In The Money
Phew... What a couple of days I've had. Nothing to do with Poker though. I just managed to get food poisoning from a restaurant where I was on a seminar last wednesday and have been more than sick ever since. Luckily there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel now. If you need to lose some weight and don't mind spending most of your time in the toilet then this is definately the way to go :D I lost about 3,5 kilos in just a couple of days...
Anyway. Back to business. The thing I was going write about already on wednesday but got a bit 'distracted' was the regular tuesday tournament I participated at the Grand Casino Helsinki. It's a freezeout tournament with 25€ buyin and maximum of 100 participants. At the beginning there is 300 chips and the blinds start from 5/10 and rise every 20 minutes. Currently there is 6 tables in the poker room so first 60 participants get the seat from the start and rest whenever someone drops out.
I had ticket 73 so I had to wait some time before I got to the table. The blinds were already 30/60 when I finally made it to the table and of course I went straight to the Big Blind. So... After 2 hands I already had lost third of my 'huge' stack without even participating to the game. Great.
I managed to go down to less than 140 or so before I managed to get something decent to play with. I had AQ in a middle position and only one guy had limped in to the pot so far so I decided to push all in and hope for the best. And what do you know. Everybody folded even though I really didn't have much more than double of the Big Blind. Well. Sometimes it's good to look/play tough.
After that it looked like another speed tuesday tournament again but I managed to hang on in the table even though I didn't really get any hands to play with. I managed to steal blinds (150) with 3T offsuit just before the table was broken and I had to move to another table. All the time I played I had one of my friends from work playing in the same table with me and after the table broke we both moved to the same table again. This time he was sitting on the left side off me.
It always helps when you know someone on the table a bit better and I know that my friend plays very aggressive when he has even a hint of a hand so I decided to play only good hands if I had to make a move before him. And what happens next? I start getting the good hands that i was expecting all night. I get AA when I'm on UTG position and raised 3 * BB making it 600 and the guy after me doubles the bet and I was doing cartwheels in my head. Right after that there is one more guy who wants to participate and goes all in. Nice. I push all my chips to the middle after little 'consideration' and the guy next to me calls.
We head to the showdown and the guys turn their cards over: QQ and KJ. Ok. This looks good. There is third ace on the flop so I can breath freely for the rest of the game. I practically tripled my stack so I had really good position now.
After a while I'm on the Big Blind and Small Blind (tables huge chip leader) makes a 'let's steal blinds' type of raise pre-flop and I decided to go all in if I have anything decent. And YESH! QQ I went instantly all in because I wanted it to look like a bluff. He called and guess what? He wasn't just trying to steal... He had AK so we had the classic coin toss going on.
And again. I hit the set on the flop making it a bit less stressful. However the turn was something that got my heart beating again - A. Now I had to stress a bit for a while but no help for the opponent so I doubled my stack to something around 3 - 3,5K. There was only about 20 players left in the tourney so it was looking good for me.
I was really getting great cards every now and then and before the final table I managed to get AA once again when I was on BB. The SB doubled the blinds to 600 trying to steal the blinds once again. I said that it's against my principles to let him go that easily and re-raised to 1500. Unfortunately he folded. I think this time he didn't really have anything so I showed him the bullets. I know, I know... Never show your cards but I wanted them all to know that I didn't bluff. It would be important in the final table.
So... After all it was quite smooth sailing to the final table after a bit more challenging start. When places were drawn me and my friend were sitting next to each other and his brother couple chairs down from him. Sweet! The guy who bullied me on the blinds were on huge chip lead but other than that most of the players were quite even. Couple of shorter stacks were still hanging on though.
Can you spell P O K E R? Yes. That's the name of the game where the chip leader ends up dropping out on the bubble. Sweet! I guess he suffered from an acute case of the four letter word (TILT in case you didn't guess) but I didn't really care. That meant that all the rest 8 players had won at least 50€ but there was of course more to come.
Soon I made my contribution to the game and dropped out one unfortunate soul who went all in with 99 when I had AA again :D You just got to love the game when you get the bullets. And guess what? Yes. I got the bullets once again when there was 5 players left but nobody payed my 3K raise (blinds were 500/1000). Sad but that's what you get when you show only premium cards on the table.
After a while there was only four of us in the table and we were more or less even in chips. I was on the SB and decided to go all in with A5 to steal the blinds like couple of rounds earlier. My friend who was still on the game and who had about the same amount of chips that I had took quite a long time to make a decision and then called me with AQ. Damn! Bad timing from me...
However the sky seemed to clear up a bit after I saw the flop: A 4 5 - YES! I outdraw him on the flop. Now I just hoped it would hold until the end... 4 ...still good... Q ...devastation. ...Well. I think that it was some sort of poetic justice happening there so I wasn't too disappointed. Besides I still had 600 left (which was less than the small blind) so anything could happen.
And like I said I almost managed to get one place higher on the rankings when my friend and his brother both went all in. Unfortunately the on with smaller stack managed to outdraw this time. So when the Big Blind finally hit me I was out. I had J2s so it could've been worse but unfortunately my opponent hit a pair at the turn with 97.
I really hoped I could have made it to the final three with the brothers but no such luck this time. And how did they end up? My friend dropped out third and his brother took the victory. So not a bad day for their family ;) And by the way the guy who took the second place was already down to 10 chips at the lowest and managed to get up from there to the final table :D
A chip and a chair... And so on. You know the drill. All and all. I'm happy about the way I played. Even though I made an unsuccesful steal attempt and it cost me big time I still think it was a good play. My friend said that he was really afraid that I actually have him beat because I had only played such a good hands so far. That's table image for you ;)
Anyway. 185€ - this years first money position in Casino (out of 4 attempts) so it's a good start. Next time I want to go all the way.
Anyway. Back to business. The thing I was going write about already on wednesday but got a bit 'distracted' was the regular tuesday tournament I participated at the Grand Casino Helsinki. It's a freezeout tournament with 25€ buyin and maximum of 100 participants. At the beginning there is 300 chips and the blinds start from 5/10 and rise every 20 minutes. Currently there is 6 tables in the poker room so first 60 participants get the seat from the start and rest whenever someone drops out.
I had ticket 73 so I had to wait some time before I got to the table. The blinds were already 30/60 when I finally made it to the table and of course I went straight to the Big Blind. So... After 2 hands I already had lost third of my 'huge' stack without even participating to the game. Great.
I managed to go down to less than 140 or so before I managed to get something decent to play with. I had AQ in a middle position and only one guy had limped in to the pot so far so I decided to push all in and hope for the best. And what do you know. Everybody folded even though I really didn't have much more than double of the Big Blind. Well. Sometimes it's good to look/play tough.
After that it looked like another speed tuesday tournament again but I managed to hang on in the table even though I didn't really get any hands to play with. I managed to steal blinds (150) with 3T offsuit just before the table was broken and I had to move to another table. All the time I played I had one of my friends from work playing in the same table with me and after the table broke we both moved to the same table again. This time he was sitting on the left side off me.
It always helps when you know someone on the table a bit better and I know that my friend plays very aggressive when he has even a hint of a hand so I decided to play only good hands if I had to make a move before him. And what happens next? I start getting the good hands that i was expecting all night. I get AA when I'm on UTG position and raised 3 * BB making it 600 and the guy after me doubles the bet and I was doing cartwheels in my head. Right after that there is one more guy who wants to participate and goes all in. Nice. I push all my chips to the middle after little 'consideration' and the guy next to me calls.
We head to the showdown and the guys turn their cards over: QQ and KJ. Ok. This looks good. There is third ace on the flop so I can breath freely for the rest of the game. I practically tripled my stack so I had really good position now.
After a while I'm on the Big Blind and Small Blind (tables huge chip leader) makes a 'let's steal blinds' type of raise pre-flop and I decided to go all in if I have anything decent. And YESH! QQ I went instantly all in because I wanted it to look like a bluff. He called and guess what? He wasn't just trying to steal... He had AK so we had the classic coin toss going on.
And again. I hit the set on the flop making it a bit less stressful. However the turn was something that got my heart beating again - A. Now I had to stress a bit for a while but no help for the opponent so I doubled my stack to something around 3 - 3,5K. There was only about 20 players left in the tourney so it was looking good for me.
I was really getting great cards every now and then and before the final table I managed to get AA once again when I was on BB. The SB doubled the blinds to 600 trying to steal the blinds once again. I said that it's against my principles to let him go that easily and re-raised to 1500. Unfortunately he folded. I think this time he didn't really have anything so I showed him the bullets. I know, I know... Never show your cards but I wanted them all to know that I didn't bluff. It would be important in the final table.
So... After all it was quite smooth sailing to the final table after a bit more challenging start. When places were drawn me and my friend were sitting next to each other and his brother couple chairs down from him. Sweet! The guy who bullied me on the blinds were on huge chip lead but other than that most of the players were quite even. Couple of shorter stacks were still hanging on though.
Can you spell P O K E R? Yes. That's the name of the game where the chip leader ends up dropping out on the bubble. Sweet! I guess he suffered from an acute case of the four letter word (TILT in case you didn't guess) but I didn't really care. That meant that all the rest 8 players had won at least 50€ but there was of course more to come.
Soon I made my contribution to the game and dropped out one unfortunate soul who went all in with 99 when I had AA again :D You just got to love the game when you get the bullets. And guess what? Yes. I got the bullets once again when there was 5 players left but nobody payed my 3K raise (blinds were 500/1000). Sad but that's what you get when you show only premium cards on the table.
After a while there was only four of us in the table and we were more or less even in chips. I was on the SB and decided to go all in with A5 to steal the blinds like couple of rounds earlier. My friend who was still on the game and who had about the same amount of chips that I had took quite a long time to make a decision and then called me with AQ. Damn! Bad timing from me...
However the sky seemed to clear up a bit after I saw the flop: A 4 5 - YES! I outdraw him on the flop. Now I just hoped it would hold until the end... 4 ...still good... Q ...devastation. ...Well. I think that it was some sort of poetic justice happening there so I wasn't too disappointed. Besides I still had 600 left (which was less than the small blind) so anything could happen.
And like I said I almost managed to get one place higher on the rankings when my friend and his brother both went all in. Unfortunately the on with smaller stack managed to outdraw this time. So when the Big Blind finally hit me I was out. I had J2s so it could've been worse but unfortunately my opponent hit a pair at the turn with 97.
I really hoped I could have made it to the final three with the brothers but no such luck this time. And how did they end up? My friend dropped out third and his brother took the victory. So not a bad day for their family ;) And by the way the guy who took the second place was already down to 10 chips at the lowest and managed to get up from there to the final table :D
A chip and a chair... And so on. You know the drill. All and all. I'm happy about the way I played. Even though I made an unsuccesful steal attempt and it cost me big time I still think it was a good play. My friend said that he was really afraid that I actually have him beat because I had only played such a good hands so far. That's table image for you ;)
Anyway. 185€ - this years first money position in Casino (out of 4 attempts) so it's a good start. Next time I want to go all the way.
posted by M_ace_T at 12:12
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