In my personal opinion, there is no more satisfying moment in poker than when I am able to see a flop cheaply with a speculative hand that flops a monster. It’s even better when your opponent holds a big hand himself and you are able to stack him.
For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, let me define what a speculative hand is. It’s a hand like a small pair, suited connectors(8s9s), suited one gappers(4h6h) and other such hands.
Most of the time, you are going to miss the flop with these hands. This is why you want to see flops cheaply with them. You can then easily fold your hand if you don’t hit the flop hard.
I played a hand recently which illustrates this point clearly. I was playing full ring 50NL Rush Poker on Full Tilt Poker when I was dealt the 4d5d in the big blind. The player UTG min-raised and was called by UTG+1 and another player in late position. I decided to call the min-raise with my speculative hand. I was hoping the UTG raiser had a big pocket pair and that if I hit the flop hard, I could stack him.
Well, the flop came A23 rainbow and I flopped the nuts. The player UTG leads out and is smooth called by UTG+1. The middle position player folds and I decide to raise. UTG then 3-bets small and is 4-bet by UTG+1. All three of us end up getting all in and I stack A2 & A3.
Quite a few times over the years I have been able to flop a big hand by seeing a flop cheaply with a speculative hand. When you do and your opponent also has a big hand, many times they will never see it coming and stack off with a big pair. As I mentioned earlier, if you don’t hit the flop hard, just fold. Don’t get stubborn if you flop a weak one pair hand or a weak draw and decide that you have to go broke with it. This is a mistake that many players make.
July 31st, 2010 4:58:30 PM UTC | Posted in Poker by windizzle | No Comments
I’ve recently decided to start playing in some of the Rush Poker tournaments on Full Tilt Poker. What I’ve been doing is playing a few of the daily dollar tournaments to see how I like potentially playing for several hours or longer in this format. I don’t mind it in a cash game, however in a tournament, you can’t get up and leave when you want to. In a tournament, you have to stay until you bust out.
Anyway, I’ve been playing some of the one table satellites with my FPP’s to win a seat. The top two finishers win a seat to the tournament. The play is really horrible and I’ve been winning a seat in over half the satellites that I have played in.
I wanted to post a hand that I played in one the other day to give you a true example of how not to play in these satellites. Remember, the goal is to win a seat, not to accumulate the most chips in the end.
Full Tilt Poker Sat to the Daily Dollar Rush No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t150/t300 Blinds – 3 players
Hero (BB): t9876 M = 21.95
BTN: t102 M = 0.23
SB: t3522 M = 7.83
Pre Flop: (t450) Hero is BB with 5 6
1 fold, SB calls t150, Hero raises to t9876 all in, SB calls t3222 all in
Flop: (t7044) 5 T 6
Turn: (t7044) Q
River: (t7044) Q
Final Pot: t7044
Hero shows 5 6 (two pair, Queens and Sixes)
SB shows 2 A (a pair of Queens)
Hero wins t7044
There are 3 people left here and 2 win a seat. Notice the blinds are 150/300 and one of the players has 102 chips left. You can’t see here but he was even sitting out and not playing. So, he would have been blinded out on the next hand.
I had noticed that the player who was second in chips had been playing hands when he didn’t need to so I was just raising all-in every hand hoping that he would make a call and lose his seat to a player who was almost blinded out. I could have lost a big pot and still won my seat so there was no threat to me.
Well as you see he decided to call my all-in bet with A2 and was basically drawing dead when I flopped two pair. If he had not called my all-in, the satellite would have been over the next hand and he would have won a seat.
This is the perfect example of how not to play in a satellite. He should have folded every hand in this situation, even pocket aces. As I said earlier, the goal is to win a seat, not to accumulate the most chips.
July 19th, 2010 5:25:07 PM UTC | Posted in Poker by windizzle | No Comments
