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Top Pair middling kicker
Hello All,
I have recently started playing in a local $60 charity tournament that’s put on by a local bar league (Eastern Poker Tour or EPT). Most players in these tournaments are the type of players you would expect to find in a bar league, minus the drinking.Two Saturdays ago I found myself playing this hand. I’ll give context of where my mentality was as well, which I think played a big part in the decision making.
Context: I had been lingering in the tournament most of the night with the occasional small win, but mostly being card dead when I suddenly got smacked by the deck. In a 3 level (15 minutes/lvl) period, I went from ~10-11 BB stack to about 150 BB stack. I think we played ~30 hands, and I only folded 2 hands preflop, getting mostly JJ+. I think the worst hand I played was KhTh from the BB with 4 limpers where one opponent turned a flush, shoved for 8 BBs when I had two pair and ~110 BB, and riverred a boat. It was that kind of run and I was flying high on the excitement after personally knocking out 12 players to help get us here.
On to the hand: We had just broken from the previous table to start the final table. This was the first hand at the final table, blinds were 4k/8k with no antes 9 handed. I was chip leader with ~500k in chips, second place was to my left in the small blind with 150k stack(villain). Table folds around to me on the button and I look down at KhJc and raise to 20k. Villain raises to 60k, BB folds and back to me. I don’t think too long before making the call. Flop comes, KT6r. Villain shoves for his remain 90k. I tank for about a minute, but based upon how I’ve been running the previous 45 minutes, I end up calling. Villain shows AA and they hold up.
As I’ve gone through this in my head, and discussed with friends, I feel like that only place I really could have gotten away from this hand was to the initial raise preflop. I feel this way just from the stack size that I had, where after this hand I was still chip leader. But it started a downward spiral and I ended up bubbling in 6<sup>th</sup> place where a couple times I ended up getting coolered (ie. I flopped top two pair (AK) to lose to flopped set of 9s). so those just happen. But did my mentality of “I can’t miss” affect my judgment on the preflop action and should it have been a red flag to see villain shove on the flop, meaning should I have paid more attention to his possibility to having AK, KK, TT, or AA even.
Thanks
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2 Replies
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Happy tilt is a real thing!
When villain 3bets 1/3 of his stack we need treat treat it as if he went all in. ie would you fold KJo to an all in? Solver says yes and so do I as players are tighter in this spot than they should be. A 3bet of 1/3 of his stack should have alarm bells going off.
As played I think you can consider folding top pair. Do you have a read that villain can only bet here with value like sets, better top pair, AA etc? What bluffs/worse hands does he have? QJs probably doesn’t 3B pre and on a rainbow board there are not many other bluffs from your average recreational player.
Solver would probably say you can’t fold top pair, but I would say you can make an exploitable fold.
Regarding happy tilt, it is a phenomenon that can happen when we are on a heater and feeling invincible. We assume we will keep winning to keep the rush going like a drug, we need to win more hands! I like that you identified that as an “I can’t miss” mentality. Knowing the feeling will help you to ground yourself when this situation comes up in the future.
Stop, think and try to put your opponent on hands that you beat. If you can put them on enough of them, CALL – if you can’t, FOLD.
The Poker Mindset by Matthew Hilger and Ian Taylor and The Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler and Barry Carter are two books that have helped me with my “inner game”.
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I agree that the decision preflop was where this hand went south. We can go through all the solutions provided by GTO solvers, but we have to remember that we are playing in a tournament with a very recreational player pool. Your actions preflop would have been fine against a studied player using GTO ranges and actions. Your opponent, on the other hand, did not play a GTO strategy. GTO has very few raises that are not all in. In addition, the ranges played by the SB are much stronger than the ranges played by the BB. This raise with his stack size screams strength. The fact that you have been running well does not indicate that you will continue to run well, but I think you have already realized that. It is important to play each hand as an individual event. Information from prior results should only inform you of your opponent’s tendencies. My final thought is “I hate KJo”. To me this is a reverse implied odds hand and I am reluctant to call a 3 bet with it, even when I’m in position. The kind of hand you win a small pot or lose a big pot.
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