Saturday, June 14, 2008

Poker : Annual Satellite 2008 : Semi Final result

With two men and two women, it had the hallmarks of a classic battle of the sexes. With three tight/passive players and a relative unknown in John, the pace from the start was "leisurely" By level 3 we were still looking for a hand with some action... so far there had been a lot of calling and checking.... John was even reading the newspaper, although it was a bit of a tell as he put it down when he got a good hand !!

Sure enough John puts the paper down and bets 200 pre-flop.... Karen and Steve call and the turn is 8-3-J. Everyone reverts to type and check, and also everyone checks the A on the turn. A J falls on the river and John bets the pot to take the largest pot of the night so far.

Karen's strategy for the game seems to be to see a lot of flops and make lots of minimum raises, but seems to be working now as she is taking a lot of small pots uncontested.

Bit of excitement when 9-T-Q flop comes, as Steve and Lynn start raising. The turn of 8 is followed by J on river, giving both the straight, but its checked down as they both are playing the board.... Steve had a 9 and Lynn the Q, but the split pot was quite large This is soon followed by more action after the 5-5-7 flop is checked, the A on the turn doesn't prevent Lynn from calling and the Q on the river really makes it hot up as Steve takes the 1500 pot from Lynn with A-Q to Lynns Q-7

Level 4 continues the action, as John has finished reading his paper and calls with everyone else for a family pot. Its checked down to the river and Johns pot bet of 500 takes it uncontested. He shows his K high bluff. Johns relatively low on chips now, but his more aggressive stance falls foul when Lynn goes all-in on the turn and shows a made flush and Johns drawing dead

At the break the chips levels are: Lynn 5700, Karen 4600, Steve 3800 and John 1900

Karen and Lynn start what becomes a game long battle, with Karen betting 500 into 1500 pt and taking it down., but before that develops we see Steve John and Lynn getting a A-K-A flop. John bets 500 into 600 pot but gets called the turn and river bring J-5 and John is all-in thinking his J is good for 2 pair, but Lynn has hit her straight and sends John packing

We are now at level 6, with Karen still min raising and lots of checking going on. Lynn checks Karens min raising but on the river Lynn puts in a strong 1000 bet on K-6-8-A-9 board. Karens turn to let go and Lynn takes a good pot. Soon after another Lynn/Karen pot evolves with Karen min-raising and Lynn calling. With the board J-5-9-3-K Lynn sticks 1000 into 2000 pot and takes down the pot again

The next level sees pressure on Steve with the short stack. Lynn bets 500 into 2000 pot and Steve calls. The 9 on the river gives it to Lynn, so Steve under more pressure now. Its then Karens turn to bet 1000 into a 2000 pot and pushes Lynn off the pot The last hand of this level sees Steve pushing all-in although its only for another 600. Lynn and Karen both call. The flop of Q-9-8 doesn't make Steve look happy, although the girls check down the turn and river of 2 and 3. Karen takes the 6000 pot, knocking out Steve and giving a 2:1 chip advantage to Lynn

Lynn has around 4500 chips left, so it's soon over as a couple of hands into level 8 sees unraised flop of 7-2-3 Karen bets out 2000 and Lynn calls all-in Lynn's A-K was ahead pre-flop but Karens 6-3 is ahead. The turn/river of 2 and Q don't help Lynn so we have our winner

It was a well fought game by all and although it was a steady start, it had moments of brilliance, aggression and thought

See you at the final table !

We did have a quick cash game afterwards, and one hand was hillarious. We were down to 4 players and blinds of 25/50. Bill folded and Sean immediately went all-in for 2050. There was no way I was calling, but needled Sean a little about how he overbet the pot and was only going to get called by someone way ahead. Lee in the Big Blind insta-called with pocket A's and Sean giggled as he showed his 7-2 off suit. The first card turned was another A, but a 7 gave Sean a miracle runner, runner out. The turn paired the board to give Lee the full house, and the 7 on the River gave Sean a consolation lesser Full House.

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