Another Poker League Season 9 game in the books, game 5 to be exact, and I came close to winning but fell short. Jon took his first win of the season. It was a strange game... first of all, 3 players were out in Terri, Ashley and Steve(Hope you feel better Steve!) so it was a smaller game than we're used to, 10 players(5+5), after we lose 1 we go into hand for hand to get to the final table. The chips were flying early when Jaime pulled an amazing bluff against her hubby, Chris. She played it pretty good, I don't really remember the specifics but I believe he laid down 2 pair when he thought he was forfeited by the river pairing the board. Jaime flipped over complete rags that matched nothing on the board like 7-5of hearts. Chris was really tilted over that and I would've sworn he had a gigantic TILT sign over his head and pretty much looked like a dead-man-walking after that. another blind level later, Chris was still just hanging on, I think Jaime got a little too overzealous at the thought of "getting revenge" on Chris for knocking her out the last 2 games. Chris was able to get himself back into the game when Jaime played a few hands against him, calling 2 or 3 streets of value with bottom or middle pair and Chris most likely won't bluff at this stage of the game with so little chips. I don't really like to see Chris get out of his funk after such a great bluff by Jaime, but I couldn't do much about it...
Then I finally got a REALLY nice hand, I actually knocked out the first player when I looked down in early position at pocket Aces. I had been fairly active up to this point but not crazy where nobody is giving me respect. I have about 11K and Jake has about 7K. 5-handed, I raise it up to 550(100-200 blinds) UTG and Jake calls on the button. The flop is 4-6-9rainbow and I bet out 1100 and after some thought Jake calls. The turn is a 4 and while it's possible he played A-4 it's really difficult for him to continue with calling the 1100 with it so I'm pretty much ruling anything like that out. It's pretty much a set, top pair or some mid-pair in the hole. I bet out 1850 hoping to look a little small maybe inducing a shove and it appeared to have worked as he shoved. I took about 3 seconds to quickly review that I hadn't missed something and it occurred to me that if he hit some kind of monster there he probably only calls and hopes I barrel the river. I called and I had to fade an 8, 8s versus my Aces and the river blanked. Sorry Jake, "HAND FOR HAND!"
Shae was at the other table so I don't know what was happening over there but the last hand before the final table she suffered a bad beat of boat over boat against Chivers which ended her 2 game streak of 1st and 2nd's(Craig knocked her out, but Chivers did all the work).
Final Table:
I believe Jon was seat1, then Jaime, me(16K), Craig(darn!), Sean, Chivers, Heck and Chris. I hate being to Craig's right, but as long as he's not short-stacked I'm not too worried.
Level 5(150/300/25) started soon after the Final table began and chips were flying.
Heck and Chivers played a hand and actually had a boat over boat situation that knocked Chivers out that doubled up Heck. Heck had Aces vs Chivers KJ with the board running K-A-9-J-J, Chivers was part of both brutal boats, winning one and losing one! Jon wasn't much of a factor until he crippled Craig. I didn't pay attention to the hand, but all of Craig's chips went in on the turn and Jon called, with Craig's favored KQ over Jon's AK and the board of K-Q-8-4. Craig has been on the a$$-end of variance this season and to cement that fact, an Ace hit the river. Very next hand I raised with A-5offsuit UTG to about 700 and Craig shoved all-in for near 4K. It folded around to me and I kind of thought he might be tilting or at least in any-2-Broadway-card-shove-mode and since I had a decent stack I called. I don't want to give Craig more chips, but when that was the only reason to really fold so I thought it might not be the best play... Craig flipped over 10s...can I recant that last thought... I hit an Ace on the turn and sent Craig packing for another non-cash/win this season. This is the 2nd time I've knocked out Craig this season...(Oh No Craig!) At that point it was pretty much me, Heck and Jon vying for chip lead with near 20K give or take each while the rest were hanging on or hoping to double up around 8-10K.
Level 6(200/400/25) Most of level 6 was Heck and I taking turns playing against the smaller stacks and also not really avoiding each other, either... Jon went back to folding mostly. One change, though was that Chris also began playing a little more actively taking advantage of the tighter players and building up his stack as well.
Level 7(300/600/50) Chris and I never really tangle, but when we do it's usually a big pot. This is based on Chris' rememberance of the hand, since I remembered it completely different I'll seceded to his account unless someone else would remember it to confirm(I doubt it...).
-----(From Chris....)
So I'm in the CUTOFF (6 handed) and Sean and Heck both fold to me.
It's your BB and I think to myself, I'm raising this "$$%&" with ATC here
because he's raised my BB 14 times already (lol). so I believe it is
300-600 50, and I made it 1700. Jon and Jaime fold, you take your usual
time and call. I flop top pair. After you check, I'm thinking
you're expecting a continuation bet here... a lot of times that makes me not
c-bet, but with that garbage flop, I feel like it would be more surprising that
I have a 9 there... Here's my basic thought process on the hand to this point:
- You raised my BB all night long knowing that at some
point if I get chips I am going to start doing this back to you, and when you
wake up with something, you'll make me pay for it with a 3 bet preflop.
So when will you 3 bet based on your stack size... probably with any
pair, any Ace, and suited king down to say k-6. So...
- If that's what you're raising with preflop, you're
probably calling my preflop raises with QX down to 6, suited 2 gappers, and
un-suited connectors maybe as far down as 5-6.
- Flop is 9-7-4 rainbow and you check... this is an
expected move. Since you just called the pre-flop raise, I am not putting
you on a set, or A-9 or K-9. So the only hands I am scared of here are
7-9 and Q-9. I'm also considering the worst scenarios here, and
that is that you have 5-6 or 6-8 suited and want to draw at this.
- I think for a bit and decide to bet 3500. Honestly
there are 2 hands I am scared of that you have so I am thinking that 3500 (and
by the way, I have 12k after my preflop raise) might be enough to say to you, I
am committing to this hand, so get you're Q-9 outta here. You took
a while here, and i won't say much more than that, but you shipped, and I just
got this feeling that you were doing it because it was the right play, not
because you were confident of your hand. Also that fact that you didn't
know my chip count makes me think that your mind wasn't fully around this one
anyway.
So with that, I ruled out pretty much everything that beats me
besides Q-9. The part of my brain that usually screams at me when I am
doing something wrong, was yelling "he has it, dip-$%^&!" The
other part of my brain was saying "nah he doesn't... and what you're going
to fold here and make another comeback with like 7500?" Plus there's
the tournament factor to it... so i'm thinking if I fold here, sure
I probably outlast Jaime, and maybe even Sean, but I'd have serious
work to do to make top 3, and even more serious work to do to try and win.
So I figured, call here, hope you don't have the Q-9, or maybe you do and
I can hit a J somewhere and my stack would be over 20k.
----------
He called and I really thought I was screwed that he made a really good call with 10s or A-9 and when he flipped over J-9 I really thought to myself "Wow! That's an even tougher call." I don't know if it's a great call or a terrible call, none-the-less, no Jacks came to save Chris and then there were 5. Jaime was nearly stacked prior to the Chris KO and she was knocked out quickly after her hubby, leaving me, Heck, Jon and Sean
Money Bubble:
I knocked out Sean about 10 minutes after Jaime left. I can't remember what the hands were....I think I raised and he shoved for 6-8 BBs so I called, and hit...good story...
3-Handed:
I originally thought 3 handed play was like 3 hours of playing, maybe it just seemed that way because we were flying through hands. After checking the log, it was just a tad under 2 hours...
Heck and I started 3-handed with pretty close stacks, I think Heck had a slight advantage. Jon, after crippling Craig a few levels ago pretty much sat out and whittled himself down to about 14K at this point. We see-sawed our stacks up and down. I was at one point up to 30K, Heck at 10 and Jon up to 25. I had a few bad hands and I played a few too many pots for too much money and Jon raised his stack and mine dwindled. I was probably sitting around 13-17K fighting to stay in/double up with strategic all-ins preflop, all while hoping eventually Jon or Heck, while picking on me, would get themselves invested into a pot. Finally, this happened and Jon ended up being the victor, knocking out Heck. We went to heads up where Jon had at least a 4 to 1 lead... My hope was to shove a J+ hand a few times and then be able to play a pot or double up and hope to play some real postflop. Unfortunately, I looked down at 10-J a few minutes into heads up and shoved, Jon made an easy call with AK and hit an Ace on the flop. I played a good game, I feel like I should've been able to win it but I can only think of a few times I probably squandered chips(a few calls that should've just been shoves late)
I'll post up the results soon(I'm still in first). I also have obtained all the logs for this season's games so I'll probably post up some KO stats if they're at all interesting.
Our next game is at Chris' house again on March 9th and I just may be able to play the "Cheap Bastard" game at The Rivers this weekend so wish me luck!
(Wow this turned into a big post...)
