Posted Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:11 pm GMT by Ryan231
So yesterday I played a roughly 150 man live tournament and ended up in third place at the end. My question goes to the more experienced LIVE tournament players out there, throughout the entire tournament I probably played 25 hands, all premium cards and was the chip leader most of it and was chip leader going into the final table of 8.
Now I'm at the final table, I have roughly 25000 (starting stack of 1000), the rest of the table is sitting around 15-20k and 1 or 2 around 10k. The blinds start at 1-2k but quickly go up to 2-4k after like 4 hands. My problem was that I was seeing absolutely NOTHING in the way of good hands, after about once around the table we are down to five with the small stacks getting beat out. I'm at about 22k (won 1 small pot; battle of blinds) and there are people with well over 35k at this point. The table was playing very tight and weak, nobody wanted to make a big move. The guy next to me was starting to play agressive taking down lots of blinds so this hand comes down:
Everyone folds to the button, he raises 3.5x the BB I'm on the SB with 22, this guy was raising a lot so I put him on 2 face cards, QK or A10 so I push all-in, the BB ends up calling all-in as well and the button calls.
A-Ko- button
22 - Me
88 - BB - I'm not sure if I like this call but whatever, I took most of this guys stack earlier with AQ when he had 66, he seems to like PPs.
I ended up beating out the AK guy and getting a bit back but that was pretty much it for me, I lasted a bit longer but didn't see any decent cards. My question is basically what do you do at the final table, blinds are HUGE, your seeing nothing for cards (22 was by far the best hand I saw) and your getting widdled away? I'm a fairly tight agressive player and put most of my plays on what I feel can win (exampe I felt my 22 could beat AK, didn't expect BB call). I just have a hard time at the end of games where the blinds are big and you have to pretty much gamble with whatever is given to you, there must be some sort of system?
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Posted Sat Feb 25, 2006 4:44 pm GMT by tame_deuces
Snoogins made an excellent post on this here, I think it is intended mainly for SNG play, but should be applicable to some faces of MTT final table also:
http://www.texasholdem-poker.com/forum/t15714/endgame-observation?highlight=
Posted Sat Feb 25, 2006 4:44 pm GMT by Ciso_B
I may have let him take it when u got 22, the tournaments i played like that u know even if they bluffing or are weak. They are compelled to call cos of pot odds especially with ure short stack, and so all in with 2 2 is a bit weak i dont like 50-50s.
My advice would be to push in late position wihtout even looking at ure cards if everyone has folded to you. You said ureself people play tighter and a bit passive at this stage cos they wanna survive and get up to a higher level in the money.
So, push push push basically is my advice. So long as the pot hasnt been opened and ure in good position , CO or button or sb vs bb. Id push with anything, u gotta take risks and risk vs reward is worth it at this stage.
That aside well done on the 3rd place.You're obviously doing something right to finish that high.
Posted Sat Feb 25, 2006 6:21 pm GMT by Ryan231
Topnotch, I feel with reading that I can improve my late game play immensely. I never realized how strong the push is, I guess as long as the person doesn't have a big PP you are in decent shape to make a push in late position.
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