Poker Articles

Analyzing a Recent Tournament Win

In the next series of articles I will go over my most recent tournament win online. I have uploaded the entire tournament onto pokerxfactor.com, and you can find the link for the video here. I will try to make it so that the articles may be read as stand alone articles, but watching the hand history reviewer will offer more insight and give you a better feel for the table dynamics. It'll be more work to read, but it will be a valuable tool for you in my opinion.

So, without further adieu, here is my review of my FullTiltPoker nightly $150+13, 55k guarantee NLHE tournament. I will only comment on hands that are insightful.

Hand 7. Interesting spot actually, with 3k effective stacks, MP3 opens for the minimum to 40 and I have AQ. I will often re-raise in this spot, but I chose not to this time because I believe vs. this opponent, who I believe to be decent (previous history), will not stack off lightly and by re-raising I open myself up to win the minimum when ahead and lose the maximum when behind. I believe that there is much more value in playing this hand in position and keeping the pot small until we want it to get big with stacks this deep (150 bb's). Obviously an easy fold after this flop, but there are plenty of times that I am calling continuation bets unimproved in this situation. Key point: Keep the pot small until you want it to get big.

Hand 10, same theory. We have AQ, raise to 55 (blinds 10-20), get called, and the big blind re-raises to 230. Again, too easy to lose the maximum on an A or Q high flop while winning the minimum when we flop good. It's nice with position, but just no reason again in my opinion to get involved with stacks this deep.

Hand 23. AK is a significantly different hand than AQ. Also, this time the villain is in the cutoff, not MP3. Also, this time we're out of position. A re-raise pre-flop and a c-bet on almost every flop is how this hand really needs to be played. Just calling is way too weak and can be disastrous post flop. Also, bet sizing is a pretty good concept to discuss here. My re-raise was 4x of the initial raise. In general, my raises are 3x the betting unit + one for every limper and + one for out of position. So, if we were on the button, my standard re-raise would be to 315 (3x), but since we're in the big blind, give it a little more gas and make it 420 (4x) so we don't have to play out of position against a really wide range (which we would do by making it 3x... 4x limits their range much more). Then on the flop, my c-bet range is generally in the 50-65% of pot size, and this time I chose about 65% because with our pre-flop action a ½ pot bet looks really weak and will be played back at more, with our villain thinking we have AK, exactly what we have, and are just c-betting. A little more gas makes them think we have a big pair (like we're representing) much more often.

Hand 25. I should have raise pre.

I should be limping more pre.

Hand 47. I should have bet more on the flop. We flopped top set, now we want to play for stacks. I need to start building a pot now. I wrote an article about this recently that I'm sure you can find in the archives. After turning quads, I need to bet about half pot again to make it look like a weak 2nd barrel. If he has a draw (like I put him on... why I checked turn), he will call the weak bet, and then you get his stack if he gets there. In the moment I thought I could double though if he hit, but on second look I don't think I would have been able to.

Hand 52. Example of hand 7 going a different way. Notice flop call (JJ3 we call with AQo).

Hand 72. Should have raised pre. Glad I didn't.

Hand 76. That's how you play a hand perfectly.

Hand 79. 55 in the cutoff facing an UTG+1 raise to 300 and a caller. This is a definite fold for a number of reasons and I believe that this is a mistake that many players make often. First, stack size of the initial raiser. Villain has 1905 and it costs us 300 to call, giving us 6.34-1 odds on our 300 assuming we flop a set, it's good, and we stack him. The odds of flopping a set are 7.5-1. Also though, there are plenty of times where the flop is going to come 832 and we're going to get it in because the villain only has 1605 more. In general, when you're going to call with a hand because of implied odds only (which this should be the case with...), you should be getting about 20-1 on your call price in implied odds. Lastly, a call from you invites a squeeze from the 3k stack in the SB, and there's two other players left to act besides the SB. Key concept: Implied odds and stack sizes.

Hand 80. EZ game.

Hand 87. Should have raised.

Hand 94. Implied odds... 60 to call (52), villain has a huge stack that I cover, so it's a tiny risk that won't hurt my stack if I lose but I am giving myself a chance to get lucky. I flop a pair, bet half the pot because people fold in this spot a lot, and I get called. I turn bottom two pair. I bet 2/3 pot because I want to get more value but still want to look weakish in case the BB wants to make a move on me. The river comes gin. I really should have bet like 975 instead of 650 here because of stack sizes. If the villain has a heart flush like it really looks like he will often, He will re-raise to like 3k of his 10k stack, and I can shove all-in with a very natural bet size. Plus, if I get just called, I make more. I am pretty sure any hand that is calling 680 is going to call 975 in this spot. I failed to give myself a chance to cash in on those implied odds by betting too small.

Hand 97 is a good spot to end for this article.

So, I want your feedback. These articles are much more time intensive than my other strategy articles. If this is not helpful, please let me know so I can write something else. If it is, also let me know so I am encouraged to do more. Also, I offer coaching online, specializing in reviewing tournament hand histories, much like I have done to myself in this article. The first hour is $60, and each hour after that is $100.

Peace and good luck,

Devo
maverickusc@gmail.com

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About the Author:

Bryan Devonshire is a rising star on the professional circuit. Since he took second place in the first event of the 2006 World Series of Poker, he has cashed in four major tournaments, including a first place finish at the Commerce Casino. Bryan is also a featured blogger on PokerPages.com.