May 2nd - £20 NL Hold'Em - LCI (Brighton)

At some point in any tournament you have to take a view of what your opponent may, or may not do, in the event of you yourself going all-in.

Two examples from last nights £20 NL tournament at the LCI in Brighton illustrate the precipice we all face when deeming that our opponents WON'T call your bets.

Example 1: Its after the break and I have 9k in chips. Blinds are 200-400 and I'm in MP holding A-Q. An EP player raises to 3k. So what do I do?

EP raises are usually one of strength. After all there's a lot of ground to cover between you, as an EP player, and the button so it ensures than only good quality type hands are likely to call. Being re-raised all-in though usually means the EP player is in trouble, even with KK, so to call an all-in bet in this position is, usually at best, a 50/50 shot.

Ok...so I go all-in and Mr EP calls flipping J-J. Its race time. In this instance I win it when an Ace appears on the flop. You NEED to win races in order to win ANY tournament.

Example 2: Its an hour later. Blinds are 600-1200. I have 19k in chips and, again in LP, I get 4-4. Its passed around to me and I raise it to 3k. Mr Big Blind, who happens to be table chip monster, calls and we see a flop of 10-8-6.

There's no doubt that being table chip monster gives you certain rights at any time over the rest of the table and calling a raise of 1800, to the 1200 BB, is one of them.

After the flop he bets out 3k immediately. Usually, if you've hit the flop in EP, you'd check in order to give your opponent the chance to throw some chips into the middle thereby giving you the chance to re-raise. The fact an immediate bet came in screamed two picture cards and he was hoping to slow me down by betting out first.

Of course I wasn't having any of it and moved all-in, for another 13k. He hummed & harred...counted his chips about 6 times then finally called...flipping J-9 in the process.

A King came on the turn followed by a dreaded Jack sending me out of the tournament.

In both examples I believe I did the right thing as I both maximized my chances of doubling up whilst believing the risks were minimul. One win & one loss = tournament defeat but remember...you not only have to do the right things but get lucky as well in order to win ANY tournament you're in.

Entries -> 61 - Place -> 30th - Loss -> £42 ($74) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$7994