lol donkaments

I totally got berated in a Full Tilt SNG last weekend. And I probably deserved it, but what can I say?

It was suited…

$30 SNG, four players left, three paid, and I was the chip leader.

Blinds 80/160
button: $2,325
small blind (me): $7,410
big blind: $880
UTG: $2,885

UTG, who was a fairly active player, open raises to $480. Action folds to me, and I look down at 10♣6♣ in the small blind. On an A-B-C poker level, most people would probably just fold here. After all, I clearly have enough chips to coast into the money, and the big blind is looking for a spot to get his money in anyways. Why not just fold and let other people clash?

Here’s why; the UTG raiser, as well as the player on the button, both have “middle” stacks with four players remaining. They are basically just waiting for the guy with $880 chips to go bust so we can all get paid. Because the UTG raiser was a pretty active player, I knew his raising range was fairly wide — definitely not limited to AA, KK, QQ, AK, etc.

So, when he opens to $480, there’s $720 (including the blinds) in what I consider “dead money” sitting on the table, because unless he has AA, KK or QQ (or MAYBE AK, although he’d probably fold that too… but even if he calls with AQ or AK, 10♣6♣ isn’t too far behind), the UTG raiser MUST fold to an all-in re-raise. He doesn’t want to bust 4th when another player is so crippled!

Not to mention, if I move all in over the top of the UTG raiser, the short-stack in the big blind will fold almost ANYTHING except premium hands, because he hopes that UTG and I will get involved in a huge pot.

As you probably figured out by now, I moved all in with my 10♣6♣. Even if the UTG player winds up calling, I’m not SUPER concerned because A.) unless he has a premium pocket pair, my hand isn’t too far behind, and B.) I can withstand losing $2,500 chips, because I’d still be left with about $5,000.

Of course, the crippled stack in the big blind SNAP calls with JJ. The UTG raiser folds (as I suspected he would).

Well, I flopped a 10 and rivered a 6 to bust him. I felt bad at first, because my all-in shove certainly wasn’t meant to screw him over. It was merely meant to pick up $720 of dead money.

I was berated for being a donkey, a maniac, an idiot, etc. And that’s fine. But looking beyond the surface level, you can see how my mind operates during bubble situations.

And for the record, I did wind up holding onto that chip lead