Posted Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:13 pm GMT by Gogie
The good news - finished 6th in the PP $35K guaranteed last night (791 players!) and won $3164.
The bad news - got sucked out on the last hand. I'm sitting 4th or 5th in chips (just over 200K) and get dealt JJ and I'm 2nd to act. By now the blinds and antes total around 35K so they're definitely worth "stealing". First player to act folds and I push all in, figuring I'll either take down the blinds/antes or at worst get in a race with AK or AQ. It's folded around to the big blind, who immediately calls my all in (he has me covered by a few thousand chips) and turns over 55. I figure I'm golden to double up. Flop is 3 rags (9 and under). Turn another rag. River.....5!!! I was dumbfounded. That river cost me at least $790! I would have been in pretty good position to have a little patience with over 400K chips (I think I would have actually been in 3rd at that point - there were two pretty big stacks).
All in all I'm actually quite happy with my finish. Near the bubble I was worried about even making the money (they paid the top 80) as I had a below average stack and was struggling to catch cards. I managed to hang in, then hit a few good hands where I quickly doubled up a few times. I think I played solid, with only one hand where I screwed up. I was in the SB at around 130K chips (I think there were still around 20-30 players left, so the money wasn't that great yet) and tried to steal the blinds with garbage from the BB, who had around 280K in chips. I ended up pissing away about 60K in chips because I let me ego get in the way. Thankfully I decided when he pushed back after I pushed back that it was best to give it up and fight another day. There was really only one hand where I really got lucky - early on in the tourny I got all in and managed to river a straight to beat out a guy who flopped two pair.
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Posted Mon Apr 24, 2006 5:07 pm GMT by mackkie
Good for you! Hitting his set on the river must hurt tho...its ok, you got your chips in there with the best hand. Congrats on the finish
Posted Mon Apr 24, 2006 5:46 pm GMT by Geno
Nice work, but how many bad beats did you dish out along the way? Obviously the timing of your one stank a lot............
Posted Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:10 am GMT by Gogie
| Geno wrote: | | Nice work, but how many bad beats did you dish out along the way? ............ |
Good question Geno. I can recall only one bad beat that I gave out. It was well before the bubble, but at a time when the blinds were worth stealing (probably around 100/200 or 200/400). As I recall, I was the small blind. I had QTos. It was folded around to me so I decided to try for a steal, figuring I had a few outs if I get called. I push all in (I was below average in stack size so I figured I needed to start making some moves) and get called by something like AQos. I ended up hitting a straight on the river to survive.
I've found that no matter how well you play (and I do believe I played particularly well in this tournament for the most part) you still need luck to make big money. Also, you need to have balls as you get further along. As the blinds get really large it becomes more and more unnerving to be tossing significant chunks of your stack into the middle, but I've found that if you're semi-tight/aggressive at this stage you can pick up a lot of chips by stealing blinds with small to medium raises. In the late stages of a tournment I seldom if ever call. I either raise or fold. If you play passively at this point you end up getting blinded down to the point where you're forced to push when you don't have the best of hands. I'd rather go down on my terms than have to stick all my chips in on two weak cards.
By the way, I've changed my handle on PP to Les_Habs. Kudos to the first person who figures out why the change!
Posted Tue Apr 25, 2006 11:43 am GMT by Gunslinger
They haven't won the series yet... 
Double OT, though, that's always cool 8)
Posted Tue Apr 25, 2006 3:12 pm GMT by Gogie
| Gunslinger wrote: | They haven't won the series yet...
Double OT, though, that's always cool 8) |
Good guess Gunslinger. Just to make it clear, however, I changed my screen name about a month and a half ago, not as a result of their recent success.
Posted Tue Apr 25, 2006 4:44 pm GMT by Johny
I'm a habs fan myself. 8)
Posted Tue Apr 25, 2006 9:15 pm GMT by Gogie
| Johny4444 wrote: | | I'm a habs fan myself. 8) |
Not only are you a fellow Habs' fan, I see you're also a fellow NB'er. I'm originally from Saint John.
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