ThePokerResource.net: A Rounder’s blog

I haven’t blogged in a long time and I really wanted to start writing more this year. So here we go.

Wow, what a difference a day makes. I arrived late on Friday debating whether or not to play the last super satellite of the night for many hours. This year I’ve played one tournament all year and last year I probably played about 10. The 3 years prior I would play about 30-50 tournaments a year. Last year I decided to focus more on cash games and on building a bankroll that way, while in previous years I would dream about the big score and the glory of taking down a major. I guess when you get close so many times, coming up short and ultimately losing, the disappointment starts to become too much to take. I play a fairly straight forward tight aggressive style, but when I put all my chips in I rarely have the worst of it so losing was very destructive to my mental state, especially when it happens so deep into tournaments. I guess this is the nature of tournament poker. However, I’m not going to bore you with bad beat stories.

Anyways, I enter into the satellite 30 minutes late and we start with 3k in chips (so 30k late would be the average). There were 563 entrants and they gave away 51 seats. With about 100 people left I have 55k when the average was around 15k or so and I’m almost guaranteed a seat as long as I don’t do anything stupid. And a few hours later, just like that I’m in. I have a really good feeling about this tournament, I feel fresh and have a renewed passion for tournament poker and am just plain excited.

After much needed rest I arrive about 10 minutes late for the tournament and miss my favorite words: “shuffle up and deal.” I scan the table and notice a few tournament players but no big names except Steve Brecher, an FTP pro. We start with 20k in chips and blinds are 25-50 with 1.5 hour levels. WOW, now that’s a lot of play. My table is really tight, a lot of raise and take it, and not too many re-raises. In fact, we don’t bust a player until 30 minutes before the end of the day. That’s pretty tough when everyone is playing that tight and you look around and see monster stacks everywhere.

The first few hours were pretty boring. I play through the first level and end up with about 18k. Nothing really materializes and I don’t play any big pots. In the 3^rd level (100-200 blinds) I raise on the button with Qc8c to 600 and the BB, who I already know is going to re-raise, makes it 2k to go. I played with this guy yesterday and I labeled him a cannon because he continued to raise when he had 70k and we were playing hand for hand in the super. Surprisingly, today he played pretty solid poker. Anyways, I expected this raise and I decide to re-raise to 6100 leaving myself 9k left (I never ever do this, in fact this might be my first time ever 4 betting light). After about a long minute he folds. WHEW!!!!!!! That was risky.

So now I’m back up to 18k, and in the next level with a 25 ante I decide its time to start playing faster. We have been playing for 4.5 hrs and no one has yet to bust. So sick. Anyways, I re-raise two diff times with no hands and pick up pots. So far tonight I have re-raised 4 times and twice I had air but all 4 times no one called. No huge fluctuations for me or anyone at my table for that matter. Still have about 20k.

The player I 4 bet earlier raises to 1k in our last level with the blinds at 150-300 and a 50 ante. I defend from the SB with 99 and flop comes off K25, all hearts. I have the 9 of hearts and I check, and he checked. We have played a few small pots earlier with a lot of checking and continuation bets so I’m pretty sure I have the best hand here. The turn comes a K, I lead for 1500 and he calls. The river comes a black 8 and I lead for 1500, again trying to extract value and maintain pot size, but he comes over the top for 5k total. I quickly called because I’m pretty sure he can show a bluff here a lot of the time but to my disgust he shows me AJh. He flopped the nuts. I’m feeling sick, down to 13k and not happy with only 40 minutes left in the round.

I start this hand with about 14k, raise UTG to 800 with the J10c and the BB defends. The flop is AQ9 with 1 club and I bet 1100 which he calls. The turn comes a 5c which gives me a flush draw along with my open ended straight draw. He checks, I bet 2.5k and he min raises me to 5k. I call leaving myself with 8k. I close my eyes and literally pray to make a hand. To my delight the 8d comes on the river giving me the nuts. He leads for 6k and I quickly move in for my 8k total. He calls and shows AA. OUCH!!!!!!!! But now I have 28k with about 15 minutes left in the day. I crippled the man and he busts 2 hands later.

Overall, the texture of my table was real weak tight but no one played big pots the whole night. There was only one other big pot where both players had sets in the hand. Given how the day went and the situation of playing with the same players all day I’m really excited about ending the day with 27.5k. I made a few re-raises earlier but I never really had a hand all day. Tomorrow we redraw so I hope I have a better table. I’m especially proud of my 4 bet even though that’s really risky. I want to add this to my repertoire and use once in a while in special circumstances. We lost about a 3^rd of the field today, so I’m going to be slightly below average tomorrow. Most importantly, I’m really motivated to play my best poker and am excited about playing for such a large amount of money (1^st place gets a little over $1.5 million).

Hopefully, I’ll have a lot of good things to write tomorrow.

KK