An Observers View

I just got off line from UB. I was watching a tournament with a 30 buy in. It was still early in the tourney and SB called big blind for 3.5 times the blind.

It was still early in the tourney. There were still 174 players left in the game.

No reason to risk all your chips for any call. Not at this time. Let some of the other players knock each other out. Don't you knock yourself out. A 50% double up now would give you 2/174 of the chips available at the table. A loss would give you %0 chips. How much value would 3000 chips now get you in the latter stages of the tournament? Does it get you 50% of all the chips on the table - NO? Losing all yours gives you no chance.

This is how the hand went - Big blind had Ace Queen suited and SB had pocket 10's. The flop reveals K J rag rainbow. You know at this point the BB is going put in a substantial raise at this point, even if he didn't hit his cards he is going to represent his hand as hitting the flop with 2 picture cards on the board. He needs a 10 for the straight - he has Ace high with great kicker. In his mind he has the best hand at this point and is going to bet it accordingly. So he bets 1580 his entire stack. SB calls with his pocket 10's. Small blind has 230 chips left now.

The turn comes - another small card. The river - an ace magically appears of course. SB just risked his whole tournament on a bad call.

I made a statement to this effect and the small blind and I got in to a heated argument. I should not have interjected any comments into the game. I was an observer. I was there watching my friend play - and I made a comment to my friend about the bad play.

The SB bemoaned the fact that the BB hit his hand on the river, and he, the SB, had the best hand when he called. He went on to beret the BB for being a donkey player.

We went on to discuss the merits of his hand further. Until several hands later when he made a call to a better hand and the tournament was over for him.

As an outside observer I see the hand a little different than the player who was in the game. The SB blind made 2 major mistakes in this hand:

1. The big blind forced him into committing up over 90% of his chips on a marginal hand. If you had Ace's do you still want to risk your whole stack and tournament on a draw this early in the game?

2. The board had 2 over cards. A King and a jack - 2 cards you could not beat if the other player paired any one of these two cards.

You have to look at this board and ask yourself can I beat the board. Then your answer must be truthful. Can you beat a pair of Jack's or a pair of King's? No you can't. You're looking for that 11% miracle card. You know the BB bet with AK, AQ, or AJ minimum. If he didn't have that what else do you put him on a pair of Queen's or Jack's?

The BB made a grave error by over betting this hand but a good player does not add to the error by calling this play. Fold the hand and wait for the nuts. Do not let some moron put you all-in when you are heads up against him.

I have seen it too often where many players have a great draw and some fool will come along and raise the bet 20 to 35 x the big blind and then out draw the player with a one out hand. Why call? The risk is too great when you are in a tournament - when your chips are gone you're gone. Don't call these wild bets. Wild players are dangerous to your chip stack. Avoid them like you avoid the plague and tainted food.