blonde poker forum

I don't think I've ever written a tournament report on my own play before. Done plenty of tournament reports on events of course, but never one just focussing on my own play. Of course before you say it, paragraph after paragraph of me describing different ways to pass might not make for the most riveting viewing, but hey. Allow me the luxury, prompted by tikay's request, to have a stab at one...

So its the dt (http://www.dtdpoker.com/aff/BlonditesDownload)d (http://www.dtdpoker.com/aff/BlonditesDownload) £300. 10,000 starting chips, 45 minute clock and 128 runners. A bumper field over which I submit I have absolutely no edge whatsoever. It had been a long day before I arrived. My son's 12th birthday, up at 8am and at a Go-Karting circuit with 15 kids for 10am, followed by a lunch. Arrived home just in time to watch the first half of the rugby, in the car for the two hour trip up the M1 just as the second half started and I listened with mounting incredulity to England choke before my own ears.

Arriving at dt (http://www.dtdpoker.com/aff/BlonditesDownload)d (http://www.dtdpoker.com/aff/BlonditesDownload) I was, in football parlance, "up for it". A combination of family commitments and an extremely busy time behind the scenes at blonde has really curtailed my live play since last September and checking this morning I see that this is the first £100+ event I have played in that time. This period has also coincided with my worst ever run since I played my first comp in Oct 2004 with only one live MTT victory in over three months. Online has been, in non-football parlance, pants too. So out of form, playing poorly (they merge into one I feel after time!) and ill prepared I wasn't feeling like the life and soul of the party. I quietly sloped to the Internet terminal, did a bit of modding (no, I'll never learn) and at 7.30pm sat down on a table inclding Marcus Bebb-Jones, Dave (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=95) Colclough (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=95), Notts' Anthony (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=36) Nicholls (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=36) and unknowns to me.

I had a characteristically slow start. The table played reasonably passive, with plenty of limping pre-flop. This gave me an opportunity to do the same, and on four seperate occasions in the first hour saw unraised flops with pairs in the 33-77 range only to see paint flops on each occasion. Won my first pot with  Kd Qd, limping UTG, flopping  Kc Qc 7s and raising a bet from the blinds.

I was feeling comfortable, saw  Kc Kh but no action, raised with  Ac Kh called in the blinds -  missed the flop and c-betted only to be check raised and was sitting on 9,000 when another limp fest occurred. Four limpers before me, I look down at  Kh Th on the button. I limp, and all 18 of us see a flop of  Ahrt 8h 4c. Marcus bets 1,000 in early position and I flat call. The turn blanks we both check and the river misses me too for a rainbow board. Marcus checks again. My hand has no showdown value, my opponent is showing no aggression so I have to take a stab. I make an ostensibly value bet of 1,200 into 2,500 - careful not to bet too much, I need to make it look like I want the call-and Marcus  passes the  Aspades. That's my image for you!! This gave me confidence that perhaps I was competitive with the field.

A short time later our table breaks and I move to a table with RED-DOG two to my right, Adam Vinson on my right and b4Matt across the way. The last time I played matt was over two years ago     and on a table where I knew no other players he and I began to banter. Soon (thank you Matt) the whole table knew that I was the biggest rock since rocks were invented. My progress was slow, hands were scarce so I decided to risk a few manoeuvres to maintain my stack on what was a more absorbing with several players being more aggressive. Firstly after several limpers I raised out of the Small blind with  8s 9s, taking the pot uncontested. Then following Matts UTG raise I re-raised in MP with  Ad Kc knowing I faced a toughie if Matt pushed, and a probable pass. Matt deliberated, reminded me once again what a rock I was, and passed  Aspades Kh face up! I returned the favour, just to show everyone that of course I had the goods. Finally in this passage, and facing another button steal from Vinson, I re-stole from the blinds with the premium  9s 6s and took it down.

Following the second break it was a level or two away from crunch time. I had 11,000 or so with blinds at 200-400, antes had kicked in and stealing was rife. It was at this point that I feel I made my only mistake of the tournament. A Mediterranean gentleman who had played comparatively few hand raises UTG and I call for 1,200 with  Js Jh in mid position. I don't really want to play a huge pot at this point against an UTG raiser , so decide to play smallball. We're heads-up to the flop. It comes  Ac 5c 2d. Surprisingly he checks. I feel he bets any Ace there Out of position on a flushing board. He doesn't bet and I am thinking he has a pocket pair, and I'd like to win the pot there and then. However I think I betrayed a slight facial expression when the Ace fell. Something that's very easy to do when you are slightly out of practice. I may be being self-critical, but I believe I acted slightly differently than when I "had the goods" on other hands. Anyway, I bet 2,000 into a pot of 3,000. My foe sits forward and looks at me, and I realise I've been rumbled. He knows I haven't got the Ace. I am also pretty sure he hasn't. He still check-raises me all in. Into the tank. A call, if I make one, is for my remaining 8,000 chips. I'm pretty torn as to whether he has KK/QQ or an underpair to my Jacks. I don't think he's flushing with say  Kc Qc with an UTG raise on a full table. I decide that discretion is better than the "hero" call and decide to re-focus having been outplayed.

I drift along, card-dead and slightly solemn beneath the bravado, until my chance arrives. I am in the bb with only 6,000 chips behind (the blinds and antes have been eating away) and look down at  Aspades Ks. Billy (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=49) Ngo (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=49) who has been playing an erratic game short-stacked pushed UTG and Adam Vinson, also short having been mugged by 77 against his AA, re-pops all in from the small-blind. I insta-shove and find myself in a nice coup. AK vs the SB's QQ and Billy's 10 7 suited. The  Kc flops, I eliminate two players and am up to the heady heights of 18,000 and average chips.

In the next level (7 I believe ) I raise with  Ac Jc in MP, to 1,800 (blinds 300-600). My Mediterranean foe who has drifted low shoves in the bb for 10,000 total. With only 13,000 or so in the pot and 8,200 to call I don't think I am quite getting the odds to call but I'm thinking. I'm thinking that he pegs me as someone who he can push around. He's hardly played a hand since we clashed, he has a nice "re-shoving" stack against a medium stack like me and I have 10,000 left if I lose. I can play a short-stack extremely well. I think, as he stares at me, that he thinks I'll pass a lot of hands there. He's beginning to perspire, barely noticeably. I give it another minute to try and detect a breathing pattern, he definitely wants me to pass. Adding it all up I decide to call. He flips over  Aspades 9s (get in there!) and I river the nut flush and am in, for me, nosebleed territory at 30,000 chips. I'm elated, finally I have a stack and maybe the last three months pain is about to turn.

Or maybe not. I drift along stealing to keep my stack constant as others do the same to me and two levels pass. Blinds are 600- 1,200, its 2.45am and play ends for the night at 4a,

I find  8d 8c in the Cut off, and raise to 4,000. The Small blind, the rotund Shane Warne look-alike from Featherstone has been getting good humoured stick from b4Matt all night ("There's only two things I don't think I'd ever hear you say" says Matt to him "1. Raise and 2 I'm not hungry" . Well at least he didn't say it to me!!) and shoves for 12,000. 8,000 to call, 16,000 in the pot. Standard stuff. He flips  Ad Kd and the  Ahrt comes on the river.

Down to 16,000 and I am conscious that I need to make a decision as I want to come back the long drive for day 2 (I need to be home on Sunday morning) with a workable stack or die trying. I ideally want to re-shove the raises from medium stacks while I still have fold equity. If playable hands come along, great. If not, its get creative. One thing's for sure - none of the table expect me to get creative! By this time M3Boy, littlemissc and MPower have passed through my table and I wanted to re-shove past them, my image being strongest with those who know me from reputation but the opportunity never arises. Finally it does. Sadly though its against the table chip-leader. He raises in the cut off to 5,000 and I find  Ad Kc in the Small blind. The time for passing AK has long gone, its the stage of the tournament with my stack where it has to go in. So it does. He hums and hars and I thiunk I must be in good shape. Odds dictate I should get a call from his stack. Its a 40,000 chip pot. He calls. My  Ad Kc is against his two red sevens. I miss, and am eliminated in 35th.

So that was that. Cliche time, in the late-ish stages of tournaments you need to win with AK and beat AK. I just so happened to lose my two crucial races when it mattered, but I'd won one earlier to keep me in it too. Sadly, and this is a perennial problem of my style/image I never built up the stack to withstand losing races, but then again I never had the set versus/overpair, paint pair versus paint pair, flush versus set type of "stack making" hands that set you up in a competition.

It was 4am. I passed tikay in the car park, waved my goodbyes and turned the radio on. Soon, heading for the M1 I was singing along to Don Mclean "American Pie" on the radio and I smiled inwardly as I heard the immortal line

"Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry."   

Well, dear reader, once again I did come up dry.

Bed at 6am this morning, refereeing my son's football match at 10am I am currently in desperate need of the second half of my night's sleep where I am headed now 

Just remember, next time you play me I am, indeed, the rock you all expect.  ;)



   

 

When you won the races early on, I was sure it'd be your night.  Gutted for you, but great trip report! 

Nice report tighty, but, officially, rumbled. Image smashed ;)

Excellent reportage Tighty. Expect re raises at a casino near you.

It's all propaganda.  But good reading.

Next time I'll try "I waited and waited for Aces, but had to settle for playing Kings"

It will restore the nautral order of people's perceptions

Good report, Ul in the comp sir

Excellent read...ul with the races!

The Shane warne lookalike was lucky all night the river just kept saving him.

You were very unlucky Mr TightEnd.

My "I'll call if his mates there" with the 88 v his K9 and of course he rivers a K
put him to 16k

He won all his races. He'd of also beaten us the Buffet and that's going some lol

Regards

M

Nice report, good read. thank you.

Neverends!!

Great read though....





I challange you to a Hu match,at the next BB............Then one of us will win something.

Nice report RIchard...very unlucky.... LOL unlike the wally who called a re -re raise with AJ tonight at luton for his entire 25K stack...blinds 150-300...LMFAO guess who won???

Now there are a number of things not totally correct with this comment......luckily for once I am not the idiot concerned but Sicilian if you are going to re re raise somebody at the table you need to be sure that he can put a hand down or at least ask yourself do I really want to gamble a large part of my tourney with a pair of 10's.....nuff said.

My dear Tighty we have shared many tables together and it has always been tremendous fun. I have watched in awe as you managed to wait eternities for cards. Loosen up. Play a couple of rookie nights........play any two.....bluff outrageously......feel the pleasure of calling a raise with filth, hitting it and taking down a big pot. I, like you, went on a run where my results were nowhere near what I would hope for. It bothered me. So much so that I even asked Tikay a question on the game. In the end I decided to remind myself that I had forgotten, that for me it was just a game. Last night as we got down to 11 handed in Luton I find myself on the table of 5 with around 35k chips. I think the blinds were around 400/800. I have the Bobby brothers Lalit and Chandra on my right and during the last three rounds my blinds have been mercilessly stripped. In December I would have almost certainly let it continue but I had played a couple of rookie tournaments and decided that a bit of a Tuesday night special was in order....so there I am in the big blind with  4d 6s .....Lalit calls...Chandra raises three thousand....lalit shoots Chandra a look of disgust......hmm I reckon two things.....Lalit must have a hand but doesn't want to get busy with his bruvver as they both have big chipstacks....if I smooth call the raise I don't think I will get re popped by Lalit....I call.....Lalit dwells for an eternity before just calling....down comes the flop  2s 3s 5h .......oh happy days anyway in a flurry of activity they all go in and I am set for the evening. By the rules of the game I shouldn't be in the hand but the question is... whose rules? Lalit had  Qc Qd.....Chandra Aspades 3h.

So there we are at the final table 94k out of 420k and 7 left. I wake up with Kings in the cut off I raise big blind reraises....could I have got off the hand?....probably, but I want to win this thing I push and get called by the man with Aces.....back down to 50k. Go card dead and walk into ace four when I had pocket Jacks. Out in seventh. So be it. I could have waited all night for the Kings and the Jacks and never have had the pleasure of seeing Lalit and Chandras faces as I turned over the four,six.

Never have I wanted a person more to come out of a slump than you mate and I know it will happen........Fancy playing a Tuesday night? Just to loosen up a little.

Superb report by the way......

Nice write up Rich, always a pleasure to have you on the table, and as for the Ak pass... sigh. Lol at me building your image, it doesn't help when half of the table only play there own hands and don't worry to much what you may have.

Shane Warne lookey likey i see has signed up to blonde (Hello!!) He's a nice lad and he won soooo many races till Des finally cracked him, ironically with an inferior hand. Anyway, onto the next one... Gl,

Matt

Hi phil
I suppose the beauty of the game is there is no one correct way of playing and we all have different styles....your point is entirely valid and in hindsight possibly the better option...As you know i have always been a reasonably conservative player much like Richard....but I have over the last six or so months added an aggression factor to my game that I found has served me well generally..... i think at the moment I ride high on the confidence of recent results and feel I can pull serious moves without consequence...nothing like coming down to earth with a bump...  i have pulled this move on previous occassions to combat the now vogue squeeze play...by flat calling an early raise and then coming back over the top of the squeezer...it is in essence  a high risk manouver and your read has to be good and can only be attempted with a big stack but i have found it usually comes under the heading of.. ' a bet you cant possibly call '  without the obvious 2-3 hands
My read on the squeezer was spot on...i thought he wasnt that strong and had seen him calling raises out of position with the old favourites Q J & K J...
Unfortunatley you cant really factor in the guy who still has 20K back will happily call that bet with the monster that is
A J...... sigh...

Perhaps in the end it was a good thing and remind me to slow down a bit...like you say at that point I already had ftable chips...hey ho.....back to school..still lots to learn LOL

Great read Rich, well done.

I'll try & do one later today - well two, one for the £300 (17 words will suffice) & one for the £100. (War & Peace).

Make sure you tell them what a fool you were for turning down the 3 way deal and losing out on £500.

All because of your ego as me and Kev was watching, tut, where is the bankroll management ?

And you, Sonny Jim, are trading on very thin ice my friend. You WILL be sorry. My Diary is poised to expose you. And your ignorance of 4 letter words beginning with "F".