Bad Poker Loss

[Marmel]

I entered a multi-table poker tournament today. $30 dollar buy in and there ended up being 425 players.

I made it into the Top 50, which means in the money. So with 50 players left I have about 7,000 in my stack. Top stack left in the game is about 17,000

I have A 10 in the hole (suits do not matter).

Flop is A J A

I am feeling pretty good, but just call.

4th street is 10. Now I am feeling really good, but still just call.

5th street is junk, and I end up all in with a Full Boat, A's over 10's.

I lose to A's over Jacks (who was also just calling Player 'C' who did not show, but lost). Would have put me in pretty good shape relative to the leader. Instead I finish 50th and get 63 bucks for my troubles.

FYI, top prize was 3,200.

:(

Ehh, I still think I would be in on that if I played again.

Thoughts?

[korme]

tough break, i'da done the same

[cthomer5000]

were you in front of or behind the AJ?

[RPI-Fan]

Nothin' wrong with that. Funny thing is I had the EXACT same hand and flop today in a limit single table tourney. I won it though.;)

[Radii]

That's poker. Congrats on making the money, that's awesome!

[Marmel]

I was in front of the A J, but he was just calling Player 'C' who kept starting the betting. I want to think I should have raised, but the guy had the Full Boat off the flop, and would have called anything.

[Marmel]

dola question:

With a larger than average stack, should I have gone conservatively in this type of tournament at this point in the game.

The pay tables were for 50-41st, then 40th -31st, etc... I probably could have check folded through another 10 players busting, but then would not be in as good of shape after that.

This was my first multi-table tournament, so I just tried to play each hand on its own, but the pressure and excitement got to me a bit I guess.

[Marmel]

double dola....

I can't seem to get that play out of my head.

It was a pretty exciting tournament. I lost some rather big stacks to a couple lucky bastards pulling inside straights on the river, and was down to about 200-300 chips at one point, but really stormed back after getting extremely lucky when I gave up on the tournament and went all in on a Q 10 Suited, was called by 2 others and pulled a flush. :) I deserved to go down there, but it brought me back from the dead and I went on a nice run.....


Still steamed.

[cthomer5000]

look at the bright side - you got to play for a while, and still made some money.

[MJ4H]

No way you can get away from that hand or make him fold. Some hands you are just destined to lose your chips on. This was one of those. Only one possible hand could beat you, he had it. You got your chips in there with a hand that will beat 99% of the other card possibilities. Don't feel bad about your play; if you can't put your chips in with a hand like that, you're not gonna win many tourneys. You'll get 'em next time :)

[RPI-Fan]

Yep, Matt's right.

If you don't get all your chips in there, you aren't playing the way you should be.

[sabotai]

You played the hand correctly. A less disciplined player would have raised. You did the right thing and could have lost more chips than you did if you misplayed.

[RPI-Fan]

How could he have lost more chips?

[Radii]

Originally posted by Marmel
dola question:

With a larger than average stack, should I have gone conservatively in this type of tournament at this point in the game.

The pay tables were for 50-41st, then 40th -31st, etc... I probably could have check folded through another 10 players busting, but then would not be in as good of shape after that.


99% of the time you get that hand in that situation, you set yourself up with the opportunity to actually win the tournament. This time you got beat. AJ was the single only hand that beat yours (AA is impossible since you have an ace).

There is no way in the world you can fold that. The only time you could ever even consider folding that hand, is one out of the money. And even then, if you lose the second best hand to the absolute nuts, so be it. Course, if it was the WSOP and finishing one out of the money vs in the money is a $15,000 difference, ok, maybe I don't even play AJ until I'm in the money... but in any other situation, you played it perfectly.

[thirdandlong]

Originally posted by RPI-Fan
How could he have lost more chips?


He could have raised. I probably would have at least once. I would have lost more chips.

[Buccaneer]

Originally posted by Shorty3281
tough break, i'da done the same

Yeah, right. Little punk wants attention.

[korme]

always picking on the young guy

i'll get you yet, bucc (you got a team named after you in my new dynasty)

[RPI-Fan]

Umm, dude, he ended up all in.

Explain how he could have lost more chips?

[sabotai]

Oops. I missed that little part of his story. :)

In that case, you played it wrong. Should have just called/bet after the river. Without the nuts, no way would I go all-in.

But that's just me.

[IMetTrentGreen]

last night i lost with 4 5's, to a guy with 4 7's

[Bee]

Originally posted by sabotai
Oops. I missed that little part of his story. :)

In that case, you played it wrong. Should have just called/bet after the river. Without the nuts, no way would I go all-in.

But that's just me.

So you only go all-in with the nuts?

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by sabotai
In that case, you played it wrong. Should have just called/bet after the river. Without the nuts, no way would I go all-in.


You can't win a damned thing if that's the only time you'll make a move. No limit poker doesn't allw that kind of selectivity, you'll get nibbled to death by a player of any skill in no time.

Marmel played the hand just right, I reckon, and you have to accept this kind of occasional result as the inevitable consequence of smart, aggressive play.

[Alan T]

Originally posted by IMetTrentGreen
last night i lost with 4 5's, to a guy with 4 7's


That is mind boggling... sounds like something you would only see in online poker :)

[Marmel]

Well, I least I now know I played it as good as I could have. The guy who beat me on that hand took his stack to a 10th place finish for a few hundred bucks I think. The tournament went on for hours and hours longer, finishing up at over 7 hours total. Wow!

[RPI-Fan]

The $1 buy-in tournaments at PartyPoker, where the top 30 earn entries to a Level 2 tournament, with no difference between 1st and 30th, can go for well over 6 or 7 hours...

I don't know why you wouldn't just quit once you get 30th...

[sabotai]

Let me clarify...IN THAT SPECIFIC SITUATION, with 2 A's and a J on the board and with someone behind me calling, I would not have gone all in. I worded what I meant to say really badly...

I have gone all-in with far less than the nuts before.

[RPI-Fan]

Still don't see how you can justify that as good play, sabotai.

[sabotai]

" (For me, I'm alright at ring games, but awful at tourneys)"

And you're going to sit here and tell me how to play in a tournament?? :D

[RPI-Fan]

Hehe probably was a bit harsh.:)

But, in other news, I put together a nice run of 4 straight 2nd places in limit tourneys.:)

[sabotai]

To clarify a bit more, when I said he "played it all wrong", that was tounge-in-cheek. So for the record, I do not think that he played it "all wrong".

Ok? Good.

"But, in other news, I put together a nice run of 4 straight 2nd places in limit tourneys."

Sweet.

[Ufer]

On WPT, you'll see great pros go bust with similar plays. I guess that's the inherent risk of no limit.

For example, even if you were clairvoyant so you only went all-in when an 80%+ favorite, you'd still lose ~10-20% of the time. That's something we don't get to see on the WPT broadcasts: how players like Phil Ivey, etc. play their way to the final table over and over. Do they play more conservative early? How do they pick out and pick on weak players?

[RPI-Fan]

Well, one guess would be that they don't go all-in until the river, when they can put a player on an exact hand, that can't improve.

But yea', I'd be interested to see how that happens generally.