$20 Tournament Hand Examples

A group of seven was found for a tournament last night that resulted in two hands worth breaking down. The buy-in was $20 with re-buys allowed for the first two rounds. The first hand took place during the re-buy period.

I was dealt the two black jacks in early position and raised it to $350 when blinds were $50-100. I had approximately $11,750 in chips at the start of the hand. I received a call from Lance and Josh, who were acting after me in the hand, and Clint, who was the big blind. There were four of us seeing a flop and the pot had $1,400 in it.

The flop was 10-9-7 with two clubs and a spade. Clint was first to act and without hesitation moved all in for $3,000. With only $1,400 in the pot this is way too big of a bet should he have an actual hand, so I know my jacks are beating him. My only worry at this point was whether I should risk my overpair by just calling his bet, thus giving Lance and Josh a bit better odds to draw at the flush or straight should they want to really gamble, or if I should raise the bet to isolate it down to just Clint and myself. A worry about raising is if I happen to run into a flopped set from Lance or Josh and then I risk most of my chips with no way of getting them back after moving all-in. I should note that I was the chip leader among the four players involved in the hand and therefore would not have had to re-buy should I lose.

I decided not to slow-play the hand and make my move now. I moved all-in after thinking for about a minute. Lance thought even longer than I did and finally called for all his chips, which were less than mine but more than Clint’s. Josh agonized over a fold and finally flipped his pocket kings up thinking he no longer had the best hand. We all showed our hands and it was revealed I was in the lead with my pair of jacks. Clint moved all-in with Q-3 of clubs, going for the flush, and Lance called two all-ins with K-8 of clubs, giving him a higher flush draw than Clint and an open-ended straight draw.

With two cards to come I had to avoid six clubs, one king (as Josh showed his two), three queens, two jacks, and three sixes (as one of those is a club and already accounted for). That is 15 cards that hurt me in a deck with 34 cards left, giving me little better than a 50-percent chance of winning this hand. And that doesn’t even account for a card that comes on the turn that could open up more opportunities for me to be beat, such as a three giving Clint a slim draw at another three for trips.

The turn was a blank but the river was a queen, giving Clint a pair of queens and the main pot. I won the side pot against Lance since he missed his draws, but that didn’t quite cover all of my losses for the hand.

As it turns out, Josh would have won with his pair of kings, but I feel he made the right fold in that situation. With an all-in bet, all-in raise, and all-in call in front of him he had to think his kings were either not the best hand at that point or were not good enough to go up against three different hands. His best move was re-raising pre-flop, but he took a chance at slow-playing the hand and it didn’t pay off. It happens.

The next hand of interest came after the re-buys ended and we were three-handed. Blinds were $200-400 and I had $8,800 total at the beginning of the hand. James was the chip leader with about $55,000 on the button. He raised it to $1,200. This is a very standard raise in this position, being last to act in the hand, the chip leader, and short-handed. He would raise with any two cards at all.

Clint was the small blind and had approximately $1,000 more than me, giving him about $10,000 total. He called the $1,200. What this means to me is he has a variety of hands ranging from an ace with a middle card to low card, two face cards, two suited connectors, or another pairing of cards that would give him a well-disguised straight or two pair. He basically would call this with a large range of medium-sized hands. Any pair or high ace he is likely re-raising since James’s raise isn’t anything to be too worried about yet.

It gets to me and I have A-Q offsuit. I immediately see this as an opportunity to get an additional $2,400 in chips that are already in the pot or double-up if I get called. I am more afraid of James than Clint as I feel very confident Clint’s hand is not superior enough to call for almost everything he has. If it were he would have likely raised James. My re-raise all-in could backfire should James actually have a big hand, but I had to take that chance when it was three-handed. However, even should James have something like a small pocket pair or A-K he has to be slightly worried about calling off 20 percent of his chips with a person to act behind him. I figured with all of that information I would get to raise the hand and watch both players fold.

James folded like planned, but it was Clint who messed things up. He thought for a second, counting out his chips to see what a call would leave him with, and finally called satisfied he had a shot of winning the pot. He showed K-Q, giving me the dominant hand, but a king on the flop gave him the edge and he came out the winner.

Afterward we got into a brief discussion on the merits of the call, to which I didn’t think was a very good one. We both agreed that I would have not gone all-in for so much had I a really big hand like aces, kings, or queens, wanting to give James or Clint the odds to put more money in the pot and build it for a bigger win. However, where Clint and I disagreed was that I would have made the all-in push with pairs as high as jacks down to twos. I told him I would figure to be a favorite with any pair down to eights, maybe even sevens, and would re-raise an amount less than the all-in so I could build a bigger pot.

What I didn’t like about his call with K-Q there was he is at best a coin-flip to win the hand. There is no way I make that move with a hand worse than his. So he is betting his entire tournament on hoping to hit a king or queen with me having a lower pair. But again, this is all best-case scenario. I can’t imagine a scenario where he is in the lead at this point. So why risk your tournament on you being behind. I could understand if he was in James’s position with a dominant chip lead to take a chance at knocking out another player, getting in the money and going into heads-up play with more than a 6-1 chip lead, but Clint was betting nearly everything on his losing hand. I might be wrong in my thinking, but I want better odds than what he was hoping to get with his K-Q when we were so close to the money.

You may disagree with me, but I still don’t see his call as being a good one in that situation. Call it sour grapes for being beaten and knocked out on the bubble, but I feel the play was an inferior one. Just my opinion.

The biggest surprise from the night was getting seven people to play. It was good to see Josh and Lance and I hope we can get this thing going a little more regularly.