Online Marathon

I played a long session of online tournaments for 12 hours on Saturday night, before retiring with exhaustion. The session went pretty well - involving 8 cashes and 3 final tables (all on Party), but I woke up the next day feeling I might have won a lot more had I run a little better, and made a few better decisions late on. Due to the number of tournaments I played (much have been 30+) this was only good for a little over £600 profit, but a nice confidence boost in any case.

I actually led the PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand with 80 runners left and a huge chip stack, but was seriously fatigued by that stage of proceedings. I 4bet AQ all in against another one of the leaders to decimate my stack (their AK), and ended up busting shortly after for $450. I think the AQ probably wasn’t as bad as it sounded, as I was opening so many pots at that stage, he could easily be 3 betting with a hand I crush and I can probably get him to fold out the mid pairs.

I also played far more aggressively pre-flop than I have been recently, 3 betting suited connectors and one gappers in position, which enabled me to take control of many pots where previously I had called, missed and folded. The downside to this was I had to fold promising hands like 7♠8♠ to opponents when they 4bet me. However, in the online world of rapidly changing seat assignments, I was normally moved before they cottoned on to my ploy.

I also certainly had my fair share of good hole cards which obviously helps, particularly when my opening range is fairly wide and people start to shove light.

A couple of hands which made me smile ruefully or weep:

Hand1
I pop for a ciggie before the tournaments started and arrived back to find myself about sitting out of the first hand of the FT $215 Omaha tournament. I race to the chair and participate in the hand from the BB with JTxx. There are two limpers.

Flop is AKQ rainbow for the nuts. 120 in the pot.

I check, first raiser bets 120, he is raised to 480, and I pot it again. I am not worried about redraws here, because the board is rainbow (I have backdoor diamonds) and the opponents would surely have raised with a hand as strong as AAJT, KKJT, QQJT etc, so I am quite happy when all three of us get our 5k stacks into the middle.

I expect to be chopping with someone, and perhaps have to dodge a house draw against the other. This is ok I guess, as I got the last big bet in, so had some fold equity if they didn’t have the nuts.

Incredibly they both have sets, no redraws, with KKragrag, and QQragrag. I hate both of their plays here, because the only hand I can really have with my free look from the BB is JT. Anyhow, the board comes running 9s and thus I am busted from the tournament first hand :(

Hand2
Final Table of the Party 10k guaranteed, 4 players remain, I am chip leader with 120k and villain has 100k. Blinds are 3k/6k I think.

Villain has been playing pretty well and raises in SB to 15k. I call with A9 in the BB (suits irrelevant)

Flop is 567 rainbow.

Villain bets 25k and I call which is a bit spewy, but there is a decent chance Ace high is good here.

Turn is an 8. Ding!

Villain shoves for 60k, I snap call with my straight, and he turns QT for the bluff. The river nearly makes me fall out of my seat though, as it is the 9, giving him the bigger straight. Three outer. Sigh. Win that hand and I have 70% of chips with three remaining. Instead I bust 4th for $850 odd.

By 6:30am I am still running well in about 4th spot and in the money with 70 runners left in a Pokerstars tournament with a 12k first prize. However, I can’t keep my eyes open, so decide to just go to bed and see where I can limp to “sitting out”. This obviously ruins any chance of a big score, but the alternative was doubtlessly making a wreckless decision due to tiredness. My “corpse stack” plodded home in 24th spot at 7:45am good for $250, as I dozed away.

Anyhow, a mental pat on the back for a good aggressive performance and I’ll be given the online tournaments another go when I get time in a couple of weeks. I’ve got a few live games lined up over the next fortnight, and may venture to the International for a live tournament next week.