Having managed to satellite through to the final for the SCOOP HORSE event (event #7) I was looking forward to taking part.
Checking the number of players of Saturday morning, I was quite surprised there were only around 400 players registered, as the $250’000 prize pool guarantee was pretty significant. Logging on half hour before the game started, I was surprised again as the number of players had jumped up to a rather more substantial 2674 players ! This was more the number I was originally expecting, so the task ahead was no more daunting that I had originally envisaged in the end.
The first prize was a whopping $43’452 but even the first cash prize for 520th position was a very reasonable sounding $117 so settled down for what I was hoping to be a long evening of playing poker.
As you should expect me to say by now, I started off playing steady, but with a lot of aggression in the early rounds it was difficult to commit to a pot without it costing several bets on each street. The problem with limit poker of any sort is that you can’t scare people off the pot and you tend to get a lot of callers, so the low blind levels encourage people to call you to the river with very little and they hope to get lucky and draw out on you (and often get good pot odds to try) On the plus side, it does mean that you can be the person doing the drawing, as long as you have the chips to do it with
For the game itself, I didn’t get much luck in the early rounds so lost around 1000 chips from my 5000 starting point in the first half hour, but by the first break after an hours play, I was back to my starting stack size (average was around 5100 at this point)
The next session saw me get some good hands and got paid off by them, so got up to around 8000 chips with the average around 6000 and was happy to sit back and play tight, but with the blinds going up you can’t sit around forever, and by now committing to a hand was costing around 1000 chips to get to the river. There are also some bigger stacks emerging on my table around the 20’000 mark and couple of them seem loose and aggressive. I commit to a hand against one such stack in Razz, but don’t improve…but even so, the other fellow had to hit a lucky card on the river to beat me, so took a large chunk of my chips and I was down to just below average chips again !
After what seemed an age without a hand, my chips were dwindling so committed to a flush draw on a Stud hand. By this time, a bet on every street was enough to put me all-in by the river and I was being called down by one of the big stacks (they can afford to be loose by this time!) Luckily for me, my flush draw became a flush on the river so doubled up and had around 9000 in chips (around the average) A little later I had one of those “dammit” moments, when I ditched a pretty awful Omaha Hi-Lo hand pre-flop of Q-7-3-3, only to see the other two 3’s come down on the flop ! There was significant action on all rounds of betting as well, so had I made a very loose call of the pre-flop raise then I would have made a huge amount of chips….. unfortunately making those calls is a long term looser so I definitely made the right choice…. but still feels sickening when you see the perfect flop for your mucked hand :-(
The next couple of hours saw me maintain just around or slightly above average stack. By now the standard of play seems to be getting distinctly better than in the early rounds, with much better starting hands being showed down and more selective aggressive betting, so am pleased to be able to maintain my relative position…. but then a minor disaster ! On an Omaha round, I called pre-flop with a double suited starting hand, but then got distracted by the TV so glanced up to look. I heard the beep to indicate it was my turn, so looked down and saw I had hit a flush on the flop, so bet out and called a raise from the one other player. I bet the turn which was blank, but then realised to my horror I had misread the flop and only had a flush draw ! With another raise from my opponent, it seemed clear I was way behind so had to fold… but had given away about a third of my chips and was well below average stack now….. Luckily it was only a few minutes before a break so had a chance to switch to the PC with the large monitor as it seemed I was getting tired and needed the clearer screen
The blinds are now getting high and my chip stack is definitely low, certainly any raise or calling a bet on the flop is committing me to the pot. Luckily we are on a round of Hold’em now, which I am most comfortable with so hope I can pick up a few pots. Unluckily I am not getting any cards so have to be patient. On the BB I get dealt 8-4 and only the SB has called. I consider making a move and raising, but he has a huge chips stack compared to me so decide to play safe and check. The flop is a reasonable 9-8-3 rainbow for my hand but my opponent bets out. Being the SB he could have any two cards so decide to re-raise to see how much he likes the hand, but unfortunately he calls….. the turn is a 5 which doesn’t seem like it would improve his hand (and certainly didn’t improve mine) so we both check. The river is another 8 ! I am very happy with that, especially as my opponent checks to me…. so bet out. His re-raise is a bit worrying but I have only enough chips left to call so am committed…. and am gutted to see his hand of 8-6 OK, so I was always behind, but it seems very unlucky that all four of the 8’s would come out
So my final result was 784th place out of 2674 runners and played for 5 hours 55 mins. All things considered I don’t think I did too badly, but am still pretty disappointed with my result. Overall I believe I played pretty solidly, although did make a few mistakes which certainly effected my finishing position as I felt I was playing well enough to have a good chance to make the cash prizes.
Oh well, will try again sometime and also have another couple of big tournaments to look forward to :-)
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