Floyd Alexander's $100 No-Limit Hold 'Em

Date: Saturday, September 6, 2008
Location: Floyd Alexander's Poker Basement - San Jose, CA
Starting chip stack: $10,000

Hand #1.1

If memory serves me correctly, the blinds were at 200/400. Floyd is on the button, raises to 1600, with only 3000 in chips remaining after that. Player to the right of Floyd folds. Doug Sargent (my brother in law) is sitting to my right. He raises another $5,000. After some thought, my best guess at his hand was pocket kings. I looked at my hand, and I had pocket queens. I only had a little over $8000 in chips left.

Analysis of Doug's hand:

Relatively early position, re-raising enough to put Floyd all in, which in itself would mean a medium to premium pocket pair or big slick, suited or unsuited. I don't think he would raise such a large amount with pocket aces, as he would actually want to just call with them because of his position, and then trap other players if they try to re-raise. He raised a large amount, which not only is an isolation move, but it is forcing players to pay a premium price to draw out. Doug had almost twice as many chips as any of the players behind him, so he could afford to make a move like that.

Analysis of my options:

Unfortunately, I picked up a big hand in this situation. I'm facing a raise and a re-raise from the chip leader. I would have to commit 75% of my chips in order to call the re-raise, so calling is not really an option. I either have to fold or go all-in. If my analysis of Doug's hand is correct, then I would be a 4-1 underdog. I would be putting in $4800 to win the remainder of Floyd's chips (although if I went over the top of Doug, he would probably have folded) plus Doug's chips in the main pot, so that would be getting 3-1 pot odds on those chips. The side pot between Doug and I would have been about $7,200. The total pot would have been about $22,000. The implied pot odds would have been less than 3 to 1 ($8000 to win $22,000), and my hand was a 4 to 1 dog, so the right move here was to fold.

Begrudgingly, I folded my pocket queens (a first for me).

Hand #1.2

Blinds: 400/800
Antes: 50
Players remaining at the table: 6
Player A on the button raises to 3000. Doug folds. I have about the same amount of chips left. Total pot at this point: 400 + 800 + 300 * 3000 = $4,500. I look down to find pocket jacks, a medium pocket pair.

Analysis of Player A's hand: On the button (early position), raises to a little over 3X the big blind. Puts in double the pot size. Not sure exactly what he had. Could be a medium pocket pair or big slick. Player A is probably 2nd in chips with approximately $15,000 in chips.

My options: If I call, then half of my chips will be going into the pot, with half of the rest of the table to act after me. Because of the size of the blinds, I have to either fold or go all-in. I decide to go all in with a bit over $8,000. One of my mistakes was already telling Player A "you got it", "easy call", etc. His pot odds were an additional $5,000 to win a pot of about $13,000, so 2.6 to 1. He calls and turns over pocket kings, which hold up.

Afterthoughts: I was a little tired of folding premium hands to perceived bigger premium hands (which seemed to be rather prevalent that evening). I think if I analyzed Player A's hand for a little longer, and execised a bit more patience, I would have saved my tournament life at that point.

Overall tournament reflections: I think I made a lot of good decisions, but it only takes one big mistake to get knocked out in a heartbeat.