The Hand
This week’s hand is another from the Venetian Deep Stack Tournament Series that I played while in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago.
Starting chips were 6000 and I was doing very well. We were deep into level 6 and I had over 22,000, which was more than everyone at the table except one other player. We were down from 571 entrants to about 190 and the cash was at I believe 55.
Anyway, I was in mid-position and picked-up pocket nines, 9c/9h. The blinds were 300/600 with a 75 ante. It was folded to me and I made it 2000 straight. I wouldn’t have minded just picking up the blinds and antes now and going on break. Everyone folded around to the BB who called.
The flop was a 4c/5h/6d. I liked this flop. BB who had been a very aggressive player, and had only slightly less chips than me, pushed ALL-IN! This was a crazy bet. It was over 19,000 to call. What would you do?
Winner: Michael, Canal Winchester, Ohio
Since you are uncertain how many places paid out, I have to guess that you made the call. Maybe it was because it was break time and you were growing a bit tired, but if you did call, I don’t think that was a prudent decision for a couple of reasons.
The first and main one is, you don’t have all that much invested in the pot, so to put virtually all your chips at risk you have to be pretty certain you are ahead and in this case you can’t be.
What can put the BB on? Either a stone bluff with something like A-K, A-Q. Or he was holding a big pocket pair. There is also the possibility an aggressive player could call your 2000 raise with something like 7-8-suited, in which case you’d really be stepping in it. You say he was an aggressive player but his all-in move is a little more than just aggressive. My guess is you were beat at that point in the hand. But maybe you thought otherwise, having observed the player.
But with the money in the pot, I don’t see it worth it to call this bet even if, in your gut, you think you are ahead, which is what I’m betting you were thinking.
Still, even if you think you’re ahead, I think you muck it and go on break knowing you only put 2,000 in the pot and still have a 20,000 stack when you come back more refreshed.
Robin’s Response:
Michael’s answer was selected because he not only put what he thought I would do, he went one step further and looked at why I would do it and what he would do as well.
Okay, after about one minute, the player next to me called time. For whatever reason, I felt extremely pressured and knew I should fold, BUT, called instead which, as I was putting the chips in, knew was a HUGE mistake.
I committed way too many chips. Anyway, he turned over the 7/8c. He flopped the straight. The 8 came on the turn and I was dead to a 7 on the river, which did not come. It was a 9… my chip stack was crushed and so was my tournament. I was eliminated shortly after the break.
