Monday, October 10, 2005

Avoiding bullets

One of the skills every poker player should have, it's the ability to avoid bullets and there are just too many of them in any given tournament, almost all the tournaments we play we have to "die"; if you don't want to, well you have one and only one option; to win the tournament. Let me tell you about my last hands in the 5 tournaments I played this Sunday, to analyze if there was any chance to avoid the bullet.

(Sorry about not having the complete details, stack sizes, amount of bet, etc, but I'm playing 3 tournaments now while I write)

PS: I raised with QQ and get 2 callers. Flop came J82, I bet, one player called. Turn is a blank, I check to look weak, he bets and I check-raise him all in, he calls with 22.

FT: I raised with AA, one caller. Flop came K35 with 2 spades, I bet, he raises, I reraise he calls. Turn is a 3rd spade, I don't have the As, I push, he calls with A3s.

Para ($200): I'm in the BB with 66, UTG raises, I call, flop came 744, I check, he bets, because of his amount I thought he doesn't have a big pair, so I push, my all in is big enough so it would be difficult for him to call me with AK; no problem he just take 1 second to call me with KQ !!; of course, Q in the river.

PP: Short-stacked went AI with 99 vs AT and QQ, no help and lost.

Para($1000 Satellite to Foxwoods): Early in the tourney, UTG calls, I call with JJ and a 2500 stack, LP goes all in for about 800, now UTG thinks and decides to call, and now what to do, I decided to go AI to isolate the original raiser, but problem was, UTG had AA and I was gone.

After analyzing all these hands, I think the only bullet I could have avoided is the JJ, but it was pretty tough to fold JJ in that spot.

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