How to use the replayer software when reviewing your poker hands.

In this multitable tournament, we are in the early stages of what is turning out to be some wild action, in spite of the low blinds. In fact, 2 players have already been eliminated in 2 separate all in confrontations. From the early action, it seems to me I may only be able to enter a pot with a big hand.

The blinds are just 15 and 30 when I am dealt pocket jacks. However, before the action gets to me, the (1) UTG player raises to 90. Now this player had already doubled up but after a dozen or so hands it seemed to me that he was playing a rather tag style having only raised once before. So a raise from him under the gun would indicate a pocket pair or at least couple of strong Broadway cards, particularly Ace Queen or Ace King. Pretty typical. With 4 players to act behind me, I would normally reraise here so that I could play this opponent heads-up.

Instead I made a rather timid call, which in spite of my opponents low PFR, I still think is a mistake. I probably should've re-raised here with a view to folding if he decided come over top of me.

Regardless, the hand gets even more interesting as another caller comes in the pot, then with the small blind folding, the (1) big blind re-raises to 270.

Okay so now the hand seems pretty interesting as the pot is near 500 already. Now I know there are a lot of players in low limit tournaments who just want to win it all in the first 5 minutes of the game. You’ve seen them. They play reckless by nature, and don't necessarily have very good bankroll management or decent poker skills in general. So at this early stage it's hard to know who's really playing seriously. In that sense, against weaker players, my jacks are a pretty good hand here. So even though the reraise was substantial, I think I may let it ride here if I get a good flop. It is definitely not inconceivable that my opponent could be playing with a strong ace or perhaps even a lower pair than my JJ.

Making the situation even more complex, but at the same time more lucrative, is that the (2) UTG player makes a flat call. Now since he has done that, I can now narrow his hand to a low or mid pair. If he had better than that, I would've expected him to reraise all in here and isolate the big blind.

By the time the play gets to me the pot is already 735, and I have 1300 chips left in my stack. I only need to call another 180 chips to see this flop. Now that is still a sizable chunk of chips for early-stage tournament play, but with 4:1 odds and given the reckless style of my opponents I could still very well have the best hand and am thinking now I probably have to go down with a favorable flop.

Which comes better than I had hoped. The flop is 9sJd7h.

Save for the straight draw on board, this is a very good flop for me, as I have the second best possible hand, beaten only by 10 8, which is just not something I need to worry about given the pre-flop action. I'm also hoping that the UTG player hit a set as well. Either way, I want to try and keep both of these players in the pot because for this round I'd rather keep both of them in the hand so as to commit them to a bigger pot on the river.

Both players check to me, and I put out a pretty small bet of 180. Both opponents flat call me making the pot 1455. Well that was perfect because at least one of my opponents - the big blind - seems committed now, as he only has 960 chips left.

The turn card is the 4 spades, which is very likely a brick that helps nobody. Check, check to me again, so I decide to bet out just slightly more in the amount of 270. The small bet also looks a bit sheepish, but had my opponents' been paying attention to my stack that leaves me with a mere 670 chips. You don't find many players betting their way down to a third of their stack in one early hand by bluffing. The big blind then immediately re-raises to 960 chips all in.

Unfortunately that forces the UTG player to fold. Now I think he had something like pocket 88, TT or 66.

I am all in and the pot is 3335 chips. My opponent turns over the Ace King of spades, just crying out for a flush on the river.

The river is the 9d giving me a full house for the win, leaving my opponent with a crippled stack. Had I bet bigger on the flop, I may very well have chased away both of my opponents right then and there. Sometimes that's a good thing. But in this case the turn card helps one of my opponents, and then he decided he was willing to let his stack ride for a draw with only one card to come. As we all know, sometimes those draws do work out, and we are the ones left on the sidelines. Frustrating - yes I know, but I will take this situation any game, any time, and do it over and over and over again, because it is just positive EV poker.

Had my opponent been a little more prudent, he could have flat called my turn bet, and then folded to a river bet when his card did not come, since just a little observation would determine that I am not folding my hand, and he can ONLY win if his draw comes through.

So by reviewing hands like this, I can see how I might have bet more preflop, but bet rather good post flop. I can also see that my AK opponent totally over-played his hand preflop and on the turn. And I can reasonably put the UTG opponent on a low to mid pair. I think this is good practice to help prepare for tough game scenarios.

If you didn't know about the replayer feature in the poker software, you can learn more about it in this video (of course you will have to ignore the reference to Full Tilt Poker):