ITH Poker Forum

[mchilger]

sitting in the airport pretty bummed. But, I think I played pretty good. i just had pretty bad cards the last couple of days and a lot of 2nd best hands with top pair top kicker. A-K was not nice to me this tournament. So a summary of my slow demise.

256K starting Day 3

Lose 30k with TT vs AQ...called the pushbot.

I raise AQ. next player calls. Qxx flop (two clubs). ck, ck. Turn is a K. ck, bet, call. river is a blank. ck, bet, call. he shows KQ. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't call this player, but was early in day and a tough decision.

I raise in EM position with AK. Flop is Kxx. Ck, ck. Turn is a rag, 2 diamonds on board. I get check-raised. River is a diamond. BB bets, I call. He hit flush with Q-2s. I lose 25K or so on the hand.

I raise AK in hijack. BB calls. KJ4. Ck, bet, call. Turn is a T. Ck, Ck. River is a 4. BB bets, I call and lose to 8-4. I lose another 25K or so.

Button raises, I RR SB with A-K. Flop is JJx - yuck. ck, ck. Turn is a blank. ck, bet, fold. I lose 11K - maybe call there?...but my 3-bet should have looked pretty strong, unless he thought my two checks was really weak?

I 3-bet T-9 vs loose raiser. Button calls, BB calls!. Q8x flop. ck, ck. Turn is blank. BB has QQ. I lose another 11K.

I check-raise a J54 board with A-Q. Player insta- goes all-in. I lose another 11K or so.

I raise A-8 in MP. BB calls. K83. ck, bet, call. Turn is a rag. ck, ck. River is an A. BB bets, I call and lose to AK. i lose another 25K or so.

This takes me to 100K or so. I dip down a little and then win a 35K pot with 76s against A8 short stack. I end day at 102K.

Day 4.

I raise button with AK to 6K (1200-2400 blinds). SB calls. flop is KT8. ck, ck. Turn is a 6. SB bets 9k?, I call. River is a 7. he bets 11K, I call. He has TT. This drops me to 70K or so. i get blinded down a little to 53K.

Loose button raiser. I push QJs in BB, he calls with KK. Tourney over.

hard to believe I lost all those chips without losing a big pot, but just kept getting decent, but 2nd best hands.

The last 10 hours of tourney I had one premium pair which didn't help.

Matthew

[nsidestrate]

Those are some brutal hands. You might have won some of them with more c-bets and aggression, but you would have lost a lot more on others. I'm pretty sure the net effect would be the same or worse. Just sucks to keep getting shown better hands. Better luck next year.

[redman7027]

Seems like a lot of tough hands. You clearly had a good run and should not be two disappointed. I have never played in this tourney and suspect you should not take advice from me but I had the same thought about making more continuation bets.

I am very curious about how you built such a big stack to begin with and also wonder if as the field got smaller if the play changed in some noticeable way. I was surprised by the fact that the posters on this board seemed to be doing so well and then all lost on day 3. I am speculating that this might indicate we all share a leak because we have started to play similar.

Any thoughts?

[chrisjp]

I was surprised by the fact that the posters on this board seemed to be doing so well and then all lost on day 3. I am speculating that this might indicate we all share a leak because we have started to play similar. Any thoughts?

Include Pearljammer and Ape, two of the authors that Matthew collaborates with, and they also had big stacks Day 2 and busted Day 3. Of course they play completely independently of any thoughts on ITH. And joep is a newbie to ITH and has not had any input our output about our thoughts on play here. And KPR is a limit player with no input or output regarding our NL tournament musings. He's a world class limit player, and undoubtedly approaches the Main with a completely different outlook than say Philhux, Matthew, Yanks, and I do.

I chalk this up entirely to small sample. Phill gets it in at the end of Day3 with AJ v. KJ on Jxx and loses. Otherwise he has above average stack going into Day 4. Stuff happens. Matthew has the deck hit him like crazy Day2, and the next day he never gets a pair above 99. Stuff happens.

The field is somewhat tougher Day 3 as opposed to Day 2, but the luck of the draw is still huge. You can get a table with no outstanding players, or you can be stuck at a table like Fatshaft was on Day 3 with some big time monsters, including Vanessa Selbst who Phill thinks is the best female player in the world, and one of the best in the world period. She is incredible. Yike.

Yanks basically plays the same way he did WSOP 09 as he did WSOP 10. He bulds a big stack Day 2 last year and this year he struggles along after losing a big pot late Day 1 with straightflush draw v. a set . He hangs in there for over a day and then finally gets a shot to get a 50++BB stack with AKs v. 66 and loses the race.

LIke I said, small sample.

That doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement and discussion. Of course there is. Been thinking lots about this year already and think I've already come up with some improvement.

Chris

[fatshaft]

Seems like a lot of tough hands. You clearly had a good run and should not be two disappointed. I have never played in this tourney and suspect you should not take advice from me but I had the same thought about making more continuation bets.

I am very curious about how you built such a big stack to begin with and also wonder if as the field got smaller if the play changed in some noticeable way. I was surprised by the fact that the posters on this board seemed to be doing so well and then all lost on day 3. I am speculating that this might indicate we all share a leak because we have started to play similar.

Any thoughts?

Like Chris says, not very likely, in my case I busted out 50 minutes into day 3 on a table with no-one I have played with before, and having shown down one hand (AQ ai pf v AJ), indeed I don't think I saw another flop until my busto hand, and I've been knocked out by a guy playing 2/4os out of position.

[philhux]

Basically I think Day Three is where the tournament gets going - a lot of the bad players have already busted, a lot of the tight nits will find themselves in trouble today. Tables get tougher, people make their move.

I think it's probably a coincidence that several of our runners busted on Day Three. A few were quite short. I had a decent stack and didn't make it. Matthew lost a lot of his big stack - I don't think there is any overall theme - the sample size is too small.

From talking to Matthew it seems he found himself in a lot of tough river spots where the villain got there - if he doesn't get there a couple of those times - Matthew had a much bigger stack.

Nice to meet Matthew and maybe I'll see you back at the Rio next year?

Phill