Setup or Stoopid?
March 31, 2008
So after a rollercoaster weekend in which I qualified for Iron Man Iron status once again while at the same time seeing my fortunes fluctuate wildly based on some aggressive and in some cases reckless decisions, I sat down to the latest Big Game ready to extend my dominance in this particular monthly blogger tournament. I believe I have cashed in fully half of the Big Game’s I have ever participated in, including one win, one second place and one third place in just the small number of these that have been run over the past year, year and a half or so. Actually, I forgot all about the tournament and missed the first half hour due to a charity auction I was attending, but when I got back I quickly doubled up off of smizmiatch with AK allin preflop against his pocket Jacks, and from there I remained in the top 10 of the tournament throughout the balance of the first hour of the event.
Early in hour two, with me still perched near the bottom of the top 10 with about a third of the starting field of I think 62 runners already eliminated, I engaged in maybe my third or fourth battle of the blinds with Julius Goat who was seated to my immediate right and thus got to have me attempt to steal his blinds almost every chance I got. He pushed back some, he let me have them some, and in the end I was happy with that situation, especially when this hand came up which saw me open-raise from the button I think with JTo. Goat called from the small blind and the big blind folded. We saw a heads-up flop of JJ9.
This is exactly why I like to steal so much even from early on in mtts. Now, there is no doubt that the value, even the necessity, of stealing increases dramatically later on in tournaments when the antes kick in, the blinds are high and the Ms are correspondingly low. But for me, I have enough confidence in my abilities to avoid trouble most of the time after the flop with marginal hands, that I like the kind of opportunity that being known and recognized as a blind stealer has brought to me over time right from the earlygoing in these tournaments. So when I can raise preflop from late position and know I am going to be put on a steal, and then a follow-up steal-cbet on the flop, I like my position. And occasionally I flop a monster like I had here from steal position, and then I know, in the words of immortal blowdog “pro” Josh Arieh, it’s on.
So here I am, I’ve steal-raised from the button, been called by a guy I know thinks I am a blind stealer — in fact he had called me down earlier for a large pot on the river with just KT-high on the assumption I was full of shit from the blinds — and now I have flopped JJ9 with JT in my hand. It’s a good situation. I don’t remember exactly the action but I believe Goat checked this hand to me, and I bet out my normal-sized continuation bet, knowing Goat would give me no credit whatsoever for the play. And frankly he is right, because a lot of the time I am going to bet out here with ATC after the action checks to me in position in a heads-up pot that I had raised preflop. So he checks this flop, I bet my trips — because I am a man — and Goat I think flat called. Now I know he has some kind of a hand.
The turn is some raggy biatch card, an offsuit 2 or something. This time Goat checks to me again, I bet out about 3/4 the size of the pot, and Goat fairly quickly minraises me. A minraise of a bet from me, coming from the Goat, definitely suggested that he liked his hand in this spot, I was sure of it. But still, I felt in a stealy-button vs small blind confrontation, my JT had to be ahead of his range, which would include most Tens, most pocket pairs and probably some KQ or other two-high-cards-plus-a-draw kind of hands as well. So I reraised Goat allin there on the turn, and he beat me into the pot with his call for almost all of his chips. He flips up?
99. I think the river brought another 9 as well, giving Goat quads instead of his boat just for good measure, and I was left dealing with another setup hand elimination from a BBT3 tournament.
With a few hours now having gone by to think about the situation, I am left wondering just how much of a setup hand this really was. I mean, I know it was a setup in that it is clearly not wrong of me to believe I am ahead in this circumstance, and I happened to flop a set with a decent kicker in a heads-up pot from a stealy position, and yet happened to run into the flopped boat from my opponent in the small blind. It is affirmatively hideous luck, I don’t need anyone else’s opinion to know that. But the question I have for you today is: Did I need to go busto on this hand? What would you have done with this hand? Who out there is not going to push hard with JT on the JJ9 flop from a stealy situation, and, more importantly, why not?
Don’t forget, the 6-max nlh Mondays at the Hoy is back tonight at 10pm ET on full tilt as the BBT3 rolls on:
Password as always is “hammer”, the buyin as always is $26, and anyone and everyone is welcome to join as there are no prerequisites or other requirements for anyone to be able to play. Just log in to your full tilt account, click on the “Private” heading under the “Tournaments” tab, find the MATH and register for the event using the password of “hammer”. That’s all it takes to sit down with the bloggers and get donked.
See you tonight for Mondays at the Hoy on full tilt!
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