First hand at the final table of a heads-up, winner-takes-all tournament.

BorinLoner

Seat 1: luckyboy (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: BorinLoner (1500 in chips)

BorinLoner: posts small blind 10
luckyboy: posts big blind 20

Dealt to BorinLoner (Kh Kd)
BorinLoner: raises 20 to 40
luckyboy: calls 20

FLOP: Jc 9s 6d
luckyboy: checks
BorinLoner: bets 40
luckyboy: raises 100 to 140
BorinLoner: calls 100

TURN: Jc 9s 6d 8d
luckyboy: bets 250
BorinLoner: calls 250

RIVER: Jc 9s 6d 8d 6h
luckyboy: bets 1070 and is all-in
BorinLoner: calls 1070 and is all-in

SHOWDOWN
luckyboy: shows (9c 6c) (a full house, Sixes full of Nines)
BorinLoner: shows (Kh Kd) (two pair, Kings and Sixes)
luckyboy collected 3000 from pot

BorinLoner

I've been analysing alot of your hands, so here's one of my costlier mistakes.

Hopefully you can see my logic: Deliberately under-repping my hand on the flop, not loving the turn but feeling that the river has made me good plenty of the time against alot of two-pair hands and I was already beating top pair. I'd watched alot of the other semi-final after winning my own: luckyboy was pretty happy making big bets with top pair type hands.

JingleMa

In Response to Re: First hand at the final table of a heads-up, winner-takes-all tournament.:

I've been analysing alot of your hands, so here's one of my costlier mistakes. Hopefully you can see my logic: Deliberately under-repping my hand on the flop, not loving the turn but feeling that the river has made me good plenty of the time against alot of two-pair hands and I was already beating top pair. I'd watched alot of the other semi-final after winning my own: luckyboy was pretty happy making big bets with top pair type hands.
Posted by BorinLoner

You under-repped your hand far more pre-flop.

Once you don't 3-bet pre, you actually gave yourself a great reason not to go broke.

No need to call off all your chips on that board with the passive line you've taken.

EDIT - just realised you raised 1st and he flatted pre-flop. Same logic though, you've raised and bet small pre+post flop, he's then taken betting lead - don't call off your stack.

BorinLoner

I was on the button pre-flop. I raised and he called. I didn't have the chance to 3-bet.

BorinLoner

I'll go over my thoughts from the start.

I always min-raise from the button, heads-up. I can't vary that because of my hand strength.

On the flop, I c-bet and get re-raised. I think here that if I 3-bet I'll force away all bluffs and probably a 9 or 6 as well. I call and feel he's obliged to bet again on the turn.

The turn's an eight. I don't like it much mainly because it completes hands like 89, 68 and J8. I'm not afraid of the straight because it only makes gut-shot, which isn't something I feel I can afford to be afraid of in the long-run. I call because I was expecting a bet anyway. If I raise here, again I fold out everything but top-pair hands and hands that beat me. I don't need to get bluffs to fold.

The river makes my two-pair and now he shoves for about the pot. I dwelt for a while and eventually decided I was beating more hands - top-pairs and two-pairs - than I was losing to. Since I'd shown weakness after the flop I felt he could bet here with a Jack or still with J9 or J8, because he beats any other Jack and would expect me to call with AJ, Kj, etc.

JingleMa

In Response to Re: First hand at the final table of a heads-up, winner-takes-all tournament.:

I'll go over my thoughts from the start. I always min-raise from the button, heads-up. I can't vary that because of my hand strength. On the flop, I c-bet and get re-raised. I think here that if I 3-bet I'll force away all bluffs and probably a 9 or 6 as well. I call and feel he's obliged to bet again on the turn. The turn's an eight. I don't like it much mainly because it completes hands like 89, 68 and J8. I'm not afraid of the straight because it only makes gut-shot, which isn't something I feel I can't afford to be afraid of in the long-run. I call because I was expecting a bet anyway. If I raise here, again I fold out everything but top-pair hands and hands that beat me. I don't need to get bluffs to fold. The river makes my two-pair and now he shoves for about the pot. I dwelt for a while and eventually decided I was beating more hands - top-pairs and two-pairs - than I was losing to. Since I'd shown weakness after the flop I felt he could bet here with a Jack or still with J9 or J8, because he beats any other Jack and would expect me to call with AJ, Kj, etc.
Posted by BorinLoner

You can if you think oppo will not notice and call anyway.

Plus it's 1st hand with no reads, u might as well ramp it up and hope he sees it as a bit of aggro to take an early lead.

I understand the shove on a board-pairing river looks a bit suspect so your reasoning might be right anyway. You'll get better replies than mine from the HU specialists I'm sure.

DOHHHHHHH

I would play it the same.

Agree with JMa about being able to open bigger first hand, as he doesn't know any different yet. 

Doesn't make that much difference though would probably play out exactly the same.

Sick bubble though, are you allowed to chop in this format?

BorinLoner

I know where you're coming from on the pre-flop raise. There are good reasons to make it a min-raise heads-up on the button, but the specific reason I don't like varying my raise size here is that if it goes to showdown as a medium-sized pot, he'll see me making it 60 or more with a big hand. That makes it tricky for me to represent big hands when I make it a min-raise in future. You also don't want to just scare your opponent off when you can play a flop in position, with a strong made hand. Betting big loses value when they just fold.

The river is the worst card in the deck for me. If it pairs the 9 or J, or doesn't pair at all, I can fold to a shove. I only call because his range has become only Jacks or sixes - apart from the really unlikely T7. Check-raising the flop with a gut shot doesn't seem likely - and there are more Jacks in his range than sixes.

BorinLoner

Sadly, no deals were allowed. I wouldn't have wanted to deal anyway. Having watched him in the semi I felt like I had his number. I'd got my notepad out and had a page on each of the potential opponents... seemed like a bit of a waste of time after one hand. lol

It would have made such a difference to my roll. Things were thrown. Air was turned blue.

YOUNG_GUN

id open bigger first hand as we're so deep 60-80 , post flop dont really like calling a shove especially as its winner takes all i doubt they would go all in on a bluff or draw first hand and generally they shouldnt be bad enough to get in worse then u here. i prob sigh fold turn based on winner takes all and your opponent will not be a complete fish

BorinLoner

Well as I say, I'd intentionally under-repped my hand so I thought he'd be pretty convinced that a Jack was good. Having called the flop raise, I couldn't fold to the turn bet since a bet from him here was almost mandatory and I was expecting it, to carry on a bluff or bet a made hand for value in the face of my perceived weakness.

On the river, he can never be shoving an 8 or 9 or 89 so I'm only putting him on a six or a Jack. There are more Jacks in his range than sixes though so...

grantorino

dont get 1/2 potting the flop

rest I dont really mind, but 6 on river only helps you v J9 of his likely range. Decision point is on the flop imo