Full statistics of the heats and final table are available at http://www.statsgenie.com/poker/default.aspx?LeagueID=1890
Feel free to add comments, particularly those who participated, as it would be good to capture your thoughts on how you thought the whole tournament went for you and how well (or not) you felt you played on the night...
I run an annual event (open to all comers) the "Annual Satellite Invitation Cup" This year I had came third in my heat for the Annual tournament so by rights should not have been on the final table at all, but lucked my way into a seat when the heat winner (Keith) couldn't make the event and Derek (2nd place in the heat) had won his way there already via the 2nd place playoff. There are 8 seats and we start with 4000 chips (NL freezeout) so with the blinds starting at 25/25 and going up every 15 mins decided my strategy was to avoid any confrontation in the first couple of rounds.
Being on the button first hand, I dealt myself AQ so was debating how much to raise by when "Suicide Sean" put in a large raise before me..... so decided to throw the hand away. Only Andrew called him and the flop was Q high, after checking down the remaining rounds the showdown saw a pair of Jacks taking the pot. I wasn't too upset as I had my strategy, but a few hands later a similar situation saw me throwing away a hand pre-flop that would have given me a straight on the flop..... it was going to be one of those nights. In the next round I had pocket 9's and put in a raise to about 500. Looking hesitant, Sean called and the flop saw 3 spades (I had 9 of spades) Sean put in a bet of 1000, which after some thought I decided to call. The fourth spade on the turn gave me a 9 high flush, but 4 cards higher. Sean went all-in, which actually doesn't normally mean much :-) but I put him on a higher spade so folded. I decided to show my cards and Sean showed T8 o/s but his T was a spade, so I had made the right choice but was left with about 2000 chips.
I got no cards after that and by the 4th round the blinds are at 75/125 and going to 100/200 soon, so decided to make a move when I was in late position and three people in front all folded. I made it 500 to go and only the blinds (Bill and Andrew) called. When the flop came down KT4 (or similar), whilst Bill was deciding what to do I could see that Andrew had about the same chips as me (and he saw me eying up his chips) and Bill had a few more but not many.... and they both checked to me. I was certain that Andrew would fold to an all-in bet and thought Bill's indecision meant he had nothing, so went all-in. Bill thought some more and said he thought I had AK, but still managed to call me and Andrew did fold. Unfortunately I had decided to follow up my pre-flop bluff with another complete bluff and had to show my 53 o/s which was up against Bill's KQ suited. I needed two 5's, 3's or one of each (I didn't even bother to work out the percentage chance) and sure enough Bill deservedly won. Much to my disappointment I was first one out !
My play on the night was overall reasonably sound I think but never got above my starting chips and don't actually remember winning a hand. I will have to wait until next year for my moment of glory.
As for the rest of the match, Sean had started out very aggressive and had quickly build up a huge chip lead.... which he used to great effect to bully the table and get even more chips. Roger had a big hand against Sean that went horribly wrong when Sean hit his flush on the river, which left him struggling and didn't last much longer than me. After than the blinds had hit 100/200 and everyone was playing tight, especially as only Bill had more than starting chips at that point (apart from Sean who still had the chip lead)
Jon had Sean to his left and every time Jon went into a hand Sean always seemed to be calling his raises or raising himself and then putting in big raises on the flop. Jon managed to double up against Sean once, but Sean seemed to be Jon's nemesis. As it turned out, at the end of round 8 Jon was all in again with KJ suited but Sean showed AK which held up to take Jon out. Jon was not happy and went to watch the football......
The final round did not last very long and Bill managed to take out Derek and Sean in one hand, taking his small chip lead to a large one. The next hand saw Andrew all-in for the extra 400 over the 2000 blind but Bill took him out as well. Bill had about 2-1 chip lead over Zoran, but Zoran was fighting strongly. After a couple more hands, the unraised flop came 732 and Zoran went all in showing 74, but Bill's 73 was well ahead and the turn and river didn't give Zoran any help
A well fought match, well deserved victor and was exciting to watch as well.
All in all, I felt it well worth the effort to organise the tournament and most people seemed to enjoy taking part (despite those cruel twists of fate), although I am sure those who made it into the cash prize places feel even better :-)
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4 comments:
I have to say that although Sean's amazing AK was a bitter pill to be knocked out with, especially given some of the hands he had been playing, I was still reeling from my Q2 being paired on the flop against Zoran's paired A was harder to take when Bill dealt up the two running 10's!
On reflection I think I managed to take part in four hands over the course of the night: Lost out on the first one to Roger, who as you pointed out promtly passed those chips onto Sean :) Second hand was my only winner against Sean, and a close call that one was as well. And finally the two hands outlined above.
I recall sitting in front of the football considering giving up playing cards after that :)
Oh well, will have to move onto Thursday's regular Summer event looking for a new strategy!
Maybe balls out agression playing ridiculous cards is the way to go :)
See you on Thursday.
I know what you mean :-)
If I find myself having lots of bad beats playing Online then I will take a break for a few weeks before going back to it (if I got any money left).... Poker definately needs to be played in a positive frame of mind !!
You cna borrow some of my Poker strategy books if you like, although on my performance maybe you better pass on that offer :-)
Well Jon, if it's any consolation, I got what I deserved. With blinds at 1k and 2k and 8k in chips, and everyone checking round to me, I decided to go all in on the river with the pair I had made on the flop (plus the two 10s on the table, thinking everyone would fold or if not my pair would do the job....
I had been tempted to go all in after the flop (with one pair) and turn (when the second 10 came up) but had not noticed there was a straight possibility after the river or that Bill had seen me reaching for the chips on the flop and the turn.
Slyly Bill checked his straight on the river, knowing that I would probably be going all in.
With hindsight I probably could not have played that better. Cos if I had gone all in on the flop or turn, Bill, the lucky sod that he is, would have called with his straight draw and made it on the river which would have been a worse beat than choosing the wrong time to go all in and misreading the players.
After starting so strongly with some good hands my luck seemed to dry up fairly rapidly. I managed to stay chip leader for the best part of 2 hours. Unfortunatly eventually the blinds, bad plays, bad luck and uncomplimentary flops started eating into my stack so by the time the final round of blinds started I was down to third place in chips.
While my play might be described as reckless I certainly didn't raise or go all in with 5-3 unsuited!
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