Bad players considered harmful

Bad players, as a general rule, are good to have at your table. This is especially true in cash games. However, in tournaments, bad players can sometimes cripple your stack with their inexplicable plays.

This is an excerpt from my September 28, 2012 post. Last night, a bad player took me to the felt. I'd been dealt a pair of queens, and put in a healthy pre-flop bet. An opponent with 43o (four three offsuit) called. The flop had two threes in it. I stayed with my queens to the bitter end. I just couldn't credit that someone would have paid to see the flop when one of his cards was a three. No good player with a hand like that would ever have called my pre-flop bet. If only bad players could be banned :-)

style flavor  buy_in    entry players entries paid place  winnings

MTT   NLHE   4400000   600000       8     124   20    53         0

delta: $-10,000,000
MTT NLHE balance: $376,561,468
2022 balance: $296,817,000
blue distance: $60,170,000
balance: $391,660,953

Bad players considered harmful

Bad players, as a general rule, are good to have at your table. This is especially true in cash games. However, in tournaments, bad players can sometimes cripple your stack with their inexplicable plays. That happened to me in the penultimate hand of the third tournament I entered last night. Here's how it went down:

Table '620627199 1' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 2: Seat 2 (1460 in chips)
Seat 4: Seat 4 (3070 in chips)
Seat 6: neostreet (1470 in chips)
Seat 2: posts small blind 100
Seat 4: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to neostreet [As 2c]
neostreet: calls 200
Seat 2: raises 400 to 600
Seat 4: folds
neostreet: calls 400
*** FLOP *** [Js Ah 5h]
Seat 2: bets 860 and is all-in
neostreet: calls 860
*** TURN *** [Js Ah 5h] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [Js Ah 5h 3s] [Ts]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Seat 2: shows [Td Th] (three of a kind, Tens)
neostreet: shows [As 2c] (a pair of Aces)
Seat 2 collected 3120 from pot

Seat 2 saw not one but two overcards to his pair of tens on the flop. A check was the correct play here. Instead, he shoved. I felt good about my aces and called. I was an 85% favorite, but he spiked a ten on the river and crippled me; I was left with $10 at the end of the hand. A good player would never shove in that situation. But since he made a bad play and did, and got really lucky, I ended up suffering for it. In this case I certainly wish I'd had a higher caliber of opponent to contend with!

buy_in entry_fee num_players num_hands place winnings

 50000       800           6        12     5        0
 50000       800           6        58     3        0
 50000       800           6        68     3        0

delta: $-152,400
tournament balance: $935,890
balance: $6,066,621