Deerfoot Trip Report
I'm not a big trip report guy but I guess this is a way I can contribute to the poker content since I don't really post too much otherwise. Criticism about how I played these hands are all welcome.
25k starting stack with 40 minute blind levels. I got there about a half hour late. Table was filled with young guys who seemed comfortable with handling chips but it turned out that they were fairly predictable.
First big hand I played came up at the 250/500 level. Cutoff opens to 1100. He’s sitting with 30k and has been playing fairly snug which I think is because I’ve 3bet a few times (with a 4b thrown in for good measure) and I’d been using my position a fair bit. My image is probably that of a good TAG. I 3b to 2150 with 56 of clubs from the button. Blinds fold and he flats. Flop comes 643 with one club and he leads 2200. I debate raising and then call because I don’t want to have to fold my hand if I raise to 4600 and he ships. Turn is a 7 and he leads 3300. I think for a bit and raise to 8800. He thinks for a bit and calls. River is a 7 and he snap shoves. I pause for about 30-60 seconds or so (tough to estimate time when you’re not really paying attention to it) and call. He flips up kings and I double up.
There was a lot of talk afterwards which was interesting to me. Apparently one guy thought I slowrolled by not snap calling. Most of the players chiming in said they would’ve tanked a bit too. Others talked about why the kings shoved the river. A couple of the guys thought he meant to turn his kings into a bluff which is silly because no hand better than kings is ever folding. It was pretty obviously for value. We both disguised our hands pretty well and it just worked out for me. People were still talking about this hand when we were down to 3 tables.
I just kind of chipped up from there without much hassle to about 100k before being moved to Jon’s wife’s (?Brenna) table. She was two to my right with bracelet winner Tyler Bonkowski directly to my right. He played very snug for the most part and I didn’t realize it was him until Brenna asked him if his name was Tyler and it kind of clicked for me. I’d read on Deerfoot’s twitter page that he’d be there.
It was really good being to his left. I 3 bet a few times again and tried a squeeze (which failed) but I think I had a pretty good image at this table. Tyler gave me a number of walks which I took as a sign of respect. It actually validated an aspect of my game too because I don’t mind giving the occasional walk and people would clown me for folding for half price in addition to the antes being there. To be honest, I don’t study the game much anymore and haven’t for probably 4-5 years now so I don’t know what the thoughts are on this but, if he’s doing it, it’s probably not all that incorrect.
My first big hand was against Brenna. Can’t remember the specifics of the hand but she raised in EP and I 3-bet with AK. Flop came ace high and it went check/check. Turn was a blank. She checked and I bet a little less than half pot or so and she called fairly quickly. River was another blank, she checked, I put her squarely on AQ with a remote chance of AJ (Jon: was I right?) and bombed the river. She called and mucked when I flipped up my hand. I was up to 140k or so after that.
None of the hands prior to getting closer to the bubble were really all that memorable. I did bust Brenna unfortunately with a cooler of aces vs kings. King in the door but an ace right behind it.
Tyler did some interesting things closing in on the bubble that I have to still think over and digest. He chipped up really well with just min raises and playing very small ball poker before getting involved in a cooler of his own with AK running into aces. He was down to like 15bb or so with two tables left (paying 12) and he was still min-raise opening whereas I’d normally just be shipping it in or looking for spots to 3b get it in. There was one crazy hand where he min-raised with 10bb, got 3b and he flatted oop leaving himself with 5bb. He check/folded the ten high flop. It was weird and something I still need to think more about. On a side note, he lost a flip and busted 14th.
I got involved in a massive pot with 15 left. A good young asian LAG got moved to my table with a lot of chips and he was opening a ton and 3-betting pretty liberally. I opened at 2500/5k to 11k with tens from the cutoff (190k-ish) and he 3bet me to 22k with 400k behind. I debated shipping but ended up calling because he had been calling off fairly light and I didn’t want to race this late in the tournament. Tbh, watching Tyler play and seeing his extreme version of small pot poker probably played a factor too. Flop came 968 rainbow. He led for 60k (bigger than what his normal c-bet size had been) and I shipped for 105k more. He tanked for several minutes before calling with 65 and I faded everything to double up (8 on the turn made me breath a little easier going into the river).
The bubble was fun. There was one guy at our table who folded everything trying to sneak into the money. When it went hand for hand, I was raising about half the hands and just moving in over the top of other peoples’ opens. A pretty funny hand occurred when the older guy who was trying to make the money was in the 10k BB with 12k behind. Folds to me on button and I raise to 22k with KQo. SB who is a fairly decent sized stack calls and BB actually folds. Flop comes KT4 with 2 clubs. He checks, I bet 26k and he calls. Turn is a 4 of clubs (I have Qc). He checks, I check. River is a blank, he checks, I bomb 80k and he calls with a weaker king. He was upset because the only reason he called preflop was he thought we’d have a chance to bust bubble. The old guy ended up folding his SB too before getting his last 5k in on the button and busting.
Nothing really of note other than winning with queens vs jacks for an extra 200k or so along the way to final table. Entered 9-handed final table with just over a million which was 3x average and more than double the second place guy who was at the other end of the table from me.
The lag asian from previous was making life not fun for me because he 3bets a ton and he was 2 to my left. Had to tighten up for a bit and was happy to see him bust in 7th. With 6 left, short stack was a different young asian two to my right. I doubled him up when he shoved with 8bb from the button with A7 and I called with A6. Shortly after that, we played a hand where I raised to 42k (2k/10k/20k) with 9T of clubs and he defends from the BB with 400k behind. I have about 800k. Flop is AQ8. It goes check/check. Turn is a 4 and he bets 55k. I tank for a bit and call. River is a 7. He leads 60k. After about 20-30 seconds or so, I move in and he mucks an ace.
That dude busted in sixth a short while later and then we quickly got 4 handed. We played 4 handed for a while before the guy to my right asked if anyone would be interested in a chop. We were all pretty much even at this point with me having 800k after losing a few pots and the other 3 having about 700k each. I wasn’t really interested but I said I’d entertain deals if everyone was up for it. Seat 2 said he’d rather play out until the end of the level (30 minutes) which upset the young guy to my left (who said he really needed the money) but I was okay with it because I had position on him and I thought I could really push him around.
I played two notable hands in that 30 minutes. The first was against seat 2. I think he fancied himself a pretty tricky player. He had played TAG during the day (we were at the same starting table and the final table) but he’d opened up his game quite a bit during 4-5 handed. He opened to 50k at 3k/12k/24k on the button. I was in the BB and 3-bet him to 125k (he had about 550k and I was at 900k) with KQ. He flatted and the flop came AJJ. Check/check (I maybe should’ve c-bet). Turn was a king. I checked and he fired 100k leaving himself about 350k back. I tanked for a while and ended up mucking because I didn’t like my other options. I hate shoving, I hate calling since I might be put in a really tough spot on the river. I was picking up chips fairly easy with small pots so I just gave it up even though I thought there was a good chance I had the best hand. He told me at the end of the tournament that he had fives.
The last hand we played actually was the reason I got such a good chop. The young guy had started playing back at me a bit because I think he realized that I was really trying to bullying him around. Folds to him in the SB who raises to 62k. I call 38k more with 62 of hearts. Flop comes KQ5, 2 hearts. He checks/I check. Turn is a 5. He bet 60k and I raise to 142k. River is an 8, he checks, I ship for effectively 450k more. He tanks for 10 minutes. His analysis of the hand was ridiculous. He really thought I rivered a boat with 88 for some reason. Then he was talking about hands like 58, K5, Q5, 55 when really all I wanted to do was rep a 5. I thought he’d talk himself in to a call with this sort of insane analysis but he did end up folding. I told him I had a 5 after the hand. After we made the deal, he asked again and I told him the truth and he said he folded AQ.
Anyway, we talked deal afterward and apparently the only reason seat 2 didn’t want to do a deal was because he wanted more than 6k (which was exactly what 3rd place paid). They agreed to taking 7k each with me getting the rest which ended up being 10.1k.
I’m a sucker and I tipped 4% ($400) anyway even after they took 2.5%. One of my best friends who came down to root me used to be a dealer and he knew a lot of the people in the poker room so that was a contributing factor.
Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading!
25k starting stack with 40 minute blind levels. I got there about a half hour late. Table was filled with young guys who seemed comfortable with handling chips but it turned out that they were fairly predictable.
First big hand I played came up at the 250/500 level. Cutoff opens to 1100. He’s sitting with 30k and has been playing fairly snug which I think is because I’ve 3bet a few times (with a 4b thrown in for good measure) and I’d been using my position a fair bit. My image is probably that of a good TAG. I 3b to 2150 with 56 of clubs from the button. Blinds fold and he flats. Flop comes 643 with one club and he leads 2200. I debate raising and then call because I don’t want to have to fold my hand if I raise to 4600 and he ships. Turn is a 7 and he leads 3300. I think for a bit and raise to 8800. He thinks for a bit and calls. River is a 7 and he snap shoves. I pause for about 30-60 seconds or so (tough to estimate time when you’re not really paying attention to it) and call. He flips up kings and I double up.
There was a lot of talk afterwards which was interesting to me. Apparently one guy thought I slowrolled by not snap calling. Most of the players chiming in said they would’ve tanked a bit too. Others talked about why the kings shoved the river. A couple of the guys thought he meant to turn his kings into a bluff which is silly because no hand better than kings is ever folding. It was pretty obviously for value. We both disguised our hands pretty well and it just worked out for me. People were still talking about this hand when we were down to 3 tables.
I just kind of chipped up from there without much hassle to about 100k before being moved to Jon’s wife’s (?Brenna) table. She was two to my right with bracelet winner Tyler Bonkowski directly to my right. He played very snug for the most part and I didn’t realize it was him until Brenna asked him if his name was Tyler and it kind of clicked for me. I’d read on Deerfoot’s twitter page that he’d be there.
It was really good being to his left. I 3 bet a few times again and tried a squeeze (which failed) but I think I had a pretty good image at this table. Tyler gave me a number of walks which I took as a sign of respect. It actually validated an aspect of my game too because I don’t mind giving the occasional walk and people would clown me for folding for half price in addition to the antes being there. To be honest, I don’t study the game much anymore and haven’t for probably 4-5 years now so I don’t know what the thoughts are on this but, if he’s doing it, it’s probably not all that incorrect.
My first big hand was against Brenna. Can’t remember the specifics of the hand but she raised in EP and I 3-bet with AK. Flop came ace high and it went check/check. Turn was a blank. She checked and I bet a little less than half pot or so and she called fairly quickly. River was another blank, she checked, I put her squarely on AQ with a remote chance of AJ (Jon: was I right?) and bombed the river. She called and mucked when I flipped up my hand. I was up to 140k or so after that.
None of the hands prior to getting closer to the bubble were really all that memorable. I did bust Brenna unfortunately with a cooler of aces vs kings. King in the door but an ace right behind it.
Tyler did some interesting things closing in on the bubble that I have to still think over and digest. He chipped up really well with just min raises and playing very small ball poker before getting involved in a cooler of his own with AK running into aces. He was down to like 15bb or so with two tables left (paying 12) and he was still min-raise opening whereas I’d normally just be shipping it in or looking for spots to 3b get it in. There was one crazy hand where he min-raised with 10bb, got 3b and he flatted oop leaving himself with 5bb. He check/folded the ten high flop. It was weird and something I still need to think more about. On a side note, he lost a flip and busted 14th.
I got involved in a massive pot with 15 left. A good young asian LAG got moved to my table with a lot of chips and he was opening a ton and 3-betting pretty liberally. I opened at 2500/5k to 11k with tens from the cutoff (190k-ish) and he 3bet me to 22k with 400k behind. I debated shipping but ended up calling because he had been calling off fairly light and I didn’t want to race this late in the tournament. Tbh, watching Tyler play and seeing his extreme version of small pot poker probably played a factor too. Flop came 968 rainbow. He led for 60k (bigger than what his normal c-bet size had been) and I shipped for 105k more. He tanked for several minutes before calling with 65 and I faded everything to double up (8 on the turn made me breath a little easier going into the river).
The bubble was fun. There was one guy at our table who folded everything trying to sneak into the money. When it went hand for hand, I was raising about half the hands and just moving in over the top of other peoples’ opens. A pretty funny hand occurred when the older guy who was trying to make the money was in the 10k BB with 12k behind. Folds to me on button and I raise to 22k with KQo. SB who is a fairly decent sized stack calls and BB actually folds. Flop comes KT4 with 2 clubs. He checks, I bet 26k and he calls. Turn is a 4 of clubs (I have Qc). He checks, I check. River is a blank, he checks, I bomb 80k and he calls with a weaker king. He was upset because the only reason he called preflop was he thought we’d have a chance to bust bubble. The old guy ended up folding his SB too before getting his last 5k in on the button and busting.
Nothing really of note other than winning with queens vs jacks for an extra 200k or so along the way to final table. Entered 9-handed final table with just over a million which was 3x average and more than double the second place guy who was at the other end of the table from me.
The lag asian from previous was making life not fun for me because he 3bets a ton and he was 2 to my left. Had to tighten up for a bit and was happy to see him bust in 7th. With 6 left, short stack was a different young asian two to my right. I doubled him up when he shoved with 8bb from the button with A7 and I called with A6. Shortly after that, we played a hand where I raised to 42k (2k/10k/20k) with 9T of clubs and he defends from the BB with 400k behind. I have about 800k. Flop is AQ8. It goes check/check. Turn is a 4 and he bets 55k. I tank for a bit and call. River is a 7. He leads 60k. After about 20-30 seconds or so, I move in and he mucks an ace.
That dude busted in sixth a short while later and then we quickly got 4 handed. We played 4 handed for a while before the guy to my right asked if anyone would be interested in a chop. We were all pretty much even at this point with me having 800k after losing a few pots and the other 3 having about 700k each. I wasn’t really interested but I said I’d entertain deals if everyone was up for it. Seat 2 said he’d rather play out until the end of the level (30 minutes) which upset the young guy to my left (who said he really needed the money) but I was okay with it because I had position on him and I thought I could really push him around.
I played two notable hands in that 30 minutes. The first was against seat 2. I think he fancied himself a pretty tricky player. He had played TAG during the day (we were at the same starting table and the final table) but he’d opened up his game quite a bit during 4-5 handed. He opened to 50k at 3k/12k/24k on the button. I was in the BB and 3-bet him to 125k (he had about 550k and I was at 900k) with KQ. He flatted and the flop came AJJ. Check/check (I maybe should’ve c-bet). Turn was a king. I checked and he fired 100k leaving himself about 350k back. I tanked for a while and ended up mucking because I didn’t like my other options. I hate shoving, I hate calling since I might be put in a really tough spot on the river. I was picking up chips fairly easy with small pots so I just gave it up even though I thought there was a good chance I had the best hand. He told me at the end of the tournament that he had fives.
The last hand we played actually was the reason I got such a good chop. The young guy had started playing back at me a bit because I think he realized that I was really trying to bullying him around. Folds to him in the SB who raises to 62k. I call 38k more with 62 of hearts. Flop comes KQ5, 2 hearts. He checks/I check. Turn is a 5. He bet 60k and I raise to 142k. River is an 8, he checks, I ship for effectively 450k more. He tanks for 10 minutes. His analysis of the hand was ridiculous. He really thought I rivered a boat with 88 for some reason. Then he was talking about hands like 58, K5, Q5, 55 when really all I wanted to do was rep a 5. I thought he’d talk himself in to a call with this sort of insane analysis but he did end up folding. I told him I had a 5 after the hand. After we made the deal, he asked again and I told him the truth and he said he folded AQ.
Anyway, we talked deal afterward and apparently the only reason seat 2 didn’t want to do a deal was because he wanted more than 6k (which was exactly what 3rd place paid). They agreed to taking 7k each with me getting the rest which ended up being 10.1k.
I’m a sucker and I tipped 4% ($400) anyway even after they took 2.5%. One of my best friends who came down to root me used to be a dealer and he knew a lot of the people in the poker room so that was a contributing factor.
Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading!
Comments
1) Position obviously incredibly important. There was a fairly loose guy who had accumulated a lot of chips that I had a chance to play with in 3 different scenarios. He started off on my right where I was able to take advantage of him quite a bit. Then he was across from me and I still felt really good about mixing it up with him. At final 2 tables, he was directly on my left and made me very uncomfortable as he was fairly loose preflop and played aggressive postflop. I actually had to tighten up more than I liked until he busted. He was not a very good player at all but because he was on my left, it really negated a lot of the skill advantage I had.
Position is also what gives me a chance to hold my own against someone like Tyler. I’m sure if he was on my left, he would’ve destroyed me. The one hand I 3b my SB on his button raise, he called me on the river with 55 on a 4 overcard board. Sicko.
If you’re in a bad spot, just tighten up and try to ride it out until the table gets better.
2) A lot of people can’t play to 3 bets very well. When you’re fairly deep (>40bb), if someone is raising light and you have position on them, throw a small 3b in and see how they react to it (obviously works best if you have a tight image). A lot of the time, players will decide to incorrectly flat and you can outplay them post-flop. Really they should be folding a lot of their opening range if their range is wide.
3) Something I’ve noted since I started playing live tournaments again this month is that a really good predictor of someone’s skill level is their opening raise size. I use 2.5bb as a gauge. Higher than that, the worse they tend to be and it’s proportional to how big the raises are. The larger the raise, the worse the player. On the flip side, the smaller the raise size gets to a min-raise, the better the player. It’s just an observation and there are exceptions to the rule but it’s been pretty accurate. I think it just goes to how much people think about the game and how comfortable they are with post-flop play. Others can chime in on this one.
I was involved in a similar situation where a "1st-place" winner from a previous tourney raised all-in after I bet with 2-pair. I did my usual SHAL/REM procedure of asking how much more, counting out my chips, while considering how likely higher two pairs, 4 possible sets & other hands that beat me would be in his range, then calculating the pot odds and equities, etc., before determining that the EV-maximizing decision was to call. As soon as I said call, I snap showed my 2-pair & "1st-place" groaned and eventually flipped over his overpair. ONE guy out of the whole table - let's call him "online playa" :-[ - remarked, "Why didn't you snap call?" I don't like tapping the aquarium so I just thought to myself, "WAT??" "Online playa" thought "1st-place" stormed out not because he's steaming from being eliminated with his overpair, but because he thought I intentionally slowrolled.
"1st-place" later discussed the hand with me, including him talking about that "stupid online playa" who said that I had slowrolled. We both agreed that the stupidest play would have been to make a snap decision against his all-in without first deliberating.
A few hands later she lost flip with AK to put her at about 27k, but the she says she open shoved to get a few times to get back near 60k before cooler.
The hand she had described against you that had me asking her to talk out why you did what you did involved her raising to 6k, then you 3 betting to 18k. I'm assuming this is when she was about 50k, because she said it was about a third her stack and she realized she would be committed. She figured you had air, but could only shove to find out if she was very right or very wrong...
I figure this was right around after she took her first major down swing and you would know that your bet sizing stuck of wanting to trap her into committing and you could also see she was going to switch gears and tighten up (possibly after AQ hand). Whether or not you had a hand was irrelevant, the line you took left her knowing she was going to very right or completely wrong and bust, plain and simple slammed her in a vise.
She also noticed you kept pressure mostly on short stacks, avoiding big conflicts that could stack you. Again, solid.
As for Tyler, she also mentioned he just chipped away, min raising every time the blinds passed until someone looked him up. And it worked well.
As for his short stack play, I can only assume that's the Fixed Limit Player in him. (His bracket and specialty). Having watched the live stream when he won and interviewing him after, it seemed more acceptable to play smaller shorter one bet at a time, so I'm guessing he's comfortable we'll below most NL players start shoving...habit?
Great TR, thanks for posting!
It was KQo. I knew that there would be some errors in the trip report. It was very hastily written before I had to make this drive out to Lethbridge.
No plans for other tournaments yet. I was thinking the FTP ones in Montreal in September but the tournaments that I can play don't interest in me (low buy-in, high rake, fast structure). Can't get enough time off work to play any of the multi-day ones. I'll be in Vancouver for a conference during WSOPc so definitely will play a few of the prelims and I'll probably be able to make it to WSOPc Montreal for a few of their prelims too.
Haven't had a chance to look at Brantford schedule for September but if something fits my schedule that's >$100 buy-in, I'll probably play.
Yeah. 15bb I was okay with. I usually just ship. He was doing it with as low as 8-9bb. It was interesting. Funny thing is he won those pots preflop so I'm not sure what his play post-flop would be like.
Yeah. It's tough to play against an unknown player. I probably play the same way she did once that ace flops (ie. not raising and playing fairly passive). I might lead the turn. I think there may have been a few straightening cards and I think the board might've paired on the turn (?river). Don't remember the specifics of the hand.
Tbh, I can't remember that hand at all. That raise size doesn't sound right to me though. I'd rarely every 3b 3x (6k->18k) and I can't think of making a raise like that yesterday. It'd be pretty out of the norm for me. Sorry. Yeah. I don't remember this hand at all so I can't tell you what I was thinking.
I don't mind playing against big stacks as long as I have position. I was definitely targeting blinds of the mid-stacks that were playing tight but I was also patiently waiting for the button to come around to me every orbit so I could play against the two guys to my left who had a lot of chips but were not very good.
I do this tonnes (often with rags) in cash games, but I find it more difficult in tournaments due to the fact that I consider anything less than 70bb pretty short stacked given my cash game play is usually with 100-300bb.
Hahaha. Yeah, I always feel the same when I play cash games for a while and play a tournament again. You actually have a surprising amount of play with 40bb because of the smaller bet sizing and tighter play. When you get below the 30bb range, I feel a bit more pressure.
On a side note, just submitted results to Hendon, you must use an alias?
Certainly you first live major cash can't be a win????
Exactly this... When tournament raises are 2.5-3bb cash is typically 5-8 so it does give you more time than you think, especially when others are not paying attention.
I remember trying to find all my live results and most of them aren't listed for whatever reason. I just did a quick search right now and these would all be me.
Will Son - Poker Player Profile
William Son: Hendon Mob Poker Database
Will Son: Hendon Mob Poker Database
I also have a $330 win at River Cree in Edmonton that Matt Jarvis hosted in April of 2011 and another final table in a $550 multiday CPT event at Casino ABS in Edmonton (?January 2012). It was the very next tournament series that ABS ran after my 3rd place finish in 2011.
There's also a bunch of other CPT min-cashes and Vegas cashes that never made it on Hendon Mob. I just assumed that these results either got lost or before Hendon Mob became really big.
I was working with Joe Beevers and his staff at Hendon on a contact level as a courtesy player to try to get more Canadians in and corrected, we added 5000 new players for Canadian into DB over last year.
(There is your disclosure Blondefish, and though I did help sell a banner for them that ran this summer and made some £s, I don't actually work for them
I'll make sure this correction is sent in.
Jon
You also only have to do it once every two orbits to maintain your stack size as opposed to just a regular blind steal which you'd have to do every orbit. That's kind of my tip for trying to stay afloat at a tough table. Then just try to pick up a hand and look for other good spots while you wait for the table to break.
But yeah, I liked her opening raise sizes and I really don't mind how she played her AQ. Just a bit of a cold deck. She got pretty unlucky at our table in terms of picking up big hands that ended up being second best. Sucky.
I can honestly say that despite busting deep and getting thrown between a rock and hard place after a nice steady grind up, neither her nor I felt "disappointed" overall. It was great (all be it costly) experience, she believes she learned a few things yet again and she doing better and better in the medium limits. I think she will have a big payday someday soon if she keeps at it and she isn't discouraged.
Thanks again!