A Quick Night's Work
I played 4 tournaments last night and then decided to stop for the evening, when I was eliminated from all of them in short order. I think the longest I lasted was about 90 minutes. I didn’t really do too much wrong - just got in marginal situations where I didn’t hold up when small favourite. I’m not really too fussed about my barren run this month - this happens, and I know I have the game to get a really big score online at some point, as I’ve shown several times in the past.
In terms of my October challenge, it’s looking like Saturday’s planned marathon is going to pretty pivotal to whether I achieve that goal or not. Fail on Saturday, and I’ll be clinging to the hope of a random big score on the last few online sessions planned for the rest of the month. Otherwise no UKPT Grand Final for me. In some ways, that might not be a bad thing, in that I can use my sacred last day of holiday this year to book a monday off, and blitz the Sunday online programme.
Anyhow - to the 4 tournaments I played last night:
UB - 8k Guaranteed Rebuy
This one had an odd structure - $30 to buy in, plus one hour of rebuys (each buy in gets you 1500 units). Then, you have the option of a double add on for $60 which gets you 6000 units! Very strange. Anyway, I decided to go in with a $150 budget allowing for 2 rebuys to build a stack. 3 hands did for my rebuys: - My AJ v AQ all in on the turn - board A,10,9,8 giving me top pair + open ended - My KK v QJ v Q9 all in pre-flop
- MY AK v JJ v J9 all in pre-flop
After this sequence, I decided it probably wasn’t going to be my night in this particular tournie, and quit $90 lighter.
PokerStars 80k Guaranteed
I get up to 4000 quite early with KK, when someone plays K2 hard against me and I have a set. However, not much happens for an hour or so, and I have dribbled back down to about 3k when my exit hand occurs. I get into a cheap 5 way pot with
Flop
Someone bets the pot of 800 and gets a flat call. Now, I’m normally not a fan of the “shove with a nut flush draw” approach, but in this case it has merit. With 2000 in the middle, blinds of 75-150, and my stack at 2900, this look a good spot to gamble with my nut draw to try and get a decent stack (bare in mind there are still 800 odd runners left at this point). I shove and get called by JT (the flat caller was still to act, so this guy was definitely in the mood for a gamble). We go heads up for the 8k pot, and I hit my flush with the Js, but he hits a house to eliminate me. I think my play was right there, when you consider my fold equity, size of pot, size of field, stack sizes and blinds. He really should be passing JT there with someone still to act in any case.
Full Tilt 50k Guaranteed
Not sure how I feel about my exit hand in this one. A pretty big pot develops early on between myself, on the button, and the BB.
I hold
Board on the turn is J,T,6,4 with three hearts.
The final action involves him having to call 1300 more into a 4.2k pot. I have top pair with a Jack flush draw as mini insurance. He is getting a bit more than 3-1 on his money, and he makes the call with . He has the 8 remaining hearts for the bigger flush, as well as the 3 remaining Kings for the straight as well as the aces and queens. These outs just about justify the call, but it’s fair to say he couldn’t possibly know he had all these outs, as his flush draw could be dead, as could his Aces and Queens. Irrespective of him having the odds, I am still commanding favourite to take a big pot early on, but another heart pops up on the river and it’s an early bath for me.
Full Tilt 30k Guaranteed
This is the only tournament where I got my money in really bad, but I was pretty cold decked, truth be told. This was going well early on - a comedian 3 bet me pre-flop with 72o, getting me to be cautious with AK. However, he didn’t follow up on his pre-flop aggression on a dangerous board, allowing me to figure it out on the end, and call his river lunge with Ace high, winning a nice pot. I won a few more pots to sit with 3k (from the 2k start), when the following hand occurred after about 90 mins play. 4 limpers for 100, and I make up the SB with .
Flop comes 2, 5, 7 rainbow
This looks perfect - I have a limped big pair beat, and there are no straights or flushes available.
I bet the pot of 600, and get called by BB and one the limpers.
Turn in a King bringing the second diamond.
The pot is now a whopping 2200 and I decide to try and just take it down by shoving my last 2300 in the middle. I get insta-called by the BB. The other guy tanks for about 45 seconds before calling with…a set of 5s. What was he thinking was beating him? KK raises pre-flop from our position in the blinds with so many limpers, so he only has to worry about the remote possibility of 77. The BB made a terrible call for his tournie life with the open ended straight draw. No miracle 7 for me, and we are both busted by the set. Not sure if I can avoid that or not - probably not - it’s fairly early in the tournament and the pot is significant on the turn. Probably just one of those hands.
A disappointing night, although at least I didn’t waste too many hours, which is always a worry with these mammoth tournaments. I am chomping at the bit to get back and play again, which is a good sign. However, I’m going to be disciplined and have two early nights ahead of the big Saturday session. I’ll blog again Sunday or Monday.
| October Challenge ($) | |
|---|---|
| Goal | 6,000 |
| Bankroll | 1,907 |
| P&L Tournaments | (1,093) |