SCOOPing the mincash - The key hands Part 1

Last night was my one chance at taking down a SCOOP event this year. It's the second time I've played & was hoping to improve on my dismal performance last year when I exited in the first round. I was incredibly nervous last year & the schedule for SCOOP events was very much targeted at the now excluded American players so a 10pm first round was quite late for me.

This year was very different, in many ways helped by the blackout my schedule has moved from 5am playing sessions to 8pm with no early mornings, so my body wasn't giving up just yet. My game has developed incredibly & although I'm playing the same limit I was last year due to restarting my roll from scratch I feel I'm playing a lot better. Not only that, but mentally I feel more stable & prepared to cope with frustration, tough opponents & make quicker adjustments.

Unfortunately for me I didn't get a bye into the next round, I had to earn my spot. The game was over fairly quickly, I didn't need to make too many adjustments as my aim in the opening stages was to only play value hands until I had a few reads to work from. First interesting hand was:

Poker Stars, $15 + $1.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 30/60 Blinds, 2 Players
Hero (BB): 4,865
BTN: 5,135

Pre-Flop: (90) 6 6 dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to 180, Hero calls 120

Flop: (360) 9 7 7 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN checks
Turn: (360) 8 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets 240, Hero calls 240
River: (840) T (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets 540, Hero calls 540

Results: 1,920 Pot
Hero showed 6 6 and WON 1,920 (+1,020 NET)
BTN showed K 5 and LOST (-930 NET)

So, we're around 80bb effective stacks deep. 66 is a fine hand to call OOP for set mining purposes. The check behind was actually a little concerning, up to now he'd been cbetting 100%. The 8 on the turn is a pretty good card for us, giving us an OESD with 8 outs along with our 2 6's for the full house. So to justify the call I need 28.5% equity & I think overs can be a big part of his range here so I think I've easily got the required equity, if not 50% here. On the river, the T rolls off. My intention here is to check & allow him to continue to bluff, I think if I bet out I fold out all his air & only get called by the stronger part of his range. I didn't consider raising for the same reason & I think there are a lot of Jx hands in this range.

Poker Stars, $15 + $1.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 40/80 Blinds, 2 Players
Hero (BTN): 5,925
BB: 4,075

Pre-Flop: (120) 3 A dealt to Hero (BTN)
Hero raises to 160, BB calls 80

Flop: (320) 5 6 8 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets 160, BB calls 160

Turn: (640) 9 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets 320, BB raises to 640, Hero calls 320

River: (1,920) 9 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets 1,360, BB calls 1,360

Results: 4,640 Pot
Hero showed 3 A and WON 4,640 (+2,360 NET)
BB mucked J 7 and LOST (-2,240 NET)


I've tended to raise my weaker hands against this guy to take the initiative in the pot, he had started to raise some of my limps & figured this hand wasn't strong enough to call if he put a sizeable raise in. Flop is pretty good, I figure a standard cbet will only fold out his absolute trash as he's shown the propensity to float a lot but even if he has top pair here my equity in the hand is around 40%. Turn is a pretty interesting street. I didn't want to slow down & show weakness, I still potentially had outs to my Ace & my nut flush draw are also good here. So I decide to bet 1/2 pot, mainly because I think he will fold his air to this sized bet after 2 streets. Now, I get check raised. So it narrows his range a ton to either 7x or over pairs. His min raise is a HUGE mistake! If I put him on a range of exactly 72+ TT+ my equity is 22% but I only need to call 320 to win a pot of 1920 to I need only 16.6% equity to make this call profitable. Had he made a raise of 1k or more my equity required would be 25%+ therefore a -EV play if called. As it turns out I naturally called & hit the flush card. I think my sizing given my read is a little on the small size & potentially lose a couple hundred chips here.

Poker Stars, $15 + $1.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 40/80 Blinds, 2 Players
Hero (BB): 8,245
BTN: 1,755

Pre-Flop: (120) J J dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to 200, Hero raises to 8,245 and is All-In, BTN calls 1,555 and is All-In

Flop: (3,510) 6 5 6 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Turn: (3,510) A (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
River: (3,510) 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Results: 3,510 Pot

Hero showed J J and LOST (-1,675 NET)
BTN showed A Q and WON 3,510 (+1,795 NET)

Standard hand. Villain has just over 20bbs & I'm getting this in all day long as I crush his range.

Poker Stars, $15 + $1.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 40/80 Blinds, 2 Players
Hero (BTN): 6,210
BB: 3,790

Pre-Flop: (120) 9 9 dealt to Hero (BTN)
Hero raises to 160, BB raises to 400, Hero calls 240

Flop: (800) 4 4 7 (2 Players)
BB bets 500, Hero raises to 1,280, BB raises to 3,390 and is All-In, Hero calls 2,110

Turn: (7,580) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
River: (7,580) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Results: 7,580 Pot

Hero showed 9 9 and WON 7,580 (+3,830 NET)
BB showed A Q and LOST (-3,710 NET)

Final hand of the first game. Standard raise pre, I get 3 bet which is a little concerning. I decide to flat, which could be a mistake in this spot. I think a 4 bet shove would put us up against over pairs & AJ+ & KQ. The flop is pretty safe & when I raise I expect to get folds pretty often. His jam is pretty scary, but I still have his range as broadways & over pairs which gives me too mush equity to fold. I guess it is a marginal play in this spot & should have just got it in pre.

I'm going look to review the major hands from the second match & post them up for criticism. Any thoughts feel free to let me know.