Dipping a toe back into the online waters
I played four tournaments last night - my first foray into online tournaments for months. I cashed in one event, but lost overall. I feel I played pretty well, and got back into the different swing of things in these huge field events pretty quickly. Hopefully, if I play to a similar standard as last night for the rest of the month, I’ll have a fighting chance of reaching my 6k target. As always, the key is to go really deep when you do cash, as a significant majority of the time you are going to bust out of the money. Unfortunately I didn’t achieve that last night:
Full Tilt $50k Guaranteed
This was a quick event for me. The guy to my right had doubled up to 6k early on, after stacking someone, and he would also be the person to wipe me out just after the first break. Mid position raise to 240, he makes it 900. I shove for 3,500 with . He tanks for a while and makes the call with JJ and wins the race. Not sure I like his call to be honest, as this early in the tournament I can only have 4 hands there really, and 3 of those crush him. Perhaps he didn’t figure me for AA or KK because I shoved as opposed to re-raising, and in addition he had a bit more margin for error after the earlier double up. Whatever his thought process, I’m certainly not making that play with TT or AJ.
Cake Poker - $15k Guaranteed
I took the double buy in at the start, and started very strongly. After the top up at the break I had about 13k which was in the top 5 stacks. By the time the bubble burst a couple of hours later I was up to 42k, but had fallen back into the middle of the pack. With 22 players left, I was busted by losing 2 hands in quick succession. I raise (45k stack) to 5k, which is a pot sized raise in earlyish position with . The guy two slots down shoves over the top of me for 20k total and it is passed back to me. In a live tournament this would be a likely fold, but re-stealing is common-place from good players online, and I have been opening a lot of pots, so I am a perfect candidate for someone to target. I decide to gamble as the payout structure is very flat up to about 5th place, and he has JJ, but I lose the race to move down to 25k. A few hands later I am in the big blind, and the button shoves for 45k (?) into an unopened pot. I have AQ, and figure this is miles ahead of his range and call to see him flip over K9. The first two cards are Queens, but a Jack and a ten seal my fate, and I bust in 22nd for $140ish.
Betfair $10k Guaranteed
I didn’t like this tournament much, as the buy in was steep ($163) to make up for the lack of runners, which was about 70 I think. As a result, they only paid the top 9 spots, although the structure wasn’t too bad. From a 3k starting stack I built up to around 9k over a few hours, but whilst sitting in about 18th position, the blinds were getting a bit large for my liking. As a result, I pushed in mid position with AJ to pick up the blinds and antes, but the button flat called, rather than isolating me. Oh dear - must be the bullets…and it was. Game over.
PokerStars $80k Guaranteed
This tournament started well for me - I manoeuvred up to about 14k (starting stack 3k)with few dramas. I had an AA v KK aipf scenario which contributed 4k of that to be fair. Anyhow, there are about 500 left, 270 get paid and I’m probably just about in the top 150, when this hum-dinger happens. Early position raises to 3k, with only 3k behind, and I find KK in the big blind. I don’t mess around as he is pretty committed to the hand and shove, getting a call from JJ. The flop comes blank, club, club, club, club and I lose the 12k pot to the 4 flush. Nice :( I lose another chunk calling a short stack’s all in with AK and losing a race, before shoving my last 4k into an unopened pot from the small blind with and the big blind wakes up with AJ and I’m done.
So, not a successful night overall, but I thought I played pretty consistently, and if I can keep this level up I can hopefully nab a big score at some point this month.
| October Challenge ($) | |
|---|---|
| Goal | 6,000 |
| Bankroll | 2,672 |
| P&L Tournaments | (328) |