Last Saturday was Day 1 for me in the UB Starlight Charity Tournament here in Montreal. It was the biggest buy-in/live tournament I’ve played in, with a $750 buy-in and 509 people to start. The top 50 all got paid, with 1st getting $100k (there was $366k total in the prize pool).
My first goal was to make it through Day 1, then to cash, then to final table, and then of course to win. Unfortunately I was only able to achieve two of those goals. I’m sure in a couple days I’ll be happy with where I finished, but overall there’s only one person that walks away happy from a poker tournament.
I ended up getting knocked out in 18th place, just 8 people away from the televised final table, as well as the point where the payouts started to increase quite a bit. I didn’t really care about the televised final table (especially since I’d have to go buy some clothes that don’t make me look like a scrub), I just wanted to win the damn thing, and the cash definitely would’ve helped. However, after 4 days of playing solid poker it all came down to a coin flip. Boourns!
Memorable Hands
Day 1
Ummm, yeah, pretty much nothing. Day 1 was a lot of sitting around being patient because of the blind structure and nothing big really happened. For the first 5 of the 7 hours we had all the same people at the table, there was just no movement at all.
Then eventually a couple people busted and Annie Duke came to our table. You could tell that she’d had enough for the day and wasn’t really into the game. She was zoned out text messaging and listening to music and didn’t really talk to anyone at the table. I figured she’s been asked the same questions all day at every table and has just had enough. Fair enough, I can respect that. So I figured it was a perfect opportunity to steal the bitch’s big blind, LOL. I kid, I kid, Annie’s not a bitch. It just seemed like a good spot given the circumstances.
The tournament was so slow on Day 1, stealing Annie Duke’s BB was the highlight up to that point. Kind of sad, but I guess that’s how the first day of big live tournaments should be, unless there are some big cooler hands that come up.
Day 2
I love running into people that overvalue an overpair.
UTG raised 5x the BB, three folds, and I look down at queens. He’d been playing pretty tight so I wasn’t really fond of the queens, but I couldn’t just fold them. I figured I’d see a flop and go from there, so I just called. Everyone else folded.
Flop comes Q J 3. I’ve flopped top set so I’m hoping at this point he’s got aces or kings and will play them fast. I checked, he pushed all-in, and I Hellmuth-instacalled him. He turned over aces and I knocked him out and picked up a nice big pot.
Day 2
This is why I love this blind structure. We were about 1/2 way through day 2 when this hand came up.
I hadn’t gotten any good cards for a while, but I finally look down and see KK. I made a standard raise in middle position, and the player to my immediate left called almost instantly, everyone else folded.
Flop is a 9 high rainbow, pretty safe for kings, but I just didn’t like it. I made a continuation bet of 1/2-3/4 of the pot, and he called pretty quickly. Ok, defensive mode.
A blank fell on the turn, I checked, he checked back. Now I wasn’t sure what the heck he had, but I still didn’t really like my kings. He seemed like a pretty solid player so I didn’t think he would be trying anything funny here.
River’s another rag. I check, he bets under 1/2 the pot. I think for a while and call, he flips up a set of 9s. If it weren’t for the awesome blind structure this would’ve been a painful hand, but I didn’t even lose 1/4 of my stack, and I think I lost just about the minimum during the hand.
I think “Small hand, small pot. Big hand, big pot.” ran through my head about 20 times during this hand. Kings are nice, but they’re still just a pair.
Day 2
If I do say so myself, this was quite a lovely little trap on the big stack.
A few folds, and then the big stack at the table, who’d be raising quite a bit, made a standard raise. Folded around to me in the BB and I look down at Q10o. Sure, why not.
Flop comes Q 10 5, two spades. Beautiful. I figured I’d let him do the betting for me so I just checked. He bet just under the pot and I did some hollywooding before making a ‘reluctant’ call. I watched the board closely as if I really needed to improve, so when a blank fell off I just stared at the board so that he would think it didn’t help me. Again I checked. Then he asked me how much I had left.
Playing the bully role with the big stack, and putting me all-in, he slid a big stack of $5k chips into the pot. I gave him the Hellmuth-instacall, minus the aggressive pushing of the chips. He flipped over Q6 and was drawing dead. He commented on the hand many, many times, haha. I think he was kind of bitter, but loosened up a bit when I played with him at another table the next day.
Day 3
What an ugly, ugly board.
Middle position with KQo, folded to me, I made a slightly more than standard sized bet, and the button called.
K 5 Q on the flop, two spades. I didn’t think he had much at all, so I decided to slow play it and check, he bet out an almost pot-sized bet and I called.
Turn was a jack of spades. Not the card I wanted to see. Now if he was hanging around with A10, 910, or a couple spades, I was beat. Now I have to play it cautious and just see what happens. I check, he bets 3/4 of the pot, and after thinking for a minute I call.
River’s another jack. Now I have to worry about straights, flushes, full houses, and even trips. Not liking my hand at all at this point.
I check again, and he bets about 1/2 the pot pretty quickly… if I call and I’m wrong I lose 80-90% of my stack on this hand. But, there was just something about the way he was betting, like he was a bit panicked. It reminded me of playing online when someone just keeps betting into you, instantly firing a bet out the second it’s their turn to act.
So I said screw it, if I’m wrong I’m wrong, and I called. His hand was in the muck before I dropped the chips in the pot. PHEW!
It sucked to basically have my tournament life on the line with a call like this, but I’m glad I followed my gut and it was right. That’s one thing I vowed to do this tournament is fully think through the hands when I was in a tight spot, and listen to my gut. And both were treating me fairly well up to this point in the tournament.
Day 4
I’m gonna remember this hand for a very long time. Definitely my play of the tournament.
We were down to about 28 player, and the blinds were starting to get up there, so it was getting to the point where I wanted to make something happen so that I wasn’t short going into the next level.
Two folds to me, I look down at AJo. Blinds were at 6k/12k with a $1,000 ante ($28k/round). I make it 45k to go. Everyone folds but the SB, who calls.
K 10 3 flop. The SB checks, I bet out $50k, about half the pot. After thinking for a minute the SB min-raises me to $100k. Yup, he Barry Ranger’d me. Not exactly what you want to have happen when you have ace high.
Now the thing to keep in mind is that I’ve played with this guy before, and he seemed like a pretty good player, and then someone else at the tournament told me he was a good player, so the gears started grinding away.
All of a sudden it became clear, he was just hoping that I didn’t have AA, KK, or AK, which would all be pretty strong with that flop. The min-raise is so it looks scary to me because it’s begging for a call, and it’s also the least risk to him, so if I don’t have one of those three hands I’m probably going to throw it away. Or not 
I thought for what seemed like a couple minutes and counted down my chips. If I raised and was wrong I would lose almost half my stack. But there was just something that didn’t feel right to me, so I figured I’d follow my gut and just go with it.
I finally got some chips together and made it $150k to go, min-raising him right back. I think I started the hand with roughly $440k, and at this point I had already put about $200k of it in the pot with absolutely nothing.
After thinking for maybe a minute, he finally mucked his hand. WOOHOO!! Sweet jesus, the relief I felt when he mucked. It was either going to be a fold or an all-in, and it’s always soooo nice when it’s the fold. Though I was still curious to see what he had, to see if he actually had something or if he was just trying to make a move on me.
At this point in the tournament I wanted people to know that I wasn’t afraid to get my money in, so I figured I’d show the hand. So of course I said, “I’ll show it, it’s good for the game”, and then I flipped up my AJo. He didn’t seem too happy, hehe. He was a good guy though and I chatted with him briefly at the end of play the day before, and he seemed like the type of guy that realizes it’s just a game and wouldn’t take it personally.
Day 4, The Final Hand
This isn’t a particularly good hand, but it’s how I went out. Personally I don’t think the hand should’ve even happened, but what can ya do, I’d make the same move every time (or at least most of the time).
We were down to the final two tables, 9 on each table, and the blinds were getting big. They were $10k/$20k with a $3k ante, which means you lose $60k out of your stack every 10 hands in just blinds and antes. I had just $400k in my stack, so I had less than 7 rotations before I would get blinded away. I had to do something before I was too short.
The guy across from me was raising quite a bit lately. He’d made it $95k to go preflop on 5 of the last 6 hands. He did the same on this hand, $95k to go, second to act, and everyone folded to me. I look down at KQo, and against his range I like my hand, so I just pushed. He thought for about two seconds and called with 66. And there it was, 4 days of play and it was all coming down to a coin flip.
His call was pretty surprising considering how tight I’d been playing, he had to think he was a coin flip at best, and I think he had less than $100k more than me, so he was basically risking his own tournament as well. And he wasn’t even getting 1.85:1 on his money. Personally I just don’t like the call, no matter the outcome. But I guess he was just looking to gamble it up right there.
Then the dealer told him how much I had and he was surprised, he didn’t think it was that much. It almost seemed as though if he realized how much I had, he may not have called. I wonder if I had a bunch of lower denomination chips instead of one stack of $25k chips if the hand would’ve played out any different.
Anyways, so now it’s a 66 vs. KQo coin flip. Boom, door card is a 6 and he flops a set, pretty much killing any chance I had at winning the hand. Crappy way to go out, but I don’t regret the move, something had to happen fast and I’m not going to find a much better spot than that.
Overall it was definitely a fun time, but as I said, only one person walks away happy from a poker tournament.
Posted: November 19th, 2009
Categories:
Poker
Tags:
live,
poker,
tournaments,
ub starlight
Comments:
No Comments.
