2nd hand of S&G i get dealt a pair of 9's

i have been reading Harrington and have been thinking about pot odds a lot more
i was playing this S&G last night and a great pot odds situation happened on the second hand dealt. i really thought i was up against 3 of a kind Kings but i thought the pot odds and a decent hand made it worth the bet.

POKERSTARS GAME #3186968828: TOURNAMENT #15771053, HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL I (10/20) - 2005/11/28 - 20:42:40 (ET)
Table '15771053 1' Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Hilarity (1460 in chips)
Seat 2: 33queenohrts (1580 in chips)
Seat 3: SCOOTMEUP (1480 in chips)
Seat 4: mwillard39 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: adam75 (1480 in chips)
Seat 6: bjk3 (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: keby207 (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: cspence (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: HERO (1500 in chips)
SCOOTMEUP: posts small blind 10
mwillard39: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [9s 9h]
adam75: folds
bjk3: raises 60 to 80
keby207: calls 80
cspence: folds
HERO: calls 80
Hilarity: folds
33queenohrts: calls 80
SCOOTMEUP: folds
mwillard39: folds
*** FLOP *** [Ks 9c Ts]
bjk3: bets 240 (thats 3-1 odds? right?)
keby207: calls 240
HERO: calls 240
33queenohrts: folds
*** TURN *** [Ks 9c Ts]
bjk3: bets 1180 and is all-in
keby207: calls 1180 and is all-in
HERO: calls 1180 and is all-in still thinkin' 3-1 odds and a decent hand
*** RIVER *** [Ks 9c Ts 2h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bjk3: shows [As Kc] (a pair of Kings)
keby207: shows [Qc Kd] (a pair of Kings - lower kicker)
HERO: shows [9s 9h] (three of a kind, Nines)
HERO collected 4610 from pot


HERO goes on to win.

i was very supprised that these guys went all in with a pair.

anyway i think i played the hand well, the only thing is i think i may be getting too pot odds focused because when the odds are good i have been betting with almost anything. i;e if most of the table calls a raise and i see all those chips sittin' thier im
in with 7 2 ...the odds are worth the bet right?


crazy

PS can someone direct me to a post that explains the hand converter

72 is not a great multi-way hand. You do not have much implied odds with it. Pocket pairs and suited connectors are great multi-way hands since your implied odds shoot up.

Crazypony, with all due respect, you need to do some reading about pot odds.

Pot odds are used for two purposes: drawing and protecting. You made your hand on the flop. If you were drawing here, you'd be thinking correctly, but you hit your set, so you need to protect it. By raising the flop, you make it too expensive for the flush and straight draws to call, as they need 4:1 to be a correct call. (Top pair needs 22:1, so he's doomed, anyway.)

Phish gave great street by street advice. Not much I can add, except I don't worry nearly as much as many do about flush draws, as 75% of the time, they don't make it, even if you're up against a flush draw which most often you aren't. (Four on the board does concern me, tho.)

Pot odds are more useful in limit poker. NL the odds are a bit different, and in tournaments they are really very different. They are like the Pirate's Code, more of a guideline than a rule, because unlike ring games, you lose you go. This is a complicated game and it takes a lot of time and study to get your arms around it all. Hang with us. We'll help a lot.

Welcome to BTP.

CJ

There are a lot of posts recently about playing short-handed and the end game. Most likely you're still waiting for bigger hands than you need to play. Those of us who do these as our bread and butter are shooting for first, everytime. We'll take second or third, but we're pretty much only satisfied with first place money.

Hang in there. It will come.

CJ

I think Phish is dead on here with his analysis of your play. Once the tournament starts to get short handed you really need to open up your starting hand requirements a decent amount. Hands that you normally would fold UTG, but would play in late middle position, are now good even UTG. The reason for this is because of the relatively fewer number of people to act behind you and the likelihood that one of them has a stronger hand is now diminished. This doesn't mean that they won't ever wake up with one, but now you can take some stabs at pots by open raising with more hands trying to steal the blinds and antes. If you're playing at pokerstars then the antes go into effect at the second 100/200 level and the pots really become worth stealing at this point. Short handed play makes these steals even easier.

Another effective move to add to your arsenal is the resteal. I don't recommend it be done all too often, especially with weaker hands, but when you're sitting in a position like the SB/BB, or sometimes even the button or cutoff seat, and you get a bunch of limpers around for a significant BB amount and you're fairly certain that nobody is moving here with a big hand, push your whole stack in the middle and try to take down the pot right there. This can also be done playing into a late position raiser who you think is raising with a weak hand. At the 200/400 level 5-handed after limpers and antes the pot is near 2k. This is a good way to build a stack late in the game with less risk, especially if people are playing so tight close to the money that you're sure they won't risk all of their chips. This is a great move when you're sitting at a table full of weak-tight players that are obviously more concerned with hanging onto their dwindling stack than they are with winning it all.

I'll repeat that moves like this are all situation dependent. I'm not saying to do this everytime you have limpers around and you're in the SB/BB. Sometimes people will wake up with a monster that they were hoping you would raise into them with and you'll bust out - but I've found that you'll take down these pots with little confrontation often enough that it's a great move over the long run. There are some people that will make this move with any 2 cards based on good solid reads of their opponenets. Just always keep in mind that it is a risky move but a good one to employ as a means of turning up the aggression on the bubble.

For less risk to your stack you can also start to open raise preflop more often, even as a bluff in late position when it's been folded around to you. Raising to 3xBB in these situations will snatch the blinds and antes often enough. Once the antes go into effect and you start to get short handed you should be looking for more opportunities like this. Taking down these small pots in addition to the big ones add up and are an important part of successful SNG play.

Phish, Cybr , Cactus , thanks dudes , for taking an interest and taking the time to respond to my post, great advise, i'm gonna take it.

thanks again awsome board.
Craz[/i]