Seneca Trip Report -
Raced down Friday night, got a room at the Hojo. $45 AND clean sheets, haven't seen anything that cheap since DrTyore got bagged from Itsame!
Head right over to the poker room and they are running satellites for the the $1070. They actually have great structure for a tourney sitngo, $125 - 2000 chips and 15 min blinds starting at $25/$25.
Well after $375 and three hours later, I realize the structures fine but the suck out factor isnt !!!
I bust out QQ -vs TT
Then K7 vs 33 - not a suck out but you think I would win one flip!
And the final straw was a flopped flush vs a set against the chipleader (which would have let me cruise through with 80% of the chips) and of course the board pairs.
Thankfully All_aces was there to share the carnage of this beat, but it was just a prelude as I think this was the same guy who beat him heads up for the final. BTW Hayley (AA GF) is a kick ass player and didn't make it easy being on my left.
Me and the monkey go back to the cash game. Somewhere between the rail and the next game the monkey remembers to put the horseshoe back in his arse. I walk from a 1-2 table with almost enough to cover my entrance + satellite costs.
So I manage to wake up, go for a run and get to the tournament ready to play. I have really been playing well in higher buy ins since Vegas and feel really good about my game.
This maybe underestimated but I believe that total state management is the most important factor in playing well. Not just avoiding tilt, but getting into and staying in the zone. Call it Zen, the Zone or MonkeyMania but it is the single most factor in impacting my game right now.
My table is fairly ABC with one LAG and a calling station. Thankfully the monkey hasn't taken a crap yet as we get AA three times, AA and KK and havent really had a hand to get me into trouble. Things are moving well and I am remaining 1.5 times avg stack pretty much through the whole tournament.
Best part is LAG is my bitch, he really kept it interesting as we have alot of post flop play. He floated alot of flops trying to take it away and would fold to reraise on the turn. Given that your playing with 200+ blinds I really had to think through alot of post flop action.
Got down to 27 players and I am at a new table. I had played a couple of these guys in satellites and this table was much more agressive then the first.
Then I sick situation. I 2.5x opened in the HJ with 44 and was min - reraised by the BB. I really put him on a big hand AA-QQ and called to see a flop. Flop was 428 rainbow. He C/R me all in after my 1/2 pot bet. I don't even think about a set vs set here and beat him into the pot with my call. He tables 88 and I am down to 2/3 avg stack and I still dont think there is a way for me to get away from this hand. Although the monkey says he was a NIT and maybe we should have at least put on a helmut for safety? Im still thinking about this one maybe I could find a fold... but I just dont see it ...yet.
I tighten up looking for a situation to double, and I found it in two orbits. Our table is fairly active and one of the players is WAY aggro. Ofcourse he is button on my BB so I am expecting to get it AIPF with him as he is constantly stealing against me. Typical weak EP limp to button who bangs it for 5x BB I insta push with 88. EP folds and Button insta calls with 66. I am really surprised at his call given that he only has 33BB and just has me covered. Ofcourse a 6 hits the flop and IGHN.
Felt very good about my play. My only questions were about how much value I got with big hands. I posted about the AA vs AQ, but I had another with a three flush on board where the EP made a 1/3 bet on the river taking control of the pot when I had TPTK. My hand was good and it was a weak bluff but I am looking to get better at reading these blocking bets vs suck bets.
Barely slept the night as I played more $100 max to work on agression and went on an amazing run. The monkey was looking like a jockey as we kept cheering for our 8 outer horses to come in. They all did and it is funny how great you feel about your play when your pushing all your draws, they are all hitting and you walk away up 8 buy ins. Problem with this play is it also gets your addreniline going making it hard to sleep.
Next Morning I barely get my ass into the poker room to play the $225 10am.
I talked about state management and I definetly didnt feel great walking into this one. My play showed it as well.
Thankfully I had some karmha coming back to me from yesterday as I caught a 1 outer for quads with an underset. Then I flop quads against AA; the monkey started to write a book and scheduling personal appearances on the self development poker speaking circuit!
It wasn't to last as I made some more huge mistakes. Bluffing off 1/2 stack on a QQ7 board with 55 reraising a huge overbet on the flop then mucking when EP insta pushed showing TT and having no fear of a Q, or pushing AK into someone on the button when they don't have the ability to fold or have knowledge of fold equity. Plays that are straight forward in the $109+ and $100 SitNgos but I just dont play in the stix, worse was I didnt didnt adjust well.
The play here is horrible and trying to 'outplay' it was even worse. Think $3 pokerstars donkements, so I think I will make it a regular stop on Sundays for the 6PM deepstack.
Exhuasted, I let the monkey drive home and contemplate turningstone in March.
Congrats to All_Aces, and Blondefish on your impressive cash/seat wins. And to the Georgetown crew on your cashes.
Head right over to the poker room and they are running satellites for the the $1070. They actually have great structure for a tourney sitngo, $125 - 2000 chips and 15 min blinds starting at $25/$25.
Well after $375 and three hours later, I realize the structures fine but the suck out factor isnt !!!
I bust out QQ -vs TT
Then K7 vs 33 - not a suck out but you think I would win one flip!
And the final straw was a flopped flush vs a set against the chipleader (which would have let me cruise through with 80% of the chips) and of course the board pairs.
Thankfully All_aces was there to share the carnage of this beat, but it was just a prelude as I think this was the same guy who beat him heads up for the final. BTW Hayley (AA GF) is a kick ass player and didn't make it easy being on my left.
Me and the monkey go back to the cash game. Somewhere between the rail and the next game the monkey remembers to put the horseshoe back in his arse. I walk from a 1-2 table with almost enough to cover my entrance + satellite costs.
So I manage to wake up, go for a run and get to the tournament ready to play. I have really been playing well in higher buy ins since Vegas and feel really good about my game.
This maybe underestimated but I believe that total state management is the most important factor in playing well. Not just avoiding tilt, but getting into and staying in the zone. Call it Zen, the Zone or MonkeyMania but it is the single most factor in impacting my game right now.
My table is fairly ABC with one LAG and a calling station. Thankfully the monkey hasn't taken a crap yet as we get AA three times, AA and KK and havent really had a hand to get me into trouble. Things are moving well and I am remaining 1.5 times avg stack pretty much through the whole tournament.
Best part is LAG is my bitch, he really kept it interesting as we have alot of post flop play. He floated alot of flops trying to take it away and would fold to reraise on the turn. Given that your playing with 200+ blinds I really had to think through alot of post flop action.
Got down to 27 players and I am at a new table. I had played a couple of these guys in satellites and this table was much more agressive then the first.
Then I sick situation. I 2.5x opened in the HJ with 44 and was min - reraised by the BB. I really put him on a big hand AA-QQ and called to see a flop. Flop was 428 rainbow. He C/R me all in after my 1/2 pot bet. I don't even think about a set vs set here and beat him into the pot with my call. He tables 88 and I am down to 2/3 avg stack and I still dont think there is a way for me to get away from this hand. Although the monkey says he was a NIT and maybe we should have at least put on a helmut for safety? Im still thinking about this one maybe I could find a fold... but I just dont see it ...yet.
I tighten up looking for a situation to double, and I found it in two orbits. Our table is fairly active and one of the players is WAY aggro. Ofcourse he is button on my BB so I am expecting to get it AIPF with him as he is constantly stealing against me. Typical weak EP limp to button who bangs it for 5x BB I insta push with 88. EP folds and Button insta calls with 66. I am really surprised at his call given that he only has 33BB and just has me covered. Ofcourse a 6 hits the flop and IGHN.
Felt very good about my play. My only questions were about how much value I got with big hands. I posted about the AA vs AQ, but I had another with a three flush on board where the EP made a 1/3 bet on the river taking control of the pot when I had TPTK. My hand was good and it was a weak bluff but I am looking to get better at reading these blocking bets vs suck bets.
Barely slept the night as I played more $100 max to work on agression and went on an amazing run. The monkey was looking like a jockey as we kept cheering for our 8 outer horses to come in. They all did and it is funny how great you feel about your play when your pushing all your draws, they are all hitting and you walk away up 8 buy ins. Problem with this play is it also gets your addreniline going making it hard to sleep.
Next Morning I barely get my ass into the poker room to play the $225 10am.
I talked about state management and I definetly didnt feel great walking into this one. My play showed it as well.
Thankfully I had some karmha coming back to me from yesterday as I caught a 1 outer for quads with an underset. Then I flop quads against AA; the monkey started to write a book and scheduling personal appearances on the self development poker speaking circuit!
It wasn't to last as I made some more huge mistakes. Bluffing off 1/2 stack on a QQ7 board with 55 reraising a huge overbet on the flop then mucking when EP insta pushed showing TT and having no fear of a Q, or pushing AK into someone on the button when they don't have the ability to fold or have knowledge of fold equity. Plays that are straight forward in the $109+ and $100 SitNgos but I just dont play in the stix, worse was I didnt didnt adjust well.
The play here is horrible and trying to 'outplay' it was even worse. Think $3 pokerstars donkements, so I think I will make it a regular stop on Sundays for the 6PM deepstack.
Exhuasted, I let the monkey drive home and contemplate turningstone in March.
Congrats to All_Aces, and Blondefish on your impressive cash/seat wins. And to the Georgetown crew on your cashes.
Comments
Is this advisable? These are the plays that keep burning me. If I get burned by one more player chasing their flush draw, I'm going to lose it!
Are you referring to the hand against me with my 10's?
How I saw it was; 10% of the buttons stack went in on a raise with an UTG limper and one caller, I would think that a push would only get called by QQ+, AQ-AK, and if happened to be those hands then IGHN.
I normally don't want to race here and gave ALOT more weight to the button being able to fold <JJ and Ax - AJ to an UTG limp reraise.
My bad
Don't think it is advisable to go in with this mindset, but I wanted to try and play superlag and was willing to burn through the $100. As it happened I caught my first flip and was on a roll from there, kinda exactly like Brunson desscribes in SS.
My assumption was that you had two overs and I was willing to race to double up. I had been nursing a stack for what felt like forever, and felt I had no ability to maneuver. I wanted some chips.
I actually made a much bigger mistake against you later...I folded to one of your pushes when I should have called. But I was a chicken.
I didn't cash - got close but no cigar.
Sorry, I didn't mean this as a fault of yours. I think it was more of a fault of mine.
I wasnt playing with the environment that was presented, giving people credit for folds that they WONT (as think I said cant b4) make. For example the 55 vs TT on a QQ7 board.
The mistake is mine projecting what other people would do.
I think you are missing a few points that need to be made.
First is the button player has played (or has played in events) that you have played in. So you are not a completely unknown player. What is your table image? And what is it the player on the button?
Second a push here screams of a steal or "I don't want to see a flop" in my opinion.
I would think that if you had Aces, Kings, and Queens you would either re-raise or smooth call. Why are you trying to chase every one out of the pot with a push, to win the current pot with Aces?
So with these two factors the push here doesn't seem like Aces or Kings but more like a steal with some medium strength cards.
Now with 3 tables left if the button is a smaller stack and they want to win so they maybe getting their money in with any pair here looking for a coin flip. (Why not bust or double up now then bust out near the bubble.)
ummm.....
I haven't been out on a limb, I have had the chip leader for a while and just lost a big pot making a play post flop. Preflop pretty standard.
I think this was my first push preflop, although El only got to the table within the last couple of orbits.
The point of a push is that I want to put the pressure on the raiser to fold a large percentage of the time unless the OR has AA-KK-QQ, AQ-AK.
We are a LONG way from the money it only paid top 9 or 10. We were at 30.
I am thinking here that OR has a sizeable stack if they fold AND has to put their tournament life on the line. I gave toooooo much credit to a fold.
I did not meant to insult the player, the play or make this personal. I'm sorry that it seems to be taken this way.
30 is a long way from the money, but if you are shorter stack are you going to wait for the nuts or are you going to take a shot and go for while you still have some chips and a double up actually means something?
As Amir Vahedi says "In order to live, you must be willing to die,"
I think the real problem you have was that you were making a play at the pot and got caught, and instead of saying "i pushed with Ace-King after a limper and then a raiser and got called by a pair and lost" you want to justify it by saying "I pushed AK into someone on the button when they don't have the ability to fold or have knowledge of fold equity."
So you blame you loss of chips on the other player instead of the play it's self.
She is a monster player; I actually fear her h/u. She ended up pwning the $200 max game on Saturday/Saturday night for about 5 or 6 buy-in's....
For the record - I wasn't offended in the least. I thought your comment was a bit on the sly side...I just wanted to clarify that I did know what I was doing and wasn't some donk player. Ok, well, I am a donk player, but I did have reasoning behind my call.
I think your play was completely reasonable. If I had more chips (or it was earlier), I would have folded. With less chips, I would have pushed pre-flop. It was a middling situation, and I took the gambooool. Maybe your monkey was on my shoulder.
Your right, obviously, when I said I misjudged other peoples ability to fold I was slamming the other person and not my misjudgement.
Man I was completley off too when I said I made some huge mistakes.
Thanks for clearing that up for me.
Thanks El, I really wasnt trying to berate you or your play. I don't think your a donk player either, I think a donk would have called with any two suited cards or <AT.
I think I used a bad example and included your hand; I meant there really weren't alot of situations where I could float a flop or get a person to laydown a non-nut hand with lots of chips behind.
You had a great hand, quads by the river is a great hand! I hope I don't ruin your memories of a nice quad hand.