Passivity Killed the Big Stack: A Spot That Called for Aggression
Covering live poker tournaments for a living affords me the opportunity to see countless thousands of hands played out, many of which offer interesting and potentially valuable insights into how players �� both amateurs and professionals �� play the game. In this ongoing series, I��ll highlight hands I��ve seen at the tournaments I��ve covered and see if we can glean anything useful from them.
The Scene
Occasionally, I get a few days off from the busy grind of watching others play poker and get to fire up a tournament myself. Just such an opportunity presented itself when the RunGood Poker Series came to Council Bluffs for a week in late August. Though I was tasked with coverage of the $675 Main Event, I did get a chance to play the $180 Deepstack.
I had come back for Day 2 with 121,000 and ran it up to about 200,000 by the time this hand transpired at blinds and antes of 3,000/6,000/1,000. As one would expect in such a small buy-in tournament, most of my opponents at the table were pretty inexperienced, and I was in a good spot at the time with all but one player covered.
It��s down to the last four tables and right on the money bubble, with 28 set to be paid and $8,704 up top plus a $2,000 package to the season-ending championship.
The Action
Action folded around to a player who had just gotten moved to the table and was on the button. Sitting with a stack of 120,000, he opened with a 2.5x raise to 15,000. The small blind folded, and I peeked down at K?7?. I called.
The dealer spread a flop of K?10?4?, and I checked. My opponent bet 16,000, and I put him all in. He snap-called, showing KxQx. The turn and river ran out dead, and I shipped more than half of my stack two seats to my right.
Concept and Analysis
My opponent makes a standard button raise in one of his first hands at the table, so I don��t yet have any reads. I look down at K?7?, a pretty solid hand considering the situation. I strongly considered shoving in this spot but opted to call instead, figuring my hand to be pretty playable postflop.
When I flop top pair, I again have a few options. After checking and watching my opponent bet, I decided to shove to see if I could get my opponent to call off light thinking I had a draw like A?X? or QxJx. That��s a play I don��t love in hindsight, but I think it could have been avoided entirely by just shipping it preflop.
There are a few reasons I like a shove before the flop better. First, I had a stack that put my opponent at risk if he called it off. On the bubble of a live tournament, even one where a min-cash is only a few hundred bucks, players are willing to call off their stacks preflop with very few hands. So it��s far more likely than not I��ll increase my stack by more than 10 percent right there.
Second, with so many more chips than my opponent, I��m not in horrible shape if he calls and wins. In that scenario, I��d have about 80,000 left, more than 13 big blinds. That��s not a ton, but it��s certainly a playable stack with plenty of fold equity even if there��s a raise in front of me.
Finally, such a play establishes a dynamic right away with a new player. If I put him all in and he folds, he may be more cautious about raising my big blind in the future, a great result if it gets me a walk or two going forward.
Despite the setback, I was still able to make it into the money, but that was as far as I got, notching a min-cash. I was left to rue this hand afterward, but at least I took something away from it.
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