Here are 3 interesting hands from last nights $3R on Stars. I had been super aggressive here for a few hands pushing in preflop to "steal the blinds" - or so they thought. Based on the following 3 hands that happened one after the other, would you play the last hand any differently?

First hand -

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (9 handed)

MP1 (t5611)
MP2 (t27545)
MP3 (t8975)
CO (t7100)
Button (t5849)
SB (t14618)
Hero (t12808)
UTG (t16954)
UTG+1 (t16274)

Preflop: Hero is BB with , .
UTG calls t400, 3 folds, MP3 calls t400, 3 folds, Hero raises to t12808, UTG folds, MP3 folds.

Final Pot: t13808

Second hand -

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (9 handed)

UTG+1 (t5586)
MP1 (t27520)
MP2 (t8550)
MP3 (t7075)
CO (t5824)
Button (t14393)
Hero (t14008)
BB (t16529)
UTG (t16249)

Preflop: Hero is SB with , .
3 folds, MP2 calls t400, 3 folds, Hero raises to t14008, 1 fold, MP2 folds.

Final Pot: t14608

Third hand -

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (9 handed)

UTG (t5561)
UTG+1 (t27495)
MP1 (t8125)
MP2 (t7050)
MP3 (t5799)
CO (t14368)
Hero (t15008)
SB (t16104)
BB (t16224)

Preflop: Hero is Button with , .
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t1000, 1 fold, MP2 calls t1000, 2 folds, Hero raises to t14983, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls t13983, MP2 folds.

Flop: (t31141) , , (2 players)

Turn: (t31141) (2 players)

River: (t31141) (2 players)

Final Pot: t31141

Well always consider that when it comes to tournament play I'd rather take some coinflips and high risk moves to either go deep or go home. I'm not a big fan of sneaking into the money, playing 5-6 hours for a small return on my money. I'm happy to put it at a little bit of a risk with the hope that I'll go deep enough to make the final table.

In this particular situation I had strong reads on my opponents and knew that they would fold to the first push. The second one wasn't planned but I saw the opportunity to take down another 1k+ pot and that's almost 10% of my total stack. By the third hand I knew they were getting sick of me pushing into them and was absolutely sure someone would call, if not both players.

I don't recommend making moves like this without good reads and probably wouldn't have been so eager to make them had I been moved to this table very recently.

What I really like about these three hands is an illustration of how much "hidden luck" there is, esp in MTTs. I like the moves, as they lined up. The "hidden luck" in this case is how they lined up. From looking at the chip counts they happened consecutively, right? The outcome may have been different, most likely would have been different, had the hands been played an orbit apart. Also, that opponents didn't have good hands to call, and villain had at least a good enough hand to call the AA push.

I posted recently that I believe you have to get lucky three times to go deep into an MTT. No doubt there are many times when you have to get lucky and don't realize how lucky you got. My 3X theory is when you push with the worst of it and win. I think it's simply not possible to win unless you are aggressive and lucky at the right times.

"To live, you have to be willing to die."


CJ