Quads
10-12-2005, 11:01 AM
It was a great tourney. Great in the sense that I placed in the money. I (looking back) don't think it's my favorite tourney due to the fact that you absolutely have to catch cards up front and build a big stack in order to survive the ultra aggressive blinds stricture.
I started out with a ton of top hands that were hitting. I think in the first 3 rounds I took out about 15 people or so. Most every person who went all in against me I snapped off.
A few BYOC'rs as well. Scotty, (dealer / player) was there, we started at the same table. I got in a pot with him, I think it was the 1st or second hand. He raised, I called, we looked at the flop, he bet, I raised, he called the all in and we flipped over my Aces versus his 10's. He went out rather early. Worm took an alternate seat, probably something like alternate #30 or so. He was simply waiting for a pot to get in and double up. I wish I could report differently, but he took a stab at a pot and moved all in, in the hand where I look down to see the rockets. I flip up and tell him he picked the wrong pot to dance with me in. I was willing to double him up, but he had a long way to go with his A/3. flop, turn, river... "dead man walking".
Moving forward, we are down to two tables, and I feel as though I'm about to get blinded off if I don't make a move and start catching a few hands. We are down to 2 tables and the blinds just went to 500/1000 and I'm trying to sneak in with a marginal hand to hit a flop. We'll have none of that here. I donked off quite a few chips from my status of chip leader. All the while, I'm keeping a close eye on the Kid who is on the table behind me, who is amazingly, nursing a short stack through each orbit. He had a larger stack earlier on, but took a hit when he danced with someone with jacks against his queens, and they caught their set. None the less, he did make the money and was able to make a showing at the final table. I was hoping to go heads up with him, once we gathered at the final table.
Going into the final table, I was the large stack, there were quite a few other equal stacks with a few shorties trying to hang in there. We all traded paint and weren't shy in getting the pots moving around the table.
fast forward-
It's 4 handed, I am tangling with a guy who I have covered who makes a large all in bet into the pot. I have A/7 diamonds. I think about it for a while and call. He flips up A/9c. The board didn't help me, and if we went down with Ace high, he had me out kicked. This was my turning point in the game and perhaps my poor play of the night. I should have stayed out of the pot. But, you don't learn if you don't know. I lost a large percentage of my stack and was no longer the dominating factor at the table as far as chips were concerned.
I snuck around for a bit and let the short stacks play themselves off the table and got involved in a few pots to gain back a few more chips, but nothing remarkable. I was able to knock another player or two off and get my chips back to a reasonable size when we went down to 3 players. I need to wait for the right person to get in the right pot with the short stack and get him off the table and not risk a lot of my chips in doing so. That happened, I came in with a premium hand against the short stack that was making a move with the best thing he had seen for some time. And then there were two.
Heads up and I traded pain on a few hands, but again, not many show downs other than pots where we both tried to limp in. At the structure you play in this tourney, it's really a craps shoot with where the blinds are versus what your chip stack is. So you pick a pot to get in and ideally come over the top of someone to get them off their hand preflop. At 4/8K blinds, you are pretty much committing most of your stack if you want to play it aggressively all the way down to the river. This worked for both of us on several occasions, he'd limp, I'm make a sizable raise and vis versa. This went on for 10 or 15 minutes. My shoulders are killing me, I'm hungry and I have to take a piss, and the blinds are going to go up again in about 4 minutes. (they were at 4K/8K and going to double)
I look down at J/10s, we go heads up and the chips are moving. I go all in, and find that he has A/9, none of my suites. So I have a great draw, but he has an over. Turns out he catches his A on the turn to knock me out. I take second, a respectable showing, but in retrospect, I would have played 2 hands differently. That hand, and the call on the prior A/9 where I doubled a guy up.
The Kid and I talked outside about the tourney and how we would have played a few hands differently, and recapped the action. We both cashed, so it was a good night. $775 isn't as nice at 1400 and some change, but it's $710 more than I walked in there with.
Worm, The Kid, Dino (who I sat with at one table and moved to the final table with and then ended up knocking him out) all were fun to play with and I was glad The Kid razzed me into heading over to get in the game. I love cashing, but that structure is hard to beat unless you are on fire and hit the right cards at the right time, early on in the tourney.
I started out with a ton of top hands that were hitting. I think in the first 3 rounds I took out about 15 people or so. Most every person who went all in against me I snapped off.
A few BYOC'rs as well. Scotty, (dealer / player) was there, we started at the same table. I got in a pot with him, I think it was the 1st or second hand. He raised, I called, we looked at the flop, he bet, I raised, he called the all in and we flipped over my Aces versus his 10's. He went out rather early. Worm took an alternate seat, probably something like alternate #30 or so. He was simply waiting for a pot to get in and double up. I wish I could report differently, but he took a stab at a pot and moved all in, in the hand where I look down to see the rockets. I flip up and tell him he picked the wrong pot to dance with me in. I was willing to double him up, but he had a long way to go with his A/3. flop, turn, river... "dead man walking".
Moving forward, we are down to two tables, and I feel as though I'm about to get blinded off if I don't make a move and start catching a few hands. We are down to 2 tables and the blinds just went to 500/1000 and I'm trying to sneak in with a marginal hand to hit a flop. We'll have none of that here. I donked off quite a few chips from my status of chip leader. All the while, I'm keeping a close eye on the Kid who is on the table behind me, who is amazingly, nursing a short stack through each orbit. He had a larger stack earlier on, but took a hit when he danced with someone with jacks against his queens, and they caught their set. None the less, he did make the money and was able to make a showing at the final table. I was hoping to go heads up with him, once we gathered at the final table.
Going into the final table, I was the large stack, there were quite a few other equal stacks with a few shorties trying to hang in there. We all traded paint and weren't shy in getting the pots moving around the table.
fast forward-
It's 4 handed, I am tangling with a guy who I have covered who makes a large all in bet into the pot. I have A/7 diamonds. I think about it for a while and call. He flips up A/9c. The board didn't help me, and if we went down with Ace high, he had me out kicked. This was my turning point in the game and perhaps my poor play of the night. I should have stayed out of the pot. But, you don't learn if you don't know. I lost a large percentage of my stack and was no longer the dominating factor at the table as far as chips were concerned.
I snuck around for a bit and let the short stacks play themselves off the table and got involved in a few pots to gain back a few more chips, but nothing remarkable. I was able to knock another player or two off and get my chips back to a reasonable size when we went down to 3 players. I need to wait for the right person to get in the right pot with the short stack and get him off the table and not risk a lot of my chips in doing so. That happened, I came in with a premium hand against the short stack that was making a move with the best thing he had seen for some time. And then there were two.
Heads up and I traded pain on a few hands, but again, not many show downs other than pots where we both tried to limp in. At the structure you play in this tourney, it's really a craps shoot with where the blinds are versus what your chip stack is. So you pick a pot to get in and ideally come over the top of someone to get them off their hand preflop. At 4/8K blinds, you are pretty much committing most of your stack if you want to play it aggressively all the way down to the river. This worked for both of us on several occasions, he'd limp, I'm make a sizable raise and vis versa. This went on for 10 or 15 minutes. My shoulders are killing me, I'm hungry and I have to take a piss, and the blinds are going to go up again in about 4 minutes. (they were at 4K/8K and going to double)
I look down at J/10s, we go heads up and the chips are moving. I go all in, and find that he has A/9, none of my suites. So I have a great draw, but he has an over. Turns out he catches his A on the turn to knock me out. I take second, a respectable showing, but in retrospect, I would have played 2 hands differently. That hand, and the call on the prior A/9 where I doubled a guy up.
The Kid and I talked outside about the tourney and how we would have played a few hands differently, and recapped the action. We both cashed, so it was a good night. $775 isn't as nice at 1400 and some change, but it's $710 more than I walked in there with.
Worm, The Kid, Dino (who I sat with at one table and moved to the final table with and then ended up knocking him out) all were fun to play with and I was glad The Kid razzed me into heading over to get in the game. I love cashing, but that structure is hard to beat unless you are on fire and hit the right cards at the right time, early on in the tourney.