MTT!!!
Had enough runners for the LOLMAHA tonight that it actually went to 2 tables. 13 total and with a few rebuys. As I did the other night, I waited until 29 past to register and did not get dealt in until after the rebuy/add-on period. Because of the entries involved I was tempted to take the add-on but decided against it and when I started there were 11 players left with 5 at my table and 6 at the other.
Started out playing tight, won a few small pots, and after a few eliminations found myself at the final table with 1600 chips, 100 more than I had originally. When it gets to 1 table the site high cards for the button and I found myself in the cutoff to start. Second hand into it we have a 3 way all-in. SB makes a big raise after it's limped to him and two people call. They get the rest of it in on a K♠Q♣7♠ flop with the SB's respectable hand of A♠A♦8♦8♣ going up against A♥J♥7♣6♦ and K♥6♣4♠4♦. A 7♥ turn and a K♣ river turns the best hand into the worst one and the player who had the other two covered ends up winning the hand and just like that we're down to 7 players.
Fast forward a few hands and after I fold UTG the player who won the hand before (who is on my direct left) open limps for 150 and 3 other players come along. Flop Q♥9♣4♦ and our friend to our left bets pot after the blinds check. Button calls leaving him 1445 behind and the blinds fold. Turn A♥ and he actually checks to the button who shoves, but he does call. River T♠ and his 9♥8♥4♠2♠ is good enough to beat button's J♥J♦T♦5♥ and before the blind even comes around to me we're down to the final 6, with 3 places paying.
Fold my BB but one hand after that I'm sitting in the SB with A♥Q♥J♣2♣ and with only 1375 left I shove over the top of button's open limp. Button has 9k behind and decides to call the shove. My hand holds up against his T♠T♦7♥2♦ (about a 58/42 favorite here) after flopping top pair, turning two pair, and rivering a straight (which also gave him a set) for good measure.
Very next hand I had K♦K♥J♥J♠ OTB and with two limpers in front of me I decide to just limp behind and play it multiway. SB completes, BB checks and we go to a flop of K♣8♠3♠. Checked to me and I bet 562, SB flats. Turn 7♥ and I shove. He folds and I take an important pot.
Go the next orbit without playing a pot while another elimination took place so we were down to the final 5, meanwhile blinds had gone up to 100/200. The player on my left now had a huge chip lead with 19k and the next highest chip count was the player on my right with a little under 9k, and I had around 3800. The other two players had around 5k and 1600, so I was 4th in chips.
I fold my blinds and get K♠T♠8♦7♦ and limp behind the CO, blinds come in and we take a T♦6♣3♠ flop. Checked to the CO who weak leads for 200. He had been doing this quite a bit; one such hand went to showdown and he had air. I call with my top pair, gutshot, and two backdoor draws, and the blinds call behind me. Turn 5♠. Blinds check, CO weak leads again for 200, and now improving to the 2nd nut flush draw and an open ender I'm like "Enough screwing around gasbag, I'm all-in!" (although I don't actually type that in the chat). So I stick in my final 3112 and the blinds fold. CO who has me covered calls and we take an 8♣ river which is good enough to beat his A♠K♣5♣4♠. FWIW, I did get the money in on the turn as a 57/43 favorite.
Huge swing for me as that now puts me 2nd in chips. The guy that lost the hand to me ended up open-shoving his next two hands, the first hand he took the blinds, and the next hand he lost with A♠K♦K♥3♣ against the big stack's J♥T♣7♣7♠ with of course the big stack flopping a set and turning a flush draw just for good measure. So we're on the bubble, still 2nd in chips.
We would get down to 3 as the smallest stack kept bleeding away chips and it was of course the big stack who took him down, who now had a massive chip lead with over 28k to my 7k and the 3rd players 2k. He ended up taking out the other player as well so I got to heads up with a around a 31k to 7k chip disadvantage. A few hands into it he raises to 975 (150/300 blinds with a 25 ante at this point) and I shove over the top with A♥K♠J♥8♦ for my final 6425 on top. I knew he was never folding here so I type in the chat “let’s do it” before I shove and he calls with T♦T♥8♥7♣. I’m a small favorite here, 56/44. However the board does not help me as he flops good with A♣T♣4♥ and I’m dead to runner-runner or a gutshot. 7♦ turn leaves me with just 3 outs and a 3♦ finishes the tournament. Best I could hope for really, to get it in as a favorite, unfortunately didn’t work out. Had I doubled up there I would have been able to play some post-flop poker and be in a better position to win the tournament.
Despite the shortcoming heads-up, I collected $3.60 for my efforts for a $3.05 profit which is actually a better payout than winning it most nights. I will definitely take it given that I got in very cheaply and I was the short stack for quite some time. I think this late registering thing is working out for me; for one reason or another I tend to lose chips during the rebuy stage and seem to get the worst of it.
Also this cash was significant for a few other reasons. It got me to over $45 on the site which is the highest I've had since I restarted this blog. I had over $40 in September and then had an ill-fated night where I lost two-buyins in a cash game. Slowly I've rebuilt it back up so even though it's not anywhere close to significant money I've at least re-learned bankroll discipline for myself and played well enough to where I could eventually get it back up there. Definitely profitable in this tournament but not sure how I really stack up in the cash games at this point; I'm sure a lot of it is table selection and some of it is variance and with only 4.5 buyins $.05/$.10 is probably not even that good of an idea, especially against players who like to gamble it up. Back in the day I could play "small ball" with a short bankroll and do just fine but not going to happen here unless I get a really good table.
The other note of significance is that I reached 3000 GPPs by playing this tourney which is a milestone, although it's probably not a lot of player points. Still have no idea how much I need to actually cash out, although I'm not even thinking about that at this point.
Started out playing tight, won a few small pots, and after a few eliminations found myself at the final table with 1600 chips, 100 more than I had originally. When it gets to 1 table the site high cards for the button and I found myself in the cutoff to start. Second hand into it we have a 3 way all-in. SB makes a big raise after it's limped to him and two people call. They get the rest of it in on a K♠Q♣7♠ flop with the SB's respectable hand of A♠A♦8♦8♣ going up against A♥J♥7♣6♦ and K♥6♣4♠4♦. A 7♥ turn and a K♣ river turns the best hand into the worst one and the player who had the other two covered ends up winning the hand and just like that we're down to 7 players.
Fast forward a few hands and after I fold UTG the player who won the hand before (who is on my direct left) open limps for 150 and 3 other players come along. Flop Q♥9♣4♦ and our friend to our left bets pot after the blinds check. Button calls leaving him 1445 behind and the blinds fold. Turn A♥ and he actually checks to the button who shoves, but he does call. River T♠ and his 9♥8♥4♠2♠ is good enough to beat button's J♥J♦T♦5♥ and before the blind even comes around to me we're down to the final 6, with 3 places paying.
Fold my BB but one hand after that I'm sitting in the SB with A♥Q♥J♣2♣ and with only 1375 left I shove over the top of button's open limp. Button has 9k behind and decides to call the shove. My hand holds up against his T♠T♦7♥2♦ (about a 58/42 favorite here) after flopping top pair, turning two pair, and rivering a straight (which also gave him a set) for good measure.
Very next hand I had K♦K♥J♥J♠ OTB and with two limpers in front of me I decide to just limp behind and play it multiway. SB completes, BB checks and we go to a flop of K♣8♠3♠. Checked to me and I bet 562, SB flats. Turn 7♥ and I shove. He folds and I take an important pot.
Go the next orbit without playing a pot while another elimination took place so we were down to the final 5, meanwhile blinds had gone up to 100/200. The player on my left now had a huge chip lead with 19k and the next highest chip count was the player on my right with a little under 9k, and I had around 3800. The other two players had around 5k and 1600, so I was 4th in chips.
I fold my blinds and get K♠T♠8♦7♦ and limp behind the CO, blinds come in and we take a T♦6♣3♠ flop. Checked to the CO who weak leads for 200. He had been doing this quite a bit; one such hand went to showdown and he had air. I call with my top pair, gutshot, and two backdoor draws, and the blinds call behind me. Turn 5♠. Blinds check, CO weak leads again for 200, and now improving to the 2nd nut flush draw and an open ender I'm like "Enough screwing around gasbag, I'm all-in!" (although I don't actually type that in the chat). So I stick in my final 3112 and the blinds fold. CO who has me covered calls and we take an 8♣ river which is good enough to beat his A♠K♣5♣4♠. FWIW, I did get the money in on the turn as a 57/43 favorite.
Huge swing for me as that now puts me 2nd in chips. The guy that lost the hand to me ended up open-shoving his next two hands, the first hand he took the blinds, and the next hand he lost with A♠K♦K♥3♣ against the big stack's J♥T♣7♣7♠ with of course the big stack flopping a set and turning a flush draw just for good measure. So we're on the bubble, still 2nd in chips.
We would get down to 3 as the smallest stack kept bleeding away chips and it was of course the big stack who took him down, who now had a massive chip lead with over 28k to my 7k and the 3rd players 2k. He ended up taking out the other player as well so I got to heads up with a around a 31k to 7k chip disadvantage. A few hands into it he raises to 975 (150/300 blinds with a 25 ante at this point) and I shove over the top with A♥K♠J♥8♦ for my final 6425 on top. I knew he was never folding here so I type in the chat “let’s do it” before I shove and he calls with T♦T♥8♥7♣. I’m a small favorite here, 56/44. However the board does not help me as he flops good with A♣T♣4♥ and I’m dead to runner-runner or a gutshot. 7♦ turn leaves me with just 3 outs and a 3♦ finishes the tournament. Best I could hope for really, to get it in as a favorite, unfortunately didn’t work out. Had I doubled up there I would have been able to play some post-flop poker and be in a better position to win the tournament.
Despite the shortcoming heads-up, I collected $3.60 for my efforts for a $3.05 profit which is actually a better payout than winning it most nights. I will definitely take it given that I got in very cheaply and I was the short stack for quite some time. I think this late registering thing is working out for me; for one reason or another I tend to lose chips during the rebuy stage and seem to get the worst of it.
Also this cash was significant for a few other reasons. It got me to over $45 on the site which is the highest I've had since I restarted this blog. I had over $40 in September and then had an ill-fated night where I lost two-buyins in a cash game. Slowly I've rebuilt it back up so even though it's not anywhere close to significant money I've at least re-learned bankroll discipline for myself and played well enough to where I could eventually get it back up there. Definitely profitable in this tournament but not sure how I really stack up in the cash games at this point; I'm sure a lot of it is table selection and some of it is variance and with only 4.5 buyins $.05/$.10 is probably not even that good of an idea, especially against players who like to gamble it up. Back in the day I could play "small ball" with a short bankroll and do just fine but not going to happen here unless I get a really good table.
The other note of significance is that I reached 3000 GPPs by playing this tourney which is a milestone, although it's probably not a lot of player points. Still have no idea how much I need to actually cash out, although I'm not even thinking about that at this point.
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