Poker Articles

I often play the $3 rebuy on Stars. For one thing I like the timing of it. Even if I get lucky and ft it I can still be in bed before midnight. Another good thing is that it is cheap enough so that I can toss in a few extra buy-ins if I run bad early and want to stay in. But I rarely do  ;o)

Sometimes this tourney is an all out all in festival with several players’ chips in the center before every flop. Sometimes even the rebuy hour is as tight as a freezeout. To take advantage of these different types of tables I try to vary my style from ultra tight to merely very tight.

From time to time I see things in these tourneys that I think are worth examining more closely, so I save the hand history. The following hh is one of these. To preface this I would first like to say that I both understand and approve of the hyper aggressive rebuy hour strategy. I know many top online pros who use and abuse it to their advantage.

So let’s look at the hh:

PokerStars Game #13298840004: Tournament #66750694, $3.00+$0.30 Table '66750694 177' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: mysoad (6475 in chips)
Seat 2: Pardal77 (7345 in chips)
Seat 3: acroz28 (4935 in chips)
Seat 4: OutlawEddie (2650 in chips)
Seat 5: Sealed Deck (2975 in chips)
Seat 6: LIMPTHIS (2610 in chips)
Seat 7: tokearoo (2185 in chips)
Seat 8: powersaw06 (9340 in chips)
Seat 9: ebbi111 (2135 in chips)
Sealed Deck: posts small blind 25
LIMPTHIS: posts big blind 50

We had been playing for about three or four orbits already and only powersaw06 was getting out of line. The fact that he had already beaten pocket kings with a t6 offsuit and then took the pot away from pocket aces when his 45 offsuit hit a qt446 board had a few of the guys at the table ranting and raving.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Sealed Deck [9d 8c]
tokearoo: folds
powersaw06: folds
LIMPTHIS said, "nice bet idiot"
ebbi111: folds
mysoad: folds
Pardal77: calls 50
acroz28: calls 50
OutlawEddie: folds
Sealed Deck: calls 25
LIMPTHIS: checks

I know I am tight, but at cheap blind levels I like to call most unraised pots out of the sb. I rarely continue past the flop without hitting it really hard, but it is worth a few chips to look.

*** FLOP *** [6h 7h 5c]
Sealed Deck: bets 200

OK, so I hit this one really hard  ;o) Often I will check this and see what develops, but the two hearts had me thinking a free card was not in my best interest. That, and the fact that none of these guys knew me and how I play made me think that leading out was a good idea.

LIMPTHIS: calls 200
Pardal77: folds
acroz28: raises 4685 to 4885 and is all-in
Sealed Deck: calls 2725 and is all-in
LIMPTHIS: calls 2360 and is all-in

The flat call behind me reinforced my fear of a heart draw, and then the all in and quick overcall had me firmly convinced. To say that I was shocked when the cards turned up is putting it mildly.

acroz28: shows [Kd Ad]
LIMPTHIS: shows [As 8h]
Sealed Deck: shows [9d 8c]

Now, this is the part that had me shaking my head. I see this kind of play all the time with ak too. Again, I understand going all in preflop with your ak and gambling a little. You may just get called by a weak ace and have a dominating hand, or you may be a wee bit behind a pocket pair, but especially in a rebuy, it makes sense.

But why shove into a fairly small pot when two guys in early position have already shown some strength? In my opinion, if you never make this kind of play again it can only improve your bottom line. Even if you don’t go all in preflop, at least put in a decent size raise. And remember, if you don’t hit your hand, all you have is the best no-pair.

*** TURN *** [6h 7h 5c] [Ac]
*** RIVER *** [6h 7h 5c Ac] [3s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Sealed Deck: shows [9d 8c] (a straight, Five to Nine)
acroz28: shows [Kd Ad] (a pair of Aces)
Sealed Deck collected 730 from side pot
LIMPTHIS: shows [As 8h] (a pair of Aces)
Sealed Deck collected 7880 from main pot

Well, I was happy that I won the hand and tripled up. Heck, I was even happy that I wasn’t up against a flush draw. And I am happy to share my thoughts on this hh with you. So make yourself happy and don’t do what the guy with ak did in this hand.