First live NL tourney
Just came 2nd in my first live NL tourney 200+25 in Minneapolis. 5600 win. Just on the road still updates to come. On cloud nine right now. quick review played like a donkey early then got lucky just before the final table.
Ciao for now
Paul
Ciao for now
Paul
Comments
For the trip I was up 200 playing 2-4, 3-6, and 4-8 limit and of course the big win in the tourney. Saw Coldplay and U2 in concert at the target center man they were both great shows. Here are some of the hands I can remember with approximately where they happened in the tourney.
Starting stack 4000 chips. Blinds started at 25-50 30 minute levels(25-50, 50-100, 100-200, 200-400, 300-600, 400-800, 500-1000, 1000-2000, 2000-4000, 3000-6000, 5000-10000, 10000-20000....)
Started out the tournament really nervous. Couldn't even check my hole cards without trembling. A very new experience for me. Okay 5 minutes in I get TT in the BB. MP raises to 200. Folds around to me and I decide to see the flop hoping for no overcards. Flop comes 872. Check,check. Turn 9 of diamonds giving me open-end with a four flush and overpair. I bet 300 MP raised to 1000 I think about it and call. River comes 4 no help I check he bets 1000 I call. He had 22 for the set and I just gave away half my stack five minutes in.
Panic sets in. I have no business playing in this tourney. Everyone here is better than me. I just wasted 225 USD. No wait calm down the blinds are only 25-50 and I have 1575 left. I can wait for a hand.
KK doubles through. Now at 200-400 JJ one spot off the button raised to 600. BB calls probably the best player at the table with the largest chip stack. Flop comes K65 two diamonds and he bets out for 1400. I have 3200 left in front of me. I fold and he show 88. I am playing weak tight.
Now at 300-600 and I get AhQh in the BB. MP raises to 2000 with about the same left in front of him. I have about 5500 left. Folds to me and I go all-in. He quickly calls and turns over KK. OH NO!!! Flop comes KsJhTh. Woohoo I have a chance two hearts hit the board I have flush outs. Thankfully someone pointed out I flopped the straight and only had to dodge a board pair. Now near 10K in chips.
Now with chips I become a calling station trying to hit a flop with mediocre cards and I successfully get back to 5500 in chips. Whew that was close I was starting to think I was good at this game.
Still at 300-600 I get Qh8d in the BB. Why am I playing all these hands out of the big blind I have no idea. Anyway folds to the button who makes it 1200. STEAL STEAL STEAL. Okay call the flop hit a pair and snap him off. Call. Flop 953 all hearts. Okay wait for effect and then push all in and he will fold. Call KK is flipped over. CRAP it wasn't a steal. K on the turn. Time to make the walk of shame. river 4. OF HEARTS. And wait I just had him covered. Wow almost doubled through again and sent a set of kings to the rail. AGAIN.
Lost the black chip race won the black chip race????? I have one black and the end of the second break. They race for the purples and I get the 4 of hearts. I go grab a beer to settle my still shaky nerves and come back with an extra purple in front of me. What??? I ask the dealer and he says the one guy with the most black miscalculated how many extra he had and they had to re-race. Damn I wish I was there to re-enact All_aces celebration for winning a chip race
Back to business blinds now 1000-2000 and I have...(drumroll please).. 9500. D'oh. BB nothing down to 7500. SB everyone folds to me I look down at J4o. Yes the motherlode. Well no point in going out on good cards I push all in. BB has me covered and finds A7o and calls. Well it's been fun. Flop QQ3. No help there. Turn J. I am the greatest player ever. Now at 15K. This was the most important hand of the tournament for me. You will see why.
Four hands later EP pushes all in for 7500. I look at my cards. QQ time to make some money. Folds to the chip leader on my right. He is thinking. He is thinking a long time. Oh no I've looked at my cards. I am giving away tells. Okay look disinterested. Drink your beer. Do anything but think about QQ. Dealer then points to him and says"Your action" and he apologizes because he thought it wasn't his turn. Great. Okay I push in content with sending this kid to the rail. Cards come up QQ vs. KK. Well I hope he hits a set because I have a good record against three kings so far. No luck back down to 7500. See the J4o gave me enough chips to survive that one.
Time for some more luck just before my BB we break to two tables left. Now at 2000-4000 with just under 10k in chips. UTG short stack goes all in for 6500. Player on my right goes all in for 14K. Okay what do I have? QQ. Okay time to make a stand. Cards come up 77 vs A8 vs my QQ. Okay I am on my feet praying for no ace no seven. Poker gods listen or ignore the other guys and I have chips again.
We are so close dealing hand by hand now. UTG short stack goes all in. Next player calls. Player on my right goes all in for 18k. Okay I have about 22K in chips and TT. Hmmmmmm. FOLD. Cards come up A6 vs. AJ vs. AK. What have I done they all have each others outs. Flop comes K63 and I retain my postion as world's greatest poker player.....jk.
Another big pot another PP folded. But my sevens would have been cracked so all is good with the world.
Down to twelve players top nine pay. I get two hands in the blinds that seal my final table appearance. BB T8 of diamonds only the SB calls and the flop comes Q86 with one diamond. SB bets and I get this huge feeling that my eight is good so I call. Turn another diamond SB bets I still call. River that magical diamond and I just went runner runner flush three spots away from the money. SB bets I raise a callable amount and now have a respectable stack.
Next hand UTG short stack goes all in for about 1.75 BB. Button calls I look at JT of diamonds. Again? I call flop comes A87 with two diamonds and the button bets the min. I call and hit the flush on the turn. Check check. Hope that fourth diamond doesn't hit. It doesn't and I bet 2xmin and get called. I have approx 70k in chips. Time for the final table.
Final table is playing tight and the short stack all ins are winning. Okay BB time. Folds to the SB who makes it 14k to go. I look at AJ and pop him to 30K. He calls. Flop comes AQJ two diamonds. SB bets 6k I raise to 20K he goes all in for about 20k more. I can't say call fast enough. Cards up AJ vs KJ..... of DIAMONDS. NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO diamonds. I now have 150 K of the 560K in play and am chip leader.
Another level trying to bust the short stack with some success. Down to four players. Two women. One somewhat aggressive and obviously an experienced player. The other is playing a tight big stack. Myself. And the last player at the table.... That #@#^$#@ that bet me out of JJ with 88 so long ago.
Tight big stack woman gets busted by the other woman. We then play for a few rounds with the woman raising constantly buying the blinds. Then myself or the other guy would either raise a pot ourselves or reraise so not many showdowns.
My strategy has been to reraise all in with any ace/face or pair when she raises my blind. So here it goes SB she raises I push all in with AQo....she calls and flips over Ah Jd. Standing time and I am shouting "All black no jack, ALL BLACK NO JACK' Probably the cleverest thing I have thought of this year
I win the pot and we count out the chips exactly even. Heads up time
Okay I won't go into much detail here but the play was sooooo bad on my part but in my defense the money had just hit my brain and I was ecstatic with first or second place money.
When we went heads up the chips stacks were about 400K to 160k in my favour. The whole tourney I said to myself if I get heads up I will offer a deal no matter the chip stack split down the middle with 1k for the winner. Unfortunately my brain had already gone out partying or else I probably would have earned about 1000 more as first place was 8400 and I don't think he would have forgone a deal with the chip disadvantage he had.
So three hands out of about 25 sealed the deal
9d4d vs As2c, AhTs vs 4c4d, and J9 vs AA flop QT7 I lost all three of these and second place was mine. The first one was an all in bluff. The last one he just call with AA and I thought the flop looked good enough because the chips were then 3 to 1 in his favour. So thats it thanks for reading and don't tear me up for some of these plays because like I said it was my first.
Thanks for reading
Paul
Cheers
Paul
When a good player bets into a flop like this it's often with something like 88 trying to find out where he is or as a bluff/semibluff since he would checkraise with a king most times. When a bad/straightforard player bets into you here it's more often a king. Congrats on the score.