Dead Stack Play, Deceiving Flops for Small Pairs
I had been doing well in a private freeroll. My rakeback site had set up a poker tourney for qualifying players with $5,000 up for grabs. About 200 people qualified and 40 places paid. I would say about 30-40% of the players did not show up for this freeroll. That meant that at every poker online table there were 3-4 dead stacks just getting blinded off.
This is always an interesting situation. The live players at the table will try and steal blinds from the dead stacks. They also know that you are trying to steal their blinds, so sometimes this creates above-average action between mediocre hands. You’re trying to use these dead stacks as the bait to stack the live poker players.
I got myself in a situation in early position with pocket sixes. Blinds were 100/200 and I had 4500. I raised to 600 and got 3bet by the SB who was a big stack maniac. He 3bets me to 1800. I flat the 1200 more. Flop is 2 3 9. He checks, I shove, he calls with aces.
The problem with this flop is that it’s about the best flop I can ask for without hitting a set. I’m not afraid that he’s paired up. If he had AK or something other unmade big hand, I’m ahead. His check is either pure precaution, or a trap. I flatted his 3bet in position because I wanted to be in control of a bad flop. I got exactly that, but unfortunately he already had a made hand.
The dead stack situation had me playing a little differently than normal. And ironically, a few dead stacks surpassed me in the tournament (though not long enough to cash).
