VI.3: More crisis time play

Hello again poker blogees:

Just got in from finishing in 3rd at the local casino $90+10. We had a small field of 77 players, but it was still a grind to the final table. The result of the short field was reaching the final 30 quite quickly. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, because final 30 play is Chapter VII, and the next substantive blog really needs to focus on late position crisis time play, and I don't have many examples of late position play because most of my crisis-time play actually involved a few BB specials more than late position steals and hands, so the motto of today's blog is simply patience during crisis time.

Because its a small tourney, and the nature of this tourney is to create crisis time somewhat early anyway, around the 200/400/50 ante time, this is a very good game to talk about patience in crisis time. Fact of the matter is, your PokerMonster survived crisis time with a few good steals and one big BB special. Lets talk.

I had done reasonably well in early play, ending the first break knocking out my neighbour's last 1000 chips with QQ in the BB to hold 5000 chips after 120 minutes, and then picking up some nice pots after this to grind my way to about 8500 chips, only to fall back down to 5000 chips after chasing 10 10 down to a short stack's AK, and then seeing very little for the next hour....at one time I called a raise from the BB holding K10. When the ace high flop came and I checked, I put my raiser on a small PP and he hated the flop, so I was able to push him out on a stone cold bluff (simply because I called a good raise, and had established a strong image early, he had to put me on an ace). I had earlier done a similar steal raising KJ UTG, getting two callers, both guys who like to see flops, and betting out on a A K x flop. It was a good table to represent an ace by simple shows of strength, so, in spite of the burn with the 10 10, I still liked the table, but for the most part the hour was dry and I had a lot of folding to do.

(I should add that I seem to be one of the few players who can make a bluff with an A on the board and take the pot down, combination of the table image I present and the general assumption that a raise involves a solid A. I usually, but not always, have 2nd pair when I do this, and of course I pick my spots: representing a strong A post flop after raising UTG to open is a good spot, as long as you get a good look at your opponents when the first see the flop and continue to look when you reach for chips. This still takes ice cubes for cajones!)

I am down to 4200 chips when we return after 2nd break, and pay the BB at 300/600/75 ante on second hand. I am feeling like I gotta push no matter what at this point, and there is an early position raise to 2000 from a new player at the table followed by a loose player, who likes to see flops and steal, coming in and calling, on my right, when I get to look down and again see 10 10.

I really like 10 -10. I have seen statistics from my poker simulator that shows that I get paid as well with 10 -10 as with AA. I like it way better than JJ. In ordinary circumstances, I put one player or both on an A, but I know our late position donkey could call with anything, so I don't exactly think I have them on each others' outs and I know my raise won't take either player out of the pot: it is enough to cause either to reraise all-in and isolate. Instead, both players just call, which I think is a good move here: they will check down, and as I stated earlier, this is a smart check down situation because they have a chance of knocking out a dangerous player.

The Q55 flop is encouraging, and the river 10 allows me to ask how my full house is. First player mucks (A something I"m sure) and our lucky late position donkey shows me his K9 of diamonds (talk about a read on that guy)

Now I'm back in business, and in typical Poker Monster Style, (well, I try), Lucky Donkey offers up a raise to 2000 from stealing position the next time I am in the BB, this time holding 66. I just call: I strongly suspect 66 is way ahead here to start. The flop is a lovely 967, two hearts (sound familiar?). I can expect Lucky Donkey to take a stab at any pot offered to him, and feign disappointment while offering up a check. Lucky Donkey has a lot of respect for me, and only offers a small stab at a big pot: 2500. Lucky Donkey likes his sooted cards, and our chips stacks are even, so I figure enough is enough and raise all in: he can't call, and I show my 66 for my Beastly 666 and perpetuate the Poker Monster Myth.

Boo.

I now am able to do some quick math: the final table will average about 19k per stack, and this is about the size of mine with 25 players left. There are some serous short stacks at this point. Its not like I can fold the next 50 hands and limp to the final, that's not PM's style, but it does mean I do not need to make serious gambles. About the only big pot I will play is QJ from 4th position with 14 left and 7 at the table on a raise: I went all in to a check from the BB on a 9-10-J rainbow flop and we both showed down the same hand (with the 8 turn and J river, just for fun).

Having gotten no real opportunities, I wind up limping to the final table with a reasonable 15000 chips with the blinds 500/1500. My patience is rewarded early when I get AK in early position and push all in with my 15k: the man to my right, who was not at my table, calls with AQ and can;t catch lucky, giving me the early double. Sound good? Next hand I get KK, raise to 4000, and get a push all in from short stack with A9 and 10,000 chips. AND get rivered with an A, dropping down to 20k. So I'm back to grinding patience, and pretty much ride steals while staying out of trouble. My resulting table cred from how I played AK and KK certainly helped in the steals, and I improved it laying down AQ to a raise and raising and showing AQ.

In the end, I survived to stand with the two luckiest people at the table, and lost pushing A2 from the BB when the two limped in and getting a call from Old Lucky with K3 sooted. He caught runner runner flush, of course, and Old Lucky (he had to be 70) and New School (he was 24 tops) played 45 minutes of great heads up poker until New School finally cracked Old Lucky chasing 106 sooted on a hunch.....

Solid, or "tight", play does have its value, and patience is critical, but as you can see, waiting for KK didn't pull me to 3rd either. I got more respect for fearlessly playing 66 preflop and outplaying my opponent postflop than merely showing down premium hands would.

Happy pokering folks.