Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Luton Main Event report

I played in the £1000 No Limit Holdem at Luton over the weekend. Everything went extremely smoothly on Day 1 and I was hitting cards, my bluffs were working and I was sat on a very good table which allowed me to build my chips up to a healthy 60000 which was 5th out of the 44 runners remaining for Day 2….

Some hands that I remember from Day 1.

- Blinds 100/200 crazy player to my right who I had targeted for a double up raises to 1200 to play. I have KK so I call knowing he will pay me off if I get a favourable flop. It flops JJ9. Not really ideal. He checks and I bet 3000. He goes all in for another 6000. Against a whole medley of players I would consider passing here but not against him. I call and he has AK and I am up to 20000

- Blinds 300/600 I call on the button after numerous limpers with 4s6s. Flop 35T rainbow. Everyone checks so I bet 3000. One caller. Turn a 7 to give me the nuts but ther is now a flush draw. He checks again and I bet 3000 again. He reraises 6000 more. I go all in as I don’t want to be outdrawn by slowplaying. He passes. Up to about 35000.

- Blinds 300/600. This hand was bizarre. I limp under the gun with AA. Five other limpers around to the big blind who just raises 1000 more. I call as there are some crazy players on my table and I think one of them may try a move in this pot. Sure enough Ali Mallu raises 7000 more. Big blind passes and I raise another 13000. Ali passes.

- Blinds 400/800. I raise UTG to 4000 with AK. Big blind who was a very bizarre player who had never played live before called. Flop 23K but all clubs. He bets 1000. Hmmm I call. Turn J. he bets 1500. I call. River a 3. He bets 1500 again and I call. He has the nut flush. I think I escaped that one lightly.

- Blinds 600/1200. Button raises to 3500 to play. I have AA in the big blind. I raise 8000 more and after a big think he calls. Flop AJ9 with two hearts. I bet 8000 and he passed. This put me up to around 50000.

I then got a rush of AK’s and no callers to my raises so ended the day on 60000 chips.

Day 2

Twice I raised early on with AQ only to lay them down to all in moves and I was down to 46000. I then raised 5 out of 6 hands with no callers and showed the table a pocket pair each time. Bit of a rush…..

This was a key hand. Blinds 800/1600. I raise again to 4500 to play with AQ and pick up a caller in the big blind. Flop 78K with two clubs. He checks and I decide to represent the K and bet 9000. He calls. I am figuring him now for a flush draw or KQ or KJ. Next card a 2 and he checks again. If he is flushing here I don’t want him to get a free card with a 28000 pot out there I bet 20000. Hopefully he will now even let go of a weak King. After about 4 minutes he calls. Hmmm I am down to 20000 chips now. River a 2. Again he checks and I decide not to bluff my last 20000 so check. I show AQ and he says its good. He had A9 clubs. Amazingly after that bluff I am up to 90000 chips and probably amongst the chip leaders.

I managed to get my chips to 100000 before I was moved to another table.

I then got bluffed out of a hand straight away in a small blind/big blind battle. I think I played the hand badly. Blinds 1000/2000 small blind raises to 5000 and I look down at AQ. He has around 40000. I was going to put him all in but decided to just raise it to 15000. He then moved all in after a think. I had no read on this player and haven’t played with him before so he could have been a rock. I passed as 25000 more was just too much. He showed K9. Damn how I hate it when I get bluffed.

We were down to around 23 players when the hand that killed me happened. I had about 75000 chips and blinds were 1500/3000. Early position young guy raised to 8000 to play. I am in the cut off and decide to call with JJ. My first mistake is that I should have raised it there to find out where I was. Flop 259 rainbow. He bet something like 11000. I was convinced I was winning. I had him on AK or a smaller pocket pair. Again I should have raised there to find out what he had. I called. Turn a T. He checks. I fire out 17000 and he starts thinking…. When he eventually calls I am convinced I am beat as I can’t see what hand he could be calling where I am ahead. River a blank. He checks and I check. He has TT for top set. My own fault I let him catch it. It leaves me on 40000 when I should have been on over 100000 if I had played it better. Still he hit a two outer on me so he was lucky.

With the blinds now 1500/3000 I raise twice with AT and AJ only to pass both times to all in raises behind me. I was down to 24000 when I went all in with ThJh and was called by the button who had me dominated with AJ. I didn’t utilise my last 40000 chips very well to be fair.

Overall I played well and got close to the money again. I have a mentality nowadays to try and win tournaments rather than just make the money. In the past I would have just got anted away until I made the money but I think long term taking greater risks at the bubble stage of tournaments will provide greater rewards….

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ben, on the hand you went out on, Irish Dennis passed QQ in the big blind! that would have been interesting for Mr McLean who had flat called your all-in

Milkybarkid said...

Yeh i can't believe he passed that! I would have gone all in over the top if i was him... i read Alan for a medium pair or AK/AQ. If he had a monster like KK or AA i think he would have reraised all in himself.....