Valuable lesson relearned last week

FIRST THINGS FIRST - I've changed the blog URL to http://draydays.blogspot.com

So if you have my blog linked, please update it so you don't have a dead link on
your page! :)

It's been a week now since my live outing to a $30 home game tournament out in Round Rock. Unfortunately I ended up being the bubble boy. After walking away I remembered a valuable concept that I picked up while playing tons of SNG's a few months ago. The idea is that on the bubble, the size of your stack compared to the other stacks at the table matters more than just how blinds you have left.

I'm not a poker expert and I could very well espouse wrong information on this blog under the premise I know what I'm talking about. I really don't know any poker experts who I can discuss concepts with or who can correct me if I'm wrong, though. All I can do through this outlet is just get my thoughts out there, whatever they may be at this moment in time.

When I was participating on the 2+2 SNG forum earlier this year I was really surprised at how many big hands the players there could agree were easy folds on the bubble. The primary factor in the decisions was the presence of someone who was very short stacked. For example you are 3rd in chips with 7 big blinds and 4 people left (3 getting paid). Another player has 2 big blinds. Even though 7 bbs definitely puts you in shove/fold mode, you can still tighten up in most situations. It's because your equity, based on your stack size in relation to everyone else's, is still much greater than the guy with 2bbs left.

My big mistake last Thursday was looking for spots to shove on the bubble because my stack was short enough, when there was an extremely short stack left. We were down to the last 7 with 6 getting paid. I came into the final table of 10 players 2nd in chips. We played for about an hour with 8 players left. Nobody had a big stack, the biggest was maybe 25 big blinds. It's also worth noting this game had a WSOP structure with antes included - something I've never seen in a home game EVER. So the final table was basically a lot of raise it/take it play without many flops being seen.

After we lost the 8th player this guy Brian who was one of the shorter stacks shoved with a couple of rags. The player on his left snap called with AT. Brian lost the hand but had the other guy covered and was crippled at that point. A few hands later I pick up 77 under the gun with about 10bbs left, shoved after a few seconds of thought and BOOM! ran into two Kings. I'm out on the bubble feeling REALLY stupid. :(

I classify myself as someone who always plays to win. I'm not out to just to squeek by in tournaments and make no money. However, the equity of cashing should have been a bigger factor in my decisions at this point in the tournament, BECAUSE Brian had an extremely short stack. Nobody really had chips and everyone's finishing position was going to have more to do with luck than skill. Playing for first and not being scared to put chips into the pot shouldn't have mattered, even if I consider it a valuable attribute for any poker player to have. The most important thing was to cash and lock up that equity and THEN let the cards fall where they may. Obviously now I regret the decision because I ran 77 into KK.

If I'm honest, though, it was luck that got me to that final table 2nd in chips. There were 3 game making hands where I got all of my chips in behind and won - QT>KJ , KT>TT , and against Herby I had Q8 beat his JJ by flopping two eights. The most difficult part about bubbling this tournament was just knowing that first would have been a very nice payday. There were over 30 people playing at $30 a head plus many $10 rebuys. It was actually a sick thing to watch person after person putting an extra $10 in the pool for a stack equal to 2 big blinds. I personally would never pay money for no chips because I think it's money wasted. I would never say that out loud to anyone because they're jacking up the prize pool with zero to no chance of getting back into the game. I had a big chip stack and a good chance of chasing, why would I want to discourage a growing prize pool?

I'd have only done 2 things differently - probably not shove the Q8 from utg...and the 77 at the final table obviously.

Herby was the only guy I knew there, all the regular Sunday crew couldn't make it. We tried to get a game together on Sunday at Herby's place but it didn't happen. :( It sucks that we don't get together and play as much as we used to, but it's a collective effort. I think we've all been either busy or broke most of this year, but I do miss not seeing a lot of the crew as often as I used to.

I hope this entry was easy to read and had a good flow to it. If you knew how long I spent proofreading and rewording it, you'd probably shake your head.