BIGGEST SCORE TO DATE

I just finished watching the Cavs sweep the Hawks in the conference semifinals. I love watching the game, but to be quite honest my knowledge of it is limited, so any predictions I provide here are to be taken lightly. That being said, they sure do look like a championship team to me. I love that their big guy Ilgauskas has a 3-point jump shot in his arsenal, the tenacity with which Varejao gets the offensive rebounds is remarkable and the combo-threat of Williams and West is ridiculous. Oh yeah, their last player is supposedly pretty good as well... hmmm, big guy with tattoos on both arms – has a strange affinity for throwing chalk in the air. Damn it, name escapes me… what can you do.

Anyway, not what this blog entry is supposed to be about! As the title denotes, I went deep and collected some dough during one of my recent MTTs. At Mansion Poker I entered the $7.70, 5K guaranteed rebuy tournament and took 3rd from a starting field of 291. It provided a payday of 600 dollars and 60 cents. First place was actually within reach, but I chose a marginal spot for my last hand (was getting a little antsy) and oh well, couldn’t make it work.

I’m sifting through the hand history, looking for unusual/key hands and have found a few, but what really springs to mind about this tournament is the unusually short-stacked structure (considering it’s a rebuy). I guess you can attribute it to tight play around the bubble, but basically everyone was playing 15BB stacks by the time we got down to 3-4 tables and right up until the end. As many online pros have pointed out (articles I’ve read), it’s an element you need to master, but… hell – it’s just not as much fun as when you actually get to see a flop once in a while.

With this score – as well as a few timely STT money-spots I’ve been picking up recently, I’ve now moved my bankroll into the “$22 1R1A” range. When I started the challenge I declared my intention to maintain rigorous bankroll management policies and I’ve stuck to all of my rules so far. One key one was (and is) the 100 buy-in rule. As the $221R1A tourneys prompt a likely $62 investment, it requires at least $6200 in my roll and only now do I have the funds necessary to take that shot… - and I’m psyched to do so!

Key hands from the tournament:

Hand1: 10-handed and I’m MP1 with 5d8d (stack 3000). Blinds have just gone up to 15/30. At this point I’ve been quiet for the initial 10 hands of the tourney and have seen the typical outrageously poor play that characterizes early stages of low-buy-in rebuy tournaments. As a result, I decide to get involved in this spot.

UTG folds, UTG+1 calls – so does UTG+2 and it’s on me. I decide to raise it up and make it 140. Raising limpers – especially from early-ish position – usually commands a ton of respect, so when we’re playing deep I tend to do it quite often. Folds to the HJ who calls and folds back to the two limpers, who both call.

(Pot 605) FLOP: Kd 5s 4h
This is about as good a flop as I can hope for. The king is very likely to have hit me, in the eyes of my opponents and if someone decides to call me on this flop, I actually have a little something with potential. I bet 400 and everyone folds.

Note: In this spot – with 3 callers – if I completely whiff the flop AND it hits in a way that is very likely to have hit my opponents range (say, QJ8) I’ll probably just check and give it up. This has the added advantage of me not becoming too predictable. The next time I raise with e.g. AQ, my c-bet on the K96 flop will probably garner enough respect for me to take it down.


I’m going through the hands and am currently at the 250/500/a50 blind level. NOT a single interesting hand played at this point. It’s completely standard play all the way. Raise AJ from MP, get a call from the blinds. Flop is KQ4 – he leads for 80% of the pot, so I fold. (*shrug*) Another hand, I raise QQ from LP when it’s folded to me (yeah, who fucking doesn’t!?!? – not interesting) and everyone folds. Yippee. I check my Kh9h hand from the BB with four limpers. Flop comes 7d2h6h and I lead at the pot. Short-stack shoves his remaining chips in and I obviously call (was being laid 8-1 to the pot) hit a king and outrun his Jd7d. There you go. That represented about 90 minutes of play.

Yawn… Now I’ve gotten to the 500/1000/a100 level and all of a sudden I’m shoving A3 suited from the CO with a 9BB stack. Such a boring tournament, now that I’m reviewing it. No fun. Just paying attention to stack sizes, stealing and re-stealing when appropriate (and getting away with it – important to note) and generally waiting for a good spot.

Oops… wow. I had completely forgotten about this next hand. Guess that just corroborates what everyone always says – you remember the hands where someone sucks out on you, but for whatever reason – your brain decides to selectively delete the ones where you get lucky. This is one such hand.

Blinds are now at 800/1600/a160 and I’m sitting with a puny stack of 7700 chips. I’m in MP1 with Qs9s and when it folds to me, I decide I can wait no longer. I’m all-in. The HJ insta-calls, everyone else folds and there it is – two kings. Fuck me. SPADES! Goooo SPADES!

Flop comes down: 5c4cAh. Well, no luck with the spades. If it were live, I would be up – out of my seat, probably already shaking everyone’s hand. Turn: 2d. Could it be? Really? River: 3s. Seeing the history has jogged my memory and I remember laughing out loud, when the river hit. Damn. I’m obviously a luck-box.

I proceed to pick up blinds & antes a few hands later with 77, then double up with AK vs KJ and ultimately I pick off a short-stack when I raise A9, he shoves and I call to beat his A5. How quickly things can change. My stack thereafter allows me to open-raise a bit wider, which – with the overall tight play – pads my stack nicely. No interesting hands until we get down to the last 2 tables – blinds now at 1500/3000/a300.

I’m in the BB with ThTc (stack approx. 64K) and am surprisingly one of the largest stacks at this 9-handed table. After UTG folds, UTG+1 shoves for 24K. It folds to the button who calls all-in for his 11K stack. I only really have UTG+1 to worry about and make what is essentially a very easy call. UTG+1 shows Kh8h and the button reveals 77. Even though it comes 586, disaster never strikes and I cruise to the final table from there.

And that’s it boys and girls. Nothing else happened that you haven’t heard about or seen a thousand times before. Anyone out there who doesn’t raise AK on the final table? Didn’t think so. Anyone not fold 6h3h UTG, 8-handed? I rest my case. Oh yeah – the last hand. Well, I’m in the SB with KsTd (blinds 15K/30K/a3K) and I shoved my 320K stack into the BB who was sitting on a 350K stack. There’s a bit of history behind this shove, but essentially I’ve got a fold-or-shove hand here I think. A min-raise might be effective against some timid players, but this guy wasn’t that at all. Anyway, he called with Ah8h and flopped an ace – guess I’d run out of luck. J

May your upcoming sessions be fruitful. Thanks for reading.


Bankroll: USD 6,407.30
Days left until Aussie Millions 2010: 247