Playing the MD Live $75 "bankroll builder" 10k guaranteed tourney yesterday, 408 entries, paying top 45, $105 for a min-cash with a nice 4-figure payday for the top few spots. The "players remaining" number on the tournament clock has been dropping in chunks for the past hour or two, and recently went from 57 to 53 to 50, then quickly back up to 52. We are definitely near the bubble but not sure exactly how close.
Hero has been at new table for about 2 orbits, shoved <10BB's once and picked up blinds, then 3-bet shoved button with AJo over cutoff's ATo open and got the double up. Other than that has mostly folded and currently sits with about 65k in chips with blinds having just gone up to 4k/8k/1k ante. Average is about 120k but there are about 4-5 players of the 9 at this table in the 30-80k range, with maybe one or two players with a little more than average. Play has been a mix of raise-and-take-its and short-stack all-in pre flips. The following is a string of hands that I'm interested in feedback on, though the results are going to be revealed as well. Particularly curious about hands #2-5 and other's would have just tried to fold their way into a min-cash...
All hands are 4k/8k/1k ante 9-handed.
Hand #1
(65k in chips, 52 players remaining) Hero is UTG with and shoves all-in. Gets called by shorter stack in MP with and loses on X runout.
Hand #2
(24k in chips, 50 players remaining) Hero is in BB with . After BB and ante he has 15k behind. One of the big stack limps UTG+2. Button limps behind. SB completes. Hero checks option. Check-folds to button bet on flop.
Hand #3
(15k in chips, 49 players remaining) Hero is in SB with , so 10k behind after posting. MP short-stack shoves all-in for 50k-ish. Folds around, Hero folds, BB folds.
Hand #4
(10k in chips, 49 players remaining) Hero is on button with . MP big stack player opens for 20k. Folds to Hero, Hero folds, folds around.
Hand #5
(9k in chips, 49 players remaining) Hero is in cutoff with . Hijack player shoves all-in for about 50k. Hero decides to finally go with it and dumps his remaining 1BB in. SB big stack calls. Hijack has , SB has . 8's hold up and Hero's out in 49th.
Some of my own quick thoughts:
#1 - Pretty sure this is an easy shove. Our stack is big enough to threaten a decent chunk of even the larger stacks at the table, and we can probably get folds from low-medium pairs and we flip against some that may call. If we run into AQ/AK or better so be it. Got lucky to get called here by a hand we dominate, and then unlucky on the 4-outer turn. Would've been nice to win this one and get close to an average stack (sigh).
#2 - Most likely would have jammed this if I had closer to 5 or more BB's, but foresaw a jam here with only 15k behind building a 3 or 4-way pot with little equity for Hero. Opted to take a free flop and try to hit any piece. May have been a slight chance I had the best hand pre-flop and should've just shove-and-prayed?
#3 - Hating life at this point. Meh?
#4 - Thought about dumping it in with this one. The raise in front gives us protection against a multi-way pot and we get added value from the blinds with a hand that has decent enough equity against hands like big aces or lower pairs.
#5 - Meh? Considered after this if I could have just folded my way into a min-cash. My stack is so short even a quintuple-up leaves me in the red zone.
Hero has been at new table for about 2 orbits, shoved <10BB's once and picked up blinds, then 3-bet shoved button with AJo over cutoff's ATo open and got the double up. Other than that has mostly folded and currently sits with about 65k in chips with blinds having just gone up to 4k/8k/1k ante. Average is about 120k but there are about 4-5 players of the 9 at this table in the 30-80k range, with maybe one or two players with a little more than average. Play has been a mix of raise-and-take-its and short-stack all-in pre flips. The following is a string of hands that I'm interested in feedback on, though the results are going to be revealed as well. Particularly curious about hands #2-5 and other's would have just tried to fold their way into a min-cash...
All hands are 4k/8k/1k ante 9-handed.
Hand #1
(65k in chips, 52 players remaining) Hero is UTG with and shoves all-in. Gets called by shorter stack in MP with and loses on X runout.
Hand #2
(24k in chips, 50 players remaining) Hero is in BB with . After BB and ante he has 15k behind. One of the big stack limps UTG+2. Button limps behind. SB completes. Hero checks option. Check-folds to button bet on flop.
Hand #3
(15k in chips, 49 players remaining) Hero is in SB with , so 10k behind after posting. MP short-stack shoves all-in for 50k-ish. Folds around, Hero folds, BB folds.
Hand #4
(10k in chips, 49 players remaining) Hero is on button with . MP big stack player opens for 20k. Folds to Hero, Hero folds, folds around.
Hand #5
(9k in chips, 49 players remaining) Hero is in cutoff with . Hijack player shoves all-in for about 50k. Hero decides to finally go with it and dumps his remaining 1BB in. SB big stack calls. Hijack has , SB has . 8's hold up and Hero's out in 49th.
Some of my own quick thoughts:
#1 - Pretty sure this is an easy shove. Our stack is big enough to threaten a decent chunk of even the larger stacks at the table, and we can probably get folds from low-medium pairs and we flip against some that may call. If we run into AQ/AK or better so be it. Got lucky to get called here by a hand we dominate, and then unlucky on the 4-outer turn. Would've been nice to win this one and get close to an average stack (sigh).
#2 - Most likely would have jammed this if I had closer to 5 or more BB's, but foresaw a jam here with only 15k behind building a 3 or 4-way pot with little equity for Hero. Opted to take a free flop and try to hit any piece. May have been a slight chance I had the best hand pre-flop and should've just shove-and-prayed?
#3 - Hating life at this point. Meh?
#4 - Thought about dumping it in with this one. The raise in front gives us protection against a multi-way pot and we get added value from the blinds with a hand that has decent enough equity against hands like big aces or lower pairs.
#5 - Meh? Considered after this if I could have just folded my way into a min-cash. My stack is so short even a quintuple-up leaves me in the red zone.