nuts and river

[mindgame]

wow...just thought I'd read some of these beginners' threads--it's been a while. You guys are saints, all of you. The patience of Job. I guess somebody's gotta do it.

[skel]

yes JW that is what I was asking and thanks for the explanation. I feel quite comfortable now playing Holdem. I played in a freeroll tourney last night on pokerstars and came in 214 out of 4000. Not bad for first try i think. Im not sure how I should have played this so maybe some tips.

I was at a table with about 9,000 in chips. Probably had the least chips at the table. Leader had about 55,000. It was up to 500 ante I think so it was getting quite expensive to call. No one would let me see the flop for anything less than like 2 grand each time. It became increasingly difficult to call 2k, just to see the flop so i would often find myself folding pre flop. I finally got KK. The flop was AJK so I went all in hoping to make a dent in their monstrous stacks. Leader called me and wound up getting a straight for the win.

[jwrussell]

Not much you can do about that hand Skel, sounds like you played it well to me. The one thing I notice from your description towards the end of the tourney, you mention that no one would let you see the flop for less than 2K. I don't really have enough info to go by, but it sounds like you were trying to limp into too many pots. I don't know what kind of cards you had, but if they were good enough to want to see the flop with you probably should have been raising, especially being on the short stack. I don't know where the money would have started had this been a real tourney, but my guess is you would have been in it or close to it. At this point you need to decide if you are there to squeak up the pay chain or to win the tourney. If you are there to win the tourney this is the time to start playing a little looser and more aggressive. In my opinion.

Quick, non-long-winded answer: you played it right.

[skel]

Everyone started tourney with 1.5k

I was getting crap like 84 and nothing of real value IMO. The Blinds were draining me. I got likea J8 and crap like that few times that I maybe would have liked to see the flop a few times but really couldnt afford to. Yes I was trying to limp in. Yes my friend said that my position was in the money for real tourney. I guess I just made too many mistakes like losing 6,000 in chips with only a pair of Aces. I was fishing for something else and that put me as the low stack at the table. Once I was down to about 4,000 I started getting paranoid. Antes were up to 500. I figured Id play my next good hand all in which as trips kings. I just happened to lose to the straight but no way I was throwing away 3 kings. Oh well I learned a lot. Hopefully will play better next tourney