I finished around 163 out of 2300-some runners (it was an odd number, so I guess they did byes for Round 1) in the $200 heads up WCOOP, meaning I went out in my fifth match. My first opponent was easy, just way too tight and predictable. Here was one fun hand against him:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
SB (t4725)
Hero (BB) (t5275)
Hero’s M: 70.33
Preflop: Hero is BB with 6
, 8
SB bets t100, Hero calls t50
Flop: (t200) J, Q
, 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t100, Hero calls t100
Turn: (t400) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB checks
River: (t400) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t300, Hero calls t300
Total pot: t1000
Results:
SB had A, 2 (one pair, twos).
Hero had 6, 8 (one pair, sixes).
Outcome: Hero won t1000
The round two guy was decent, but I still felt I had a solid edge.
In round three, my opponent was awful but in a spazzy aggressive sort of way that actually made it tough to have as big of an edge as I would have liked. By the end he was just shoving every hand for 20-40BB effective stacks. I ended up doubling with TT vs. his 73s, then sucked out A8 vs. AQ, then finished him off with TT vs. his 99.
Rounds four and five were both relatively tough opponents, especially for a $200 tournament. There were one or two hands I felt I played particularly well, but mostly I just cold decked the guy a few times in round four.
Round five was against a prominent SNG and MTT player who was surprisingly tough at heads up. I was pretty happy with myself for this calldown:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 30/60 Blinds (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
SB (t4322)
Hero (BB) (t5678)
Hero’s M: 63.09
Preflop: Hero is BB with Q
, A
SB bets t180, Hero calls t120
Flop: (t360) 6, J, J (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t180, Hero calls t180
Turn: (t720) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t290, Hero calls t290
River: (t1300) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t1099, Hero calls t1099
Total pot: t3498
Results:
SB had 10, 7 (one pair, Jacks).
Hero had Q, A (one pair, Jacks).
Outcome: Hero won t3498
Nevertheless, he won a few medium pots in moderately cold deck spots and ended up making what I thought was a crazy call to bust me. Blinds were 50/100, and he min-raised to 200. I shoved for 1900 with A2o, and he snap-called with KJs and won the race. This was the first time I’d shoved over one of his raises. Like I said, it seemed crazy to me, but I’m sure he knows the math behind shoving ranges a lot better than I do, so I guess he knew what he was doing. In other words, it may well be an unexploitable call, even though my shoving range is probably a lot tighter than that of his average opponent, since even with shallow stacks I’m willing to call and see flops.
I doubt min-raise/calling off a 19BB shove is unexploitable. You’d have to be shoving pretty wide for it to be +cEV.
Like I said, I haven’t done the math myself, and it seemed like a crazy call to me. But FWIW the call doesn’t have to +cEV to be unexploitable. Exploitability has nothing to do with my actual shoving range.
Ok. I’m learning. But here are my thoughts as a novice. If I feel your a better player than I am, I would be glad to get it all in here with KJs. You would need AA or KK to have me dominated preflop. Other than that, I have a chance of hitting top pair, straight or flush. I take those type of odds vs a better player 100% of the time. Why would u shove? It definitely isn’t a crazy call in my eyes.
AK, KQ, QQ, JJ, and AJ also have you dominated, but that’s not all there is to it. The way to resolve a problem like this is to open an odds calculator like Poker Stove, assign a shoving range to me, and see how much equity your hand has against that range. Then you compare that number to the pot odds you are getting.
If you assume I’m shoving 15% of hands, then this is basically a break-even call, and you’re right that a player who doesn’t believe he has an edge ought to make that call. If I’m shoving 10%, it’s a losing call, even if you remove AA and KK from my range (I may slowplay those).