$300K Guaranteed Sunday Tournament

I suck! I just dropped out from the tournament after 45 minutes of play. It seemed to me that everything that could've gone wrong went wrong. First time was when I had AKs and hit the flop with K. Of course there was also a flush draw possibility and after turn was the third spade and after my opponent made a quite a sizable re-raise I had to throw away my cards. The guy called MrRubbish showed me his hand QcQs so I was in the lead but ended up losing 1400 chips because of throwing away my hand. Bad play from me...

The next unlucky turn of events was when the blinds were 30/60 and I limped into see the flop with KsQd. I hit the flop nicely Kc 3d Kd and check-raised so that I was making it clear that I did have something. One guy called and of course the turn was another diamond. I checked and called the fairly little bet that he made. The river was also diamond giving me a Q high flush. He made a value bet with Ad2d and I paid it obediently like a good fish does at times like these. SH##!

I was already down to 920 and it didn't seem to get any easier. I played one hand with A7 of spades and ended up having a flush draw on the turn but had to lay it down since the opponent made a bet that would've forced me all-in. To come to think of it I propably should've taken my chances there but didn't and ended up having only 410 chips left. I waited for some half decent hand to come up and pushed finally all-in with A9 of spades from the UTG position. One guy went all-in with KK and put me out of my misery on 1319 position out of 1525 participants.

Oh well... It seems that the Sunday Tournament is not treating me too well these days. And I also really sucked today on the table also so it's a good thing I still have a day job to go to ;)

$300K Guaranteed $11 Rebuy Satellite

Hmm... I'm a bit disappointed. This time it took me 41$ to get a seat to the next sundays $300K Guaranteed Tournament. This time I played 11$ rebuy satellite with 16 guaranteed seats to the tournament with 140 participants. I sort of lost my temper when some idiot paid my 6 x BB raise preflop with K6 offsuit when I had AK. Of course I kept pushing when I flopped an Ace with 87 to go. The idiot still called my pot sized bet and to make long story a bit shorter he managed to take all my chips after catching a runner runner straight on the river. Hence my first rebuy...

In my books that is an open declaration for war and I was not going to let him go that easily. I put his number down and waited for an proper opportunity to knock him out. Unfortunately I managed loose all my chips once again after running into bad company with my JJ just before the first break. Anyway. I made another rebuy and an addon during the break so that I would not be too short stacked to start the 'real' games after the rebuy period was over.

And what do you know... Soon after the real games begun I managed to get up to around the average stack and after another hour of play I was over the average by far with no troubles at all. And guess what else? I did get my chance of dropping that idiot out after all. He pushed all-in with AQ and I called from BB with AJ and got a straight :D Sweet! I got my revenge after all and he was out. Now isn't that nice!

The rest of the tourney was just basically waiting that some of the smaller stacks lose their nerves and calling their all-ins whenever I had something to play with. It's nice to play when you have a nice BIG stack in front of you :D Next stop $300K Guaranteed Sunday Tournament on PartyPoker.com! See you on the tables!

What a day!

I woke up this morning feeling more or less out of tune with the rest of the world mainly due to the fact that I had played poker until 5:30 in the morning. Anyway. After we went swimming with my wife I decided that today I will play myself into the PartyPoker $300K Guaranteed sunday tournament.

I decided to try out that how easy or hard would it be to try to win a seat to the tournament using the Sit&Go qualifiers that they offer. I decided that the 3$ Speed qualifier is the place to start today. The first qualifier went ok but I dropped out from 3rd position. Second one was ok too but then I managed to fumble a couple of plays and dropped out from 5th position. This time 3rd attempt was the one that I managed to win after little struggling at the start. So... 9$ poorer I won a seat to the next level which was 26$ Speed Qualifier with 10 players.

I managed to play myself to the last three without huge problems even though I really didn't get any stack at all. After 'Disco23' dropped the other opponent out he was in a massive chip lead but somehow I managed to push him so that I took the chip lead after about 10 or so hands and didn't give it back anymore. He dropped out after I had AJ and he pushed all in with KQ. Nice! I managed to get my $215 seat at the $300K tournament with 9$ in about two hours :D Wow! now even though I think that was already quite cool in itself but I still had the whole tournament ahead :)

PartyPoker $300K Guaranteed Sunday Tournament

Yes! After quite some time I was in a proper sized tournament! As usual the bigger tourneys in Party have the 5000 chips to start with and the 15 minute levels start from 10/25 so there is really no rush to start with.

I was thinking that I will play very conservative for the first hour so that I don't get too hot headed to start with. I managed to take one pot early on when I had KQ and flopped K trips. I managed to get some extra bets from the one sorry soul who was left on the pot but nothing worth writing to history books.

When we were closing in on the first break I had AJ in button and only one guy had limped in to the pot. I decided to raise to 300 (blinds 50/100) and the both blinds folded and the one who limped in payed. The flop was A 3 8 from which 3 & 8 were suited. I raised about pot and got called. I figured that he had A with some ok kicker. The turn was J and I decided to shoot straight away and bet a sum that unfortunately made me pot committed on the spot. I just figured out my mistake when he went all in straight away. The problem was that I had top two pair and the pot was a bit over 6K and I had to pay about 1K to see the river. Some would say that it's an easy call but I was pretty sure that I was beat :( I paid and he turned around 33. SH##! I hate that I'm always right. Oh yes. The river didn't help either...

Now I had only 410 chips left and more or less ready to call it quits but somehow managed to get to the first break having the exact same amount left. After the break was over I managed to almost make once again some personal record by getting up from a situation where I had less than twice the Big Blind to a situation where I had almost the average stack in front of me. However. The feeling of HappyHappyJoyJoy was soon crushed when I got AsAc and raised 4 * BB from UTG. One fellow called and the flop was Ts Js 9s. I bet something like 2K and he went instantly all-in.

SH##! Once again I didn't have any other choice but to call since I had the nut flush draw with the overpair. And... I was right! I was on the lead but... He had 8s8c so he had open ended straight flush draw against my AA with nut flush draw. And the turn was of course 7 completing his straight. God Damn It! Now I really needed a miracle but didn't get one :( The river was A giving me a nice set but he took the pot :(

Well. What can I say? I made a bad call and managed to play myself back to business and was out with an heartbreaking bad beat! Wow! And all that with a total of 9$ :D Poker is great! Don't get me wrong. I would've much rather still be playing for the $66K that was the first prize but sometimes things don't go the way you want. Still - you have to admid that I had a nice run with 9$ ;)

Oh yes. Almost forgot. One game I have to tell about even though I wasn't envolved. Shortly after the break 3 guys went to battle pre-flop and after a couple of re-raises they all were all in pre-flop. The first turned QQ, next on had KK and the last AA :D If that's not some sort of an Epic Battle then what is? The flop was Q x x giving a short sense of relief and joy to the unlucky bastard who had the QQ. The river was A and of course the guy with AA had also the biggest stack :D Two players out! Now - Isn't that something?

Play more! Win more! ...and stop whining about the bad beats :P

Full House Poker Tour

What's that, you ask? It's a free Finland wide poker tournament provided by Pokeri Lehti (Finnish version of Card Player Magazine) and ParBet that takes place in different cities and restaurants around the poker playing nation. Anyway. To cut the long story a bit shorter I participated the tournaments qualifying heat with my friend last monday in Hesari Club, Helsinki.

The tournament was organized so that there was three 10 player sit & go tables and each table was played three times plus there was one extra table played at the end of the night. The players for the qualifying heats where randomly selected so that about 100 players was eventually able to participate the tournament.

First it was looking a bit unlikely that we would be able to get to the table since the players to the tables were selected one table at the time and none of us (there was 4 of us) made it to the first three tables. After all we all managed to get to the tables after all and here's a description of how did the tournament go from my point of view.

All players had 1500 chips at the start of the tourney and the blinds started from 25/50 and doubled every 15 minutes. The tournament started slow for me and I think I had most of the possible deuce + some other crappy card combination you can think of. After a while I had a pair of nines but had to throw them away after the flop came AJ7 all suited. Sigh! You just hope to flop a set with these cards...

I was able to take my first pot after I paid 100 to see the flop with A3s and managed to get a suckers straight from the turn. I had to bet the pot (300) to see that no-one would be drawing me to a split pot or worse. everyone folded and I was happy to take the pot. Someone else would've slow played but I think I made the right choice after all.

After about a 45 minutes of play I was in UTG position and managed to get the bullets. The blinds were 100/200 and I decided to come out blazing and raised to 600 after little friendly conversation with the gentleman in the big blind. And what happens... The guy next to me raises to 1200 leaving other players no options but to fold. I checked my cards and pushed all my chips to the middle (about 1400 or so). The guy next to me calls with all he has left already guessing that he's up against the nuts and turns around QQ. I double my stack, shake his hand and get a bit more comfortable in my seat. You gotta love the bullets ;)

Next hand the blinds get up to 400 and I had to fold some crappy hand when some others go to battle. And what happens next? Yes. I'm on the small blind and get the bullets AGAIN! Sweet! Now... How should I play? The guy in big blind is already almost allin so I'm really hoping for someone else to call or raise. Damn... Everybody seems to be folding. The guy on the button limbs in and I decide that I just double the big blind to keep him in the game. Both the big blind and button makes the call and we are of to see the flop. K Q 7 - I check, the BB checks and the guy in the button bets 800. Excellent! Now he's pot committed and I can force him to go all-in by pushing all my chips to the middle. The big blind is all-in and the button follows and turns around a weak K5 of spades and says that he has only the top pair. Sweet!

I didn't really pay attention that what the big blind had but the most important thing is that I beat them both! Yesh! Whose next! I have about half of the chips from the table making me the clear chip leader. I decided that now I really don't have to take any risks and joined the game next time when I was on big blind (800) and a guy on the UTG position had gone all-in with about 1300 chips and everybody else had folded. I make a quick calculation 1300 + 400 + 800 = 2500 and I don't even have to look at my cards to make the decision. I pay the 500 and he turns around TT and turn around A7. ...not bad. At least I have a chance of catching an overpair ;)

Boy was I wrong... I didn't even come close to catching a pair. Instead I got a miracle STRAIGHT from 9 to 5 from the river!!! Wow! I guess sometimes you just get lucky no matter what you do :D

Rest of the tournament was basically just defending my blinds and waiting for other players starve away because of the blinds. Two players got through to the semi finals that will be held 5th of March on the same place and I was the other one from our table. Good for me!

What about the others? Well... All four of us made it to the tables and two of us went to the semi finals. Not all that bad result after all I think ;)