Am I a f%*@ing idiot? Or did I do the right thing?

I made it to the Final Table in an MTT on Full Tilt. Two players had gone out so it was down to the 7 of us. The blinds were at 500/1,000. I was in 3rd place when this hand started. I had the player to my left covered by only about 6,000 chips.

I was 2 seats behind the button when i limped in with 9 10 of spades. Then the player to my left opened the pot for $2,500. I decided to make the call and see what flops. Now I know this guy's likely got something like AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, or AQ, since he'd been playing a real tight game up to this point. I know i need to flop BIG or get out of the way. And then the flop comes down.

J of Spades, 9 of clubs, K of spades.

S#!t.

I bet about half the pot to get a feel. He goes all in. S#!t again. Now to improve, I need a spade (there's 9 outs), a Q (3 more), or even a 9 (2 more outs) or a 10 (that's 3 more to make a total of 17 outs).... unless of course i'm against KK or even JJ, because then i only have 12 outs.

I make the call.

Now I pose the question. Am I a f%*@ing idiot, or did I do the right thing?

I will post the outcome to this hand soon, but in the meantime I'd love to hear your opinions. Please feel free to be brutally honest. I promise not to be offended.

The Big Donk

I'll push there every day of the week. I may regret it later but the rewards make up for the extra risk in that situation in my opinion. Thats enough outs for me, I'm all in without worry to the outcome.

You did the right thing.

You did what most semi-loose shoot from the hip red blooded american texas hold'em players would do. You used all of the factors judging from your post ie position, chip counts, etc.. but lets face it one million dead washingtons on the line, dou ya make the call.

FearTheDonk wrote:I'll push there every day of the week. I may regret it later but the rewards make up for the extra risk in that situation in my opinion. Thats enough outs for me, I'm all in without worry to the outcome.

I would've made the same call but you can tell from villain's bet and raise that he's probably sitting pretty. Or pushing with a weaker hand to make a move, but if he was tight to this point you would think he's holding some cards. You've got good outs so make the call - the extra risk is worth the payoff imo, even if you tend to be "unlucky" in these situations.

The Big Donk wrote:I made it to the Final Table in an MTT on Full Tilt. Two players had gone out so it was down to the 7 of us. The blinds were at 500/1,000. I was in 3rd place when this hand started. I had the player to my left covered by only about 6,000 chips.

I was 2 seats behind the button when i limped in with 9 10 of spades. Then the player to my left opened the pot for $2,500. I decided to make the call and see what flops. Now I know this guy's likely got something like AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, or AQ, since he'd been playing a real tight game up to this point. I know i need to flop BIG or get out of the way. And then the flop comes down.

J of Spades, 9 of clubs, K of spades.

S#!t.

I bet about half the pot to get a feel. He goes all in. S#!t again. Now to improve, I need a spade (there's 9 outs), a Q (3 more), or even a 9 (2 more outs) or a 10 (that's 3 more to make a total of 17 outs).... unless of course i'm against KK or even JJ, because then i only have 12 outs.

I make the call.

Now I pose the question. Am I a f%*@ing idiot, or did I do the right thing?

I will post the outcome to this hand soon, but in the meantime I'd love to hear your opinions. Please feel free to be brutally honest. I promise not to be offended.

The Big Donk

Thank you all for the feedback. It's greatly appreciated. I also felt I did the right thing and would probably do it a thousand more times if I had to, especially after hearing from others that I made the right play.

And how did it all end?

Well has it turned out, my opponent did in fact have KK. So I had less outs than I had hoped, and the 6's that came on the turn and river did nothing to improve my had, but made quite a lovely boat for the guy with the pocket Kings.

3 hands later I put my last few chips in with AK, which went down to pocket 10's, and I finished 7th, satisfied with myself for a game well played.

The Big Donk

hmmmm....posibble straight draw....flush draw...straight flush draw...pr on board....I would have called.

I think you made a good call especially being at the final table. If you hit the payoff is great. If not well thats poker lol. You were up against a tight player so either he had a rockin hand like he did of he was just trying to make a move. I play tight alot and I find it's easier to throw some bluffs out there and take down pots but it also has bad consequences lol as I have found out. That was just one of those hands.

I know very little about poker strategy, and play mostly by feel. However, in my opinion when down to 7, any hand you are in is qute likely to be an all -in hand by the river. My personal style (I've seen poker on t.v. 3 times because I can't get of the sites! Duh.) at finals, (depending on the other players' skill and aggression levels) is to play my hands MUCH stronger than is warranted by traditional standards if necessary- because once you' re in, you don't have to worry about position with regard to the dead seats.

I know I'm a nut, and should really learn to play the right way, but I get really lucky and see a bunch of top 5's. That being said, I think you would have been a fool not to chase that. That's the typical type of draw that skyrockets my lucky azz from ZERO to HERO when I have the guts to chase it. Well done, slick. Love the site, and thanks all for the freeroll tips.

It's a tough decision. I would have probably done the same thing.

I like these odds. Win most lose some in my opinion. I'd call and take my chances.

well i think you played this right only thing is you knew he was a tight player so chances r he had some thing in his hand.so you had to ask yourself is this the time to gamble. now if it were me i would have called but if you were playing to win this tourney then you might have folded and waited till you had the best hand.

I am the idiot. I kick myself for not reading this one sooner. I have scanned over this Topic so many dozens of times thinking to myself "your probably just an idiot, or donk." and I would pass it over without entering and reading about what you had to say. Sorry boss, don't take it personally, I didn't even look at who posted it.

You told yourself what would happen in the very beginning. He had been playing real tight. Calling the preflop raise with caution was sensable. Calling the reraise push on the flop with the caution lights blinking made me suddenly feel good about calling you an idiot earlier, lol. In that sense though we are all idiots at some point.

Building and trusting your intuition is just as important, if not moreso, than the other skills we all strive to improve upon. Your intuition is the one tool you use in conjuction with all the other skills such as calculating odds, reading tells, building your table image, etc. When you are in tune with yourself you will see that you play a much smarter game. And always remember you are playing a 'game' or a ;'tourny' not just a hand.

If he had been playing loosely or if you picked up on a tell that he was bluffing or simply if you had noticed a pattern with the cards then it would make more sense why you would call. But to be at the final table and ignore the signs telling you not to call simply because of the number of outs you had is careless. You were in good shape, you didn't need to make a move.

hey t.b.k.

well, i'm also late to comment before the hand is revealed. i would like to none the less, though more information would be helpful.

what was the ante amount?
what were the chipstacks amounts for each player?
were you and the cut-off the only players post flop?
what was your table image?

I think BigD overvalued his suited connectors. I would have mucked the 9 10, suited or not unless I was in position and thought i could get the blinds to fold with a shove.

hmmmm...if I'm to chime in here..I think it was a missed step. I need a bit more information...but let me ring in my eval here. First..lets eval the pot...stacks..odds etc. If we have that info we could be able to judge a little better. You weren't short stacked. You were 6 from the big $$. You played out of position and that's ok with the right flop. I think you got the right flop...but you were placed in a tough position. Personally, I think he does one of two things. He flops KKK if he's a good player. If he's not that good, He flops AK...top top...and pushes. The way you describe, I think its the first. So that limits your outs to 12. Personally...I think I take that risk. You know you're behind, but there are enough cards in the deck...to make it a profitable play.