ok gonna do a report whilst the hands are still fresh in my mind. was really looking forward to this comp, not often you get live 6max comps of a big buyin and i was really hopeful and expectant. Event wad held at the empire, which is good in terms of location, plus the onsite bars and food is ok. The poker tournament was run exceptionally badly in my opinion. The tables were split between two seperate rooms (there very roundabout access between these areas, owing to empire needing 2 licences in order to host the number of slot machines they harve), which was a cockup. The tournament started late, incedentally, the guy doing the announcements at the beginning (who i think is the same guy from when i was over in the rio this summer) did my absolute head in. Constantly saying 5 mins more, starting in 60 seconds, then going on about the most inane bullshit actually tilted me. I was happy i'd decided to buyin early as the late reg queue was insane, staffed poorly and way too crowded. The dealing standard was pretty decent, although it pains me when dealers dont confront players about either dumb things (getting on the phone to make a call when other players at table are in the pot) or are hesitant about the rules regarding river check/checks or w/e. Having said that i didnt see one misdeal or cockup in my tournament duration, which, whilst admittedly was short
is to be commended and the dealing speed was good (which is critical). The most annoying thing during the day was a complete joke i wouldnt expect in a serious home game, about which ill talk about later.
So i paid early because, no matter what td's say, i am convinced they cluster people buying in at the same time on the same tables. I remember once playing i think the 300 in dtd and myself, mitchell, sida yuen and jon lundy among others bought in at the same time before going for dinner, then go to our start table and we are all on the same one............hmmmmm. knowing how lazy and late the better poker players are (pretty sure success and time of arrival are directly correlated) i figured id get there early and part with mine and some stakers moolah in a shot at getting one of those shiny things.
My starting table was a thing of real beauty, it started 4 handed for about 45 minutes, then 5 handed for another 15. On my left was a 30-something meditteranean guy, to his left was an Italian who played dumb at the table but is a reg i know from betfair 500nl, hes pretty spewy but definitely v good. On my right (2 seat, i was seat 4) was a german youngish guy. 25/50 starting with 7500 ss seemed quick enough to me. I was a bit peeved the 25/25 was absent, but kinda thought it might be. Early on was pretty fun, the guy on my left was kind in letting me know whenever he had Ax early on due to this absurd squeeze he did whenever the 1st one he looked at was one. I told him early on to protect his hand as i can see, so he stopped lifting his cards quite so high later, but he didnt stop the squeezing. I made up my mind after seeing the structure and then witnessing my table draw/standard of play that i was deffo not going to wait around to try and reach antes then accumulate, which i was planning to do had i found a tough starting table.
The early pots were all very small, i think min opening with this structure is probably gonna be optimal, but i varied my openings because, well, it was v clear the ppl on my table were generally bad. I got up to 9k without event really, the only significant two pots were agasint the Italian, who raised my cbet once on a Q72r flop after flatting pre otb (i elected to not overthink A2s for too long) and then i won a decent pot checking back a A4A flop and bluffraising his turn stab. I then had a pretty interesting hand against the greek looking bloke, who was definitely weaktight. He opens utg small w 8k eff and i cover w 11. I elect to flat A10o (which was pretty marginal, but id seen him do the squeezy thing and he cbet too much so i was kinda happy about having a pairup blocker). Flop A45ss. I c/c 1/2 pot. Turn is
putting 2-tone board out and i check, he really quickly bets big, approx 800 into 1k. I have all options open ofc, but im pretty certain now this guy cannot have 2p or sets in his range and early on hes less inclined to go broke with 1pair. I cr bluff to 2400, confident that he will call the turn and fold the river to a jam with all of his A10-AK's, which he does (its the
also which helps im sure), most importantly, its the first biggish pot on the able and its great to set someone in early to get the juices flowing (although phil would prolly say generate fear equity or summat).
We go 6 handed after a young german who i know is decent (seen him playing biggish before somewhere/wearing some german training site tee) and vanessa roussou join our table. oh happy days i thought, thankful that id finally got some run great in a starting table. I hadnt played with her before, but she plays very unorthodox and poorly. Im not saying that with any malice as she is a fun and very nice person it appears, but christ she is bad. Among other things that i think she might need to hire a coach about:- cr folding 8x in a 3b pot on 822. The most ugly one was flatting pre in the bb w AA v btn, c/c Q108, min CR fold J turn. Anyways she didnt fold to 3bets, defended every steal attempt anyone made on her bb with random junk, donkbet called with draws almost regardless of pot odds/implied and read my soul and made a phenomenal call to knock me out.
I started going to work on here as soon as she sat, i 3b here w 89o, she called, i check back A63, she bet/folds 2 turn and shows me 88. I then 3b her open w K5hh otb (vv suspect but i think because shes so bad pf its OK) and raise her donkbet on A32hh and she folds QQ faceup (sigh, gamble once pls). I then 3b her utg open w 910hh and she calls, just after we return from the break. By now i was really enjoying my table, she was randomly using aggression/running good/playing better than them(other table oppo's) and taking their chips and then i was taking hers. Im not talking lots but i was up to about 14k start of this hand. So 910hh v utg. Tiny 3b (close to cib). Flop 8cQQss, check check. Turn
, now she leads smallish (like 750 into 1k) and i make it 2425. She peels with 5k back and now im very very excited because she did this so quickly i think she has KQ (ie never a boat) The river is a
, she checks and i bet 3500 and she snaps with 25cc. I announce straight, then she takes 5 seconds to declare flush and turn her cards over (in fairness to her, she did say she was hard of hearing sometimes- dont think there was any malice in it ofc but it was v tilting (lucky from luton was watching me at the time and prolly saw how pissed i was). This was a critical pot for me as winning it puts me up to 17-18k and gives me a lot of flexibility.
After that she won another pot off me, when i 3b her pre w AdK then checked back a 234dd6d turn and paid off a
river bet to be shown 107ss. Now is when the german 2 to my right started to get active, 4b jamming over my 3b twice and jamming over vanessa's also (who showed 77 for him to show QQ). They then both got it in w KK v KK. Just before we move i played a bad hand that i dont really want to talk about but meh. So german poker strat guy opens gun, he's really tag abc so far and i coldcall a2cc otb hoping greek comes along to keep german honest/actually make my coldcall not a huge mistake re the terrible reverse implied/ridic strength of his range and fact my image is so bad hes prolly not folding a whole bunch. anyway lol. He check calls KQ3ss, now im pretty much 100% certain he has JJ or AQ. He tthinks for ages before check calling the
turn and i giveup on the 2 river, he shows JJ. Really annoyed that i changed my plan, convincing myself i now had decent sd value v AJ's with a spade. In reality he almost never gets to the river like that and shoving is so much better. So move to main room with about 6.6k.
So moved upstairs and to one of the tables next to the stairs, with a clock next to it. Now iv got 6.6k at 75/150, so i have to start formulating a plan as my stacksize is shite. Aha, i look at clock and next level is 100/200 with a 25 ante. Ok well now that makes things interesting. Vanessa and the german tag are opening wayyyyyyyy too loosely and wont be in too much of a hurry to call my jams given they both have about 12k. Ok then plan sorted, with for antes then jam over loose opens picking up 20% of my stack in process. Do that couple of times/win flip then actually go back to playing poker. So next hour goes v slowly, given im trying to maintain 6.5k to bring to the next level and im getting fkall (had not many hands the whole comp tbh, QQ once in the bb and AK in the bb again but got a walk). Level ends and TD announces sorry, that clock is wrong, there wont actually be any antes for 1 more level. Now thats absurd. Just to tilt a little more, the clock stops and goes back to displaying level 1. Now these are not really issues if you have a shittonne of chips, but its vv frustrating when you are short and the comp means a big deal to you. Anyways i make the antes, which is step 1 anyhows. A few of the guys i work with come down. Flushy pays me
I see toby who has a bigger grin every time i see him. Decide that this level im gonna make a run at a stack, its just so -EV for me to sit there grinding a shortstack on this table.
Open 99 utg, vanessa defends. flop J66. check check. turn J, she bets, i call obv. River 7, she bets and against anyone else this is a call but here against her its a fold. I call and she shows me QJ. Im down to 3600. Greek utg limps (he does this with a wide range of all sorts of stuff), german isos (german knows this). happy days. So i just need something remotely jammable to pickup 800+200+200+100+150. q4s deffo fits the bill. Jam, utg folds, button thinks for ages (he has 8k and really cannot call this too lightly, i mean thats why i jammed, as i think i can foldout a lot of hands. oh no wait he just said call. He has K8. I hold). I feel slightly guilty but then i remember the war.
So back up to the dizzy heights of 8k. K8 german opens to 400 (100/200/25), vanessa flats co, i flat J9cc otb. Flop A34r. all check to me. Turn is
and tight guy checks to vanessa, who bets really small. Now im pretty certain she has Qx or a draw so go for a raise now as she will definitely percieve this as stronger* (im trying to think on her level, i mean id "protect" a strong hand right) so semibluffraising the turn is gonna be best as she will call with most of her draws, fold her q's and proilly fold some of her aces on the river also. I mean she should because just look how fooking strong my line is lol. I size it to setup a river jam thats gonna be just under pot, as this would be how id play 100% of my value range (AQ/A3/A4/33/44). In hindsight this is just ridiculously unneccessary against this type of player. She calls. The river is a very annoying 5, putting a 1-liner out there which i dont really pay attention to (wtf would i, im never scared of a deuce because its absolutely impossible for her to turn up at the river with one), but in her eyes i probably would be a little bit like "zomg 1 liner". She checks, i jam and she banks. I dont say anything back to her, i keep prettty still but move my cars rythmically, breath easy and keep chewing gum (deffo not gonna try any swallowing or looking up at the cieling bullshit lol), but after about 3 minutes im aware the blood is draining from my face. Fuck shes gonna call, how can she think AJ is good here i tell myself! Oh dear god please let her say fold, i then see her do the fake fold thing, which tilts me a little and she starts chatting in septic chitchat for about 10 minutes. Finally she says "i think you have J10 of clubs, call". I muck. Face down. I tell her good luck. I then see her hand. K8cc. Oh my, v nice call.
will see how we get on on friday.
Early on greek utg limps, german isos from the button, oh halleluyah this is gonna be perfect.
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