Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Poker : Satellite Final table results

At last the night of the Satellite Tournament “The Invitation Cup” Final table has come, everyone is keen to get cracking and the tension is mounting as people take their seats….

The first hand of the first level and everyone starts out quite cagey.   The flop comes 2-3-A (2 hearts) with three out the eight players still in.   The 8h comes on the turn and everyone checks, but the Jh on the river sees Sean all-in !!   Alex and Roger fold, but Sean shows his nut flush (so wasn’t a mad move after all :-) )

The first level is pretty tight, with a lot of calling and checking and most people having something half decent on the showdowns… for example a flop of T-6-5 (rainbow) sees everyone check, Darren bets 200 into a 100 pot when a 9 comes and Sean, Karen and Derek call.  We get a bit of action when an A comes on the river, with Darren betting 500 and only Sean calls with A, but Darren has A-T

Level 2 is much the same, but some risks are being taken…. on a board of 8-8-9-9 Martin bets 1000 into Derek who folds, showing 6-6   Martin shows Q-J !

Level 3 sees one of the first larger pots as Alex hits his straight to take some chips off Karen but restore himself to starting chip level (4000)

Level 4 sees Sean hit his flush again and take a good size pot, but the action is starting to come as Derek raises to 500 and Martin/Jon call.   The T high flop is good enough for Derek to bet 1000 and takes it, showing QQ

On the first break, there has been a lot of tough playing, mostly tight.   Roger has 2500 chips, with Jon on 4100, Sean 5000, Derek 5200, Karen 4000, Darren 4300, Alex 3300 and Martin on 3600 so not much in it at this stage

Level 5 is really where the fun starts, as the blinds are at 200/100 and some people need to catch up !   We suddenly see a spate of pre-flop raises but normally they take the pot there and then.   Alex raises to 600 and takes pot, then Martin… then we have 4 players see an un-raised flop, but Derek bets 600 and takes it down.   Then we see Martin and Alex take turns at raising and taking pot pre-flop again.   Sean is obviously not being believed as his raise is called by Martin and we see a flop of 9-7-6  Martin checks and Sean bets 1000, but Martin responds by going all-in !!  After a long think, Sean folds and sits there for several hands thinking about whether he made the right move or not…..

Martin is on form though as he manages to fold his A-Q against A-8 when the flop comes K-8-5

Sean is low on chips and the blinds are going up…. 4 people see flop of Q-T-5   Sean bets 1100 and only Martin calls.   The turn of 9 sees Sean all-in for his last 1400 and is called again.  Martin has J-9 to Sean’s J-T so Sean is way ahead !   Neither player improves so Sean survives and Martin is getting low on chips.   Soon after, Martin raises and Sean and Karen call.   The flop of K-8-5 sees Karen betting out 600, but Martin moving all-in.  Sean quickly folds, but Karen thinks for a long time before calling with her K-9.  Unfortunately for her, Martin has K-T and with A then 3 coming his better kicker holds up and is back in business, but Karen is now low stacked with 900 chips

Level 7’s sees the blinds at 500/300 and Roger calling all-in against Sean.   Rogers J-8 against A-K doesn’t look good on the flop of 9-4-4 but J on the turn doubles up Roger

With the blinds on their way to her, Karen launches all-in with 2 callers.   The board is Q-8-Q-8-A and Karen has  Q-J so triples up !   Jon and Alex split the top pot

Martin has been pretty steady all night, so when he launches a 2000 attack pre-flop he takes it down.   Couple of hands later his aggression pays off when on the BB with J-4 sees a Q-4-2 flop.  Alex, Martin and Sean all check, but another Q on the turn sees Martin bet 1500 and Sean re-raise all-in, but Martin call !  Sean has A-6 so was only slightly more optimistic than Martin, but the blank on the river sees Martin take a huge stack of chips and take Sean out first

Level 8 starts to see the nose bleed blinds levels with 7 players still in…   Martin uses his new found wealth to raise 3000 and take uncontested.   Then it’s Jon all-in with A-T against Derek who has to call as it’s only another 600 to him on the BB, so his K-3 has a chance… but Jon doubles up

Alex is all-in with 55 against Karen with A-Q   Neither improve so Alex is safe and Karen is down to 500 chips.   This leaves Karen to be all-in on the SB with 8-2 but is dominating Darren’s 3-2   Unlucky again for Karen, as 4 diamonds give Darren a flush and she is out !

The last hand of the level sees Jon all-in with 3200 (Q-9) Darren all-in with A-Ks (3800) and Roger all-in for 3000 (A-Qs)   Only a 9 is good for Jon, but after a flop of T-5-3 the 9 comes on the turn and Jon has suddenly leapt towards the chip leader and Roger is out

The last level has blinds of 2000/100 and chip counts of Darren with 600, Derek 5600, Jon 9900, Alex 550 and Martin chip leader with 10’400

Alex shows he means business by sticking it all-in first hand on the new level, but takes it down without a fight

Darren is all in and triples up with 7-7 so is showing that he won’t go down without a fight, but is all-in on BB all too quickly for 1800   His A-6 is up against Martins Q-J and the flop of 9-6-5 is good for Darren, but the fickle poker gods throw down a J on the turn to take out Darren

It’s all action now with just 4 players left,  Jon is all-in and takes the pot, Alex is all-in but gets called by Martin.  Alex’s Q-Q is against A-K so close race, although the Q on the flop doubles Alex up.  Martin is then all-in put gets no takers, but shows A-K again to prove he’s not really on tilt.    Alex and Martin on the blinds see an un-raised flop, but then Martin sticks it all-in when Alex checks and takes it down

Alex is all-in but Jon calls from BB with J-9   It seems to be a bad move with Alex showing T-T but the turn is good for Jon (again!) as a J falls for him (again!)   This leaves Alex in poor shape with just 1100

Derek can’t hang around with his 1400 chips but the blinds come round too quick and sees him all-in with 9-6 against Jon in SB with T-8   An 8 on the flop puts Jon more firmly in the driving seat, but then the T and another 8 come to really stick the boot in and Derek is out in 4th

Alex is in trouble now, and is all-in on BB with 7-4   Martins K-8 doesn’t improve but is good enough to take out Alex and give us our two final players

Martin has 17’800 and Jon is on 14’200

It is never really going to last too long, but there is a bit of to-ing and fro-ing  before we see Martin raise 6000 and Jon call.   The flop of J-9-4 doesn’t look too inspiring so it is no surprise that when Martin goes all-in to eagerly (out of turn) that Jon folds

Soon we have the key hand of the heads up battle when Jon raises and Martin re-raises to put Jon all-in, who duly calls.  Jon’s 8-8 is ahead of Martin’s K-Js until the flop which comes J-9-3  The turn of A is no good to Jon, but he hits his 8 on the river!   This gives him around 22’400 against Martins 9’600 chips so is an uphill battle for Martin from here

The last hand probably typifies the sorts of clashes we had all night, in that the un-raised flop of 8-7-4 sees Martin push all-in and Jon call.   Martin shows K-4 but is crushed by Jon’s A-4 and sure enough it is all over and we crown Jon our 2009 Champion

Well done to Jon for putting it out there and winning, but Martin was no pushover and showed the same discipline and strength seen in the heat to be a worthy runner up

Everyone played well and was entertaining to watch, so hope everyone who took part in the heats and final table all enjoyed the experience and will want to try again next year !

Onward and upward, see you next time.

Friday, May 08, 2009

Poker: Home Tournament – May 2009

I have had a bit of a mare for my last few sessions in April and first few sessions in May… felt I was playing well, but the cards were running against me.  However against this backdrop, my feeling of foreboding did not stop me from looking forward to the monthly game as normal :-)

As it turned out I got pocket 9’s a couple of hands in which held up and gave me a good chip stack early on, always nice when that happens !   Unfortunately Sean started out playing tight, so didn’t give him enough respect for a hand a little later and ended up giving him half my chip stack !    Easy come easy go…..

After that I kept bobbling along with around 500-1000 chip level and not much happening for me so as we got towards the end of rebuys, an opportunity came where four people was going all-in and as I only had around 600 chips went all-in as well with my J-8 but the gamble didn’t pay off so had to take the double re-buy to give me 1000 in chips for the first level after the break.   Jon, Jock and Karen also had 1000 chips, with Sean and Andy having the larger stacks

The first hand of the new levels sees Jock on the BB and managed to double up against Sean, so taking the pressure off him a bit.   The next hand I find myself on the BB with A-J but Jon sticks his stack in and everyone folds to me.   I guess I am in a race, but Jon could also have a better A than me, but have to take a chance.  Luckily Jon has pocket 8’s and I hit a Jack to take the pot and take out Jon !

With the blinds going up and more action going on, the chips start moving around the table as people have to play pots to ensure they don’t get blinded away.    A couple of people get knocked out on the other table, then Andy takes out Jock and we are down to the final table.. nice and early for a change !

On the Final table, Roger has only 300 chips (blinds are 300 / 150 !)  I have around 1600.  Karen and Steve are also fairly low on chips.   Bill is probably the chip lead but Alex and Sean also have larger sized piles.  The big surprise of the night so far is that Lee has not made the final table for the first time !!

It is inevitable someone will be knocked out early on with so many low stacks, and it turns out to be Karen who is busted out by Bill, who seems to be his normal aggressive, happy go lucky self tonight (some may say very happy and very lucky :-) )  

This seems to trigger a rush of people going all-in as Andy raises all-in on a flop of Q-T-9 (2 diamonds)  Everyone folds round to Bill who agonizes for quite a while, but decides to call (which was no great surprise to everyone else) As it turns out the pot of around 7000 will go to Andy unless Bill can hit another diamond, as Andy has A-K and Bill has 5-3 of diamonds.   The Turn brings a K for Andy, making him even more of a favorite, but the river is K of diamonds    As Bill calmly collects his chips, Andy has a bit of a moan, although in fairness his first of the night and not without provocation !

The next hand sees Roger all in against Alex (again!) but this time Roger gets knocked out, despite going in favorite.   I am starting to get excited now as I have only 1300 chips and the blinds are now 500 /300 so am climbing up the points by staying out of the action !

Being on the BB, Steve is short stacked and decides to go all in when a couple of other people call.   Unluckily for Steve, Alex is on a hot streak and takes another person out !

I have to fold my BB and SB leaving me down to 500 chips, 4 players left in and the blinds just gone up to 1000/500 so looks like 4th place for me…. however to my astonishment, Sean and Bill start re-raising each other and end up with Sean all-in on the flop.   Even more amazing (to me anyway) is that neither of them really has a hand and both missed the flop.  To my great advantage Bill is ahead and wins the pot with his A high, taking out Sean and gifting me 3rd place – what a result :-)

Even more surprising is the next hand with Alex on the BB he raises pre-flop and Bill calls.   With 7000 in the pot, Alex bets the pot and gets re-raised all-in by Bill.   With only around 1000 left behind Alex calls… and Bill inevitably takes out another player and I am 2nd with 500 chips left !!

Although everyone (including me) thinks it is all over, I double up on the first hand heads up….. then again as I am BB anyway.   When I double up the next hand as well, I am starting to think I might have a chance and Bill is feeling vulnerable and folds a couple of his SB… suddenly I am up to 8000 chips, then 10’000 !   We then get a hand where I have J-6 and flop comes A-5-4 then the turn comes with a 3 and crazily the 2 comes to make a straight on the deck on the river, so I decide to go all-in to represent me being desperate.  After some thought, Bill decides I have a 6 but calls anyway with nothing, so I now have 20’000 of the 25’000 chips !     The final hand is quite funny, as Bill is on the SB, looks at his cards and sighs/gesticulates as if he isn’t happy and calls.  I have got Q6s so push all in believing he has a poor hand… as it turns out Bill had something like T-4 but called anyway and I take a very unexpected victory !

To be honest I should not have won, but a mixture of patience and luck, along with Bill’s over zealousness gave me the victory (but I will take it anyway I can !)