A little tournament action

Last night I took a visitor staying at our place to a local freeroll. He’s a microstakes grinder but has never played in a ‘real’ tournament before. As fate would have it, he finished a very credible sixth out of the eighty something runners and had the time of his life.

My tournament didn’t go quite so well. At the end of the first session I hadn’t won a hand. My best hole cards were A8o in UTG+1 which i planned to raise until UTG (uber tight/card dead also) lead out. The bad run continued after the break until i finally found a good ‘situation’.

My stacked was 2200 with the blinds at 100/200. My image was super tight as I’ve been folding napkins all night. The table was hyper loose/aggressive and would call virtually any raise. It was actually quite a strange table as typically they play loose/passive as my visitor friend soon found. As i was in the BB, I quickly glanced at my cards and saw J8 diamonds. Early position (clueless, any two, old guy) open limps, two more limp behind then the SB caps his option. Perfect spot I think to myself. Hold my cards snugly like i have pocket aces, i carefully avoid eye-contact then confidently slide my 2200 across the felt announcing “I’m all in guys”.

The old guy that open limped snap calls for most of his stack. Everyone else quickly mucks.

“WTF?!?!“ I think. Did he limp with a monster hand?

I proudly table my J8, “Hey, its suited”. My opponent tables QT of diamonds. “Damn, there goes my suits and straight draws. Lovely”. Still, I’m not that far behind.

The flop give me the 8. (“Ha, i think, now you’re drawing to a Queen or Ten”)

The turn brings the Jack. (“Ha, I think, now you’re only drawing to a....)

The river flips the 9.




FG

PS I did take a few notes while spotting my friend make a run at the final table.

A couple of tips i picked up watching you play. Thought i might brain dump it while its fresh.
- In a casino you can’t lift your cards off the table either onto the rail or as you saw some do, to your chest. Always protect your cards either with your hand or with a chip. It’s not uncommon for your hole cards to get swept into the muck accidently.
- Keep your chips close to you. You had yours closer to the pot than to you.
- Best not to say anything at all in a hand. You almost scared ‘green shirt’ away from your double up when you said ‘It’s only 6k more’ or something. If you want to spread misinformation and look nervous, you could hold your cards loosely like its 72o and not AA, lean back from the table and maybe fold your arms. (Joe Navarro’s book on body language is awesome – not just on picking tells but more importantly not giving them away. I had a really obvious tell which was foot tapping when i had a playable hand. )
- It’s personal preference, but i prefer to wait before looking at my hold cards until the action is on me. Or for a friendly game, so i don’t hold up play i look just before the action gets to me. The main reason is to watch the action and pick up tells. You’d be surprised how much people give away.

Congrats on playing really well and making a final table!