Sunday, July 12, 2009
Slow Start to July
It's been a tough month so far. I've been running poorly, although not exceptionally bad. I've been playing pretty terribly, probably the worst I've played in a few months. Playing so much no-limit and being in Vegas for a while took me out of the zone. Today was actually the first day this month I felt like I was thinking semi-coherently and playing a reasonably good game. It's amazing what taking just a few days off does to my game. This is something I need to keep in mind the next time I take a week off - it's better to start off slowly and drop a table and/or limit until I feel like I'm playing well. I also haven't been eating healthy and exercising regularly which detracts from my game. So, it's time to get healthy and get back in the zone - I feel like I'm pretty close to being there.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Out of the Main Event
I busted out near the end of Day 2. Strangely I don't feel too bad, I feel like I played about as well as I could have, things just didn't work out. Today I started with about 25K, ran it up to 60K, back down to 30K, back up to 55K and then down to 20K before busting when I ran TT into KK. In the ~8 hours I played today I never was dealt AA, KK, or QQ. I was dealt AK once, AQ once, and JJ once. And that pretty much sums up the day, it was spent playing marginal hands and trying to make a lot of difficult post-flop decisions.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
More Day 1
Here are some more hands as best as I remember them:
The first hand I play, maybe 3 hands in:
An early position player raises to 300 and I reraise to 1200 from late position with KK. The flop is J high with 3 spades and I have no spades. Opponent leads into me for a small amount, maybe 800 and I call. Turn is a meaningless non-spade low card. Opponent bets a big amount into me, maybe 2500 and I call thinking he's probably trying to protect a hand like AJ. The river is a 4th spade and my opponent makes a big bet of about 5K. I fold, mutter "nice river" and he shows AQ of spades for a flopped flush. I quickly change my muttering to "nice river for me" as I likely would have paid off a non spade river.
In level 2 I raise JJ from mid-position and a somewhat tight player reraises me from the small blind. The flop is QTx and he bets the pot, maybe 4K, (betting pot was his standard c-bet). I think for a while and decide I'm only in good shape against AK but as a result can't even play my hand aggressively if a J hits so I decide to fold. He shows KK.
In level 2 I raise 44 one seat off the button and a loose aggressive player on the button calls. The flop is 873 with one heart. I bet 2/3 pot and my opponent calls. I think this opponent is very capable of floating so I think he has a pretty wide range in this spot. The turn is a 7 pairing the board and I check. My opponent bets about 2/3 pot and I call. The river is an 8 of hearts, double pairing the board, which gives me 4 high. I lead out for about 4K which was was about a 1/2 pot bet. My opponent instantly raises to 8K and I fold. He shows the A9h - he had picked up a flush draw on the turn. I thought his river raise was weird and probably bad. He has a hand that can call my bet and his raise likely doesn't fold out any better hands. Also if I had really taken my time and gathered up the courage, I might have been able to muster a re-raise that could have forced him to fold. I'm fine with the way I played the hand, I just wish I took a little longer on the river to consider what hands he might have. If I'm in his shoes, I would be thinking that an 8 is very much a part of my range when I lead the river which makes it very difficult for him to raise without one. So his hand should either be an 8 or a bluff most of the time, probably weighted more towards bluffs. Why he decided to turn a hand with showdown value into a bluff, I don't know.
Late in Level 4, I'm down to 12K, still about 40 big blinds as the limits are 150-300 w/ 25 ante. I limp UTG with 9T of spades. I don't normally limp but this is something I had been doing all tournament because we were so deep - I figured I could play a lot of hands even against isolation raises. I also had been limping some big hands and was able to limp reraise TT and KK earlier in the day, one of which was shown down. Back to the hand. 3 people call after me and both blinds are in. The flop is AQ6 with two spades. The big blind, also the chip leader at the table, who appears to be a good, aggressive player leads out for about 1200 into an 1800 chip pot. I contemplate moving in but decide he probably has an Ace because he led into 4 people and is unlikely to fold given that I'm relatively short-stacked, and just took a bad beat along with losing a string of 4 hands immediately after. The turn is a J and my opponent checks. I think for a while before deciding to bet. I thought that I might have some fold equity since my hand now probably looked stronger to him after the flop call. And if I didn't get a fold, I still had 12 outs to fall back on. He unfortunately called. The turn was an offsuit K making the board AKQJ6, giving me a straight. My opponent checked, I paused about 5 seconds, and then moved in. My opponent tanked for about two minutes before finally making the call and I doubled up to about 24K. My opponent didn't show his cards but it was almost certainly an Ax hand.
My plan going into Day 2 doesn't change too much. I still have about 60 big blinds to start the day which is a lot. I don't anticipate I'll be limping any more hands but I'll still look to get involved as much as possible. If I do drop down to less than 20 big bets, then I'll be looking for spots to reraise all-in preflop. Hopefully it doesn't come to that and I'm able to build some chips. The structure is a really slow one so I should still have some good opportunities. More to follow after Day 2...
The first hand I play, maybe 3 hands in:
An early position player raises to 300 and I reraise to 1200 from late position with KK. The flop is J high with 3 spades and I have no spades. Opponent leads into me for a small amount, maybe 800 and I call. Turn is a meaningless non-spade low card. Opponent bets a big amount into me, maybe 2500 and I call thinking he's probably trying to protect a hand like AJ. The river is a 4th spade and my opponent makes a big bet of about 5K. I fold, mutter "nice river" and he shows AQ of spades for a flopped flush. I quickly change my muttering to "nice river for me" as I likely would have paid off a non spade river.
In level 2 I raise JJ from mid-position and a somewhat tight player reraises me from the small blind. The flop is QTx and he bets the pot, maybe 4K, (betting pot was his standard c-bet). I think for a while and decide I'm only in good shape against AK but as a result can't even play my hand aggressively if a J hits so I decide to fold. He shows KK.
In level 2 I raise 44 one seat off the button and a loose aggressive player on the button calls. The flop is 873 with one heart. I bet 2/3 pot and my opponent calls. I think this opponent is very capable of floating so I think he has a pretty wide range in this spot. The turn is a 7 pairing the board and I check. My opponent bets about 2/3 pot and I call. The river is an 8 of hearts, double pairing the board, which gives me 4 high. I lead out for about 4K which was was about a 1/2 pot bet. My opponent instantly raises to 8K and I fold. He shows the A9h - he had picked up a flush draw on the turn. I thought his river raise was weird and probably bad. He has a hand that can call my bet and his raise likely doesn't fold out any better hands. Also if I had really taken my time and gathered up the courage, I might have been able to muster a re-raise that could have forced him to fold. I'm fine with the way I played the hand, I just wish I took a little longer on the river to consider what hands he might have. If I'm in his shoes, I would be thinking that an 8 is very much a part of my range when I lead the river which makes it very difficult for him to raise without one. So his hand should either be an 8 or a bluff most of the time, probably weighted more towards bluffs. Why he decided to turn a hand with showdown value into a bluff, I don't know.
Late in Level 4, I'm down to 12K, still about 40 big blinds as the limits are 150-300 w/ 25 ante. I limp UTG with 9T of spades. I don't normally limp but this is something I had been doing all tournament because we were so deep - I figured I could play a lot of hands even against isolation raises. I also had been limping some big hands and was able to limp reraise TT and KK earlier in the day, one of which was shown down. Back to the hand. 3 people call after me and both blinds are in. The flop is AQ6 with two spades. The big blind, also the chip leader at the table, who appears to be a good, aggressive player leads out for about 1200 into an 1800 chip pot. I contemplate moving in but decide he probably has an Ace because he led into 4 people and is unlikely to fold given that I'm relatively short-stacked, and just took a bad beat along with losing a string of 4 hands immediately after. The turn is a J and my opponent checks. I think for a while before deciding to bet. I thought that I might have some fold equity since my hand now probably looked stronger to him after the flop call. And if I didn't get a fold, I still had 12 outs to fall back on. He unfortunately called. The turn was an offsuit K making the board AKQJ6, giving me a straight. My opponent checked, I paused about 5 seconds, and then moved in. My opponent tanked for about two minutes before finally making the call and I doubled up to about 24K. My opponent didn't show his cards but it was almost certainly an Ax hand.
My plan going into Day 2 doesn't change too much. I still have about 60 big blinds to start the day which is a lot. I don't anticipate I'll be limping any more hands but I'll still look to get involved as much as possible. If I do drop down to less than 20 big bets, then I'll be looking for spots to reraise all-in preflop. Hopefully it doesn't come to that and I'm able to build some chips. The structure is a really slow one so I should still have some good opportunities. More to follow after Day 2...
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Quick Day 1 Update
I ended with 25,500 heading into day 2. Although I'm below average, I still have plenty of chips in relation to the blinds so I feel pretty good.
I was up to about 60K in chips during level 3 and then lost a bunch of small pots that brought me down to 45K or so. In the middle of level 4, I took a pretty brutal beat in a 45K chip pot that sent me down to 17K or so. From there I dropped down to 12K before doubling up to 25K and that's where I ended.
Here's the Poker News report of the hand where I lost most of my chips:
Pirone Cops an Ugly River
On a flop of {4-Hearts}{7-Clubs}{6-Diamonds} the player in the small blind led for 1,500 before Florian Manz tossed out a single 5,000-denomination chip from the big blind with the intention to raise, but he was ruled as just a call.
Play was then with Tony Pirone who popped it up to 10,000 to go. The small blind folded but Manz moved all in. Pirone shrugged and made the call.
Pirone: {3-Clubs}{5-Clubs}
Manz: {4-Spades}{6-Spades}
The turn bricked the {8-Clubs} but the poker Gods entertained us with the {6-Hearts} falling on the river to give Manz a full house to snatch victory in the pot. He survives and more than doubles to 42,000 with Pirone unlucky to be back to 18,000.
I'll try to blog in more detail tomorrow about some of the hands.
I was up to about 60K in chips during level 3 and then lost a bunch of small pots that brought me down to 45K or so. In the middle of level 4, I took a pretty brutal beat in a 45K chip pot that sent me down to 17K or so. From there I dropped down to 12K before doubling up to 25K and that's where I ended.
Here's the Poker News report of the hand where I lost most of my chips:
Pirone Cops an Ugly River
On a flop of {4-Hearts}{7-Clubs}{6-Diamonds} the player in the small blind led for 1,500 before Florian Manz tossed out a single 5,000-denomination chip from the big blind with the intention to raise, but he was ruled as just a call.
Play was then with Tony Pirone who popped it up to 10,000 to go. The small blind folded but Manz moved all in. Pirone shrugged and made the call.
Pirone: {3-Clubs}{5-Clubs}
Manz: {4-Spades}{6-Spades}
The turn bricked the {8-Clubs} but the poker Gods entertained us with the {6-Hearts} falling on the river to give Manz a full house to snatch victory in the pot. He survives and more than doubles to 42,000 with Pirone unlucky to be back to 18,000.
I'll try to blog in more detail tomorrow about some of the hands.
Dinner Break Day 1
I have 47K, we started with 30k. As anticipated, I have a very good starting table. I've been pretty active, playing a lot of pots, calling a lot of raises pre-flop since we are so deep relative to the blinds. My 2 biggest pots came when I flopped a set vs. top pair/top kicker and when I turned a straight with 98 on a 4567 board against two opponents who both called turn and river before mucking. Hopefully my luck continues, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on how everyone at my table is playing. Two more levels tonight, I'll update after Day 1 is over.
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