I had gotten into the habbit over making huge preflop overbets with KK or AA - enough so that if a shorty called me they knew it was for their tourny life. I'm fine with that, in the turbo's they gotta start taking a chance, and I want them to feel like they can double-through right quick. Well, this time the other big stack shoves. Hoping he was just getting sick of my overbets (was really man-handling the table on the flop too), and/or picked up AK, I instacalled, and saw this:
Yea. Bummer. Doubt I could have gotten away from it; if I had made a more standard raise, and the guy came over the top, I would have had to call/shove. At the levels I'm playing I can't assume that the 4th raise means aces -- it could mean QQ, JJ, 1010, 99, A5s, AQ, AJ, A9s... given this guy didn't let on to me that I should peg him for anything other than the typical lower-limits player, and plus the fact that I had been such a bully that I thought he was trying to take control of the table from me. Oh, well.
Next, I decided to register for 3 6-seat turbo's at once. That was FUN! One of them, I literally did not win one hand- not one! And still went out 3rd! The other two I (ahem!) won! One was great - I got a decent lead fairly early, and pressured the table whenever I could. With the 6-person format only paying 2, it encouraged me to play faster, more aggressively... I played to either win or bust trying. I'll tell ya, players hate to be constantly beat-up on. I found a good balance between pressuring with big bets, and not over committing chips to the pot or willy-nilly doubling up shorties. The other one I won, though.... sweeeeeeet!!!!
The sweetest part of it is the chip count when we started heads up:
Seat 2: gsw61515 (1,150)
Seat 3: award623 (7,850)
That's right - I was outchipped almost 8-1. Remember: never count yourself out. What I had to do here was pressure whenever I could. After winning a small checked-down pot with a high card, next hand gave me A9 on the button, so I shoved. I almost expected him to call with ATC, but he actually had a hand:
Seat 2: gsw61515 (1,150)
Seat 3: Villain1 (7,850)
Villain1 posts the small blind of 150
gsw61515 posts the big blind of 300
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to gsw61515 [9s Ad]
Villain1 calls 150
gsw61515 raises to 1,150, and is all in
Villain1 calls 850
gsw61515 shows [9s Ad]
Villain1 shows [6s 6c] <--- a pair, but thankfully I have overs
*** FLOP *** [Ah 4d 8d] <--- kaBOOM!
*** TURN *** [Ah 4d 8d] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [Ah 4d 8d 3s] [Jc]
gsw61515 shows a pair of Aces
Villain1 shows a pair of Sixes
gsw61515 wins the pot (2,300) with a pair of Aces
So, one coinflip won, doubled up. Need to keep applying pressure. He knows one more double-up and we're basically even. Next hand QJo, min-raised to 600. When the flop brought a Q I shoved, he folded. Gave me a walk the next hand (side-effect of constant pressure: they're less willing to play marginal/atc-type hands). Next hand I have Qxo, raise to 900, calls. Flop is K high, Villain1 checks, I shove - FOLD. Constant pressure. I was playing to win, and win only. I pressured enough pots that I got to this point w/o a showdown since the A9o hand:
Seat 2: gsw61515 (4,450)
Seat 3: Villain1 (4,550)
Yep, by applying constant pressure, I got to even. I also, of course, got lucky that he didn't have a hand during this time (or not a hand big enough he was willing to gambool with it). But most of the flops I was shoving were ragged enough that it was doubtful he would have hit them. Once I got a few chips, too, I didn't shove anymore -- raises, and flop bets, but no shoves -- I never bet enough to be committed to a pot unless I wanted to be called. The one time he played back, I folded - he so rarely did I figured he had the goods that time. I dunno if he did.
At this point, the following hand happens:
Seat 2: gsw61515 (4,450)
Seat 3: Villain1 (4,550)
gsw61515 posts the small blind of 200
Villain1 posts the big blind of 400
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to gsw61515 [Kc Ks] <--- yippee!!
gsw61515 raises to 1,200
Villain1 calls 800 <--- double-yippee!!
*** FLOP *** [2h 3d Qs]
Villain1 bets 2,400 <--- yes! he hit a Q & pot-committed himself!
gsw61515 raises to 3,250, and is all in
Villain1 calls 850
gsw61515 shows [Kc Ks]
Villain1 shows [9s 7h] <--- wait - where's the queen?!
*** TURN *** [2h 3d Qs] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [2h 3d Qs 2c] [5d]
gsw61515 shows two pair, Kings and Twos
Villain1 shows a pair of Twos
gsw61515 wins the pot (8,900) with two pair, Kings and Twos
This turned out to be quite an unlucky hand for my opponent. I was at first surprised to see no pair/no draw, but honestly he made a great play - if I didn't have a real hand, the stop n go here would have worked great. Unlucky for him. But this is the part where if I had raised with rags, and had no pair/no draw, I don't call him. He only had made a play at one or two other pots HU, which I conceded to him.
One of the great things about being involved in two HU matches at once was that the pressuring became instinct. I didn't think much at all; I didn't agonize over decisions -- while I concentrated on some more intricate play in the more evenly matched HU game, the short-stacked one became about pressure only: I pressed when it seemed like I should, and then used most concentration to out-maneuver the guy in the other match.
Multi-tabling seems to lead me to make more automatic decisions, letting instinct and already learned-skills take over... playing 4 limit cash games I was more successful than playing one higher limit cash game.. why? Less fancy thinking, less time to concentrate on "what ifs" and my brain gets to a bit of an auto-pilot mode, and less playing marginal starting hands (still a big weakness in my limit playing).
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