Chapter VI.4 Playing with position in crisis time: donkey to my right

Well, the boys got an impromptu game going tonight, so I have less time to blog about yesterday, but I'll see what I can do.

Yesterday's $1,100.00 payoff was 2nd out of 110 in a 50+10 casino tourney, a game highlighted by Yours Truly taking a monster chip lead to the final table. Here's how it went down.

I'm going to focus on crisis time play, but you might as well see how I chipped up to be in a position to play in crisis time in the first place.

There were two significant hands early.

The first was in hand 4, blinds 25/25, first hand I played, opening the pot early with 175 and QQ and getting one caller. Even with 2500 chips, that's a pretty big opening bet and call, and, even with QQ, I have to put my opponent on a solid hand.

And my flop is sweet: Q 43 two clubs. I have flopped a set. As I have said before, the common play here is to bet set, expecting to be raised, but it's hand 4, I have no real read on my opponent, other than he's a young guy with his trucker hat on crooked (I thought the 90's were over, but hey) and the guy had a calling hand. I feign respect to the caller with a check and call a bet of 275.

This bet is not likely a semi-bluff flush draw. Its just not big enough. Its a value bet. The guy has a serious hand, and I have top set. I can tell by the size of the bet and his demeanour. He wants to milk more chips from me, he thinks he's good, and I can disguise my set as a flush draw.

When the turn is another small club, I am disappointed, but not because I'm beat: lets face it, even if I'm dead wrong, how likely is it that AK clubs called my preflop raise? The disappointment is that I have represented a draw that just hit. When I check, he checks back.

The river is meaningless low red card. There is 800 in the pot. My turn to value bet: 600. If he has the flush and raises me, well, its not the first time I walked home early. I don't have him on a flush and my hand his huge. Instead he reluctantly calls, and he shows KK when I announce my set of ladies.

I am sure a lucky donkey. Without that Q on the flop, I would pay off a big chunk or all of my chips to any flop with undercards. Instead I picked up two things: a nice early big pot, and some table respect for playing a big hand well to get paid.

I will grind up to 5000 by the first break, and catch REAL SWEET the very first hand back.

Blinds are 100/200, and I open the pot in early position with a raise of 750 and AQ. Its a big bet for such an early position. I really don't want action, which is likely to be better. AQ is a trouble hand so early, but the Monster craves trouble....

I get a curious response from a late position player, somewhat new to the table, with about 6500 chips. He's all excited about his hand , but not about my raise. He says so. He is animated. And concerned. I am expecting a raise from him but he just calls. My gut instinct is he has 10 10.

His animation provokes an interesting response from another player in the BB. She has demonstrated some skills herself. She showed she knew when her Q7 was good against a AK hand out of position for a good sized pot, and managed to double through with a set holding 99 in earlier action. She quietly calls (she will later tell us she had AK).

If either one of these players raise me, I am likely dumping AQ, but Excited Guy's animation slowed down the smart lady with AK. She is smart enough to know, like I do, that she is likely up against another A and a PP. She, like I, probably put Excited Guy on the PP. He is just so damn excited!

Flop is QQ4. Dynamite. I check. I had already demonstrated concern over his excitedness, and fiegn worry again. He bets out 2000. AK lady folds.

How I play this is important. Up to this point I have not discussed table talk much.

First I ask how much the raise is? 2000. He looks confident in confirming.

I ask how many chips he has left. He counts them up for me. He has invested 2750, he has 3750 left. He has made a big commitment. He thinks he's good on this scary flop.

I go all in, and he calls soon after the dealer counts my 2250 raise. He didn't base his call on pot odds, he honestly thought I was beat.

He had 99. I now have 11000 chips and the big stack at the table.

My table talk did two things: I feigned concern, and got him to demonstrate his belief he was good. He should have known better. If a big pot develops, you bet big on the flop, and your opponent asks for a chip count, he is not likely folding, unless maybe he has a draw, and there is no draw on this board. Your opponent is buying time and gathering information to make the next move designed to maximize payoff in this situation.

This is standard table talk for me. I am extremely careful in a hand to speak in a manner designed to get information rather than give it. Never expose, for example, that you think you have two live or you think its a coin flip. You have told your opponent what you have without getting anything back. The chip count forces your opponent to react physically, and the body language you get should help you figure out where you stand. As we've seen before, I want to know how to get paid with this monster. The 3500 profit in the pot is nice to see, but some patience and information gathering turned that 3500 into 5750.

Woo hoo? Wait.

Soon after, with a few steals and small pots, a new player takes an empty seat to my right (see the title). He has an enormous stack, 35000 maybe? He is giggling like an idiot. In two hands over 10 minutes I watch him overplay Q7 on a 7KK flop to pay 10000 chips to AK. Then he calls this guy and two short stacks with the same hand soon after....Q7....against 44, AK (same AK guy as before) and QK. He giggles. He wants his chips back, he explains, calling 10000 all in. Amazingly, the only card which hits anyone is a 7, and he rakes in 20k more while busting 3 players.

I have position on the king of all donkeys. Patience and good play are all I need.

I needed a lot of patience. I simply manage my 11k over the next hour. I don't have hands which can call his routine raises, and he is up, down, all around, busting some and doubling others. I start to worry as his stack starts to wane a bit, wondering if they'll be anything left by the time I get an opportunity.

The second break comes and goes, and 300/600/75 level begins. There are 30 players left, and I have gone from 3x the average to just over. The patience is rewarded.

Donkey minraises early, and I wake up with K9 hearts. Not the strongest hand, but here is my strategy: If I like my hand and can afford the raise, I'll call and see a flop. He is willing to gamble. He has called every reraise. He has bet every flop. His raises and bets are usually just grabs at handfuls of chips. I need to manage my risks, see flops, and take advantage of position when I hit.

K9 suited is a hand I am fond of. People just don't play K high enough, they play A high too much, and I often don't need to worry about kickers too much. 9 high and K high flops are usually good with a limited field of preflop callers. I tend to play it sooted much more than off, and almost always with position.

This giggling idiot is also the most obvious player I have ever seen. On the rare occasions he has a hand, he bets with some thought and stops giggling. He raises any A or sooted paint-trash combinations preflop. He is in 45% of the hands, either obtaining steals or racing with a shortstack.

I have invested 1200 of 11000 with K9, and watch him bet 4000 into a K high flop. I do not hesistate to raise all in, he does not hesitate to call with A8. Another K on the turn seals the deal and my double up.

Some time,a level, and patience, later, Donkey opens with 3500 early and I see another favorite hand: QK, and with 22000 chips, calling is easy. The flop is again K high, and the rest is predictable: bet, raise all in, call, A-junk. I get another K to seal it, and my 45000 is now approaching his stack. I even told him I had him beat when he asked me why the raise, and goaded the call.

We have 19 players now, and 45000 is lots to take to a final table. But we ain't done with Donkey, folks.

Donkey and I are now trash talking a little bit. I am approaching his stack. He is conceding he has to respect me now, but he sure doesn't like it. Soon after this, I reraise another early position Donkey raise all in with 10-10, and a short stack (12k) comes in with me. My bet is so large, 85% of his stack, he has to fold, but he hates it, and my 10 -10 holds up against AK to give me the clear chip lead, close to 60k

He is still active, and there are some very short stacks left, because Donkey has been busting people and he is only paying off to me. He helps the cause by busting out a few more. and improving to 40,000 chips in the process. There are some disastrously bad moves by other players against Donkey, like gambling 44 all in, virtually offering themselves no better than a coin flip against a guaranteed call. We are soon down to 11, the money and final table bubble, and my luck catches huge.

Donkey is in the SB and I am in the BB. We are the two dominant stacks at a short table of desperation, and a lone middle position player limps in, with everyone else folding to Donkey. No one wants to be the bubble victim, so play is tight.

Stupid donkey. He wants to exploit this tight bubble play, and raises the 1500 limp in to 6000.

I wake up with QQ. I am immediately all in.

Oddly, the limper, with 10k tops, looks at me like he is thinking of calling. I stare at him like he's an idiot. "He's the donkey, I'm the player" I state with my glare. I don't even bother putting on my sunglasses. Limper gets the message. The raise was meant for Donkey, not for him. He dumps what he tells me later, with regret, was A4, because the river will turn out to be an A.

We saw a river because of Donkey's frustration with me beating the hell out of him. The rest of his chips push in and he turns over K8 offsuit.

Bye Bye Donkey Bye Bye. I am a hero and a devil to the rest of the field. Short stacks, some desperate, have made the money. But I have over 100,000 chips, 50k over the next rival to sit down at the final table.

I must save final table talk for later. It is late, and I am freerolling my $1,100.00 with a $100 investment in tomorrow's game.

The obvious message is be patient in crisis time, pick your targets and your spots. Use position to make smart calls when you want to see a flop, target the correct opponents, and use position to make the right plays with monsters when the right targets raise into you. You won't always find such a Donkey, but when you do, controlling your risk with callings and waiting for very strong hands to push with is the best way to go. So many others failed to manage their risk or thought that gambling with A high or 44 against the Donkey was a good play. Why raise into the Donkey with a marginal hand? If your a short stack he's calling or raising. Why offer Donkey two live or two over cards for 35-50% odds to beat you, when patience will get you managed risk to see a flop and real showdown hands will make you 70% or better to beat him?

Why was I the only one to figure out how to beat the Donkey?