PokerQueens.co.uk

[Anton]

"This was a crucial hand at the Irish open.

38 left with 36 being paid. Guy gets KK UTG and makes a decent sized raise. He's got a fair amount of chips, (enough to see him well into the money if he plays tight).

Folded around to the player 7th to act who goes all-in with a slightly bigger stack than our cowboys man. Naturally its folded back to the original raiser who is now on a decision.

Hard not to call under the circumstances but also hard not to think about having played for so long to just miss out on the money.

Oh dear!"

[m4rkie]

Fold, see it through the blinds and to the money. Losing your entry buy-in is more expensive than losing your chips.

[Anton]

I see your reasoning but fold KK before the flop! Would you fold aces in the same situation?

[m4rkie]

I guess it all depends on if you know he bluffs a lot. If so, play the Kings if you know he's done this move frequently before to you or someone else.

If he's a tight player (therefore probably holding AA), fold.

[m4rkie]

All-in with AA. He is unlikely to hold the other two, unless Matthew Lyne is the dealer.

[Anton]

The problem is that AA isn't guaranteed to win you the pot either. You are an 80% favourite to win against one random hand with aces. This means you have a 20% chance of going out of the competition if you call with the best possible hand!

Should you therefore not put your chips at risk at this stage regardless of your holding or should you say that the odds are in your favour so lets take the chance to go into the money with a much larger stack?

A

[m4rkie]

Thought about this over lunch now. I think i'd still go with folding regardless of my hand. Finishing in the $$$ is more important.

What would you do?

[Anton]

Not sure. I think it depends on the reason you are playing the tournament.

If you just want to get in the money then play tight and fold. You will win something even if it's just your buy-in back.

If on the other hand you want to win the tournament (whether for the money or the prestige) then go for it. If you don't take risks you are very unlikely to end up the final winner. And if you're not prepared to take a risk with KK or AA what hands would you do it with?

Call this bet and win and you end up with a very big stack going into the money with lots of opportunities to push people around or play tight and let them knock each other out. Your chances of making the final table are much higher than if you folded.

I think I'd call.

A

[m4rkie]

Sure, I'd risk AA or KK at a later stage when there are fewer players, odds are better, and you have later position.

There's still another 36 players in the game. By the time you get another good starting hand, a few will have gone out. You'll then be in the $$ and can now take more risks to go further. Perhaps later on some players won't respect an all-in knowing that you folded what was obviously a good hand previously.

Also, with stakes so high at these later stages you can go from practically zero to the leader in a short time (and back to zero!). For example in a 1000 player tourney i was in, I had no chips by 125 remaining players, the chip leader by 65, before going out at 21st.

[Anton]

[m4rkie]

what actually happened?

[ChrisL]

It's probably really obvious, but what does UTG mean?

[hurleyp]

actually i think it means under the gun ie him to act but am not completely sure?

[Anton]

The problem is posted on the main site at

http://pokerqueens.co.uk/problem.html

And I've started a glossary for any poker jargon we run across. All is explained there.

A

[Anton]

This is what happened (taken from the same forum). Of course this has no bearing whatsoever on what is the correct answer (if such a thing exists).

"Our Cowboys man called and was delighted to see the all-in bully turn over KQ suited. the flop came XQX rainbow and of course the turn brought another Q with no help on the river for the good caller. "

A
The general opinion from the users of the other forum btw was about 70/30 to call.