Ugggh, I just finished 16th in a tournament where the top 15 cash. 2 and a half hours of grinding and I come up with nothing.

It was a $1 rebuy/addon tournament on Cake.

I've always had the "problem" where I post hands I lose just for emotional reassurance even if I felt like they weren't horrible mistakes, and I'm going to do it again.

A villain who had shoved 9 times in the last 23 hands (AND NEVER GOT CALLED ONCE!!!!!), including two hands ago, shoved UTG. I was about #13 in chips at the time and had him covered by 2bb. There were about 19 people left in the tournament at the time. I called him from the SB with KQo. Too risky 3 people away from the money? I'm not so sure it was - one might argue that he's showing strength by shoving UTG but how positionally aware could someone possibly be who shoved 9 times in 23 hands? And how many hands am I in truly bad shape against with KQo? AK, AQ, AA, KK, QQ? I'm a coinflip against any other pair and no worse than about a 40% underdog to any other ace. And I want to play to win, not to cash! He had ATo and it held up.

As much as that villain was shoving and getting away with it should I have tried to use my first-in vigorish myself?

In the hand that finally knocked me out in 16th place, I was on the button with 4bb and ATo. A villain with about 18bb who had called a shove from the BB with A9o earlier in the orbit raised to 2.5bb from HJ. I shoved. He had AKo and it held up.

Feedback will be appreciated.

what were the blinds and stacks sizes when you called it off

Sounds like this villain was playing well. Without knowing specifics, I probably don't like calling with KQo. Shove it, sure, don't call it.

Here are the HHs:

Cake - $1+$0.1|1000/2000 NL (9 max) - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

Hero (BTN): 9,110.00
SB: 14,215.00
BB: 35,838.00
UTG: 65,592.00
UTG+1: 22,950.00
MP: 14,845.00
MP+1: 43,374.00
CO: 23,380.00

Hero posts ante 200.00, SB posts ante 200.00, BB posts ante 200.00, UTG posts ante 200.00, UTG+1 posts ante 200.00, MP posts ante 200.00, MP+1 posts ante 200.00, CO posts ante 200.00, SB posts SB 1,000.00, BB posts BB 2,000.00

Pre Flop: (4600.00) Hero has A T

fold, fold, fold, fold, CO raises to 4,000.00, Hero raises to 8,910.00 and is all-in, fold, fold, CO calls 4,910.00

Flop: (22420.00, 2 players) 5 8 K

Turn: (22420.00, 2 players) 9

River: (22420.00, 2 players) 6





Cake - $1+$0.1|800/1600 NL (9 max) - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

BTN: 8,348.00
Hero (SB): 21,390.00
BB: 10,585.00
UTG: 18,794.00
UTG+1: 67,992.00
MP: 19,900.00
MP+1: 28,431.00
LP: 47,124.00
CO: 6,740.00

BTN posts ante 150.00, Hero posts ante 150.00, BB posts ante 150.00, UTG posts ante 150.00, UTG+1 posts ante 150.00, MP posts ante 150.00, MP+1 posts ante 150.00, LP posts ante 150.00, CO posts ante 150.00, Hero posts SB 800.00, BB posts BB 1,600.00

Pre Flop: (3750.00) Hero has Q K

UTG raises to 18,644.00 and is all-in, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 21,240.00 and is all-in, fold

Flop: (40238.00, 2 players) 9 4 7

Turn: (40238.00, 2 players) 9

River: (40238.00, 2 players) A

Which one is it?
I think at some point in tournaments your going to have to take more risks if your hoping to win. By risks I mean playing more aggressive earlier attempting to pick up chips. As well as calling in marginal situations on the bubble. This also dependent on your reading abilities.

But given the hands you posted you might look into bubble factors and push fold ranges. I'm not sure what threads there are but I know Kill everyone is a good tournament book to read.

People get way too excited about KQ and KJ at full ring. They are basically never going to be the best hand at the table, especially if someone has shoved something. Just fold that junk to big UTG shoves unless you're really shortstacked. We can shove those hands sometimes because we often get better hands like A6o and 33 to fold, and do okay against many hands that might call like 99 or AJ. But calling huge shoves with any hand where you think 'at best, I'm flipping' is usually pretty dumb.

The villain with the AT is doing EXACTLY what he's supposed to be doing at this stage in a tournament: taking advantage of his fold equity by being first in. Even still, his UTG range is almost certainly going to be fairly tight and probably won't include many K's and Q's that you dominate; I don't like the call with KQo there at all. The 9 out of 23 number is still only 40%, and that's over a very small sample. Maybe he picked up an above average run of cards during that sample of hands. Even assuming he didn't, and his shoving range includes the top 40% of hands, KQo is only 53% against that range. Was this field really so tough that you think you have to call off basically your whole stack as a coin flip (best case scenario)?

I thought the field was pretty weak to be honest with you, but then I may not yet be experienced enough to accurately judge it.

I think my mentality there was I wanted to play to win, not play to cash, and everyone at the table except this villain was playing very, very tight, like THEY were just playing to cash.

Was that the wrong time to try to take a risk and be aggressive?

Should I have just waited for premium hands to call a shove, and if I either don't GET any premium hands for the rest of the tournament or get sucked out on when I do that's poker?

Don't call a shove, shove yourself. 10bb deep in the CO? I think (I can't be certain, I'm not expert) that you should be shoving about a 35% range.

That was not the wrong time to take a risk and be aggressive - but it was a time where you could only take a risk and NOT be aggressive. Once he shoves you lose the chance to be aggressive. Shoving gives you a chance to exert pressure on your opponents, and increase your stack simply by having them all fold. You need to do it with at least a decent hand so you have a chance when they call. When you are calling then your only chance of winning is if you have the better hand at showdown.

So, if it had been folded to you - a shove is a perfectly fine play with KQ. If people are playing very tight, this is the time to be aggressive. But you are not anywhere near desperation time, and you don't have to risk your stack by calling with a hand that figures to be behind (or even dominated by) an UTG shove.

Thanks all. Maybe I confused aggression with greed.