Tournament gone BAAAAAAAAAAAD

Thief

Here is a tournament that shows just how sickening NL tournaments can be.
I have always felt that tournaments are a lottery. So I never get to excited when I do well and I never get mad when I lose, even tonight.

Poker Stars $30 NL 830pm 512 starters
End of first break 2nd in chips 11k

Then I get moved. New table has 3 top stacks at it( kinda makes me wonder)

I get an errry feeling when I see this knid of thing happening online for some reason, So i decide to tread carefully at this point. I pick up a few pots off the chip leader and become the chip leader. Awsome now im really feeling it....


*********** # 2 **************
PokerStars Game #868230943: Tournament #3416877, Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2004/11/17 - 21:41:43 (ET)
Table '3416877 16' Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Chief11 (2900 in chips)
Seat 2: McFadden (2593 in chips)
Seat 3: Thief (13698 in chips)
Seat 4: goldengirl (10306 in chips)
Seat 5: sandow (855 in chips)
Seat 7: 88cartman88 (5398 in chips)
Seat 8: ahrom1 (9450 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 9: snowbound1 (650 in chips)
McFadden: posts small blind 75
Thief: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Thief [Ac As]
cinbear is connected
goldengirl: raises 600 to 750
sandow: folds
88cartman88: folds
ahrom1: folds
snowbound1: folds
Chief11: folds
McFadden: folds
Thief: raises 1650 to 2400
goldengirl: calls 1650
*** FLOP *** [Tc 7d Qd]
Thief: bets 2700
goldengirl: calls 2700
*** TURN *** [Tc 7d Qd] [Jc]
Thief: bets 3000
goldengirl: calls 3000
*** RIVER *** [Tc 7d Qd Jc] [9d]
Thief: bets 5598 and is all-in
goldengirl: calls 2206 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Thief: shows [Ac As] (a pair of Aces)
goldengirl: shows [Js Jh] (three of a kind, Jacks)
goldengirl collected 20687 from pot


Ok Now Im on mega tilt. Im mad for playing a big pot with one of 2 stacks that can hurt me, Im mad at not betting enough on the flop ( however this player is not folding, really nothing she can have me on but aces). And Im mega mad at poker. However I still have chips around 3500. Few hands later i lose a few thousand on the river. Ok no problem... Im getting tired anyhow.

But wait I double up twice....Now i have almost 4k again (around avg stack).

PokerStars Game #868300982: Tournament #3416877, Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2004/11/17 - 22:00:13 (ET)
Table '3416877 16' Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Chief11 (3700 in chips)
Seat 2: McFadden (3093 in chips)
Seat 3: Thief (3984 in chips)
Seat 4: goldengirl (22532 in chips)
Seat 5: sandow (2940 in chips)
Seat 6: cinbear (3485 in chips)
Seat 7: 88cartman88 (4123 in chips)
Seat 8: ahrom1 (7203 in chips)
Seat 9: h2playa (2499 in chips)
Thief: posts small blind 100
goldengirl: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Thief [Ac Ad]
sandow: folds
cinbear: folds
88cartman88: folds
ahrom1: calls 200
h2playa: calls 200
Chief11: folds
McFadden: raises 800 to 1000
Thief: raises 2984 to 3984 and is all-in
goldengirl: folds
ahrom1: folds
h2playa: folds
McFadden: calls 2093 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [8c 8s Td]
goldengirl said, "nhs"
*** TURN *** [8c 8s Td] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [8c 8s Td Kc] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Thief: shows [Ac Ad] (two pair, Aces and Eights)
McFadden: shows [Ks Kd] (a full house, Kings full of Eights)
McFadden collected 6786 from pot

So with in 30 mins go from chip leader to out....Now im on mega insane tilt

Oh well i guess poker happens.....

Chugs

Well you figured out your mistake on the flop ... your bet on the flop seemed more weak, kind of like a person playing AK and firing into a pot that missed.

He may have honestly figured he was good, and then improved to a strangle hold on the hand on the turn.


In terms of the second hand, the guy had cowboys and hit another. I can't fault a guy for going all-in with kings.


Bad beats happen, heck they seem to be never ending, but that's life

C.E.J

This happened to me last week (over pair losing to under pair) followed up by ak losing to j3. Went from chip leader to bust in two hands. Like you, I was dominating my table and got moved to a table with 3 big stacks equal to mine.

However, the next night I played a tourney, and twice I hit a card on the river to win big pots. I myself wasn't all-in either time, but they were very significant. I went on to finish 5th.

After playing many tournaments I have developed a particular style of thinking that works for me. I try to forget that I'm even in a tournament. I like to think of it in terms of play money and that I'm just trying to amass as many chips as possible. I don't think about the bubble, or payouts, or how mnay people are left. I forget all that. I just focus on my table, the blinds, and relative stacks. I still take it serious in that I'm protective of my chips, but i don't sweat the small stuff... and I never play with fear. Anymore.

Since i've been able to do this i've had much more success.

Thief

Chugs wrote:

Well you figured out your mistake on the flop ... your bet on the flop seemed more weak, kind of like a person playing AK and firing into a pot that missed.

Actually the 2700 bet on the flop was designed to look just like you describe above. You see chugs she started the hand with just over 10k. She made it 750 to go keeping the money at under 10% of her stack, obviously because her UTG holding was not all that strong. I then made it 2400 to go a very clear statement making in 24% of her stack. Now if this player has any concept of money depth. cough cough then its move in or fold time.... You see my 2700 bet is designed for the player to move all in over top of the bet so that i get her stack. Of course the player makes the major mistake of cold calling and gets bailed out by the deck. I want the player to think i have AK any decent player that puts me on AK has to move in based on the bet size. Any weak tight player has to fold. Any fish obviously calls cold and hits.

Chugs wrote:

He may have honestly figured he was good, and then improved to a strangle hold on the hand on the turn.

If he figures that he is good then he is crazy to allow me to draw out on him. Him thinking he is good is not really relevant here imho. I cant picture any scenario that shows he thinks he is good based on the prior history at the table and the betting structure of this hand.

Chugs wrote:

In terms of the second hand, the guy had cowboys and hit another. I can't fault a guy for going all-in with kings.

Neither can I but I can yell at the dealer can't I?

Chugs wrote:

Bad beats happen, heck they seem to be never ending, but that's life

Like I said poker happens... :banghead:

Dennis187

Tournaments are like that, you win some and you lose some. Just play good. I dont usually play BIG online tournament fields, prefer to play one table Sit n Go's. That way I have a higher percentage of cashing and it does usually take that long to play. Usually about 1hour and a half or so. See my post on my latest $100+9, 6 handed sit n go with Krazy Kanuck on Ultimatebet. It is under the online poker forum.

Chugs

Thief i have a feeling that you're right that he may have just been a fish.

The problem is that by playing the handy hesitantly on the flop ... at least that's how your opponent read the bet, and for that matter how you hoped he read the bet.

If he figures you to be playing one of the large overcard hands (but not overpairs) ... ie AK, AQ or maybe KQ, theyre is a 2/3 chance the queen hit your hand and helped you, but he can't be so quick to jump to that conculsion. So the player calls and decides to see what happens on the turn. If you don't have the goods ie a 'Q' he figures you're likely to put the brakes on.

I think what made this hand confusing was the Turn card. When he hit his miracle card the 'J' he also may have feared that it killed him, since if you did have AK you just made your straight. He may not have been smart enough to analyize all this though, so i may be mis-judging his betting motives.


The river bet though i really don't like against a player who doesn't analize well. Look at that board what could he have raised with pre-flop to 5X the BB, that at this moment you can beat. A raise that size should read to you as an pair between AA - TT, AK and if he is really reckless maybe KQ or AQ. The only hand that you could beat out of all those listed was AQ. Every other hand had either a set or a straight against you.

I guarantee you that you're 100x the player i am, since i can only look at all of this after the fact and pick it apart. But you tried to hide the nature of your hand on the flop and essentially had him pot committed on the turn, so that even with four to a straight on the board on the river he was going to call this hand.

There may have been nothing you could do though, because even an all-in on the flop may have elicited a call from this player

my 3 cents (i wrote a lot i earned the extra cent)