PokerStars Tournament $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (100/200) - 2006/04/28
Table '23836354 1' 9-max Seat #9 is the button - Top 4 Spots Get Paid
Seat 1: luckypointer (4155 in chips)
Seat 2: pedrofreitas (8125 in chips)
Seat 3: frisco369 (7325 in chips)
Seat 4: Dyrty 30 (5165 in chips)
Seat 5: Goodtameetya (3850 in chips)
Seat 6: dirtEjohnson (5725 in chips)
Seat 7: HuricaneNick (985 in chips)
Seat 8: Tressemy (2895 in chips)
Seat 9: tyshipp (2275 in chips)
luckypointer: posts small blind 100
pedrofreitas: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Tressemy [As Kc]
frisco369: calls 200
Dyrty 30: calls 200
Goodtameetya: folds
dirtEjohnson: folds
HuricaneNick: folds
Tressemy: calls 200
tyshipp: folds
luckypointer: folds
pedrofreitas: checks
*** FLOP *** [7h Ac 5s]
pedrofreitas: checks
frisco369: bets 200
Dyrty 30: folds
Tressemy: calls 200
pedrofreitas: calls 200
*** TURN *** [7h Ac 5s]
pedrofreitas: checks
frisco369: bets 200
Tressemy: raises 800 to 1000
pedrofreitas: folds
frisco369: calls 800
*** RIVER *** [7h Ac 5s 2s]
frisco369: bets 1470
Tressemy: calls 1470 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
frisco369: shows [8s Ad] (two pair, Aces and Eights)
Tressemy: shows [As Kc] (a pair of Aces)
frisco369 collected 6665 from pot


I had no real read on frisco369 as we had just reached the final table and I hadn't seen him play many hands.

I was suspicious that frisco had 2 pair, but felt like I had no choice but to call the bet. Had I folded, I would have been left with 1470 chips and the blinds at 100/200, with almost no chance of making it to the money.

Should I have laid it down?

Did I blow it by slow playing earlier?

Any thoughts appreciated

Should I have laid it down? No

Did I blow it by slow playing earlier? Yes

Basically, raise pre-flop, bet on the flop, bet on the turn, and if all goes well you should be all-in well before that river or villian would've folded.

Btw how many people were in this tournament? There are far too many chips on the table for it to be a STT..

Poker is a simple game, most of the time.

This is most of the time. No disrespect (cos it’s a great question) but you are complicating a simple position.

With AK preflop you raise, and you raise to 2B, 3B or 4B (best to mix em) plus B per limper. Here I raise to 4B +B + B, 1200, because there are two limpers and I want to discourage them more than 1000 might.

It is a simple question because you don’t worry about what happens on the flop. 1200 is the percentage bet.

As for someone hitting two pair on the flop, too bad. I am getting 2.3 to 1 against anyone dumb (deperate) enough to call me with A8.

And I don’t worry about stack diminution, although I don’t know for sure.

There is a case for slow playing and trapping, and I’ve played AK this way myself, but it is a poor case. True, you win lots when you hit A or K AND check; but against this are all those lost blinds (they add up) AND you lose out on all those loose prefloppers who call your 1000 – and those callers really add up; PLUS when the flop comes, say, 358 multi, who will stay with your flop bet? – not me, matey.

hth.