The JJ is EVIL!

OK, so here I am dominating a small stakes MTT with 180 players. I was sitting in first place from about 130 through 30. Keeping a tight image while trying to be agressive when I have a hand or sense weakness. My goal starting out was to get to the final table which I did about 3 hours and a 6 pack of Harpoon IPA (life's too short to drink cheap beer) later.

At this point in the tournament I don't have a good read on most of the players at the final table since I had moved there fairly recently. It seems like we're at a point of two card poker and it's all-in or nothing. In the future maybe I won't put so much weight behind JJ but I had reached my personal goal and figured that this was the time to gamble and go for the win. What do you think?

Both of these hands happened 18 hands from each other so it all happened pretty quickly.

*********** # 18 **************
PokerStars Game #8645473195: Tournament #44007307, $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em No Limit - Level X (400/800) - 2007/02/26 - 23:29:07 (ET)
Table '44007307 7' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Sabian300 (34870 in chips)
Seat 2: Dinero2005 (38105 in chips)
Seat 3: clarkspond (33621 in chips)
Seat 4: vegas372 (12469 in chips)
Seat 5: qwrtcw (37809 in chips)
Seat 6: Nana03 (29500 in chips)
Seat 7: RitchRian (21234 in chips)
Seat 8: ironman056 (28171 in chips)
Seat 9: ray1969 (34221 in chips)
Sabian300: posts the ante 50
Dinero2005: posts the ante 50
clarkspond: posts the ante 50
vegas372: posts the ante 50
qwrtcw: posts the ante 50
Nana03: posts the ante 50
RitchRian: posts the ante 50
ironman056: posts the ante 50
ray1969: posts the ante 50
ironman056: posts small blind 400
ray1969: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Dinero2005 [Jd Jh]
Sabian300: folds
Dinero2005: raises 1600 to 2400
clarkspond: folds
vegas372: folds
qwrtcw: folds
Nana03: raises 27050 to 29450 and is all-in
RitchRian: folds
ironman056: folds
ray1969: folds
Dinero2005: calls 27050
*** FLOP *** [Kh Ad 3h]
*** TURN *** [Kh Ad 3h] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [Kh Ad 3h 8d] [3s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Dinero2005: shows [Jd Jh] (two pair, Jacks and Threes)
Nana03: shows [Qs Qc] (two pair, Queens and Threes)
Nana03 collected 60550 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 60550 | Rake 0
Board [Kh Ad 3h 8d 3s]
Seat 1: Sabian300 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Dinero2005 showed [Jd Jh] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Threes
Seat 3: clarkspond folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: vegas372 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: qwrtcw folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Nana03 showed [Qs Qc] and won (60550) with two pair, Queens and Threes
Seat 7: RitchRian (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: ironman056 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: ray1969 (big blind) folded before Flop



PokerStars Game #8645641229: Tournament #44007307, $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em No Limit - Level XI (600/1200) - 2007/02/26 - 23:40:18 (ET)
Table '44007307 7' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: Sabian300 (32570 in chips)
Seat 2: Dinero2005 (31279 in chips)
Seat 3: clarkspond (34321 in chips)
Seat 5: qwrtcw (43384 in chips)
Seat 6: Nana03 (37770 in chips)
Seat 7: RitchRian (20734 in chips)
Seat 8: ironman056 (23071 in chips)
Seat 9: ray1969 (46871 in chips)
Sabian300: posts the ante 75
Dinero2005: posts the ante 75
clarkspond: posts the ante 75
qwrtcw: posts the ante 75
Nana03: posts the ante 75
RitchRian: posts the ante 75
ironman056: posts the ante 75
ray1969: posts the ante 75
RitchRian: posts small blind 600
ironman056: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Dinero2005 [Js Jc]
ray1969: folds
Sabian300: folds
Dinero2005: raises 2400 to 3600
clarkspond: calls 3600
qwrtcw: folds
Nana03: folds
RitchRian: raises 17059 to 20659 and is all-in
ironman056: folds
Dinero2005: raises 10545 to 31204 and is all-in
clarkspond: folds
*** FLOP *** [5h 6h 8s]
*** TURN *** [5h 6h 8s] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [5h 6h 8s 5c] [Kd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RitchRian: shows [Kc Kh] (a full house, Kings full of Fives)
Dinero2005: shows [Js Jc] (two pair, Jacks and Fives)
Dinero2005 said, "I need to stay away from JJ"
RitchRian collected 46718 from pot
Dinero2005 said, "nh"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 46718 | Rake 0
Board [5h 6h 8s 5c Kd]
Seat 1: Sabian300 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Dinero2005 showed [Js Jc] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Fives
Seat 3: clarkspond folded before Flop
Seat 5: qwrtcw folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Nana03 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: RitchRian (small blind) showed [Kc Kh] and won (46718) with a full house, Kings full of Fives
Seat 8: ironman056 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: ray1969 folded before Flop (didn't bet)


Thanks for any input!

Personally, I fold in both of these scenarios. In both situations if you call and lose you're the immediate shortstack. It seems to me like these guys have QQ, KK, AA, or AK/AQ (which they did). While it is also possible that they could have an underpair such as 99, I don't see a push here with that hand, a call makes more sense.

__________________
1st place, March/April 2008 Sunday League

Fault always lies in the same place, my fine babies: with him weak enough to lay blame.

once again i have to agree with mars.

dinero, JJ is a very tough hand to play and you just learned why. its such a nice hand but against these allins i think you gotta fold. I def. see how it would be hard and i dont blame you for making the play, but if im at a FT i think id fold and wait for another hand. Although it is quite unlucky tht you ran into 2/3 hands that have you dominated. better luck next time man.

__________________


THFSOP Event #4 Champion
THFSOP Event #8 Champion
THFSOP Event #10 Champion

Current count: 3 Bracelets

You went for it, bad luck. I'd agree with the other posts. Neither of the re-raisers has a stack so small that they have to get their chips in on A-hands or small pockets. So it probably likely you're in with the worst hand or only slightly ahead.

Would anyone prefer to raise higher preflop?
With those antes they are pretty small raises - not that it would of made a difference here.

__________________
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Good point. I was having such a good night I got into thes "I'm indestructable" mindset. That mindset can cost some money in this game. When I was skydiving though it got pretty painfull...

Anyway, I didn't really take the stack size into account. Why would they risk the entire tournament on 88? Other than the guy that eventually took me out against my over cards... ha!

i have gotten into that indestructable mode myself dinero. its costly but eventually you learn to deal with it. you sound like you know what your talking about though so im sure you know this. GL and welcome to the forums

__________________


THFSOP Event #4 Champion
THFSOP Event #8 Champion
THFSOP Event #10 Champion

Current count: 3 Bracelets

Okay, if they aren't going to risk their entire tournament on 88, they must have a hand better than 88 - thus further showing that you are at a coinflip at best. You've made it this far, don't rely on luck to get to first, show them you can play!

__________________
1st place, March/April 2008 Sunday League

Fault always lies in the same place, my fine babies: with him weak enough to lay blame.