Wednesday 3 October 2012

Thinking Outside the Box


PokerStars Hand #87086455001: Tournament #622969906, $55.56+$4.44 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2012/10/03 12:50:16 WET [2012/10/03 7:50:16 ET]
Table '622969906 1' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 2: Villain (8525 in chips)
Seat 3: Player 2 (2463 in chips)
Seat 5: Player 3 (1892 in chips)
Seat 8: Hero (620 in chips)
Villain: posts small blind 100
Player 2: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Td 3c]
Player 3: folds
Hero: raises 300 to 500
Villain: calls 400
Player 2: folds
*** FLOP *** [Jd Qs 6s]
Villain: checks
Hero: checks
*** TURN *** [Jd Qs 6s] [7h]
Villain: checks
Hero: checks
*** RIVER *** [Jd Qs 6s 7h] [7s]
Villain: checks
Hero: bets 120 and is all-in
Villain: folds
Uncalled bet (120) returned to bigstealer
Hero collected 1200 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1200 | Rake 0
Board [Jd Qs 6s 7h 7s]
Seat 2: Villain (small blind) folded on the River
Seat 3: Player 2 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: Player 3 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Hero (button) collected (1200)

This hand is played on the bubble of a $60 9 man sit and go. 9 man is by no means my speciality but when 6 max traffic is slow I mix them in with reasonable success and with more play/studying my ICM and strategy has slowly improved.

In this particular instance I'm left with just over 3bbs having been whittled down over the tournament most likely because I'm a massive fish. I find myself on the button with a rather ugly T3 off suit. As I'm so short I'm almost forced to shove here but as I believe that I have little fold equity so I make it 2.5x the bb in the hope that the sb and bb aren't paying attention and will look at it like a normal raise (this play is effective against multi-tablers who will fold a bad hand here if they are playing too many games). Not only that but if the small blind was to isolate all in and the big blind called I could happily fold and creep into the money.

Unfortunately, in this case I get flat called by our villain in the small blind and the big blind throws his cards in the muck. I see he has a VPIP of 41% and curse at my lack of observation before making my 2.5x 'play'. So, we get to see 3 more cards and I have 120 chips behind. The flop comes 6 Q J with 2 spades and it gets checked to me. It becomes apparent to me that if a someone is fishy enough to have a 41% VPIP they are likely to be a bit of a gambler and just want to see more cards so instead of putting my final 120 chips in on the flop when the action is checked to me I elect to check with the aim of getting to the river in order to try a rather audacious bluff where no more cards will be dealt. What do I have to lose? I check behind and the turn is a blank 7. The action goes check check and the river is a 7 of spades which again our fishy friend checks. We are at the river and the 1st part of my goal has been achieved so I quickly bet my remaining chips all in. He quickly folds despite his outrageous pot odds of around 11 to 1 and I scoop a pot of 1200 plus the 120 I bet.

This kind of play does not need a large success rate to be extremely profitable and with T3o I have more than doubled my stack without actually ever being at risk.

bigstealer