Tag Archives: trips

The Landing On Step 3

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Full Tilt Step 2 (1,500 chips)

Playing with the ticket I won earlier, I don’t manage to get ahead in the first fifty hands. A 3BB raise with J♣ A♠ early on just gets me the blinds; I pick up 150 with a 5♥ 7♦ in the big blind when a couple of players limp in and the flop of 8♣ 6♣ 9♦ gives me a straight; A♣ A♦ in the small blind gets me 240. But when I push a smaller stack’s all-in with an all-in of my own holding A♥ Q♦, he turns over T♥ T♣ and neither of my over cards connect. I manage to double up and get back as high as 1,150 before my 9♥ A♦ all-in is called and out-kicked by T♦ A♣ and I’m back at the foot of the steps.

Full Tilt $2,500 KO Guarantee (2,000 chips)

I like this little bounty tournament althoughI’m at a loss as to why. I’d have to check to see if I’ve picked up any bounties, and I know I haven’s cashed in it. It’s cheap and it’s there if I’m not playing Midnight Madness (or if I’ve busted out). I came into this edition late, with blinds already at 50/100, lost 333 on my first contested hand, and the rest of it only fourteen hands in when my K♣ T♦ got clobbered by Q♥ Q♠ that would have had me beat even if my straight draw had come through.

Full Tilt Step 1 (1,500 chips)

I caught a very lucky K♠ K♣ just four hands in. UTG limped in for 30 and I raised from UTG+1 to 120. UTG+2 called, then everyone but UTG folded. The flop was 2♥ 9♦ T♦ and UTG opened with 405. I shoved all-in, +2 folded like a good boy and UTG called for slightly less than I had. My kings beat his tens—although he was one card from a straight by the river—and I eliminated a player.

I stayed up over 3,000 as chip leader with some small induced folds, then had 8♠ 7♠ on the button with five players left and blinds at 50/100. I’d slipped to second place, the big stack was in the small blind. UTG called, I called, and the small blind called for four players to the flop, which was T♠ 9♠ Q♣. After checks from the blinds, UTG made a pot-sized bet and I doubled it. Straight flush here I come! The blinds dropped out and UTG went all-in for an amount that would leave me with only about 1,400. Naturally, I called. I got a straight with a 6♥ on the turn. The A♣ still didn’t give me a flush but I was up to 5,300+. My own K♣ T♣ knocked another player out a little later when I flushed to beat not only his 6♦ 6♠ which tripped up in the flop but a straight on the board: 7♣ 3♣ 6♥ 5♥ 4♣.

I tried letting the two remaining players battle it out but they were taking so long the blinds ate away 1,500 of my 9,000 chips and I figured I’d better make my presence known when I could. I had about 6,600 in the small blind at 80/160, the big blind had 4,200 and the button had 2,700. I was dealt K♦ A♥, the button made a min raise, I re-raised to 640, big blind folded, button called. The flop was a rather ugly 6♣ K♣ Q♣ but I raised all-in and got a call. I had the better made hand but with Q♦ A♣ it was far from over. Fortunately, diamonds are my best friend and the rest of the cards were 6♦ 4♦. No flush, no more queens. Just a Step 2 ticket for me and guy in the big blind.

Full Tilt Step 2 (1,500 chips)

An early J♦ J♥ pops me up to 2,000 but I nearly get felted 34 hands in when I get over-confident and call an all-in with A♠ J♥. The all-in turns out to be A♥ K♥ and I drop to 530 chips. It doesn’t help that the other ticket winner from the previous game is in this one and is either an ardent admirer or has a novel method of making me a target by appearing to be a sycophant, praising every win and warning people getting into hands with me that they’re going to be sorry. I manage to double up twice in the next eight hands, with a K♦ 5♦ that pairs the top card on the flop and then 8♦ 8♥ in my pocket, each of which sets off a barrage of admiration and my own attempts to deflect.

I lose another big pot to the same player as before with an out-kicked king (he’s got K♠ A♥ this time) and have to build my way back up from the sub-1K region again. We’re down to five players, I have 1,160 in the big blind at 100/200 and I’m dealt A♣ Q♣. The guy who’s been beating me is first to act with a call. My fanboy’s on the button with 1,925 and raises to 900. The small blind folds and I shove all-in. UTG raises all-in—he’s the largest stack by far with 5,875—and the button preserves his remaining 1,025 with a fold. When the cards flip UTG has T♣ T♠ but he’s in a bit worse shape when the flop shows Q♠ 8♦ 9♠. Another Q♣ on the turn closes just means he has fewer chances for a straight, but the 8♣ on the river makes my full house instead. I move from fifth place to second, with 3,320 chips. Another 8♠ 8♥ gets me 600 more chips.

Then I spend twenty-five hands waiting for a good opportunity as my stack shrinks from 3,800 to 1,700. I have to make a move at 120/240 and get very lucky with an all-in from the small blind holding 2♦ A♥. By the turn I have a six-high straight and the A♠ 9♠ of my nemesis is busted. (My fan is gone by this time, thankfully). After my double-up, nemesis and I are relatively even at around 3K while the chip leader is at 7K.

I’m able to push a little better with a larger stack and—frankly—a better run of cards. I creep slowly up through the 4,000s and into the 5K range while meanwhile my nemesis doubles through the chip leader. Now we’re even at about 5,250 while the former chip leader is just above 2,500.

I manage to bump up to more than 7K with 8♦ 7♣ in the big blind at 200/400 with a rivered nine-high straight. The two other players are now at about 3K. The non-nemesis opponent goes all-in from the button when I have A♠ Q♣ and I go all-in. He’s got just 2♠ A♣, the Q♥ shows on the turn, and the match is over after seventy minutes including sixteen just three-handed (there are two winners, so there was no heads-up play).

Full Tilt Step 3 (1,500 chips)

This game looked rather grim. I’d made it to Step 3 before only to crash and burn. Sixty hands and thirty-five minutes in, with blinds at 50/100 and only five players left and I was under the starting stack. Then a K♠ J♣ in the big blind met up with a Q♠ A♥ T♥ flop and I pushed everyone away from 1,850 chips with an all-in for my straight. On the small blind the next hand my J♠ Q♦ double-paired on the river of a A♥ K♠ J♦ 9♣ Q♣ board. A little scary but the all-in forced another fold for a profit of 1,350.

Three hands later I had the same combo in slightly different suits: J♠ Q♥. I was the first to act and limped in for 120; I was heads-up against the big blind. The flop was a pretty safe 6♥ Q♠ 2♣. Big blind bet 180 and I called. The 9♦ didn’t look scary to me and I matched the bet of 400. I figured a KT could have me beat on when J♥ showed on the river, but I matched the 1,570 all-in bet and when he showed 9♣ 6♦ it was mine.

I maintained top position three-handed at about 7K, hoping my two opponents with 3,500 each would weaken each other, to no avail for ten minutes. Then I matched a 480 raise from the small blind while I was in the big blind holding T♦ 8♦. The 3♥ 8♥ 3♠ flop gave me two pair but I should have been more leery of the 480 post-flop bet. I raised all-in and was called by A♦ 3♣. An A♣ on the turn just made it worse and I was reduced to 3,700. A couple of hands later my all-in call with J♦ Q♠ failed to improve and was beat by 6♥ 6♦, putting me out with another chance at Step 3.

Full Tilt Step 3 Turbo 18-Player (1,500 chips)

I re-raised a 3BB raise with A♦ A♥ ten minutes into this two-table match, inducing a three-bet all-in that I called. I was up against Q♥ Q♣ and another ace showed on the flop, putting me in an early lead. I kept the lead as the table shrank through elimination and balancing to six players, then ran my T♣ A♥ into J♦ A♠ and lost 1,200 chips. A freak river 7♥ paired my A♦ 7♦ to wipe out a J♣ A♠ and put me over 5K. Then another four-flush struck when I stupidly contested the big stack’s big blind and I dropped from third place and a sure Step 4 ticket to sixth and Step 3 again.

I Never Flush

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Full Tilt Midnight Madness (1,500 chips)

Three hands in and there are four after the flop with 390 chips in the pot. I have 8♣ A♣, there’s 2♣ Q♥ J♣ on the board and I’m first to act in the small blind. I bet 200, there’s a fold and two calls. The turn’s 4♦ and I push out another 200. UTG+1 calls and UTG+3 goes all-in for 1,180. Everyone calls. The last card’s 8♥ and UTG+3 with Q♦ T♣ loses to UTG’s straight made with T♥ 9♥ (as do I).

Full Tilt $2,500 KO Guarantee (2,000 chips)

I win exactly one hand during my four minutes in this match and it does not come with a knockout bounty.

Full Tilt $10,000 Rush Guarantee (1,500 chips)

Ten minutes in and I get J♥ K♥ as UTG+1. I raise to 120 (4xBB) and get a re-raise to 405 from a stack with twice my chips in the hijack. I call. The flop is 5♥ 2♠ A♥ and I check, then he bets 625. I call and the turn’s 7♠. I’ve got nine possible draws to an ace-high flush, just like I did in Midnight madness. I bet 120 with 865 behind and he raises all-in. I call. The river is T♦. He’s got K♠ A♦ and I’m out.

Full Tilt Step 1 Turbo 6-Max (1,500 chips)

I did a little better here than in my last attempt. I managed to get up to 4K, then was busted back to 1.5K, with a last-minute double-up before I busted out in third place. No step up but I didn’t lose any ground.

Full Tilt $10,000 Rush Guarantee (1,500 chips)

A slightly longer run into the $10K than the one above but nothing to be proud of. I got beat down on a couple of hands where T♥ A♠ and K♠ T♣ failed to connect, then managed to pull off a triple up. I was in the big blind at 20/40 when I picked up A♦ A♠. UTG raised to 155, action folded to the button, who called, the small blind folded and I raised to 640. Both of the others came along and the pot had over 1,900. After the flop of Q♥ 6♠ 7♠ I went all-in for 1,270. UTG called. The button went all-in for 2,525 and UTG gave up. There was 5,750 in the pot, the button flipped over Q♣ 8♣ and with T♠ on the turn and 4♣ on the river it was mine. I managed to blow it with another ten combo—T♦ K♣—just seven hands later when trip sixes beat my pair of kings and straight draw, taking 4,630 off of me. I lasted about 20 minutes after that but never made it back over 1,200 chips.

Full Tilt Step 1 Turbo 18 Players (1,500 chips)

I had a couple near-fatal setbacks in this tournament, but in the 18-player Sit & Gos Steps the top four spots all step up. I’d been up over 3K, then back down to just over 2K when I played 9♣ A♠ from the small blind. There were four to the flop, which was an intriguing 7♠ T♠ 2♠. I made a pot-sized bet of 800 after the flop and the button raised all-in to 1,240. After my call, the turn made my nut flush with 3♠. Then the whole thing fell apart with a 2♣ on the river and a T♥ T♣ in my opponent’s hand. I managed to build up to 5K by the end of the tournament, about 75 minutes after the first hand.

Full Tilt Rush Flash

It had been a while since I sat down at a ring game and even longer since I hit the Rush tables. I played for about half an hour, losing my entire first stake on the second hand with pocket 9s against pocket kings. I bought back in and rebuilt, eventually coming out ahead with a BB/100 hands of 11.

Cake $1,000 Guarantee (1,500 chips)

Stupid moves on my part knocked me out here in 106th place out of 161 players. Another ATo I shouldn’t have played, and an obvious pair of kings on the board that beat my pocket 9s, even without another king in my opponent’s hand.

Full Tilt Rush Mach 10

A quarter hour at a slightly higher stake, I managed to pull out of a trough and make it into profitability before the end with a ten combination but only because my cards were higher than the other player who followed the trip sevens on the board. BB/100 of 3.5.

Full Tilt Rush Mach 10

This 77-minute excursion managed to eradicate the gains of the earlier sessions. After the seventh minute, I was never in the black. A Q♠ K♠ made it to four spades by the turn but no flush. T♦ J♥ paired the ten on the flop for both myself and the guy holding Q♣ T♥. K♥ A♣ paired but couldn’t beat trip fives. BB/100 of -15.5.

Full Tilt Step 2 Turbo (1,500 chips)

Turbo it was. Thirty minutes from start to finish—even with only nine people—is pretty fast. I got knocked down to 1K fairly quickly but managed to double up after a dozen minutes with an all-in move and K♥ A♦ that matched the king on the turn. Another lucky A♥ K♣ only ten hands later breathed some more life into my stack. I ended up going out in third place with a K♠ 9♠ that failed to connect with anything. Didn’t lose ground but no step up.

Puffmammy Tournament 18 (1,500 chips)

Lost a couple of early pots that hindered my play in the first rounds. Managed to build things back up but had a huge chip stack on my right for most of my night. I was in decent shape going into the break but just didn’t get the right cards at the right time as I was trying to outlast D. Didn’t work. Lost the POY point lead for the first time since mid-October, going out 6th of 8. Only down by a point, though, since D went out on the bubble (4th).

Cake $1,000 Guarantee – Bounty (3,000 chips)

Took two bounties in a three-way ace-off three-quarters of an hour into the match. I had A♥ Q♥ on the button at 75/150. UTG+3 goes all in for 1,959. Cutoff is all-in for 1,123. I’ve got 4,560 and call, the blinds fold. The cards go over 9♦ A♣ for UTG+3 and A♦ 7♦ for the cutoff. The board delivers K♦ 5♣ Q♠ A♠ T♣ and I’m up to almost 8K. I lose most of that running pocket queens into pocket aces a few minutes later, build back up to more than 5K, then end up with less than 2 big blinds when my A♥ Q♣ is beat by A♦ 4♥. Someone takes my bounty on the next hand when I go out 37th of 96.

Full Tilt Step 2 (1,500 chips)

Nine players in another Steps outing, hoping to get far enough during FTOPS to play a game. J♦ J♥ in the big blind puts me over 2,500 chips and into first position a dozen minutes in when the chip leader and I play chicken with our pocket pairs. It’s a scary board for me with 4♥ 9♥ A♣ Q♣ 5♦ but I would have assumed it was even more so for his 7♥ 7♣. I mostly rest and slide (with a couple of wins) down to 1,950 when I get A♦ T♣ in the big blind. There are seven players left, the hijack raises to 300, and the button foes all-in for 1,385. I call and so does the hijack. A tantalizing 2♦ 4♦ 7♦ shows on the flop, I check, and hijack raises to put me all-in. There’s nearly 5K in the pot; I’ve got nine outs to the nut flush; I call and each of my opponents turn over a pair of queens. Their hands aren’t going to improve. Mine doesn’t with a J♣ on the turn, but the river is 6♦. At 40 minutes in I’m back in first place (top two win Step 3 tickets).

I take a flier on K♦ T♦ a few hands later and lose 1,000 so I decide I’d better cool it. Ten minutes later we’re down to five players and I get A♥ 5♥ on the button. I’m down to 3,830 chips, the blinds are 80/160. I call after two folds and the small blind is in. Three to the flop of 3♥ 4♦ 3♦. Once again, very tantalizing. Everyone checks for another card, the 2♥ which makes my straight and gives me a flush draw. Not to mention a straight flush draw. The big blind bets 160 when it’s his time and I raise the 640 chip pot to 1,600. Big blind goes all-in and there’s 4,860 in the pot when the Q♥ shows on the river. He’s got J♠ 3♠ for trip threes but no 2, 3, 4, or jack shows to save him from fifth place.

I clamp down hard on myself. With 6,100 chips, I have twice what any of the other three players do. I do push an A♥ T♦ hard on a 2♦ 8♣ 7♦ 9♥ turn to push two players off and pick up 1,200 but mostly I let the rest of the players fight amongst themselves. The final hand I get 5♦ 5♣ in the small blind and follow the short stack all-in for about 2K. I have enough behind that I’m still the chip leader if I lose. He has A♥ K♥ but the flop is 4♦ 5♥ Q♣. Even A♠ on the turn doesn’t help him.

I guess I do flush once in a while.

Cut Off

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The last couple of days have been a mixture of frustration and a feeling that maybe I’m breaking through a couple of barriers.

I didn’t play much on Wednesday. A $1K guarantee on Cake that didn’t last long, a bounty tournament where I fell out short of the money after making it to chip leader (but where I mitigated somewhat with a couple of bounties), and a shot at an Irish Open Quarter-Final Satellite that went bust.

Then, Thursday, I was atypically playing two tournaments simultaneously: another Irish Open QFS and a $1K guarantee. Personally, I like to concentrate on how the hands play out—even if I’ve folded—so that I can see what the other players are doing, and having two or more games running is too distracting.

I was managing to hold my own, though. The satellite had been running for 45 minutes and I’d been nearly busted out but worked my way back into the thick of things. We were 19 hands into the guarantee and I was about double my starting stack. Then Cake froze up. I left the client open for more than an hour, tested connectivity from another computer (in case it was my internal network, but I had no problems with Full Tilt or PokerStars). Even the web site was unavailable for a while. Once things got back up and running, my two games were gone, but there were a couple of small tournament awards in my cashier history and it looked like my buy-ins had been refunded. No announcement of what they’d done to resolve the technical glitch in Curaçao.

I switched over to Full Tilt for a bit and entered a Super Satellite to the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event, which had a qualifier playing last night. I didn’t do any better than 13th of 32. Going directly to a satellite was even worse: 15th of 18. Then again, I realized after I’d started playing that I’ve got a pretty big commitment the weekend after the tournament and in the very unlikely event I was to win a seat, I was going to be flaking out on something important just to play poker. And you wouldn’t ever want to do that.

I lasted about an hour in The Ferguson, but was somewhat distracted because I was—for the second time in a day— playing dual tournaments. Half an hour in I entered a $10K guarantee Rush tournament. The last couple of times I’d played the tournaments I’d seemed to have gotten a feel for how to play it, not using PokerTracker or my own tools. For a while, both games were running relatively well, but I ended up all-in in The Ferguson with A♦ 2♦ on a board of 3♣ 4♠ 2♣ only to run into a flopped straight with 5♦ 6♦ (which also surprised the original all-in who had 3♠ 3♥). No backdoor aces on the board for me, but 1,001st (of 2,159) place let me concentrate on the Rush game with a bit larger buy-in.

The game progressed more or less on a steady build. There was one big chunk taken out about hand 170 when my T♥ A♣ made top pair but pocket kings took the day (the third player in the hand, with A♦ T♦ was surprised , as well, but I wasn’t all-in). A graph of my chip total shows a couple of sharp notches in the line at hands 260 and 280 as well but in both cases I recovered to nearly my previous position within a few hands. K♣ A♣ tripled me up at one point against Q♠ K♠ when two players called my all-in and a K♥ was the first card on the flop. Another time I caught A♣ 2♦ A♠ on the flop to trip up my T♦ A♥ against K♣ K♦, which doubled my chip stack.

A min raise at 300/600/75 from a player in the UTG+2 position in hand 325 prompted me to call from the big blind with K♠ 2♦ after everyone else had folded. The flop of 2♥ 7♥ 8♦ gave me at least a pair, and as he’d had several stacks of equal or greater size following him when he raised (with 21K to my 17K) it seemed unlikely that he’d have gone with anything in that range. I bet another 1,200 and he called. A 3♦ turned and I checked to see what he’d do, still thinking he was probably unconnected to any of it. He bet 2,400, I called, and the river rolled out K♣. No flushes or straights possible. Nothing that could make a full house. I had the top pair and bottom pair. He didn’t seem aggressive enough to have been holding kings himself or a pocket pair that matched the board. I checked to see what he’d do and he went all-in. I called and won 34K when he showed J♠ Q♥.

I couldn’t have gone out on a better hand, although it would have been better not to go out. It was 400/800/100 on hand 354. I got A♦ A♠ on the button. UTG+1 made the call and I min-raised to 1,600 (I should really have pushed harder). The blinds dropped out and UTG+1 called, putting us heads-up. The flop was 7♣ Q♠ 2♥, there was 5,300 in the pot, I had 27K against his 43K. He checked; I bet 2,500. He raised to 5,555, I went all-in, he called. He shows Q♣ J♣ for the lower pair. 58,808 in the pot and the turn card’s 5♥. He needs one of the jacks or another queen. And that’s what shows up on the river: Q♦. I go out of the tournament in 41st (of 1,062) with an ROI of 170% (he makes it to 16th).

Another $1K guarantee at Cake rounds out this account. No steady climb this. An hour into the tournament I was back at “GO” (i.e. 1,500 chips) but then things took off an in about 20 hands I was over 12K and racing down to the cash. Some laydown I made to avoid getting knocked out before the bubble took me down but a couple of helpful ace hands pushed me back up. A set of threes beat pocket fours to put me back in long enough to take 11th and an ROI of 176%.

Too Busy

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No post yesterday does not mean that there was no poker played. This is what I’ve done since the last post.

Got into a 3FPP Hyper-Turbo Steps Special for an NAPT ticket. You only start off with 500 chips. Second hand in I get K♣ K♠ and call an all in. Two more callers makes it me versus: 9♠ A♣, 7♠ A♠, and 9♥ 9♣. The board rolls out T♣ 2♦ Q♠ J♠ 5♠ and I’m gone.

$15K 6-max guarantee on Full Tilt and I’m cruising along with a couple hundred above the starting stack of 3K. I’ve got T♠ J♥ and paired the board with the jack. There’s a Q♥ on the flop. I pushed the first bet and called 500 on the turn which was just a 7♦. There’s 1,500 in the pot when the K♠ shows on the river and my 120 bet is met with a raise to 1,860. I could call it but fold and the guy shows his 8♦ 9♥ for nothing better than a busted nine-high gut-shot straight. Grrrrr. I lose another 1,000 to see the flop with a pair of sevens a little later but the fold’s a good one. I make it back on the next hand but three hands later I push too hard with J♣ Q♣ and I’m down to 5 chips. I manage to make it up to 45 before elimination.

Another 6-max, this time with $8K guarantee. It was actually doing quite well with a Q♣ K♥ giving me an ace-high straight on hand 5 and netting a couple thousand chips. Another five hands and J♠ 9♣ turned into a full house, putting me at nearly three times the starting stack. Pairs of tens and queens had me over 11K half an hour into play and in the top 20 chip stacks. Ten minutes later, I was over 13K with K♥ A♠. I took my hits with the blinds and lost a couple of hands with decent cards but was over 10K when I called a cutoff bet of 566 with 9♣ 8♣ from the small blind (100/200, with only five seated at the table and the button calling). Three of us to the flop and I got a straight right away, with T♦ 6♣ 7♠. First to act, I bet 1,500. Cutoff had me covered by about 4K and called, with the button folding. 7♣ shows on the turn; I’ve got a flush draw in addition to my straight and I bet 1,600 but I should really have pushed. The cutoff calls. Then 7♥ shows on the river. I check and my heart sinks when the cutoff bets 4K. I call, he’s got the T♠ for a full house, and I’m down to 2,360, which goes all-in on the next hand with A♦ Q♥ and loses.

The midnight game yesterday morning had 2,200 players and $4,400 in guarantees. I was in the big blind for 40 chips (out of 2,000 to start) on hand 7. The hijack—who was up 1,200 chips—bet 80 after action folded to him. The cutoff folded. The button raised to 160 and the small blind three-bet to 240. I called with my T♣ T♦. Hijack called. Button went all-in for 1,790. Ten things got real crazy when the small blind called. I called, leaving 260 behind. Hijack got out, probably wondering what the hell was going on. The flop was 7♥ 4♣ 8♣ which meant nothing to me. The small blind put out a bet large enough to get me al-in to call. In for 1,790, in for another 260  I always say. The turn was the T♣. After a 3♠ showed on the river, I saw that I was up against Q♥ Q♠ (button) and A♠ A♦ (big blind]. I tripled up but a couple of subsequent losses brought be down to 687 a dozen hands later. An hour into the tournament, I’d managed to built back up to 7K. Blinds were at 350/700/85 and a stack half my size made an all-in move. I had A♠ J♣ and called but the cutoff—with a stack twice my size went in for enough to put me all-in. I called and was fine against the smaller stack’s A♣ 3♣ but seriously in trouble with the big stack’s J♦ J♠. Nothing bigger than a nine showed on the board and I was out 50 places short of the money.

The first of my attempts at yesterday’s Irish Open quarter-finals had a slow start but a third of the way in a pair of sevens miscalculated against my A♦ J♦. The turn and river put three nines on the board giving him a full house, but the J♠ on the flop gave me a better one and I doubled up from the starting stack of 2K. A♦ 6♦ in my hand earned another 2.5K with a flush just past the first hour of play. Then a pocket pair of sevens worked in my favor with a 7♣ on the flop and I was up to 8K and the chip lead shortly thereafter.

There were enough players in the tournament that there were three tickets to the semi-finals as well as cash prizes for the next four spots. I managed to stay in contention for the tickets until a little past the 90-minute mark (125/250/20) when I raised to 625 with T♠ T♥ from the hijack position and was met with an all-in for a little less than I had from the big blind. I should have been thinking “position maintenance” but called instead to see A♦ Q♠, leaving me with 350 behind. An A♥  on the turn mostly sealed my fate.

I say “mostly” because I’m never one to say give up and die at the poker table. I doubled up with J♦ K♠ four hands later and did it again three hands after that with J♦ Q♥ (where were these cards when I needed them before?) Eight hands after my lowest point of 290 chips I had increased that by more than 1,100% to 3,645 and I was in contention for fourth place out of seven remaining players (the top three stacks were between 10.6K and 16.4K).

I played fairly tight from here on out, never managing to get above 5K but never falling below 3K. I took out one player with a small number of ships, another player fell victim to the blinds, and the last of the other small stacks tried to make a move with Q♥ 4♥ and was beat by king high. My own move came with an A♣ 8♠ that I tried to rep a flush to a big stack with on a 5♦ 2♣ K♣ 4♠ 7♣ board, but since he had 2♥ K♦ and four times more chips than I had, that didn’t work too well. I got my buy-in and another $8.50.

Mutant Catsino

The Catsino was up and operating last night for the 17th regular game of our home league, although turnout was light. It was not operating well for myself or K, the POY leaders going into the night. I bled chips left and right, having to rebuy fairly early (only once, though). K rebought a bit later. I only made it to round 7 when I went up against W, who was short on chips, thinking he was trying to make a move. I only had A6o but thought I had him. I was right, too, until his A4o caught a 4 on the river and I was down to just a few hundred chips. He took those soon enough. K went out in the next round. I’m still point leader but I do mean point leader because it’s only by one. D’s almost caught up to me (although he had me tied a couple months back and I managed to pull away again) and he’s moved back ahead of Kent.

We were talking before the game began about the WSOP schedule, because the agreement is that the POY goes to play in one of the $1K events at this year’s series. Apparently it was released yesterday afternoon, so now we need to finalize the league schedule and final date. The first of the possible events is 4 June.

After I got the Catsino operation put away, I entered the 11PM Irish Open quarter-final. These late contests are a little harder because there aren’t as many entrants—particularly on Cake Poker—so they either get cancelled or there’s only one ticket.

I suffered an early setback when my K♥ 2♠ was out-kicked on a juicy 8♥ K♣ 8♦ 7♠ 7♦ board by K♦ 9♥. I worked my way back up to the starting stack and then to 2,400 within about 10 minutes.

By the 75-minute mark—about 130 hands in—I’d made it to 10,000 chips, playing very conservatively. We were already down to four players and I was the chip leader, with the other three at 7,300, 4,100, and 600, and blinds at 75/150. Despite my best efforts and a couple of premium hands (particularly so for short-handed play) I lost a couple of pots and slipped to second place. Then one of the smaller stacks took a big chunk out of the top man and I was back on the throne. The same player shortly eliminated the other short stack and had about as many chips as I did.

I managed to keep myself over about 7K through the 90-minute mark (hand 170), although I was back in second place. I was on the button when I picked up K♣ K♠ and raised to 1,000 (with blinds at 100/200). The small blind (with the smallest stack) folded and I got a call from the big blind. The flop was J♠ K♦ Q♣ and the big blind was first to act with a bet of 1,000. An AT or even T9 had me, but I re-raised to 4,000 and got a call. The turn card was 6♠. The big blind’s bet of 400 was pretty inconsequential compared to the 10,100 in the pot already, so I called. The 6♦ on the river put me in mind of the hand that beat my straight in the $8K game, but I’m the one with the full house this time. My last 1,865 go in and he folds.

I’m up to 12.565 chips, with the other players at 5,545 and 3,590. Five hands later and I’ve eliminated the small stack and I’m sitting on 17K. The remaining player and I are swapping blinds and making test bets. No time to be complacent; there’s almost nothing in the prize pool beyond the ticket for the first-place finisher.

I suffer a setback with A♣ 5♣ when it runs into 6♥ 6♦. I call his all-in, hoping to take him out after 25 hands of heads-up, but all I get is a pair of nines on and a busted wheel draw on the board, so now he’s the chip leader by almost 2K.

At one point he has a lead of nearly 3,000 but a lucky river draw of a queen gives me queens and twos to beat his pair of sixes on hand 218, bringing me back within 1K of his stack. I’m back in the lead (by 130 chips) on hand 223, then he’s on top the next hand. Hand 229 drops J♥ J♣ on me, with the button. I call the big blind and he pushes to 11,040. That’s got me covered by 120, less than a small blind. When I call he flips over 8♦ 8♠. A J♠ is the first card on the flop, and while there’s three hearts and a K♠ A♥, too, it’s all mine. 21,880.

The next hand puts him all-in for the ante and small blind. I mate a T and he does a 2 but that’s the end of it. The semi-final is Sunday morning, followed by the Final (for those who make it).

Tomer reports that he busted out of Day 1 of EPT Deauxville earlier today.

Too Eager

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Not much poker yesterday, just a couple of (very) brief excursions into tournaments.

First off was The Ferguson with $2.7K in guarantees. I took a couple of early hits with a suited connector and a gapper, then managed to double up with 5♣ 5♥. A J♠ A♣ made top pair on the flop but lost to tripped-up pocket 8s, putting me back on the street after 15 minutes.

A Rush tournament with nearly $11K in guarantee money was very good to me early on. I entered (1,500 starting stack) half an hour into the tournament while the blinds were still only 40/80. My third hand, T♦ A♣, the cutoff bet 240, I called from the small blind, and the big blind went all in for 1,500. The cutoff called and so did I. Cutoff’s hand was 4♥ 4♠; big blind had 9♠ A♦. Things looked grim on the flop—9♦ A♠ A♥— but T♠ on the turn meant I was at least chopping the pot. It was J♦.  I was a little short of the full call from the previous hand’s big blind, so the other ace holder got 160 from the pot but I nabbed 4,260 which put me up in the top 40 or so right off the bat.

Sixteen hands later—which in Rush Poker means four minutes—I drew T♠ T♥. I didn’t push things, just putting out a 300 bet at the 50/100 level. The small blind had a similarly-sized stack and went all-in for 3,590. I had it covered by only 375 but called. He was holding Q♠ A♦ so I had a slight edge until the flop showed T♣ J♥ 6♥, which gave me a much better edge. He got an A♠ on the turn for a bit of  excitement but the river was J♠, giving me a full house.

My undoing came less than two minutes (eight hands) later with another pocket pair. There was a limp (still at 50/100), then a bet and a call of 400 ahead of me. I was in the small blind with J♦ J♥ and called; with another 7K behind I had everyone covered. The big blind folded and the limper called.

The flop was 4♣ T♥ 2♣. I bet 600, the limper folded, the original raiser went all-in for 6,200 and got a call of 2K from the other caller. This is where—in the interests of preserving my high ranking on the tournament leader board—I probably should have folded. But I called. The original raiser had K♦ K♣ but the small-stack caller had T♠ T♣ for a set. I had two cards hoping for redemption from the turn or river. A K♥ showed up on the turn and I was screwed. The 6♠ ruined the small stack’s thin chance of quads and the kings took in a pot of 16K. I had 851, which didn’t last long in Rush.

What Do You Want From Live?

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A couple of disappointing results at live games tonight.

In the early evening played in a charity tournament at the University of Portland, invited by B from my home league. B’s tween son was playing at the table I started at, as was W, also from the home league. Nobody from our table had busted out yet, although a few players out of the starting field of 38 had either rebought or left. No cash prizes but a five-day stay at a Mexican resort had been donated as one of the prizes. Our eight-handed table had one player who’d just about gone bust, a stack to his left who had a bunch of chips, and a couple of players like myself who had gone up and down from the starting stack of 5K.

I picked up an A9o and pushed the action up to 400 chips from the big blind of 100. W, two seats to my left, pushed it to 800, and the big stack three seats to my right raised to 1,200. I made it 2,400 and W dropped out, leaving me heads-up with the big stack. He went all-in, and had me amply covered. Pocket queens. I had a chance until the flop showed another queen. No ace showed up. It wouldn’t have mattered if I’d had aces pre-flop. W mentioned that he’d folded AQ, which just ground the salt in more. I’ll have to deal with him next week.

Played the 10PM at Aces Players Club. I was holding my own and even up from the starting stack of 5K a bit when I got A♦ K♦ and started pushing. The player to my left had a stack just slightly larger than mine and we ended up all-in before the flop. Naturally he had aces. I came a card away from an ace-high spade flush, but went out before an hour was done.

#10 Downer Street

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I meant to add this to the end of the last post because it’s an excellent lesson in come-uppance or the turn of the worm or something. Certainly it’s an example of why you have to have the ability to stand back from your game and see how your own setbacks fall into the patterns established by players before you.

It had been only a few hours since I’d seen the remarkable self-destruction of the giant stack in the guarantee game and I was in another sub-rung of the EPT Steps competition. I’d had a very lucky triple up early on when three of us drawing four to a straight came up short and my ace kicker paired on the turn. After a few smaller wins I’d doubled up to more than 11K cleaning out three smaller stacks after a J♦ on the river gave me trips. A little up and down around that level and then another pair of jacks got me up to 15,200.

The way the Steps Special tournament is structured, there are only 111,000 chips in play among 111 starting players. At the end, those will be spread out among nine players, averaging about 12,333 each. Some players would have more—maybe a lot more—but as long as you have one chip when the player in 10th place is eliminated, you get the Step A ticket. So this is the spot I should have started folding pretty much everything and let the smaller players slug it out, at least until it looked like I might be a little light for a few rounds of blinds.

Instead, I gambled on a T♣ T♥ and lost 900 above my small blind (300) and ante (50). A little later I went to showdown with K♣ T♠ and lost 2,600 extra chips. Tossed 1,200 away with 5♠ 7♠ (admittedly, I was in 400 for the small blind on that one). Seriously? I was down more than 8K in eleven hands but the blinds had only touched me twice in that time.

I was down to 7BB but if I’d  looked at the other totals I could probably have still made it through to the winner’s circle. Instead, I went all-in for 4,740 with 5♥ Q♥ and lost, going out on the bubble and probably making the stacks under me (there were a couple!) very happy.

Schadenfreude

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Poker is a game (like most others) where you can literally derive pleasure from the plight of others, specifically by taking their chips away from them. It has the capacity to bring about gleefully vicious comments even by people not involved in the current action In part that’s because any large stack that gets broken down or even a small stack that busts out tends to benefit the rest of the players by making a big stack less dangerous or simply moving people up the ladder to money.

Late last night I experienced a rather large dose of schadenfreude myself in a 6-max $2K guarantee tournament. I entered late, in Level V at 30/60 and was somewhat startlingly seated next to a player using the name of a company I’d once run. By my 19th hand that player was gone and replaced. The guy two seats behind me in action—who’d been raising everyone off  with a pot-sized bet practically—was up to 19K, and I was down to 1,000 chips, a third of my starting stack. The other four players at the table were between 1,600 and 2,000 chips.

I picked up Q♥ J♠ in the cutoff position as action folded around to me. There wasn’t much time left before I didn’t have any breathing space at all so I put out a 400 chip bet into a pot of only 120. The button called, as did the big stack who was in the small blind. Three players to a flop of 2♦ J♣ K♠. The big stack checked and I shoved my remaining 633 chips into the pot. Both the other players folded and I was back up to 1,913.

That seemed to be a turning point for the big stack in everyone’s mind, though. He still had nine time more chips than anyone else at the table but our inevitable demise was now evitable. Everyone played the next hand but me. The flop of 7♣ 2♠ T♥ was checked around to the big stack on the button who remained true to form and bet 320. The UTG player went all-in for 1,520 and got called by the big stack. T♣ 8♣ for UTG game him top pair and 7♥ Q♦ gave the big stack middle pair with an over card. The T♦ showed up on the river to make trip tens and the big stack was down for the second hand in a row.

The next hand played out in a similar fashion. Big stack made a big bet pre-flop from the cutoff. There were a couple of callers (big blind and UTG+1, on either side of me). Flop is an innocuous 8♦ 4♦ T♥, big blind bets 880 after a check, UTG+1 calls. On the river UTG+1 goes all-in and gets a call. It’s A♠ a7 (big stack) against A♣ 4♠ but the small stack has taken another chunk out of the monster, who’s now down to a little over 15K. Still a lot more than any of the rest of us but blood is in the water.

My turn in the big blind with T♦ 9♥. The big stack’s holding back a little bit this time, only betting 240 but I call him and get a beautiful straight completion on the flop K♥ J♦ Q♠. I coyly check, he bets 1,120, and I’m all-in for 1,673, which gets a call. He’s got 8♣ Q♣ and about a 4% chance of winning if he makes a full house or four queens but the 5♠ on the turn seals that off. He’s down to 13.4K.

He must have been getting frustrated because in UTG position on the next hand (blinds now at 50/100/10) he launches his whole stack on to the table for an all-in. But he gets a call from the button and when the cards flip the button’s holding A♠ J♣ against the big stack’s Q♣ 6♣. There’s a bit of tension on the Q♠ 8♠ 8♣ flop, but an A♦ on the turn gives the win to the small stack. Since the button already doubled up against the big stack once, the pot’s over 6K. In four hands, the giant has been reduced from more than 18K to a bit over 10K.

Rather than reassess, he tries it again. The most recent receiver of the big stack’s largesse and I both limp into the pot. The not-so-big stack blasts everything in as the big blind. The player to my right calls by going all-in and I drop out. Big stack has A♠ 8♦, the caller has J♦ K♠. K♣ rolls out on the flop with a J♣ following on the turn and the two pair take it. It leaves the “big” stack with 3,926 chips, which is exactly 230 chips more than I have.

Yet another player halves him on the next hand. Then, with everyone limping in ahead of him, he shoves yet again, though it’s with an anaemic 1,976 chips. Three of us (me and the two players on either side of me) call. I’ve got 6♠ 6♣ but the flop is J♦ 4♠ A♦. Not much for me there. The first player to act bets 1,700, more than I have left. I call all-in, hoping for a six to show. The other caller in the cutoff is all-in as well.

When the other cards flip it’s Q♣ Q♠ for the former big stack, A♣ 8♥ for the new big stack, and Q♥ J♣ for the cutoff. The all-ins are hoping for trip completions, but 2♦ 7♠ on the turn and river don’t do it and nobody has even a diamond, much less a flush draw.

So, I went out on the same round as the buy who went from 18.5K to out in seven hands, despite having 69% of the chips at the table and a 9:1 lead over an of his opponents. But I suspect I was laughing more.

Feeling the Disconnect

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It was wild and wooly outside this afternoon with lots of wind and rain coming down all over the Pacific Northwest. I started playing another EPT Steps 15 FPP Special tournament and two hands in my connection died. I don’t know if it was the weather or something in my local network for sure but I managed to get back in only to have things go sour again just as I tried to call a raise with a pocket pair of kings from UTG+1. By the time I hooked up an Ethernet cord to my cable modem, that hand was long gone and I was down to 895 chips from the starting stack of 1,000, with the big blind of 100 about to take another chunk out. On the 75 chip small blind the next hand I pulled A♣ 4♠ and went all-in over another all-in of 60 chips and the big blind of 150. The big blind folded, an A♠ hit on the flop and that was good enough to put me back up over the starting stack.

Two rounds later the blinds were at 100/200 and I was dealt K♣ 7♣ in the UTG+1 position. I went all in for 1,005, the next player to act raised all-in to 1,860, and everyone else folded. He flipped over A♠ K♣ but the cards came out 5♣ 3♠ 8♠ 2♠ J♣ and I got some breathing space with 2,285 chips.

Six hands later at 150/300/25 I got 7♣ 7♥. Not a pair that’s the best to play nine-handed, particularly from my UTG position but I put in 300. UTG+1 went all-in for 1,872 and it folded around to the big blind who pushed everything in for 2,960. I was completely covered but called. The flop was 6♠ 7♦ 7♠, which left me in pretty good shape. The big blind with A♦ K♠ was out of luck but there was a minimal chance that UTG+1’s T♦ J♦ could turn into a straight flush, at least until T♣ came on the turn. I took in 7,852.

Someone else’s middle pocket pair was my downfall, when I paired a T♦ with the top card on the board at the turn and 6♥ 6♣ tripped up with 6♠. Out in seventeenth position.

Mixing It Up

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You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now: Don’t blow your lead.

I was in second place in the bottom level of the PokerStars EPT Steps ladder—15 Frequent Player Points to buy in—and the game had been going for about forty minutes. There were only about 18 players left (out of 111 starters) and the top nine positions all got the same ‘Step A’ prize ticket. I had over 11K in chips and got a Q♣ K♦ in the cutoff position with the blinds at 300/600/50. The first player to act put in 1,330, the player between us folded, and I called instead of just riding things out. The button and small blind folded, with the big blind making the call.

The flop showed Q♥ T♦ T♥, giving me two pair but making trips for anyone with a ten.  The big blind bet out 1,800 into a pot of 4,950, and UTG called. I had them both covered by more than 7K, so I went all-in. They both called and the cards went over. The big blind only had J♥ Q♠ but sure enough UTG turned T♠ J♠. Three of the queens were exposed; getting the case queen for a full house was a long shot. The jack I needed for a straight would give UTG a full house to beat me. No flush possibilities. I needed that queen (which would give me a chop at best) or a couple of kings (which was an even longer shot than the single queen). Didn’t happen, though. The turn and river were 4♣ 5♠ and I dropped out of the elite, ending up in 14th place.