FTOPS Event 12

Last night was the $300 rebuy 6-max. I was in for “the minimum”, meaning a double rebuy initially and the add-on, but I use scare quotes because soooooooooo many people weren’t rebuying. I was the only one to double rebuy initially at my table of six. Thankfully the others were absolutely terrible and that kind of made up for the fact that they didn’t have many chips to lose.

I came out of the rebuy period with about 10,000 chips and never built up much beyond that. Here was my bust-out hand, I started a thread about on 2+2, and I’m starting to feel now as though shoving pre-flop would have been best even though it’s kind of an overbet. Even calling may have been better than this 3-bet given the stacks:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold’em Tournament, 170/340 Blinds, 25 Ante, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.comHand History Converter

UTG: 21,915
MP: 12,545
CO: 28,597
BTN: 37,233
Hero (SB): 10,560
BB: 4,290

Pre-Flop: (660) 8 8 dealt to Hero (SB)
2 folds, CO raises to 950, BTN folds, Hero raises to 2,965, BB folds, CO calls 2,015

Flop: (6,420) 2 3 K (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO bets 3,500, Hero raises to 7,570 and is All-In, CO calls 4,070

Turn: (21,560) 5 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

River: (21,560) 6 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

Results: 21,560 Pot
CO showed A K (a pair of Kings) and WON 21,560 (+11,000 NET)
Hero showed 8 8 (a pair of Eights) and LOST (-10,560 NET)

The guy seemed reasonably competent, so I really had no idea what he could be just calling with pre-flop. I thought it was pretty obvious I was going to call all in (which is why I should have shoved), and so I would not have expected him to get needlessly trappy with a better pair. Frankly I thought AK would have shoved pre-flop for similar reasons and because weak players hate taking a flop with it. So I just wasn’t sure what he could be betting on the flop. Even if he did hit the K, it’s not a great time to bet it, since I often have an underpair or just no pair at all. With only one pot-sized bet left in the stacks, I thought he would check and try to trap me or let me catch up a little before betting if he really had a K.

But I am just too out of touch with the donk mindset now that I play mostly with reasonably intelligent opponents. I need to move up to stakes where they respect my razor sharp hand-reading skills….