Solly asks:

I had about 1900 in chips at a STT. There were 3 other players left; one large stack and two others similar to mine. 1st and 2nd place were to be paid. Blinds were 200/400 and soon to be 400/800. I went out on this hand and wonder if I made a mistake. I was the SB. EP folded, Button called, I called (KT off) and Big Stack raised to 1200. I sensed he wasn’t that strong and might be bluffing as he had done so earlier. I figured he had something but that my hand was better so I called. Button folded.

Big stack says, “I’m all in before the flop.”

It’s something like 3 6 9. I didn’t feel it helped him and I was pot committed so I threw in my last 700. He had A-7 off. The turn and the river were no help and he won with A high.

What did I do wrong?

Coach:

I think your biggest mistake was calling from the SB and then (just) calling his raise – either you should have pushed all-in yourself to try to pick up the chips in the pot, or if you called, you should either fold or push yourself in response to the raise. You can’t afford to call the extra 800 before the flop and then leave yourself with only 700 behind.

Note how you said you were committed for your last 700, even though you totally missed the flop. You’re quite correct you were committed to put the 700 in on the flop, but really, your commitment was due to your preflop play and you should have been all-in before seeing the flop. Never leave yourself fewer chips than the preflop bet! Usually I don’t like to leave less than 3x behind, but less than 1x is just pointless – you might as well put it in preflop because it’s going in regardless of the flop!

So, here’s how I would rank your possible choices from best to worst:

• Best – Push all-in with the KT to try to steal the big blind and the call without having to make a hand.
• 2nd best – Call the SB and then fold to the bb’s raise (I say this, because even if he’s weak, he may still have you beat, and he’s committed to playing – if you fold you leave yourself with 1500 and you can push any two cards on the button next hand).
• 3rd best – Call the SB and then push all-in to the Big Stack’s raise (because you sensed weakness). I should point out, however, that the big blind will call you with anything here, because they are as committed to the hand as you are. Worst – Play it the way you did.

I should point out that you probably would have lost the hand even if you had played it the ‘best’ way. Your mistake didn’t cost you the tournament; it was just in how you played the actual hand. Never call off half your stack preflop, if you’re going to do that, just push. Even better, if you think that you’ll be committed to playing because you called the small blind, then you need to just push in the first place. If you pushed from the SB, at the very least you would have had a chance to get the big blind to fold (not saying he necessarily would have here, but you never know). As it is, you forced yourself to have to make the best hand to win chips.

I hope that wasn’t too harsh – I figure you lose all your chips on this hand no matter what so don’t kick yourself over what happened. Just remember the better play here is to shove all-in yourself before the Big Stack gets a chance to raise.

Good luck at the tables!

Here’s a link to the latest Online Poker Room Review Directory from the crew down the road at Gooners Guide to Gambling. (PS: A Gooner is an Arsenal Football Club supporter… derived from “Gunner”, but these guys are really just online gambling fans with a minor bias towards the red and white).