Monday, July 19, 2010

Would you fold this hand?

I was rolling along at the Wildhorse tournament on Friday with about 9500 in chips with blinds at 100-200 and a 25 ante. The chip average was 9000 so I wasn't looking bad.

On my small blind the HUGE chip leader at our table raised to 750. Everyone folded to my neighbor on the right who reraised all-in for 10,000 even. This was a huge reraise and I simply didn't believe he had a very big hand because I'd seen some of his reraised hands before. He had also called an all-in of mine when he was holding K-10 offsuit. (I had aces and they held up.)

So when I looked down at QQ I stopped and thought for about 30 seconds. Because of my previous knowledge of this player I simply decided I could not fold and also went all-in. The first guy folded A-K face up.

My opponent also had A-K. This made me feel pretty good. The flop was 10-8-3 rainbow. He stood up. The turn was a jack. He picked up his magazine, said "Nice hand, good luck" and started to walk away. I immediately sensed that I was doomed. The ace hit on the river.

Would you have folded queens in this spot for all your chips with a raise and a reraise in front of you? I later folded queens in the Saturday morning tournament at the Moose in the same situation. (I would have won the hand with a set on the river. Tom had gone all-in with K-9 and Roland reraised with JJ.) I went on to win that tournament so it paid for my trip to Pendleton, but still . . . .

I hate hindsight. I think I should have folded.

1 comment:

Phil said...

Yes, Lynne, I would fold the queens. The reason being that with a raise and a reraise in front of you you are usually looking at a pair and overcards like AK. Assuming that the big stack is observant like you, if you fold he calls with either AK or a pair. Even donkeys wake up with KK or AA even (maybe especially) in the blinds. That said, it is usually wise to not put your tournament at risk with a coin flip....though it was a much better coin flip than most due to the big stack's holding. I think there are just better places to get all your chips in. That is a rough way to get knocked out all said.

Did you read my latest blog? Got my flopped set of queens snapped by a runner royal flush in a Spirit Mountain $120 buy in tournament yesterday. I raised preflop with the queens, very loose calling station calls with K/10 offsuit (10 of diamonds). Flop is AKQ of diamonds. I continuation bet, she calls. Turn is harmless, but I am suspicious so I check the turn. River is the J of diamonds and she shoves. I fold face up, not knocked out, but wounded. She later knocked me out with Q/10. I was in BB with K8 suited. Flop was KQ, I pushed with my short stack and she called with 2nd pair and caught the 10 on river.