There weren't that many tough spots in my Saturday adventure, and even less value spots. For example, the gentleman to my right who took a check/check/bet with top pair no kicker at least one an orbit was pretty easy to fold against with less and he always seemed to pay off better. Either way, he was happy to show his hand every time. I'm trying to get out of the habit of being rude, so let's just refer to him as "exploitable." I never really got a chance to play many pots with him as he wasn't very aggressive in position, and the guy to his right most certainly was (definitely recognise you Mr. Button to my big blind, can't for the life think of your name so let me apologise now.) Disappointing to fail to make another day 2, I'm not sure what's happening. Maybe I'm really rubbish at tournament poker, maybe Tighty has a magic runbad camera which explains why I always find a picture of myself looking like a complete retard when I read through the updates, maybe I just need to win a flip sometimes. Whatever it is, I'm sure it will turn around soon. It's starting to feel like my turn. (Note to self: read up on "entitlement tilt.")
I had a couple of interesting hands, I guess, so here they are:
I raised the button after a mid position limp with
, the blinds fold and he calls. He checks to me on
. I can't remember which blind level this fell under, but I took my standard line versus someone on whom I have no information and bet around half pot. He tanked for almost a full two minutes before sticking the rest of his chips in, which was some crazy overbet and about a third of my stack. I think early on in a tournament when your ultimate goal is accumulation, calling here is fine, especially as I'm not supposed to be miles behind his range. Pretty sure it's a "call ldo," but I'd like someone to correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway: called, turned it against
.
I took a bet/bet/check line versus the American to my left. Definitely don't love this hand, but here it is anyway. I raise MP unopened at 400/800/100 to 1700 with
, the guy to my left calls (both playing in the region of 50k so not anticipating getting stacks in at any point) and the big blind peels. The flop comes something to the tune of
, I bet 2,700 and the american calls, blind folds. Turn's a red brick, and I fire another barrel, would have been in the region of 5,700. He calls and I give up on a blank river. Felt like he was getting stubborn with a bad ace and I wasn't going to shift him on the river, definitely sure I was good if I nailed the spade though. He checks behind and shows me the
. Pretty sure he was merging his calling range there, as if I have an ace it's bigger and if I have a spade it's bigger. Don't love the peel with ATo from there either, but I bet he made day two...
Here's one I really hated, where I raised pre with
exactly one orbit later. The american calls again, and the big blind peels again. The flop is
and we check round, then turn is the
. The blind checks, I check, then the american takes a stab at it. I didn't bet flop because it's not exactly ideal to be in a sandwich with an airball on a queen high board, but it's quite apparent now that the likelihood of someone having top pair is pretty small. The blind calls, and I feel like this is a decent spot to take it down, even though I'm not repping much I have the nut flush draw, two overs and sometimes the best hand already. The american folds pretty quickly, then the blind tanks and calls. The river pairs up with the
. The blind checks to me. Now I regret my thought process at the time, which went something like "I don't want to check behind and lose to a really shit pair that would fold to another barrel, such as 63s, 77 with the flush draw, etc." In hindsight, I'd remove the "etc." and realise that he's folding such a thin range of better hands and never ever calling worse (to give myself some credit, I didn't think I was value betting...) He snapped called after making trips, and I was left feeling like a bit of a whale. Maybe he folds if he doesn't find the third five, but he did and I still barreled. Wp me.
Exit hand was really standard imo, but I feel like I need to include it to round out the report. Two new players sat down on our table, I've played against them in 2/5 game before and they're basically the value in those games. Haven't played this guy in a tournament environment before, but I remember dealing to him and he was super aggro and constantly levelled himself into calling off light. He'd late regged at the 600/1200 level (to bump the number of runners in 1a up to a nice round 50...
) and made it 3100 first hand, I look down at
which is huge against him so I move it all in for just shy of 30k, he snaps it off with
. In fairness, I managed to fade four cards before being sent to the rail, so I'm defo improving at flips.
Might give the WSOP warm up a shot at the start of next month. I'll probably still be getting ridiculed for putting in more volume now that I've retired than I did as a pro and I'll likely be driving home in the rain wondering what it feels like to riffle day 2 chips, and I'll probably watch Rastafish on the live stream getting the absolute cake for no reason against my friends, but that's poker. And you know what? I love it.
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