Tag Archives: tourney

Bothered Because of Canada’s No Limit Tourney

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Luckily I won a seat at the upcoming no limit tourney to be held in Regina, Sk. Canada. The buy in I heard is $1000 and I’m glad as it is going to be on TV. But I’m now bothered as I badly want to win the gold. How should I play then?

To make things clearer, there are two stages. In the first stage, to be able to start out, you need $10,000 in chips. The blind time will be 40 mins and the blinds will begin at 25 / 50. Antes I heard will begin at level 9. The tourney will run for three days and every day only 350 players can play. If you belong to the top 10% at the end of a certain day, you can proceed to the next stage. However, if you lose you can re-buy for the next day. Unfortunately, if it happens that you lose the third day, then sorry as you are already out. In the second stage, everyone will be in the money and approximately 105 will be fighting for the first place with a whooping $350,000 prize. About the chips, well if you have many chips left after passing on the first stage, good for you as it will be accumulated at this stage. However, no deals are prohibited and everyone will be playing on and on till one player remains.

Now, what day do you think should I play? And do you have any strategy in mind to share with me? Please, I hope I could use it for stage one and stage two.

Thank you very much for your time.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Benz
Benz,

First, this is an odd tournament structure. As far as which day, it depends on your style of play. If you are very aggressive and can accumulate chips, the last day may work as the most players typically play that day. If you are tighter, I would play the first two days and loosen your starting hand requirements some.

You need to be in the top 35 at the end of the day. As a result, you need to build up chips. This means playing looser than normal and taking a few more risks. Try and build chips by stealing blind, taking advantage of weaker players, and seeing a lot of flops and punishing when you hit the flop well.

If you won your seat for this tournament, then great, go ahead and play. I wouldn’t play it otherwise.

At a Live Tournament

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Hello,

I just want to ask and share something.

Recently, I joined a live tournament in a northern Minnesota casino. Well, if I could remember it right, the buy-in was $150. We actually started with 170 players and then later on was trimmed down to sixteen players divided at two 8p tables.

I heard that the tourney was paying 15 players back then so we were pressured. Eventually, 10-15 got $150, 9th $200, 8th $400 and on up to $9,500 for first. With 400 antes, blinds were $4,000 and $8,000 while chips in total was $850,000 therefore the stack was about $53,000 in average. At the table were some of the big stacks but players just around were only near the average and no player has $100K or so. Me, after posting the $400 ante and the small blind had $36,000. Pot was $15,200.

At some point, everyone folded while I had A8 off-suit. Afterwards, a player maybe at his mid-20′s sat at the table. He has about $55,000. I was wondering then as he haven’t seen any thing.

Later part, I raised all-in while with AT he called me. Few minutes later and a ten came and so I was busted out.

In your opinion, did I played just right? I believe I made pretty well with regards to mathematical call, however, I’m not sure about my strategic call. Any thoughts?

I hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks in advance!

Billy Stout
Billy,

A-8 offsuit is a poor choice for a starting hand in general. If you are raising from late position to steal blinds, that may be fine, but if you get called, you are in trouble.

Without knowing more information, I can’t say whether you should or shouldn’t have pushed all in, but based on the fact that you had a solid stack and push with A-8, I must lean towards that being a poor play. A-8 is easily dominated, and in your case, it was.

About My Mistake

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Hey there!

In a tourney with a thousand of players, I had 12K in chips and blinds were up at 200/400. Being the first one to act, I called. By the way I had AQ then. Quite disturbing, nobody raised. There were four players keenly observing who saw the flop actually.

Flop then came and was Jd Kd Kc. Other two players checked while the other one placed 800 bet. Except from me, everyone else’s folded. Because I felt like gambling more, I called and then hit the 10 of spades thus giving me a straight. One of the other players then placed 1600 bet and then I raised to 4K. Later, he called.

River then came and was 9. He then opted to check. Afterwards, I decided to bet 1600 and so he went all in. Then I called, but I discovered he had a full house, Kings over nines and so I was busted out.

Now, I’m curious if after the turn I should have decided to go all in, considering he might not actually call pre flop with K J, and he may have with K 10. What do you think? Also, I think it was so foolish of me, though I knew he had a K, I still gave him another card that may complete his full house. However, I also thought that maybe it was not foolishness, I was just unlucky perhaps. The result would have been the same if he called all in on the turn with K9 back then.

But still I was thinking, where did I went wrong? At what point? At not raising pre flop? Or else calling his 800 bet after the flop and drawing to a hand against a tall stack?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Thank you very much!

Lockett Zubak
Lockett,

You were in early position with A-Q. That is not necessarily a raising hand. Some do, I tend not to unless I haven’t played in a bit. On the flop, you had a gutshot straight. You really did not have proper odds to draw to the straight, but you did and hit.

After the flop, I don’t think you opponent is going to fold. He flopped a set. Since you didn’t raise, he has no reason to put you on a king, and even if he did, I still doubt he would fold.

I think that after the flop, you just got unlucky. You sucked out on the turn, and he resucked out on the river.

Not Sure On How They’ve Played the Game

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Monday night, I played in a multi-tourney. I believe I played a really bad hand back then. At the start, well, I was playing just right. Maybe I got a little carried away that’s why the ending was not so great for me. Just an information, the tourney started with 791 total players and I was on 149th place when it ended.

To start off, player A had 54004, player B had 35460, and player C 18562. Player E had 29195, player F 16515, and player G had 9210. Player H had 35430 and player I had 40893. The numbers are all in chips by the way.

At some point, player B was dealt Td Jh and player C folded. Players E, F, G followed and also folded. Player H then raised 1000 to 2000. Player I called 2000. Later, player A folded and player B called for 1000. Flop came and was 7h Th 3c. Player B then placed 1000 as his bet. Player H raised 5999 to 6999 while player I folded. Player B then called. Turn came and was 7h Th 3c Tc.

Eventually, player B placed 12000 as his bet. Player H then called. River came and was 7h Th 3c Tc 4d. With 4000, player B opted to bet. Player H then raised 10331 to 14331 and was actually all-in. Player B then called.

When showdown came, player H had Ts 7s, a full house, Tens full of Sevens while player B had Td Jh, three of a kind, Tens. Later, player H started collecting the winnings.

Any thoughts about how players have played the game?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks!

Regards,
Nick
Nick,

Player H did a great job of extracting maximum value for his fortunate flop and turn. Player B flopped top pair and was being aggressive. Player H had flopped two pair. He raised, but when player B hit a set on the turn, all the money was going to go in. I think that if the board would not have paired the 10 on the turn, player B would have probably been bet out of the pot on the turn or river by player H. As it turned out, B bet out on the turn and H smooth called. On the river, H’s trap was sprung, and B couldn’t get away.

Revealing the Losing Cards

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Hi,

At a certain tourney I was in, two players went heads-up. Later, player A decided to raise. Player B then re-raised and consequently player A called and then flipped his hand over. Though quite upset, player B accepted he lost however he didn’t revealed his hand. Player A insisted then that he’d like to see the hand as he paid for it actually, through his re-raise. As the host, I should be the one to solve the dispute. Well, personally, I believe that whenever no one went all in, it would be the obligation of the caller alone to reveal what he had. Am I correct?

Thanks!

Regards,
Knickelbein
Knickelbein,

Player A was correct. When a player calls a bet at the river, the player has the right to see their opponent’s cards, even if the opponent mucked.