Um, Happy New Year?
January 1, 2008
Well I guess I’m meant to say Happy New Year, though I don’t actually know what the relevance of the start of a New Year is, there’s only really three things I can think of off the top of my head:
1 Those who have calendars need to replace them (not me)
2 Those who have diaries need to replace them (not me)
3 Those who live in the real world start afresh with 4-6 weeks annual leave to spread out over the next 12 months (um, definitely not me)
So, with some deep analysis I can conclude that the fact it is a New Year means absolutely nothing. Which is still slightly more meaningful than Christmas.
Moving swiftly on, I was obviously too busy celebrating the birth of Jesus, the presence of three wise men, a little donkey and some other things that have slipped my mind, to do a final update on my time in Vegas. So here you go.
I played a final $1k buy-in Bellagio tournie before leaving. There were only 51 players. The field was a mixture of clueless older players and clowns with no idea about hand reading and bet-sizing. Jennifer Tilly was present (I’m not saying if she fits into none, either one or both of those categories) and Gavin Smith.
There were 255k chips in play. Only the top five places are paid, and the payout structure is top heavy. With 14 players remaining the average stack was 18k. I was sat pretty on 31k, Gavin Smith had 15,700. We are 7-handed, blinds are 400/800 ante 75. This is the first time I have played with Gavin Smith, and we have been on the same table for two orbits where I have perhaps won two or three pots uncontested.
So this hand I’m utg+1 and we are seven handed. I open the pot for my usual raise at this level, to 2,200. Gavin Smith flat calls on the button (from a 15,700 stack). Everyone else folds. The fop is QQ6 rainbow. I bet 3,600 into the 6,125 pot. Oh by the way I have pocket tens. Gavin Smith almost instantly minimum raises, putting in 7,200 obviously, and leaving himself approx 6,300 behind.
What should I do now? What hands/range of hands can we put him on? Would my reaction be different and his range of hands be different if he moved all-in instead of min-raising?
Obviously there are more factors to take into account than the details I have given, but still I thought it was an interesting hand, given Gavin Smith’s track record, and hopefully I’ve provided enough relevant information. In addition he did seem to be taking this tournie very seriously, even though it’s small fry by his standards.
I’ve got more stuff to write about but will wait and see if anyone has any comments/opinions on this hand first, so fire away……
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