Bodonky Bridesmaid

I had another nice run at the Bodonkey last night. I was getting Astined pretty good with AA four times, KK once, and QQ twice. Both QQ hands I would get it in preflop against TT for massive pots. We need a name for someone who is always on the right side of set-up hands. I would build a nice chip stack, and eventually overtake the chip leader around 2 hours in. I would then hold the chip lead just about all the way to heads-up. While I love the structure at Bodog, it is almost too deep. I love all of the play early, but what usually happens is you get to the Final Table, and there is still a ton of play left. We would play 6 handed for what seemed like an hour at the Final Table. Even after #6 would get knocked out, it would take a long time to get down to me and wonka69 for the title. By that point, wonka had just better than a 2-1 chip lead on me which is really no big deal. One double through and I would have the 2-1 chip lead. I normally play hyper-aggressive heads-up, but I was not getting cards and it just was not working. I raised preflop with air a couple times, and wonka either reraised or put me all-in. He was also raising into me a bunch, and I never got anything to take a stand with. About a dozen hands in I got my best one of heads-up (Q9o), and rerasised wonka's open. He jammed, and I called getting pretty sick of bleeding my chips away heads-up. He would have QJo and would take down the title. I would collect $72 + T109 for my efforts.


The hand below from the Bodonkey is a great example of why you really should not be playing speculative hands after a decent raise preflop even with deep stacks. You just don't have the odds to hit the flop hard enough, and even when you hit the flop perfect, you may still get sent to the rail.


Online Poker Blogger Tournament

WhatsTheNuts Set dealer/Bring in spot 2
pokerpeaker Ante/Small blind $ 30.00
budohorseman Big blind/Bring in $ 60.00
WhatsTheNuts Card dealt to a spot A A
domTheMatador Card dealt to a spot Q 10

domTheMatador Call $ 60.00
Mondogarage Call $ 60.00
HighOnPoker Fold $ 0.00
odets Call $ 60.00

I am on the button with AA and there are a couple of limpers. Pretty nice situation. I need to raise enough to get a few folds, but would like a single caller, or better yet a reraise.

WhatsTheNuts Raise $ 280.00
pokerpeaker Fold $ 30.00
budohorseman Fold $ 60.00
domTheMatador Call $ 220.00
Mondogarage Fold $ 60.00
odets Fold $ 60.00

Card dealt to table
K J A

domTheMatador Check

I flop top set. It is a bit of a scary board I guess. You could slow play this, but I have been c-betting in this MTT like it was my job, and that gives me the right to c-bet this monster.

WhatsTheNuts Bet $ 380.00
domTheMatador Raise $ 1,250.00

The raise caught me a little off guard. This guy could have KK or JJ I guess. I see that QT would be the nutz, but who takes the limp/call line preflop with QT. Best to just jam now.

WhatsTheNuts All-in $ 3,500.00
domTheMatador All-in $ 1,100.00


I see now that dom, did in fact flop the nutz on me, by calling close to 1/10th of his stack preflop with QT. I have a lot of outs though. 7 on the turn, and 10 on the river to be exact. I still have over 33% equity here.

Card dealt to table 9

Card dealt to table J

Boooom!

domTheMatador Showdown
Show card: StraightA K Q J 10
WhatsTheNuts Showdown
Show card: Full HouseA A A J J

You simply can't call off 1/10th of your stack preflop with QT after a large raise. You need to hit the flop hard. Flopping 2-pair is a 40-1 shot. Flopping a seeing eye straight is much, much more rare. Even when you flop 2-pair or the straight, you also need the other guy to have a strong hand, or you will not get the required double-up. In this case he flops perfect and still gets stacked. If his plan was to hit a Q or T on the flop and then go to war with the preflop raiser, you can see the problems with that line. I have AA here but my range simply dominates QT. There is no need to be spewing chips like this when it is this early, and you are this deep. Fold and find a better opportunity. The type of line used works best with a medium/small pocket pair. At least then you will hit the flop one out of eight times hard, and will get the correct odds (again only if you double through post flop). Miracle flops are rare. Double throughs post flop are rare. If you are spending too many chips making -EV moves even early in a deepstacks MTT you are making a big mistake.