 2K while I am the SB. I consider folding but decide to push my A6 instead. It costs him about half his stack but he calls with AJ. I do not entirely agree with the call especially since I was being pretty damn tight but if it was a read or whatever then so be it.. I will say he played a very good end game being aggressive and re-stealing some large pots. Hats off to that.

The thing that is interesting to me is when do you play back at these end table? It is costing me around 800 an orbit, everyone is raising like crazy, I could fold to the 19$ and have like 2K chips and hope something good happens. I could wait forever for Aces and then see them cracked because I have no chips. I really need to improve this part of my MTT game and I am at a loss of what to do. I think maybe there is no answer. I think having a major collapse at the end of the game is the right move.. and the time I get lucky and get cards is the time I will take first. I do believe my middle game has gotten stronger. I play that part a lot better. Oh well. Comments? Ideas?

Oh and I have to apologize to Hoyazo since I won a HUGE pot with "The Hoy", AT s00ted.. I never realized it was such a strong hand! Bayne showed me the errors of my ways as he felt the wrath of the Hoy!

10 Comments:

Blogger jjok said...

you're a pussy

you pussy.

11:50 PM

 
Blogger Hammer Player a.k.a Hoyazo said...

The A6 call was not the right move IMO for late-stage mtt play man, not with you having a lot of chips like you did. In a good chip position and getting ready to make a run at the final table, there's no reason for you to be the guy taking a chance for all your chips with a dominatable hand like A6 against a preflop raiser (even an LP preflop raiser). You seem to be getting better at mid-game aspects of mtts, but you need to internalize the fact that with a nice chip stack at that point in the tournament, you want to be the guy taking AK or JJ up against the guy with A6, who is probably on a short stack in the blinds to be making a move with that hand (not a particularly good hand btw, in that even if the other guy doesn't have an Ace or a pocket pair, due to the 6 you are probably no better than a 63% or so favorite). That's what I think you need to realize before you can make that next step into late-stage mtt play that you're talking about. Once you're getting close to the final table and you've got some chips to play with, that's the time when the shorties are going to have to be pushing with anything due to their low Ms, while you have the time and opportunity thanks to your stack to wait for them to come to you, and then pick them off with your better hands (due to your ability to be patient) against their worse hands (due to their need to push with short stacks).

You know, picking off their Ace-Tens with your Jack-Tens. Stuff like that.

11:52 PM

 
Blogger bayne_s said...

Making re-raises with marginal hands against someone that may feel pot committed as well as calling all-ins with marginal hands is highly volatile approach to tournament poker.

On rare occaisons the horseshoe will hold it's position long enough for you to take 1st.

1:25 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Making re-raises with marginal hands against someone that may feel pot committed as well as calling all-ins with marginal hands is highly volatile approach to tournament poker."

And of course, we know that Waffle's approach to poker is far from volatile.

2:15 AM

 
Blogger Eric a.k.a. Bone Daddy said...

I liked your push there, he kept stealing with that 2k raise, I was thinking of pushing my king 6 suited back against him there but folded after your push (I most likely would of folded though), so it was just bad luck.

I've been knocked out of a lot of MTT at that very point calling a raise, so now I just open any unopened pot and chip up to the folds or fold to any playback, even from EP since you are typically short handed there. It has been working better than calling out of position

6:05 AM

 
Blogger Unknown said...

83 sOOted is a far better raising hand to steal blinds with.

6:36 AM

 
Blogger SirFWALGMan said...

I did not call with A6 I pushed.. and I had enough chips that I thought he would fold.. and like Daddy said he had been stealing alot.. He actually took Mookie out in 9th calling with A8 vs Mooks AK. So it is noted he probably is not going to fold anything.

As far as my chip position I do not think 7K in chips with 500/250 blinds + and Ante is "In Good Chip Position".. although I fully agree I need to change something I am not sure if it is patiently blinding down until I have no chips left.

6:47 AM

 
Blogger Garthmeister J. said...

Waffles - I like A6o a lot better when the pot isn't opened. I don't mind re-stealing, as long as you either have the stack to be able to lay down if the suspected stealer comes over the top (which you didn't have here), or you think you're at least going to be live - and Ace-rag probably ain't it.

In your position I'm all about trying to take down limped pots in position, trying to take down the blinds and antes if no one else has opened ahead of me, and not being afraid to go to the wall with a reasonable pocket pair (say 88 and up) or a big Ace.

7:17 AM

 
Blogger Hammer Player a.k.a Hoyazo said...

You were in 7th place with 14 players remaining man. I watched the hand. In that position, reraising allin with A6o is not where you want to be. In 7th place with 14 players left, you should be more patient (notice no one said anything about making sure you blind down to zero) than pushing allin with A6 against a guy who's already raised preflop. And he had been stealing quite a bit, but once the pot's been opened you need to be more careful than that, at least while you still have some chips to play with. I'm not saying your M was 1000 or anything, but I watched the entire last hour of your table and I would never have pushed there with the A6, and I was not the least bit surprised to see you behind when you did. Look at Bone Daddy's comment there, who did very well last night -- "I was thinking about raising with K6...but I probably would have folded." Exactly.

You push-reraise with Ace-Ten soooted maybe in that spot. But not A6. I'd be much more apt to push with JTs even in that spot (though folding is clearly the better move), because at least with JTs you have straight and flush possibilities, and you're not going to be dominated against a preflop raiser. A6 is just asking for trouble in a spot where you didn't at all need to be asking for it. You will clearly get a hand better than A6 dealt to you within the next few orbits.

7:52 AM

 
Blogger SirFWALGMan said...

While I agree that hand was probably not a good choice.. I am not sure 3-orbits is a good use of my time. I get blinded down to <5K and then when I do finally push with something it is an easy call. Apparently calling an all in with AJ for most of your stack is an easy call too but thats besides the point. I think I absolutely do something like that again but like you said with something like T9 s00ted or under.. maybe TJ s00ted. Still figuring it out..

To me his open raise was meaningless since every orbit had been open raised and many by him.
In essence I was totally correct.. he was open raising with a weak ass hand and unfortunately I got called..

9:44 AM

 

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