Carbon Poker $1.5K Guarantee Deepstack (T5,000)
Sometimes you can’t win. Sometimes you can’t lose, even when you’re trying very very hard. I started playing this Deepstack at 9:30am, not realizing that it ran for eight hours or more and I had to be at work in six. Then I ran insanely great. Of course.
Hand 16 8
I won the blinds in first couple hands with raises, then lost a little bit over the next dozen or so, so I start the hand with 4,660. Three folds ahead of me, I open to 100 and get re-raised by BB to 320. I call and we see the flop HU: 3
Hand 24 K
I’ve paid a couple of blinds since losing Hand 16, and I’ve been moved to a new table. HJ limps in and I call. BTN raises to 220, getting a call from BB. HJ folds and I call to hit top pair on 2
Hand 31 5
We’re playing with only seven at the table, so I’m back in the same spot I was in the last major hand. The player I nearly wiped out recovered almost immediately with A
Hand 32 A
I shouldn’t even be playing this hand, but action folds to me and I raise to 150. BTN calls, the flop is 7
Hand 38 7
I raise to 135, get a call from BTN, see a 9
Hand 62 T
No significant wins or losses for another couple dozen hands. My stack has lost a little wind, I’m down to 6,865. THere are three other stacks at the table (eight-handed) with more than me, and one right behind me. I limp in and it’s three-way to the flop with me and the blinds. The flop is K
Hand 63 J
I raise to 400, getting calls from UTG2, CO, and BTN, all of whom I have covered. The flop is 4
Hand 71 Q
I raise to 300, get called by BTN, and the flop is 4
Hand 72 7
UTG2, CO and SB limp into my pot. I hit bottom pair on the 6
Hand 73 4
UTG1 limps in, followed by UTG2, CO, and both of us in the blinds. The flop gives me a flush draw and a gut-shot straight draw: K
Hand 75 A
UTG2 min-raised to 240 and HJ three-bet to 720. I called, BB came along, and UTG2 matched it. By this point, I was chip leader at the table with more than twice what anyone else had. The flop was J
Hand 80 5
BTN opened to 365, SB called, and I followed along. The flop was 3
Hand 84 3
WHat can I say? I’m a sucker for this hand and it costs me. UTG4 was all-in for 50. I raised to 400 and BB called. I have 18,000 behind vs 5,600. The flop is 6
Hand 85 T
We’re seven-handed again. Smarting from my laydown in the last hand, I open-raise to 400, getting a call from CO. The flop is 9
Hand 89 J
Starting with 19,500, seven at the table, only one other player with anything close to my stack. The other large stack limps in UTG1. CO raises to 440, I three-bet to 1,000 and get a call from UTG1. CO folds. The flop is Q
Hand 96 2
I’m about 2,500 off the chip lead with 17,000 after my blind’s paid. The chip leader in UTG2 limps in along with UTG3 and CO. I flop the set on 8
Hand 115 A
Still around 19,000. My nemesis has caught wind and has 10,000 more, but the other five players at the table combined don’t have as much as we do. Nobody under 10BB, however. UTG2 limps and I raise to 500. He calls and we’re HU to the flop. I’m not happy about the 7
Hand 117 A
Again with the ace-queen. I open to 600 and the bigger stack (although he’s lost several thousand in the past couple hands) calls from BB. This time the flop is a suit I have, at least: 7
Hand 123 9
Limps from UTG, UTG1, and SB. Part of the flop hits me: Q
Hand 126 J
I open to 600 and SB calls. The flop is 5
Hand 128 A
UTG2 limps (with 10BB behind) and I raise to 650. CO calls along with UTG2. 3
Hand 130 A
I bet 650 and CO goes all-in for 6,250. I call with 12,400 behind and he has A
Hand 131 T
Action folds to SB who goes all-in for 1,750. I’ve got almost exactly pot odds if he’s got a weak ace, and I call. He flips 4
Hand 148 J
Down to 10,300. I open to 750 and it gets through everyone except BB, who calls. The flop is 2
Hand 156 A
After having my aces cracked at the Venetian the other day by 9
Hand 167 A
I open for 900 (24,000 behind) and get a call from BB (14,500). The flop is 5
Hand 169 Q
I open to 950, get called by UTG3 (who’s one of the two stacks covering me at the table), then CO shoves for 11,185. I re-shove after action folds to me and UTG3 gets out of the way. CO has Q
Hand 174 A
I’m once again the table leader, and am actually at the top of or near the top of the leaderboard for the tournament. UTG1 opens to 1,195 (22,500 behind), I call (35,500), and BB comes along (20,300). The flop is 3
Hand 175 T
Starting the hand as overwhelming chip leader with more than 62,000. I open to 1,100 and BTN re-raises to 2,000 (20,250 behind). We’re heads-up to a 5
Hand 190 T
One player at my table has a third as many chips as I have, there are three empty seats. Action folds to me and I raise to 1,600. BTN goes all-in with 9,115, I call against his A
Hand 197 T
Starting with 62,500. UTG (26,000 behind) limp-calls after I raise to 1,250. The flop is K
Hand 209 9
I opened to 1,400 and was re-raised to 3,100 by UTG3. We were HU to a 2
Hand 223 6
CO opens to 2,400 and I call, then SB puts about a third of his stack in to 8,800. BB and CO fold, I call, and I pick up bottom pair on a T
Hand 234 Q
I’m at a new table for my first hand. I open to 2,500, action folds to BB who puts in about 40% of his stack: 6,970. I re-raise him all-in and he calls with A
Hand 238 T
UTG1 is all-in for 1,250 and UTG2 sees an easy opportunity to pick up some chips, so he shoves for 26,400. Everyone behind him has more chips but not so many that a loss wouldn’t hurt. I reshove, though, and both the blinds drop out, so I have 27,700 no matter what happens. The small stack has one of my outs with T
Hand 243 9
UTG1 limps in and the flop is 5
Hand 248 A
I start with 85,600. BB his within a thousand or so, the closest stack below that is 30,000 down. I min-plus raise to 2,200 and get a call from SB, with 54,000 behind. The flop looks good, 7
Hand 255 T
Open to 3,500 in the same position as the last hand except that SB now 70,000 chips, just a few thousand less than me instead of 30,000 below. SB calls, the flop is 9
Hand 257 J
HJ opens to 2,000 with just 16,000 behind. I call to defend. The flop is T
Hand 260 J
HJ opens with a min-raise and I’m the only caller. We both check the A
Hand 284 K
I’m second in chips at the table with 82,800. The table leader is the tournament chip leader at 98,000 and third place at our table has 72,000 on BTN. Only one of the other six players has more than 50,000. UTG1 min-raises to 2,400, SB and I call. The flop is K
Hand 285 K
UTG limps and UTG1 makes a small raise to 2,845. HJ calls the raise and I shove 130,500. Everyone folds and HJ shows 3
Hand 286 T
HJ, with only 20,250, open-raises to 3,000. CO folds and I re-raise to 40,000, covering the SB and all but 1,400 of the BB. Everyone folds.
Hand 289 A
The hand that you hope for after anoying people with your big-stack shoves. Action folds to me, I just limp in, SB calls, and BB checks. They both have about 50,000 vs. my 140,600. The flop is certainly good for my hand: A
Hand 292 3
CO min-raises, BTN calls, and I call. CO is the larger stack, with 44,000. The flop is 6
Hand 293 8
UTG raises to 2,400 with 25,600 behind. HJ calls with 42,400 back. I shove again with 153,000; SB is yet to act but has less than HJ. Everyone folds; HJ shows A
Hand 295 T
My problem here was that we were still a bit away from the money and I needed to go to work. As someone pointed out later, I could have just set myself to sit out and coasted to whatever point in the money my leading chip stack would have taken me, but with some other things going on in meat-space, I thought about that and promptly forgot it, and instead set about trying to knock as many people out before blowing off my stack—which wasn’t as easy to bring myself to do as I thought it would be. I did manage to make a start here. I open-raised to 5,000, was raised to 17,760 by BTN, and called. I checked the 4
Hand 311 T
By this point in the contest, I was back up to 153,450. We had six players at the table: CO and SB had over 80,000, BB and UTG had in the low 60s, and BTN had 44,000. I did my ace-shove, the BTN short stack called, and I was HU v K
Hand 328 T
Despite a couple of losses, I was still up over where I was when I beat the kings, but time was running short. I opened to 6,000, called an all-in from BTN of 30,350, and lost to J
Hand 343 2
It takes some serious boneheaded play to get rid of chips when people are scared of your stack. With 185,000 chips, I had more than twice all but one other player at the table, and I had half again his stack. I went all-in and BB (92,500 chips) had the nerves to call. And K
Hand 344 6
This time, I called an all-in from BB after limping and found myself up against A
Hand 346 9
Best-laid plans, you know? I’m all-in again and get called by the guy I just doubled up from BTN. He has 6
Hand 348 T
Just eight minutes before I have to leave for work: gotta shave and put on the uniform. All in! A
VPIP for this tournament: 27.8%. Higher than usual because when I had the lead (and when I was blowing off chips) I was getting involved a lot. I had aces and queens twice and jacks three times. No kings.
Five hours and twenty minutes. 348 hands. 18th of 247 entries. +173% ROI (first place paid +5,381.8% and yes, I am regretting forgetting about the “sit out” option).