Dumbest Tournament Move of the Year Award

[frob23]

I play a weekly couple of tournaments with some local people. It's made up a a couple of dealers and other random people. It's invite only and very casual because most people know the others. There are a few good players, some average players, and a couple truly terrible players who still have a good time anyway. We usually start with two tables but have started with as many as three at times. It's a good game and I am turning a solid return from the games (I have about an 80% ROI for the tournaments). The game is very social and very friendly and 1st and 2nd almost always chop 50/50 regardless of chip-stacks when it gets heads up. I've been on both sides of 50/50 chops where the chips were nearly 30 to 1.

So we were playing last night and the blinds were at 1000/2000. I was the chipleader with a little over half the chips in play. The SB, for this hand, was to my left with about 13000 in chips and he was solidly second in chips although behind me. The two of us had all the significant chips in play and we were almost sure to chop 1st and 2nd. When the hand in question begins, we were on the bubble. There are 5 players left and 4 places play.

Hero: 27000
SB: 13000
BB: 1275

That's right... the BB was all-in for less than the BB. The two other people involved fold. I call and the SB completes. I have a Kc6c which is not a great hand but I am looking to just get this over with.

Main pot: 3825
Side pot: 1450

At this point, the BB turns his hand face up. This was a huge error and we immediately pointed it out to him. Because, it was now possible to know if one of the still active players beat the all-in player and to play accordingly. The BB has J-9.

Flop: 2-5-7 {check, check}
Turn: Q {check, check}
River: A {bet 4000, fold}

I can't possibly call the bet on the end with K-high. And I am not too worried about it because I know the SB can see the BB's hand and should be able to beat it or he wouldn't have bet. As I fold, I comment, "You'd better have something."

The SB turns over 10-8... and wins the side pot with 10-high. The BB wins the main pot with J-high... effectively tripling up. A player no longer involved in the tournament grabbed my mucked hand and flipped it up (which is an issue for another time) because he knew I wouldn't be calling, even in that spot, without a little something. When everyone sees that I'd been moved into folding the best hand... and that the SB's bet kept the whole table out of the money... it was chaos.

This move was bad enough if the BB's hand was unknown. But with it face up... and knowing he couldn't beat it... the SB wins the dumbest tournament move of the year award.

Also, it might have made sense for me to do such a thing because I was the massive chip leader and had been abusing the bubble to threaten people with busting out. Although, I don't like to do such things. The bubble conditions were good for my stack. I was keeping a lot of pressure on the short stacks, including the SB, and making it hard for them to get chips. In this spot, it makes sense for me to want to keep the player in because it lets me continue to grow my stack with little risk. But for the SB, there was no such advantage. In fact, the very next hand he tried to make a move and I put his entire stack at risk and he had to fold... losing much more than he gained in that previous hand.

So... he was just being insanely dumb. And it drove even me crazy. I think it killed the rest of the table when he did manage to make it to heads up and we ended up chopping... there should be more justice in the world.

[Huskers314]

I agree betting there was pretty retarded given that one more elimination brought out the money. But, there was a side pot and poker is (and should be) an every-man-for-himself game. Your "live" opponent got 1450 of his 2000 investment returned while you lost all 2000. Even after tripling up, the short stack has less than a round left to play. I would think bubble play actually benefits you as the biggest stack as you can bully everyone and they will fold almost everything trying to get into the money. In that regard, dummy did you a favor. Why also, may I ask, are you calling with K6s if you are worried about shorty tripling up. It costs the SB 275 to call - He's not going to fold, so AI player is going to have to show down. Either raise to isolate and take the extra 1000 chips (what I would have done), or fold. Just my opinion. Good luck.

[frob23]

I am not worried about tripling up the short-stack because of how short they are. And yes, like I mentioned, being the biggest stack on the bubble was to my advantage. But I would prefer to just get this over with at this point. I was willing to risk tripling up the short stack to take the chance of busting them out and moving on. I was willing to lose the 2000 to the SB if it doubled the chances that it would bust the BB. Raising to isolate wouldn't get me anything extra here. The 1000 chips the SB has in are part of the main pot. I don't gain much by raising because I am not really changing the size of the pot the BB is going to win but I would be cutting the cards he needs to dodge in half.

There are 51,000 chips in play at this time. There isn't much more I can do to drain the remaining stacks since they're going to move all-in anyway. It's better to just get into the money... and let the three short stacks eat each other up or get eaten up when I run into a hand. If I remember right, at the start of this hand UTG had 4100 and the CO had about 5500. Obviously, these are just rounded and approximate numbers. Everyone at this table was in serious trouble with the blind increase we'd just faced. There wasn't much more "bubble" anyway.

As for the fact that he got the extra 1450, that's true. But it's less than 1xBB and he would have gotten that anyway if I couldn't beat the BB. Still, that 1450 didn't really benefit him at this point. With the relative stack sizes, and the fact that top two chop every week, it is to his advantage to have people bust out and let him get into the top two places. It was to my advantage, that I don't deny, because it did keep the pressure on the three shortest stacks, all of who were facing blinds in the upcoming couple of hands. But it was just a dumb play... the fact that I benefitted from it, overall, doesn't make it smarter for him.

[Sydenham]

$5 Head Hunter tonight. I call a pre-flop raise in early position with AK; the flop comes 10-J-Q so I whack it all-in. Retard in the next seat has QJ; I'm 81%+ but guess what hits the turn? Out first hand. Retard wins again.

I've been making a killing at PLO today, cash, so I don't suppose I can complain, but I still will.

Don't kill yourself over making dumb moves. Morons do it all the time and get away with it.

[frob23]

Don't kill yourself over making dumb moves. Morons do it all the time and get away with it.

I wasn't killing myself over this move. I didn't make it, another player at the table did. The fact that I am related to this player... in a legal and not genetic manner... that is a little embarrassing.