Irish Poker Classic Part 1/4

Both hands are from my first table. Lucky Jimmy Seat 1: agressive player who won Killarney main event last year for $100k and known as a lag (loose and agressive). Seat 2: me (lag as well). Seat 3 Woman, ROCK obviously. Seat 4: Young Cork lad just won the ftops 6 handed PLO that the Paul Spillane came 3rd in, assumed he was a lag if he won a 6 handed PLO tourney. Seat 5: Donal O' Connor, lag. Seat 6: oldish guy, abc player. Seat 7: young guy, probably natural game was a lag but I reckon he was out of his comfort zone, so got involved a lot pre-flop before rocking it up. Seat 8: probably was loose enough but the table was so crazy I think he opted to tighten up. Seat 9: Dave Callaghan (aka Halibut Lag). So it was a very loose table with a lot of pots being raised and flops being seen multi-way.

Hand 1: Blinds 50/100 Tournament starting stack was 20k.

Button in Seat 6. Up to this point I have been playing very badly in the tournament.
I am in middle position and I open to 300 with AJ off, its folded round to the sb who opts to call. We go to the flop heads up and it comes AA6 rainbow. Checked to me, I decide to check behind. If he has a worse ace and I bet I won't get 3 streets of value off this player. I reckon by checking I can disguise my hand, resulting in getting hero called by medium pocket pairs and can induce bluffs from a hand like KQ/KJ/QJ etc.

Turn comes, it's a 7 and he checks. I now bet 550 behind, trying to rep that I am trying to take the hand off him. He thinks and calls. I am pretty sure I have him beaten but don't want to see any 10/9/8. The river comes, it's an 8 and he checks again. So I am pretty confident I have the best hand and bet 1,200 in to 1,800 trying to make my bet look like I want to force out 99/1010 and receive the hero call. He dwells up and re-raises me to 3,100, 1,900 more, at this point I am definitely no good.

I think medium pocket pairs make up a large % of his range, the way he has played the hand and there's a 6, 7, 8 on the board, so it should be an easy fold. However I am fully titling and despite knowing I am 2nd best because any reraise on the river is a house, I call and get showed 66. Despite my ugly call on the river I did do a few things right in this hand. At the 50/100 stage when starting stack is 20k it's very hard to win an all-in pot with AJ even when the flop comes AA6 unless you have a massive fish. When playing against a competent player like I was here, the check on the flop is a prudent move and often in medium size pots, you're going to be good. My opponent played it odd checking both flop and turn, if he led both I am only calling down. So even though I made a horrendous call, I lost the same or less as 80% of other players would have lost in the tourney.

Hand 2: Blinds 50/100 (after going down to 12k I have doubled through and now stand on over 24k).

Lucky Jimmy opens to 450 from early position with no one in the pot before him. Straight away I think he has got a reasonable holding, like big ace or 10's up. I look down and see KK. Of the 10 hands I have in Jimmy's range there's only one I don't have in very bad shape so I just peel behind as the main weaknesses for lag's is they can get trapped like wild pigs very easily, so my plan is to string Jimmy up like a wild boar with an apple in his mouth and roast him on a fire (I know from experience). Donal O' Conor comes in on the cut off, his range is any two in that spot. Flop arrives 944 rainbow. Jimmy checks reckon he has 2 overs now, I bet 900 into 1600 to check if DOC has a 4 in behind me. He folds and I assume I am taking it down here, when Jimmy makes it 2,300.

He is well capable of a bluff or of having the over pair. I call in behind and wait to see how the hand develops. Jimmy comes out firing 6,150 on the turn, which is a pot bet. Now I have to decide if I call this I have to call an all-in on the river. He either has AA KK QQ, small chance of JJ 1010 or has gone on a wild one with 2 overs. I think long and hard - if I had a premium pair would I really bet the pot? The only hands that can call are x4/99 or a premium pocket. 60% pot would be his bet if he had me beat, followed by a check call on the river so I decided to call. River is where Jimmy really makes a pig's micky of it. He goes to shove his 16k odd in before betting 6k. On the turn there was no possible draws so I had to have called 6,150 in 12kish with a made hand, now on the river with same made hand I am been asked to call 6k into 24k. I call and he expose AJ for the bluff.

Does this hand have any purpose other than me slating Jimmy? Jimmy's mistake in this hand was that he polarized his range pre-flop and never slowed down to think what I could of had. After the hand he was saying he was trying to get me off A9 or so. The question he failed to ask himself was what range I'd enter the hand with when a competent player like him has opened for 4,5 times the big blinds.

He won't open in early position with 5 lags with a weak pocket pair or suited connectors for this amount. He has big cards that he wants to protect and play a pot with 1/2 other players max. When he opens for this amount he should insto ruled out A9 and really only be factoring small pocket pairs or suited connectors I am trying to crack him with, or big pairs I am trapping with. Either way, I have to be very strong on this flop to call a RR and a pot bet on the turn.

I have found myself that when making a decision on the turn and especially river the correction action can be found by re visiting the pre-flop action. Although it was 3 streets ago, you'd be surprised how often the pre-flop action is important to making big river decisions, as it can rule a lot of hands in and out.

So far this week has been very quite poker-wise. I've played less than 1 hour and am ahead about $2k. Played some golf, gymed and moved into my gaff. First night officially out of the nest tonight!