Two BBT4 Hands

The following two hands are from last nights riverchasers.

The Old Semibluff Re-raise.

I had horrible position at a very tough table to start the Riverchasers.  Sitting a bit low at this point, I pick up a medium suited one gapper.

Full Tilt Poker Game #11792942906: PPI / Riverchasers Tournament  (87573776), Table 5 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:16:45 ET - 2009/04/20
Seat 2: lightning36 (3,180)
Seat 3: DaBag (3,125)
Seat 4: Blinders (2,160)
Seat 5: pvanharibo (3,065)
Seat 6: lucko21 (3,000)
Seat 7: cmitch (2,830)
Seat 8: -o-LuckTruck-o- (3,465)
Seat 9: heffmike (3,175)
pvanharibo posts the small blind of 20
lucko21 posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Blinders [7s 5s]
cmitch folds
-o-LuckTruck-o- folds
heffmike folds
lightning36 folds
DaBag calls 40
Blinders calls 40

button limp after a limp seemed ok here

pvanharibo calls 20
lucko21 checks
*** FLOP *** [2h 5h 8s]
pvanharibo checks
lucko21 checks
DaBag checks
Blinders checks

I could have bet 2nd pair for value here, but I figured it would be better to see if my outs to draws come in, and I also had tricky players behind me.

*** TURN *** [2h 5h 8s] [4s]
pvanharibo bets 120
lucko21 calls 120
DaBag folds
Blinders raises to 280

So I now have a gut shot, a flush draw, and outs to trips and two pair.  Nobody has shown any real strength here, so there is a decent chance that I may also be ahead as well.  The semi-bluff re-raise in position gives me a chance to take it down right here, if the others are weak.  If not, I am building the the pot for the river in case I hit my draw.  I figure if I get called once I will get called twice giving me great pot odds at my draw.  Also, if I miss, I might catch a free showdown if they check down to the turn better. 

pvanharibo calls 160
lucko21 calls 160
*** RIVER *** [2h 5h 8s 4s] [Ac]
pvanharibo checks
lucko21 checks
Blinders checks

Two callers and a check down on the river as was expected to some extent.  Had I hit, I would have been able to value bet against a T1000 pot.

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Blinders shows [7s 5s] a pair of Fives
pvanharibo shows [Kd 8h] a pair of Eights
lucko21 mucks

Almost enough anyway.

pvanharibo wins the pot (1,000) with a pair of Eights
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,000 | Rake 0 

Limping from early with KK

I can't over emphasize the value of the early limp with a big pair at an aggressive table in the mid to late stages of a MTT when you have a below average stack.  It works like a champ so often, you really need it in your playbook.  You are taking some additional risk, but at this point in an MTT when you are short, the double up is much more important than the risk of a bustout.  This move works extra good in Blogger MTTs, due to their aggressive nature.  If 2/3rds of the table will open raise / call push with 72o the expectation value of the play is all the better.

Full Tilt Poker Game #11793662507: PPI / Riverchasers Tournament  (87573776), Table 3 - 50/100 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:00:52 ET - 2009/04/20
Seat 1: VinNay (11,895)
Seat 2: lucko21 (4,355)
Seat 3: Astin (4,020)
Seat 4: cmitch (2,135)
Seat 5: Tony Eusebio (2,655)
Seat 6: Blinders (2,035)
Seat 7: noollab (7,980)
Seat 8: Joanne1111 (8,525)
Seat 9: BuddyDank (1,905)
Astin posts the small blind of 50
cmitch posts the big blind of 100
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Blinders [Kc Kh]
Tony Eusebio folds
Blinders calls 100

UTG is best for this, but UTG+1 is fine for a blogger MTT as long as the table is semi-full.   In this case I am way short and need some chips.

noollab folds
Joanne1111 calls 100
BuddyDank folds
VinNay calls 100

lucko21 folds

Astin calls 50

cmitch checks

*** FLOP *** [Qc 6h 4h]

Five way flop.  Pretty much worst case scenario.  With a deeper stack I would play this one safe, but with a Q high flop here, I need to roll the dice a bit and keep playing for a double through.

Astin bets 300

cmitch folds

Blinders raises to 600

Time to narrow the field without chasing away the opening better if possible.

Joanne1111 folds
VinNay folds
Astin calls 300
*** TURN *** [Qc 6h 4h] [4d]
Astin checks
Blinders bets 1,000

Value bet

Astin has 15 seconds left to act
Astin raises to 2,000
Blinders calls 335, and is all in
Astin shows [Qd Ts]
Blinders shows [Kc Kh]
Uncalled bet of 665 returned to Astin
*** RIVER *** [Qc 6h 4h 4d] [2s]
Astin shows two pair, Queens and Fours
Blinders shows two pair, Kings and Fours
Blinders wins the pot (4,370) with two pair, Kings and Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4,370 | Rake 0