Bay 101 Shooting Star $2000 buyin: Hand against Miami John

[ZeeJustin]

Bay 101, $2000 NL tournament. 10,000 starting chips with 40 minute levels. 250 players. Blinds are 500/1000 with a 100 ante when the following hands occur. I have 55,000-60,000 chips and the average is about 30,000.

My table is down to 6 players, and the floor men tell us to spot. We wait for 6-7 minutes before they FINALLY bring us a player (making the following hands 7 handed), and it’s Miami John (although I didn’t recognize him at the time).

He has 3 racks of chips (well over 100,000). He is under the gun his first hand at the table, and makes a motion to put a rack of 1,000 chips in the middle. He then smiles, laughs, and throws his hand away as he pulls his chips back.

Next hand, there is an LP raise, and John defends the BB. The flop comes 953 rainbow, John bets out 5500. The LP raiser (a recognizable tournament player that is better than most “TV pros”, but not a “TV pro” himself) thinks for a minute, playing with his chips, pondering an all-in, but folds. Ok, we have a new table captain.

Next hand it folds to me in the HJ, and I make it 2500 with A?o. John calls in the SB, and the BB calls as well.

As the preflop action is going on, Ron the floor-man brings over racks and sets some of them down on the table. We are the next table to break (good thing too, because it was a pretty tough table).

Flop (8200 in pot): A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

It checks to me, and I c-bet for 3,500. After a few seconds and a little bit of playing with his chips, John decides to raise to 8,500. The big blind folds. I think for 4-5 seconds and call.

Turn (25,200 in pot): K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

John thinks for about 5 seconds again, and checks to me. I ponder a check, but I think there are 3 likely scenarios.
1) He has a flush draw (betting is obviously superior to checking)
2) He has a pair (2 outer that won’t pay me off on the river unless he hits, so betting is better)
3) He has an ace. If this is the case and I check, and he bets the river, I have a somewhat tough decision of raising vs calling. If I bet, I put him to that decision, although he can put me to a tough decision if he raises.

I decide to bet out 10,000 in an attempt to leave the tough decision up to him. John does the whole routine of feigning to put a large amount of chips in the pot as he watches my reaction. I am an emotionless cyborg, so I doubt he gets much of a read off me. After about 30 seconds of this, he says all-in. The dealer tosses him a blue all-in button.

I think for about 15 seconds, and John starts racking up his chips. He has a ton of chips (3-4 racks worth), so it’s understandable that he wants to save time. After less than 30 seconds has passed from the time John moved all-in, Ron the floor-man says something to the effect of, “Clock, you have 1 minute to act.” There is still a lingering doubt in my mind that John might be some local yahoo who thinks he’s the [censored] because he has a ton of chips, so I ask him his name. He says John and asks me mine and I answer. I say something like, “Oh, are you Miami John?” (Note that I suck at recognizing faces, so I am forced to ask people their names more often than I would like). He chuckles and nods. Ok, that’s all I wanted to know, although it would have been nice if I actually watched the WPT and knew how he played.

About 30 seconds has passed since Ron said clock. I then realize that no one at the table said clock, so I ask Ron who called the clock. He looks over at Matt Savage (who is across the room), and says “The tournament director.”

Damn. Matt’s word is pretty much God’s, so that didn’t buy me any more time to make my decision. The last thing I want is for my hand to be declared dead, so I go into turbo think mode, without any time to do any relevant math (which is unfortunate, since there is a lot of deduction that could be done in this hand if I had another minute or so to think). With a matter of seconds remaining, I call. I won’t reveal the hands just yet since I have some questions.

1) What is the worst kicker you call with? (I don’t want to hear any jabbering from anyone that would call with a hand that can’t beat or tie A2)

2) What is the best kicker you fold? (I don’t want to hear any jabbering from anyone that would fold a hand that can beat AQ.)

After the hand, I asked Matt why he called the clock on me. He looked at me confused and said, “I was all the way over here” (approximately 40 feet away) and then said that he never called the clock.

3) If you won the hand, should you bother complaining to anyone?
4) If you lost the hand, should you bother complaining to anyone?

Any thoughts on both aspects of the hand are welcome.

[Exitonly]

1) A2 i think.
2) n/a
3/4) not gonna get anything out of it if you complain. maybe clear up the situation with matt and express to him the [censored] spot he put you into for no reason.

[NoahSD]

Yeah.. I don't fold any ace here either. His preflop range is probably pretty wide since you raised to 2.5x BB 60 BBs deep with a big ante--in particular it includes lots of suited connectors that are probably playing this hand exactly like this.

I also really hate your flop bet size. This is a board where lots of people call with 66-TT, 56/45, so get some value.

[Exitonly]

[ QUOTE ]
so get some value.


[/ QUOTE ]

isn't a weak bet into table captain john the (or at least, a good) way to do that?

[ZBTHorton]

I've never thought of myself as weak-tight(usually just the opposite) but I totally disagree with Ray and Noah here.

Given I've never played with Miami John, but his time on TV has never shown him to be a loose canon, so I've got to assume that when I make my response.

1. AJ
2. AT
3/4. It's not going to do any good, but knock yourself out.

I don't understand the thought process behind calling down w/ A2 here. We have just been DOUBLE check raised by an opponent, when we were the pre-flop aggressor, who at this point has to know we have an ace(or better). The K is also a bad card for John here, because if he is on a flush draw or some kinda screwy combo draw(34d 23d) his flush may not even be live.

Also. I don't really like your turn bet here. What exactly were you looking to accomplish with your bet? Surely you didn't think he was going to just call your 10K bet into a 25K pot after he re-raised you on the flop? So in that case, you make that bet prepared to be calling a push. Which you obviously weren't ready to do.

I dunno. I just have a feeling your going to reveal he showed A5, 55, or KK here. If he does this with A9 or A8, I think it's a really really really awful play....

[FieryJustice]

Id call with all As.
As for the clock, id complain every time, as it seems you didnt have nearly enough time to act on a fairly big decision.

[Exitonly]

vs a range of any ace (minus AK, cause i doubt he'd just call you from the SB with that) and 55 we have 30% equity w/ A2o. Add in AKo and it's 28%, and ANY bluffs that come into play are a huge boost to our equity, and i'm certainly not ruling out a bluff, given description/my random feelings about him

[arod18]

I'd call with any Ace and have a few choice words whether or not I won the hand.

[Crispy]

I think I call here 100%. I would probably fold A2,3,4. And I would complain about a director calling clock on me everytime. His c/r on the turn is a bit strange. AK obviously might do it, but he probably repops preflop along with KK. Small possibility 55, which again I think is unlikely cause why would he check the turn, thats just such a strange line to take. He might have Ax which makes sense cause it allows you to bet a K which is well within your range and make money off of you.

[Ansky]

[ QUOTE ]
vs a range of any ace (minus AK, cause i doubt he'd just call you from the SB with that) and 55 we have 30% equity w/ A2o. Add in AKo and it's 28%, and ANY bluffs that come into play are a huge boost to our equity, and i'm certainly not ruling out a bluff, given description/my random feelings about him

[/ QUOTE ]

i dont get it. w/ a hand that loses to every single other hand in the range or ties it at best, it is 30%?