As I mentioned at the end of my last entry, I decided to go to Star City today to play in their Easter Monday Poker Tournament. The buy-in was $400 and there were 265 runners (capped at this number), creating a prize pool of almost $100,000. The top 30 finishers made the money, with 1st receiving $30,000, 2nd receiving $19,000 and 3rd receiving $10,000.
The structure for the tournament was pretty good considering the size of the buy-in. We were given $6000 stacks and 30 minute levels with the blinds starting at a lowly 25/50.
I didn’t play a hand for the first 2 orbits, preferring instead to get better acquainted with my new opposition. The table seemed very passive and there was lots of limping preflop. The only player who frequently raised preflop was the player directly to my right and even he didn’t seem to grasp the concept that well – he’d often only min-raise after several people limped.
The first hand I played was pocket sixes. The player to my right opened in early position to 150 (blinds at 25/50) and I called, as did both blinds. The flop came 865r, giving me middle set. The small blind, an Asian man wearing a PokerStars shirt, led out for 250 into the 600 pot. It was folded to me and I raised it up to 850. He called 600 more after some thought. At this point, I was putting him on a hand like 87s which had a pair and a straight draw. The turn came a safe T and he checked to me. The pot contained about 2300 and I bet 1700. He tanked for a while and frankly I would’ve been sick and completely lost as to what to do if he shoved. Luckily though, he just folded and I was up to 7000 in chips!
The next hand I played I was dealt two black queens in early position and raised three times the blind. Only the big blind called and the flop came 875 with a flush draw. He checked and I checked it back, not wanting to get check-raised on this flop by a semi-bluff to which I’d probably have to fold. The turn brought another Q, giving me top set and putting a second flush draw out there. The big blind checked again and suddenly I went from fearing a set or two pair to hoping he had just that. Unfortunately, when I bet, he instantly folded.
I then lost four small pots in a row and soon found myself back at my starting stack. In the first hand, I led from the small blind with a flush draw with Q5s and had to fold to a raise. In the second, I value bet K4 on the river from the big blind on a board of QT5K8 after it had been checked through on the flop and turn and had to fold again to a raise (rivered a set I assume). In the third hand, I opened A7s from the hijack and had to fold to a 3-bet from the cutoff. And in the final hand, I led T9s from the small blind on a 922 flop (three-way pot with button who had open-limped) and had to fold to a raise from the big blind. Although I was never out of line in any of these pots, my image had no doubt deteriorated since the only thing the other players saw was me betting and folding to any action. I made a conscious effort at this point to tighten up again.
About two orbits later, I was in the small blind with Q4s. A couple of players limped and the button min-raised to 400. He had been doing this every orbit so I decided that this would be a pretty good time to 3-bet him with air. Given my tight image and his extremely wide raising range, I was pretty confident that I would take the pot down right then and there. There was also the added advantage that, if I succeeded, he might be discouraged from raising his button in the future. As the rest of the table was extremely passive preflop, this would allow me to see more flops cheaply from the small blind. So I raised it to 1500 and everyone duly folded, giving me a nice chip-up of 1000 and building my stack to 7000 once again.
The next hand I played was also arguably the most important. The blinds were at 100/200 and I raised pocket eights in early to mid position to 500. The cutoff called as did the big blind. The pot contained 1600 and the flop came 753r. I had mixed feelings about this flop. It’s certainly about as good as it gets with pocket eights since you will rarely flop an over-pair with them. However, a flat-call preflop is very likely to be a pocket pair set-mining and this flop just about smacks that range in the face. A hand like 76s which is also likely to flat preflop has also hit this flop pretty hard, with a draw to trips, two pair or a gutshot-straight. I decided to start by betting and bet 1200 into the pot after it was checked to me. The cutoff did a massive Hollywood and just called and the big blind folded. I was pretty sure he felt he was strong but I didn’t know whether he thought 76s or A7 was the nuts there. I could be ahead, I might be terribly behind, I didn’t really know. Then the turn came the worst card in the deck, a 6. Now I’m behind his entire range and lose to every pocket pair except pocket 2’s. The problem is, I now have a straight redraw with a likely 10 outs. The pot contained 4000 and he had 2975 left. I have to admit I was pretty lost here and my lack of tournament experience showed. I didn’t want to go all-in because I was certain I’d get called and be behind. I decided that the best chance to see the river cheaply would be to check for pot control and hope he checked behind or at least only made a small badly-sized bet (which live players are apt to do). Unfortunately, he instantly shoved. I was definitely beat and my first reaction was to fold, but then I counted the pot, counted my stack, counted my odds, and realized I was completely lost. I was getting 7-3 on my call (pretty good), but the amount to call represented 60% of my remaining stack (very bad). I wasn’t sure what equity I had against his range, but my instincts told me I didn’t have enough. There are also of course other considerations in a tournament other than pot odds. For one, a 2000 chip stack would leave me virtually helpless while a 5000 chip stack would still allow me to outplay people. I thought that this was more of a consideration than usual since these players were so passive and weak. In the end, I laid the hand down and left myself with 5200. Any thoughts on this hand would be greatly appreciated.
I picked up A8s in the cutoff a few hands later and raised an under the gun limper to 800. Everyone else folded, he called, and the flop came AA9 with a flush draw (not mine). He checked, I continuation bet, he folded and I took it down. Pretty standard. I was back to my starting stack of 6000 and looking forward to the break in a few minutes.
Unfortunately, I never made it that far, for my final hand came up only a few hands later. I was in early position again and raised AQs to 800 after the under the gun player limped. The button called (the same Villain as the 88 hand) and the under the gun player called (naturally). The flop came AT5 rainbow, and the first player checked. I was ready to felt this hand and my bet-sizing didn’t really matter since I could easily get this hand all-in on two streets. I decided to bet 2000 into the 2700 pot, using just 2 chips in the hope I looked weak (if you count out a bet with multiple chip denominations, it generally means you’ve thought about it carefully, probably have a hand and are trying to accomplish something). The button called and the other player folded. The turn came a Q. I intended to check the turn no matter what since I wanted to open his range to bluffs (he had after all seen me check-fold the turn after continuation betting just one orbit earlier). With the turn giving me top two pair, I was even more comfortable in checking since I wasn’t really risking being outdrawn. I checked quickly and my opponent instantly stood up and proudly said “I put you all-in!” I did my best impression of an online snap-call and tabled my AQs. His face fell so much that I thought I must have just gotten extremely lucky and turned his AT or A5. However, he tabled just AJ, a hand that he can’t possibly expect to be good when called in that spot. So anyway, we’re off to the river and I have to dodge the King and the King only.
Then the player to my right said (incorrectly) “Wow, he’s drawing dead!”
Well, that was that. My fate was decided. As any poker player knows, whenever someone utters something like that at the table, you might as well start walking. Your 90% favouritism has just been turned into a sure fire bad beat. Sure enough, the K came on the river and my opponent screamed in joy, frantically pointing at his Jack.
So that was that. I’m hoping to play live more, but I think I’ll restrict it to tournament play since I can’t stand live cash games. Unfortunately, tournaments like this don’t come around all that often so I might be waiting a while before the next one.
Anyhow, I think I’ll call that an entry!
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