Poker Hand Question

[digamma]

We were in Vegas over the weekend for the Ga Tech-Gonzaga basketball game (I won't talk about that), and three of my friends and I played in a Saturday noon limit HE tournament at the Orleans. Tournament had about 120 entrants, and my buddy is down to the final 3 tables when he gets this hand:

He's under the gun with about 4500 chips, which puts him just above average. Blinds are 500-1000, so the limit is 1000-2000. He looks down to find pocket 9's.

I think everyone would agree that you raise pre-flop there. The guy to his left re-raises all-in for an extra 300. Folded to the button, who calls. Both blinds fold. My buddy calls the extra 300.

From here, I think we'll go into choose your own adventure mode. The flop comes 7-8-10, rainbow.

His action.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

I'm not sure I follow the chip situation correctly.

He has 4500, barely enough to cover two big bets, and he's got an "above average" stack? Are we missing a zero in here somewhere, somehow?

No, actually. That was my one complaint with the tournament structure. The blinds were raised every 15 minutes, and you only started with 375 in chips (with one re-buy). There were 99,000 chips in play and 30 players left, making the average chip count about 3300.

[TLK]

It's a tournament at the Orleans.... it could be correct

[primelord]

Originally Posted by digamma

We were in Vegas over the weekend for the Ga Tech-Gonzaga basketball game (I won't talk about that), and three of my friends and I played in a Saturday noon limit HE tournament at the Orleans. Tournament had about 120 entrants, and my buddy is down to the final 3 tables when he gets this hand:

He's under the gun with about 4500 chips, which puts him just above average. Blinds are 500-1000, so the limit is 1000-2000. He looks down to find pocket 9's.

I think everyone would agree that you raise pre-flop there. The guy to his left re-raises all-in for an extra 300. Folded to the button, who calls. Both blinds fold. My buddy calls the extra 300.

From here, I think we'll go into choose your own adventure mode. The flop comes 7-8-10, rainbow.

His action.

He should push all-in. I am not certain how much he raised preflop, but assuming he just raised 2x the BB he would only have 2200 in chips left. There is almots 7000 in chips in the pot. Anything less than an all-in won't give him any reasonable chance of getting the the non all-in opponent to fold overcards to the 9s, plus it is likely he still has the best hand and if the non all-in guy dose have a T or an over pair your friend still has a lot of outs to improve to the best hand.

[QuikSand]

I'm not sure I follow the chip situation correctly.

He has 4500, barely enough to cover two big bets, and he's got an "above average" stack? Are we missing a zero in here somewhere, somehow?

[digamma]

Originally Posted by primelord

He should push all-in. I am not certain how much he raised preflop, but assuming he just raised 2x the BB he would only have 2200 in chips left. There is almots 7000 in chips in the pot. Anything less than an all-in won't give him any reasonable chance of getting the the non all-in opponent to fold overcards to the 9s, plus it is likely he still has the best hand and if the non all-in guy dose have a T or an over pair your friend still has a lot of outs to improve to the best hand.

It's limit, so he can't push yet.

[MJ4H]

how many paid in the tourney? very important info before we can decide what to do with this hand.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by MattJones4Heisman

how many paid in the tourney? very important info before we can decide what to do with this hand.

Only the final table (10).

[digamma]

My buddy bet the flop and was called by the button.

A rag came on the turn.

He bet again--then putting him all in. He was called by the button. They all turn over.

The guy to his left turns over A-6. The button turns over K-Qs.

The river is a K, and he goes out.

In typing it up, I'm not sure it is as interesting as our discussion on Saturday. The debate was whether he should have attempted to check-raise on the flop--which would have essentially put him all in.

The side note to the story is that we ran into Phil Gordon later that night at the GT pre-game party (he is a Tech grad). Of course (and probably much to his annoyance), we brought up the hand. His point was that when the flop came, my buddy knew he was going to be around to the river, so he might as well bet out each way. The other guy was probably going to call a check raise (for only one more bet--which again would have put my buddy effectively all in), so the play might not have been as effective as it would have been had he had a larger chip stack--in which he said the play would have been to check-call the flop and possibly check-raise the turn.

[primelord]

Hmm I missed that this was a limit tournament in my original post.