Main Event
It all started so well. I was placed on a table with 6 American Online qualifiers 3 of which had never played live. The only decent one was to my left and I think he went on to win it........
Starting chips were 10000 and I picked up a number of pots early on with some well timed bluffs as I was hardly seeing a hand. I think because they traveled so far to play they were very reluctant to call and sort of raise on the early levels. I was up to 20000 chips and called a raise from the only French player at the table who had slightly less chips than me with 88. I flopped a full house on a board of 8TT. I decided to lead out aggressively as I knew he would be less inclined to believe I had a made hand. I raised 1500 and he reraise me 3000.. :-) The tactic had worked. Turn brings a 4 and he bets 3500. I call after a short dwell and the last card is a 2. He bet 3500 again and I moved all in. He though for about two minutes and called and flipped over 44. What a nice turn that made him his losing full house. I was up to 40000 chips which at that early stage can't have been too far short of the chip lead. Then I had a terrible level when I lost with QQ twice and JJ twice... which set me back to about 30000 chips.
A young Scandinavian player then moved to the table and started raising alot of pots and he had about 27000 chips in front of him. After a few battles between me and him I limped under the gun. Blinds were 200/400. I am not going to say what hand I had as I want anyone who reads this to decide whether I played this hand badly or whether he did. I had not limped before this hand under the gun all night before this hand. He limped as well and the small blind passed leaving three of us in the pot. Flop KJ4 with two diamonds on the board. It’s checked to him and he bets 1000. I check raised him another 2500 and he then reraised me another 4000. I called immediately. There were now about 15000 chips in the middle. Turn is a T and I moved all in for nearly 20000 chips...... he thought for about 2 minutes before calling and flipping over KT for two pairs which held up on the river leaving me crippled and I was out about 5 minutes later. Considering my limp and check raise on the flop I could easily have held KK, JJ, KJ all of which would have him drawing dead.... but maybe I read too much into these things. I definitely wouldn't have called a reraise on the flop with top pair T kicker. I also know had the turn brought anything but a T or a K that he had decided to muck his hand if I moved all in (he told me that later). Incidentally he was 5th chip leader going into the second day and he was out after about an hour.
Time for a moan
My tournament form is seriously out at the moment. In the last 5 live tournaments I have played I have not once had AA or KK once which accumulating the hours played is probably 25-30 hours. I know that getting those hands is not the making of a tournament but it would help sometimes. In Deauville I had QQ no less than 6 times. I didn't win with them once. My favorite moment which sums up my form at the moment was during the 1000 Euro tournament. I had built my chips up from 5000 to just over 12000 chips and I was against a player with about 5000 chips. I had QQ in the big blind and reraised him all in after his initial raise. He flips over AK and hits an A on the flop. Fair enough it was a coin flip so no bad beat there. Very next hand I pick up AK suited. It’s folded round to me in the small blind and I raise a small amount and the big blind moves in for 7000 chips. I call and he shows QQ. First card out on the flop a Q and I am out. AK is another of my big moans at the moment. In France and Luton I have not once hit a single A or K when I have committed any chips with it preflop.
Place and People
The tournament was very well run and there was a giant cinema screen so you could see how many players were left, the prize pool, blinds and any other useful information whilst you were involved in a tournament. I finally met fellow blogger Mike Lacey who had a very good result in the main event. I'm sure he will write a full report on his blog soon. I think the people that travel around and play on the tournament circuit are far nicer than those you meet in the card rooms in the UK. Deauville is a nice venue for a poker tournament as well. It’s kind of like the Cannes of the north with lots of designer shops and nice restaurants. I think the EPT will grow and grow and before long the main events will be attracting 300-500 runners.
Oh and before I forget. French poker players are miserable gits.
Highlight of the week
After finishing 3rd in 3 250 Euro Sit n Go's I played in a 30 Euro Hi Low Stud Sit n Go with Julian Thew, Bad Girl, Steve Vladar and Mike Lacey and after studying High Low Split Poker for Advanced Players by Ray Zee on the way over I can say that I decimated the field and picked up a whopping 270 Euros for my troubles. lol. It was great fun and I am definitely going to be able to utilise my new found knowledge in that game when I play in the Dealers Choice at the Vic.
Talking of the Vic. I am going to have to play a few cash games before the end of February if I am going to turn around my figures for February which are not looking great at the moment. Online and Live are +$$$ but bad tournaments in Luton and Deauville mean that I am looking at a slightly negative month as things stand.
8 comments:
Well you might not have seen aces or kings, but something did stand out...
In one level you lost with QQ and JJ twice and yet only lost a quarter of your stack with it. I think that's pretty good going. (Unless of course you actually lost more but got it back elsewhere during the level.)
I appreciate that the stack size:blinds ratio means that you don't have to commit as readily or as fully to these sorts of hands as you might in a smaller event, but it's still easy to haemhorrage chips sometimes...
I was lucky during that level because the blinds were low i was only losing approx 2000-3000 chips on each of those hands and i was a very big chip leader on my table. Each time there was a very unfavourable flop and an opponent moved all in. I know my move when i was still very much above average chips and the blinds were still only 200/400 that got me knocked out was the correct move but against the wrong player. I think anyone else on my table would have mucked there hand on the flop. When he hit two pair on the turn it gave him too much of a reason to call.
Your opponent has reraised you on a K high flop. In an unraised pot, one of his logical holdings is going to be KT. In which case, he would certainly call when his second pair came down.
Part of your armoury should be the ability to determine whether a player is good enough to fall for your bluff. Clearly, all evidence suggest that you have a loose weak player here, so why risk a huge portion of your stack running a bluff against someone indicating that he is bad enough to call with a marginal holding.
He may not have played the hand in the way that you wanted him or expected him to, but that's because you weren't playing him, but a figment of your imagination. To go bust on a draw when under no pressure is your mistake not his.
Don't try fancy plays against weak players. Be patient and stick to the basics.
By the way, I put you on the flush draw (possibly JTs) or QT.
Anon
I think your analysis of the situation is good. I should have considered more about how my opponent plays when i moved in on the turn. He had played very loose/aggressive from the moment he moved to my table. I knew he didn't like me calling his reraise on the flop so my read was that his hand was marginal and certainly not a monster was correct at the time.
I was still in a healthy chip postion so the risk/reward was not worth the chance that i took. Even with passing the hand on the turn to a big bet i would still have been left with approx 20000 chips which was more than adequate with the low blinds and slow structure.
I think at the time i was thinking that he would have put me on Q9s or AQs when i moved all in. In which case had i made the straight i probably would have checked hoping that he would bet ... maybe he was thinking the same.
We live and learn i guess.
Does your recent "form" lead you to think cash is king in your ambitions to make a living from poker?
On a much smaller scale I have found ring games more lucrative than Tournies, though obviously a win is a nice score (Usually £2000+ in the Notts £30/£20 comps), my earn from cash games (where most punters have £100 or less in front and will never rebuy for more than £100) has been incredibly good. Like I say not on "Vic" scale :) but still a reasonable hourly rate.
Hmmm perhaps. I certainly won’t go broke entering myself into endless big tournaments if I feel that my form continues to desert me. Its not entirely form. I can hold my hands up and say I made marginally bad decisions that got be busted out of big tournaments when I had a lot of chips in Deauville and Luton. I’ll probably set aside a percentage of my profits for tournaments after April when I am going to play a load. If I play 10 tournaments in April and don’t cash in any there is something seriously wrong…..
You never know I may even venture up to Nottingham to play when I have plenty of free time.
I never did say what i actually had. It was Ad9d. I thought (incorrectly) that i could get my opponent to lay down two pairs fearing trips or a made straight. I knew worse case scenario that i could still win the hand with a diamond or a Q so thats why i moved in.
The hand was not played the way you describe. It was a 1200 bet by the scandinavian young gun on the flop. You make it 4000 in total. Then he re-raises you 10k and you call. On the turn you go allin with 18k. He is at that point left with 15.
Facts must be facts.
Ronny
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