The A.M. Co.

Another Wednesday night Above Malibu. Ugarte was late, but brought luck with him in spades (and diamonds, if I remember correctly). I was doing pretty well, too, until I made the right play against the wrong player -- which, I suppose, means it was the wrong play.

We were down to 7 from 26. Blinds were 600/1200/100, and about to go up to 1000/2000/200 (!) on the next hand. The average stack was 7500, and the chips were pretty evenly spread, so the next blind increase would basically turn the tournament into a total crapshoot.

My big blind brought 7h 6h. Interesting. The table folded to the small blind, who made the minimum raise to 2400. I pushed my stack of 8100 out. He shockingly called for his entire stack -- 8000 -- with K7s and I lost the hand. Was his call that shocking though? No.

I knew he had a face. He wouldn't have raised without one. I didn't think his hand was that strong, though, so I reraised to defend my blind, figuring that if he called, my hand would be live. I didn't expect him to call, but I should have, especially since I had seen him call a significant all-in (about 3000, with blinds of 400/800) with Q8s -- and he wasn't THAT big a stack. Also, he is somewhat pot committed just by raising.

Against the right player, I like my play. My 67s is live against a hand like KT, AQ, KQ, etc., as only a 3-to-2 underdog, and my all-in should get weaker hands like K7, Q8, J9, etc. to fold. It's a guess, really, that the raiser is on a steal, but with the protection that if the guess is wrong, the hand is probably live -- even against aces, I'm "only" a 3-to-1 underdog. Unfortunately, I made the move against a player who had not shown any inclination to fold hands all night (there were, in fact, THREE calling stations that made it to the final table, making me wonder just what the hell had been going on at the other tables during the first two hours of the tournament) and, true to form, he called me down.

You have to play the players as well as the cards. Certain plays will work against some players that won't work against others. I know that. I just forgot it at a critical time last night.

[The caveat, of course, is that if I had folded, I would have been in trouble anyway, with only 6900 left and starting 1000/2000/200 in the SB. Shrug.]