Final Table
General Strategy
Poker Lifestyle
Introduction
Early Stage
Middle Stages
Late Stage
| Poker Room | Review | Play Now! | Score | |
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Full Tilt Poker | Read Full Review | Play Now |
9.3
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Titan Poker |
Read Full Review | Play Now |
9.0
|
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PokerStars | Read Full Review | Play Now! |
9.3
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| The Big Laydown |
| Written by John Fava |
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I have come to believe that when you play a freeze out mtt you will have to lay down a big hand now and then and yes some of those are even premium hands. A big lay down takes a lot of discipline and skill to know when you have to lay down QQ for example. I think you will experience more big lay down’s when the tournament structure is such that your starting chip stacks are relatively high and the blind structure stays low for awhile. With a structure such as this you have more time to pick your spots and sometimes the situation dictates you lay down queen’s and look for a better spot because you can be more selective. Online I have seen this situation many times. A player has pocket kings and even though the flop brings an ace he/she will still bet or call a bet/raise. The player will bet/call all the way to the river because after all “I got kings !” You must have the discipline to fold when you have a premium hand but you feel you are beat. I see the same scenario with AK a lot. I was online recently and came across this situation. I had aces and made it 4x the big blind from middle position. I had one caller from the cut off and everyone else folded. The flop came k 7 4 with 2 hearts. Not a scary flop but hoping he may have caught something or just protecting from a possible flush I bet out ¾ of the pot. He hesitated for a second then showed a raise. He bet double the pot! I went into the tank and used 19 of my 20 seconds. I thought, he just called my big raise before the flop so he must have a good hand but wouldn’t he have raised with a premium hand like AA or KK to try and take the pot right there? I had no notes on him so I was not sure of his playing style as this was still early in the tournament. Maybe he had AK and thought he had the best hand? Since it was still early I decided to lay down the aces but in the chat box I had to ask what he had. He responded “KK, good laydown” and I was leaning toward believing him because he was still around much later in the tournament and I didn’t see him jump into many pots. He was playing a tight aggressive game. I had one other big lay down recently that I would like to share. I was playing a 2 table freeze out and the blinds were 75/150. I had AK under the gun and bet 450. A short stack from middle position went all in with his last 500 and a player from the cutoff went all in with 1200. After my bet I had 2000 and thought that facing a raise (all be it from the short stack) and a reraise that one of them had to have a middle to high pair so I opted to fold. Turns out the short stack had 77 and the cutoff had KK. No 7’s or K’s hit the flop but an ace hit the river! I still feel I made the correct call. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to lay down a big hand such as AA, KK, QQ or AK. I’ve seen to many players push all in or call any bets all the way to the river with these hands despite the flop, turn and river showing other strong possibilities. Once and awhile you have to find the discipline to make the big lay down. |
| Poker Room | Review | Play Now! | Score | |
|
Full Tilt Poker | Read Full Review | Play Now |
9.3
|
|
Titan Poker |
Read Full Review | Play Now |
9.0
|
|
PokerStars | Read Full Review | Play Now! |
9.3
|