So I noted in my last post that I have a new proposition, a new years resolution, if you will, to play poker at least once a week. Though I wasn't able to play at the Rivers last weekend due to "life" and the super frigid cold and snow... I played last Sunday(1/19) and Poker League was at Heck's this past Saturday(1/26).
I'm actually starting to think I should take a pad and pen to the poker tables, if I'm going to play every week and give some kind of accurate detailed report of my tournament experiences I probably should write things down during...Maybe I can go all Gus Hansen and take a recorder so I can record a hand after it's played... I'm also going to try to keep track of my bankroll, $ spent, $ earned, etc...
Rivers 35+10+5 tournament(Cheap Bastard Tournament)
There were 122 entries, which probably amounted to about 100 players in the tournament. I'm pretty sure they had 11 tables to start. This was much larger than the week prior, I believe because of the yearly freeroll that was happening that day, there probably was a higher turnout and this probably shouldn't be considered a regular occurance. My table was pretty beautiful. TAG/NITs throughout with 2 to 3 Looser calling-machine players. This didn't help me win many pots, however, in the early goings. Our table didn't break for a long time, so I got to play with a core group of players for almost half the tournament. This allowed me to use really strong reads when I needed them as the blinds got higher. My real turning point hand was around 40 players left, I was sitting a little over 5K in chips, blinds at 300-600 50 ante when I looked down at pocket 2s. There was a raise and a caller prior and I decided to shove. Prior to this I was able to shove preflop and take it down a few times without any callers, as 5K was too much for these guys to risk at this point. I thought this seemed like another good spot to squeeze and even if I get called a little light I'll probably still have a 50/50 shot some of the time I get called. I never know what to do with ducks, so in this case I didn't like folding, and calling seemed wrong, so shoving appeared to be the "most right" thing to do...I dunno... Next guy shoved and 1st raiser called, unfortunately, and I was up against 2 monsters, Js and Ks. The flop was amazing, though, all small and a duck to boot. No J or K on the turn or river and I more than tripled up that hand to about 20K. Ks knocked out the Js. I was able to get my stack to about 30K when I was just about decimated. 500-1000, 100 ante and at this point, it's all-in or fold mode for about half the field, whether they know it or not is what I have to decide. A guy in early position shoves all-in for 14K and I look down at suited AK(spades) I shove all-in myself and it's A-5off vs AKsuited, The door of the flop was a 5, so I knew right away I was in bad shape to KO this guy, but more importantly, reverse all the luck I had with the ducks and the work I'd put in since then... The river pulled out an Ace so I was getting chopped back down myself to near all-in/fold mode...again... This is what's really crazy about this tournament. From this point on to the final table I was sitting on 10-15 bets. I basically weaved my way through every situation and hand and if it was a good spot I shoved, if it wasn't I folded. This went on to the final table...
Final Table:
Wow, I made it to the final table. Payouts were only for the top 10 players(Final Table), this, to me seemed like a really small % of the field to get paid(10/122, 8%??), but I guess that's what I should expect for a $50 tournament? I'd be really peeved if it were one of their poker opens, though. I think they should probably pay out around 12% at least, maybe especially since there were so many buyins... Anyway, I think the final table bubble was pretty nice to me, I decided that I wasn't going to fold my way there and I made a few good shoves to make it and get a "decent" stack to start the final table. A set of 8s helped double me up to near 25 bets, too. Since we would go from 6 players at my table to 10 for the final, I knew that I'd have to tighten up my shove/starting hand ranges if/when I made it, not to mention the time each hand would take would also increase.
So we're at 10 left and the blinds are 4000-8000, 1K ante and I have 75K stack, most certainly one of 3 shorter stacks, though the largest stacks weren't much more than 150K. UTG+1 limps, and she'd been playing really passively at the other table and had a larger stack of about 130K. So I took her limp as pretty weak, at least not something she'd risk her large stack on. Another limps, and I look down at KdQd. This seems like a decent spot in the cutoff so I shove, UTG+1 calls quicker than I thought and other limper folds. She flips over AsJs. When she called that quickly I thought I might be dead, so small victory there. Flop was brutal, and I saw it unfold as if I knew what it was probably going to be, K-Q-10...She flopped the nut-straight...I didn't even realize I had any outs at first as a 5d hit the turn. As the dealer began flipping over the River, I realized a K or Q would be my only savior, I saw the King of Spades. She looked pretty devastated as the realization of what happened settled in and I counted out my chips to near 200K stack. In the few hands after this we lost the woman sitting to my left and that's when murmers of chopping began flying around. At this point, I think we would all get $450, or between 4th and 3rd place money. I would entertain chopping only if everyone else wanted to, so I waited to declare my decision. The woman I just chopped in half didn't want to chop, however, and ended up shoving with K-7, getting called by AJ and she was history. There were 2 stacks larger than mine, blinds were now 10-20K 3K ante(I know, they went from 4-8,5-10 to 10-20, wtf? I had at least hoped there'd be a 8-16 in there) Why play in the tournament for 6 hours to make the final table and then have the payouts be a crapshoot is beyond my comprehension...) I had 180K, most had 120K-ish, chip leader had 260K after his KO. Now we would all get 482, 3rd place money was 498, the next one out gets 187, then 207, 260, 310, 350 and then 398, 670 and 1206 for first. I thought this would be a good spot to chop due to the large amount of risk even for the chip leaders, I mean, every pot preflop was sitting at 50K at this point...It would be a crap-shoot of who would win and I guarantee myself almost $500 at this point. We all decided to chop. We counted out our stacks and took the points for that spot, so I got 8 points for 3rd place. Moneywise, 8 players all took home $482 and after 2 Rivers tournaments in 2014, I've spent 110 and walked out with $482. Adding $150-$55 I've allotted myself for the month, that's a total of $522 for my poker bankroll so far. I don't expect this to keep up, but I'm cashing in half of my tournaments so far in 2014! (Small sample size :-))
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