I decided to go down to my local footy club were there is a poker tournament every week with 200+ people, and the live experience is great!

Now the issue is that there is no buyin, so people tend to play very loose

Now everyone starts with $1000 worth of chips and blinds start at 25/50 and increasing every 15 minutes....

Play #1...

Blinds are 50/100
I have about $1800 in chips

I am UTG+2 and get dealt

I decide to limp (100), hit top pair of FD...

I get 2 callers..

Flop -

I raise to 400 to see if anyone goes over the top if they hit a 6, Player 2 folds and Player 3 calls.

Turn -

I raise 200, Player 2 calls

River -

I check to see what he does, he checks

I show two pair JJ & 66
he turns over - QQ & 66

I am shocked to see he called my flop bet with nothing! it was 1/4 of his stack! This really played on my mind!

Play #2

Blinds 100/200
Chip Stack: $1200

I am on the button and get dealt

Two players limp, so limp to see if i hit a set, only cost $200

Flop -

Player 1 bets $400
Player 2 calls $400
I go all-in for $1000 (I figure im ahead, no one raised PF)
Player 1 calls ($800 left) and turns over - I am leading...
Player 2 calls, and turns over and we have almost the exact stack size
A big call by player 2, but he has the odds, but to bet your tournament life on a FD without a pair is beyond me.

Turn -

River -



Player 2 screams a sigh of relief and triples up while i finish the tournament...

Just wondering if anyone could tell me how i could play those situations better?

play 1 i DEFINANTLY fold preflop, no question about it.

as for play 2, i think this would be a good spot to push all your chips in. blinds are 100 200, you have 1200. your m is 4, you have 88 on the button... standard play i think.

however, once you saw the flop you played it fine. bad luck.

Hand #1. Either check the turn or bet more. I can't stand stand when people bet more on the flop then on the turn or river. Just asking for a call with a hand that is not the nuts. In this case, it would have been better to check-fold, but we can't be result oriented.

Hand #2 looks good. You got your money in with the best hand, and got unlucky. Some people MAY push this PF since you have only 6BBs. That's not a bad play either, but nearly half the deck would be overcards.

Maybe not the best advice as sinus medicine has my mind a little foggy, but I think I did okay. lol

thanks for your replies, i definately should of folded #1 preflop, though i would buy cheaply to see the flop, flop looked ok for me, but he got the turn card.. o well if you flop PF wont be in that situation

Glad you all agree with #2, i honestly couldnt think of a way to play that better. Player 2 definately had the outs to call - but i thought it was a bit loose to put your tournament on the line for the last two cards.

There is always next week - thanks for the advice guys

i have a quick question about M that i ran into yesterday. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was a small stakes NL 6 seated sng, 3 players were left, and the blinds were 30-60. My stack was about 1600 at this point, both of my opponents had stacks around 3700. this gives me an M of about 18, and my opponents at about 41. does the fact that their stacks are so huge in comparison to mine reflect on my "yellow zone" status as far as my M is concerned?

This made me think about something interesting... Say your playing at a full table and your M is 5 so you push from MP and noone calls, you pick up the blinds and now your M is 6, a 20% increase. In the above example with 3 players (effective M=5.3) if you push and noone calls, you only increase your effective M to 5.6 a 5% increase. Likewise, if you sat out a round and lost both your SB and BB you only drop to an effective M of 5.0. Even though the blinds are coming around much faster, I think harringtons effective M should be taken with a grain of salt when the tables at or below 4 players.

In other words, having a M of 4-5 at a 10 handed table is definatly push or fold, while having an effective M of 4-5 at a 3 handed table isnt quite so desperate.