More on Making Laydowns

Since the writing of what is now part 1 of Making Laydowns, Jay wrote in explaining he did not like my play at all. I could not agree more. He writes:

"Mikey Mikey,

I hate your play. Either r/r AI pf or fold. Though I opt for the AI because I'm assuming you're TAG and don't open many pots so that small reraise is a straight feeler.

Obv never folding on that flop once you called pf.

Also consider raising to 14k pf.

I was actually in this situation in the sunday lottery from the SB's perspective where a LAG opened on the button for the 3rd orbit in a row and I repopped him x2.555 with A8 nearly comitting myself and folding to the push.

He got angry because I folded.

Anyway, I've been banned from the forum for being a bad boy or something and now my PM box is screwy so this is the only forum of communication for now.

Later

J"

My entire point of writing that article was to explain how badly I disliked my actual play and how I talked myself into weakly calling, then calling again when the circumstances and situations called for me to play it differently.

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Jay is 100% correct, preflop... I should have either moved (all-in most logically) or folded. However, he was not "on" with my current table image. As chip leader, I was quite the Loose and Aggressive player preflop. I was running over the table, scratch that... the entire tournament over with my blind aggression. Once the antes started, every pot I was entering was to a raise.

That being said, (in hindsight - without knowing what hand he had) it was reasonable to assume that this dude thought I was stealing. Additionally, I figure he thought he had a hand big enough to show down on it's own and/or stand up to the "big bad wolf." He stared me down, and I froze.

From a starting hand standpoint, my hand was strong enough to re-reraise. Positionally, it was also strong enough to call, as I had position post-flop, thus a re-raise to all-in does not benefit my position being last to act on the flop.

From a chipcount standpoint, however... This guy was pretty much the only player at the table who was capable of "hurting" me. He was really one of only three or four players in the tourney who, at that time, had the chips to injure me in any way, shape or form.

I win that hand, I am chip leader... Wait, already am, by nearly a mile. I fold preflop after my initial raise and to his reraise, I'm still convincingly the chip leader. I call preflop, I fold to the allin bet with top pair, I'm still chip leader, though the gap has closed a bit. I call the allin bet and win, I'm coasting to heads up - though I can already do so if I get away from not just that hand, but also that situation.

I lose that hand (after the all-in), I'm just your average tourney Joe... Everyone in the tourney sees me as a bully. With a loss, I'm a bully who "puts his pants on the same way everyone else does." I'm nothing special, I have not the chips to bully. I have no fall back for when I've got caught trying to steal with a semi-bluffing preflop raise. I have little, if any continuation betting power.

The point I am making is that I stood to benefit little if I won, but would suffer greatly if I lost (to the all-in). I had to reasonablly assume that if I would have called/moved all-in, that he'd get his money in. Why would I... with the chip lead, want to see a flop? He hits, he pushes. He misses he pushes. Again, my hand is strong enough to be there, but does the situation warrant me to be in the game? And if so, should I really allow him the luxery of seeing the flop before committing his chips?

Given the exact situation (my exact raise, his exact preflop reraise), I see the best course of action to be reraising (to all-in) roughly 60-70% of the time with that hand and the second course of action to fold to his raise 30-40% of the time with that hand and in that situation.

This being the case, maybe "making a laydown" is not the correct title to this post grouping? Actually, this is still the best of all possible titles, as I should have situationally folded with top pair, best kicker on the flop and the way I played the hand. Had I done so, I'd have lived beyond the bubble; and not having merely enough chips to just slide into the money either. I'd have still been in a position of power and had the assets to continue torturing my table and the tournament.

Mike


Related Posts

Lay it down

Playing to not lose

Following through on the play

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