Sunday, April 10, 2005

Gutshot £750 Main Event Report

After a few drinks with Richard Gryko I turned up for the main event hoping to put in a good performance. Starting chips were 8000 and the clock was 45 minutes. I’m not sure if it was the drinking but I started off very aggressively and was up to 11000 chips very quickly after tangling with Jac Arama. Jac then got his own back on me when he called a decent sized raise in Level 2 with 48 suited and hit trip 8’s against my AQ. By the time Level 3 had arrived I had around 10000 chips. I enjoyed the following hand. Early position raised to 800 and there were two callers before it got to me. I decided this was a good opportunity to pick up the pot with a complete bluff so I raised to 4000 with KT. They all passed…..

Soon the table broke and I was moved upstairs and lingered around the 15000 mark for the next few levels. I lost a few thousand chips when I called a bet on the flop and turn with a flush draw and a Gutshot and missed… then I had AA and KK but didn’t make anything but the blinds. I had 14000 chips when I raised to 1200 to play in early position with JJ. The button called and it I flopped quad Jacks on a JJ5 flop. I checked and the button checked. Next card a T and I bet 1000 and he called. Last card a rag and I bet 3700 hoping that he would put me on a bluff and call if he had something. He moved all in and I had him covered. He had TT so had made a full house on the turn. That put me up to 22000 chips and the Jacks that had been so good to me then turned on me as I lost reasonable pots twice with them. Once calling a reasonable raise and losing a race v AK and the second time I layed them down on a K high flop. I lost a few more pots when I passed medium pairs to reraises and was down to 12000 chips when I picked up QQ and got doubled up by an opponent holding AQ.

The blinds were now 500/1000 and we were down to 3 tables. I was about average in chips with 30000. There were a few very aggressive players at the table including Jimmy Alp. In one amazing hand he called a raise to 3000 from the big blind with 23 suited. It flopped 267 and Jimmy then called a bet of 5000. Turn a 2 and Jimmy got doubled up by an opponent with AA. Management decided to play down to 20 as it was getting late and by the time the blinds reached 1000/2000 I had been treading water for a while. Most pre flop raises were now winning the pot. I picked up a decent pot when I reraised what I thought was a button blind steal with AsTs and the button called. It flopped K34 and I figured that if I bet large if he doesn’t have a K he would pass so I bet 10000. He passed after a dwell… phew.

The last hand of day 1 soon happened which involved me. Jimmy raised to 7000 with the blinds at 1500/3000 and I looked down at AK. I knew that he could literally have anything so I pushed my stack of 30000 into the middle. The small blind then thought for eternity before eventually going all in for 15000. Jimmy passed. Whilst the blind was thinking of calling I put him on TT, JJ or QQ. So I was delighted when he turned over QK and missed his Q and I finished the Day 5th in chips with 51000.

It was nice to return for Day 2 without being short stacked for a change. Hopefully it meant I could play my real game and not a short stacked strategy. Soon I was back amongst the pack when I lost with JJ v AK against a short stack which put me back down to 35000 which was about average. I then raised something like four out of seven hands preflop without a caller which put me up to 60000 ish again. The small stacks were gradually getting knocked out and the two chip leaders also had been knocked out. The blinds had gone up to a massive 3000/6000 which meant the average stack had only 10 big blinds. It became a game of timing and hoping that if you did raise that nobody found a monster behind you.

I then got lucky when I picked up A4 in late position and raised to 11000 to play and the button went all in for 23000. I didn’t like it at all but the pot odds meant I had to call. He had JJ. No help on the flop but an A on the turn and I was now chip leader with about 120000. Fellow blogger Rob Sherwood was then unfortunate to go out on the bubble and we were down to the final table.

I was slightly concerned entering the final table that the blinds were about to go up to 4500/9000 which meant that even though I had the chip lead I only had 12 big blinds. On with the game…. We played 9 handed for about 30 minutes before two players were taken out by Mick Cook’s rockets and I had kept my chips at around the 100000 mark. With blinds at 4500/9000 I raised Jimmy Alp’s big blind from the small blind to 24000 with 55. Flop 88A with two clubs. I then bet out 25000 hoping he hadn’t seen a favourable flop. He called…. Hmmmm I now have him on a flush draw. Turn bring the flush and I now know I can’t be winning. He has to have either an A, 8 or a flush… so I pass to his small bet and am down to 50000. Jimmy then took out the 5th place player when he called an all in bet with bottom pair and the flush draw and made his flush. I then got very lucky and doubled up when I called my last 50000 from the big blind with TQ and Mick had JQ and I rivered a straight. I then had 66 in the big blind and called and all in raise from the short stacked player who held TK and I hit a set and we were down to three. We then swapped percentages in each other so I was guaranteed at least £10000. I decided to take Jimmy on with 5s6s and it flopped 36K. He bet out as I expected but I figured as he plays so loose he was highly likely to be bluffing but on this occasion he held AK and it stood up for me to finish 3rd.

I feel i played my A game throughout the tournament. I felt much more on the ball than i had done for the Vic main event a week earlier. The only time I was all in with the worst hand and survived was when we were down to 4 players and I got lucky with TQ v JQ. Mick was a deserved winner and was definitely the most dangerous opponent at the final table.

I think I will head up to Luton to play in the £150 Pot Limit Holdem Rebuys tonight. I’ve even been to the gym already today. I love not having to go to work on a Monday morning……

14 comments:

julian said...

well done chap...can you give me the 'new ben'/'old ben' percentages over the 2 days please

Milkybarkid said...

Cheers Julian

I think it was new ben 30%/old Ben 70%.

I failed to put one hand in my report that i just remembered. I decided a late position raiser was on a blind steal so i quickly reraised from the big blind with 52 off. That committed about 20% of my chips.... i then gave him a good staredown when he moved all in. I said, "Damn my Tens can't be any good." ;-)

Anonymous said...

Good work Ben. You are on fire right now.

I guess it was worthwhile playing at Gutshot rather than flying out to Lithuania!?

I won the first NLHE tournament out there, Roy Brindley picked up the main event. A good weekend for Brits I reckon :-)

Milkybarkid said...

Hi paul....

I am a bit of a creature of convenience so the 10 minute drive to Gutshot was very appealing.

Well done on winning the first event out there. Let me know if you are planning on being in Luton at all this week.

Milkybarkid said...

Mike

Planning on definitely playing in the Main Event at Luton, then Heads Up in Barcelona followed by the WSOP i think. Fingers crossed i can keep up the form.

Rob Sherwood said...

Hi Ben,

Nice report and good result. See you in Luton.

Anonymous said...

Ben,

Good job you've won again as you'll need that money for the big weekend in York soon! Reckon drinking games hold em' is a must.

Baz

Anonymous said...

Excellent result yet again Ben. Well done.

Baz, I think you might need to get some poker practice in if thats the plan. We can't have you bladdered because you've lost so many hands....someone vaguely sober needs to unblock the sink after Andy's used it.... ;-)

Anonymous said...

I think I'll leave his head in there this time with the hot water running. His hair always needs a wash anyway what with all the sh!te he puts in it.

Don't worry Chris, I've been practicing my hold em'(albeit against American muppets who know nothing.)

Baz

Anonymous said...

Can't imagine what site that might be!

Final tabled in consecutive 300 player tourneys on UltimateBet last week. $288 for an $11 outlay.

Kind of seems pathetic compared to some people's earnings! I bet Ben is quaking in his boots...

Anonymous said...

Hi Ben well down for your result you clearly have some talent.

However I would like to state for the record an "accurate" version of the hand you put me out on. You stated you had pot odds by altering the true amounts involved so peeps this is how it actually was.

blinds are 2000 / 4000 ben (one before button) makes it 11 to play. Me (button) JJ push making it a further 12000 into a pot of 40000 so you are getting roughly 4-1 on your money.

Your reluctancy was totally justified because you must have known you were on a 3 outer with A4 in your hand. Pot odds? on a 9 percenter

If you noticed I was bitter well I was but not because of the loss but more because of the bad play AND of course the bad luck. Talk about unlucky 13!!

All said Im over it now just wanted to set the record straight. It was a bad play that got lucky and you did not have pot odds.

Aces to ya

Pete

Anonymous said...

Duh! Just realised cacluation was based on post flop!

Still a horrible play

Milkybarkid said...

Hi Pete

Soz about thge inaccuracy. I was saying to Rob Sherwood that i really need to start writing hands down as its difficult to remember when you have to recall 12 hours of action. When trying to recall what the exact blinds were and the action i often have to estimate as well as i can.

I agree A4 v JJ was very lucky but i figured i had roughly 30% chance whatever your hand so i had to call even though i didn't want to...

I've amended my report to reflect the hand properly...

Cheers

Ben

Anonymous said...

no worries but damn isn't poker a bitch sometimes ;-)