ITH Poker Forum

[philhux]

GAH. Finished I think 107th or 1008th and 104 paid. I was pretty much hanging on and was dealt TT utg 8 handed with 10.5bbs. The two blinds were both short/medium stacked and one of them had recently doubled up and I'd been very tight. The slightly annoying part, though I'm not sure if it changes anything is that the screen said 111 remained but they were a few bustouts behind, I'm not sure if that changes anything. If I fold tens there I feel like I'm basically saying I'm giving up on winning the tournament and just hanging on to cash. When the blinds go through me most of my fold equity is gone and actually It think the good thing about shoving with tens instead of say AQ is that a lot of the hands I'm flipping with KQ, KJ may well fold, wheras a lot of pairs I'm dominating will call.

Mads looked me up in the sb with AQ even though that would have left him with 5bbs and I lost the flip.

Anyhow it was a somewhat sickening experience but like the true degen I am I jumped on the subway to go across town to late reg for the GSOP which is the ongame network $1500 tournament. Oh my, it was so soft. I had a really amazing table of weak tight goodness and turned my tilt into extreme preflop aggression.

20k starting stack and I finished with 108k which must be top ten or 15 in chips. I spent most of the tournament in somewhat of a daze drinking beer and making the life hell of the person on my right by flatting or raising almost every one of his opens, it was quite excellent. I also won a flip in this tournament with TT v AQ. Sigh.

Thanks for the support and I'll be trying to make something happen tomorrow in the GSOP (hey it's the one everybody wants to win, right?)

[nsidestrate]

Bummer of an ending, but you obviously have to shove tens there. gl on the backup tourney.

[philhux]

10/209 going into day two of GSOP
http://www.gsoplive.com

This is a quite badly organised tournament but my tables yesterday were amongst the softest I ever experienced.

And the tournament director is Mad Marty Wilson, so extra points for that!

[philhux]

Going into Day Three of GSOP. My second day three in a row. I have 119,500 chips (20bbs) - we already made the money.

500 runners, there are about 42 left and 100k euros for first.

I am short but still alive.

I had a really nice stack but an unfortuante set over set situation left me short.

Hand: What I think is a good player opens from early position with 30bbs, I three bet from the button with JJ. He thinks for a while and then flats. uh oh! I really was not expecting him to flat whatsoever and immidietly thought he had a big hand. Flop AJ5, check check. Turn is a 2 bringing a flush draw and he bets small about 1/3 of pot. I call but I am not feeling good about this. River is an offsuit 4 and he shoves. I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to fold but I just couldn't do it. I didn't know him that well so it is possible that AK could be in his range. I'd also 4 bet folded on the flop the level before and been shown a bluff (hand below), so he could have some random hand and be trying to make me fold. But yeah he had aces and I shipped him a nice chunk of my stack.

The hand where I was bluffed was very odd. I open min raise from utg with KK - I have 110,000 and I believe we are playing 600/1200. BB calls. My opponent has about 75k. He's been playing really quite tight but had taken exception to me asking him to put in a 100 chip as an ante rather than a 500 as he had a huge stack of 100 chips. He is a youngish eastern euro with a shaved head.

Flop is Q96 rainbow and he makes a really odd lead of 1,900 into a pot of about 6k. Generally I find this to often be top pair so I decide to rase and make it 5.8k, he is on my right and he turns and gives me the meanest stare ever straight in my face, thinks for five seconds and then quickly makes it 10.9k. Now I'm very confused and I'm struggling to come up with a value line for this hand unless he donked out with a set, which is possible. It's a tough spot because if I just call then how comfortable am I going to be calling two more barrels? Maybe that's what I should have done. I was still thinking about this and playing with my chips when he said to me with a sneer "aces are no good". Now I REALLY thought he was full of it, but again, I had no really solid read and didn't want to put all my chips in with two outs. So I decide to small four bet to 16.7k. INSTANTLY he pulls back what is out there and fires out three 10k chips very powerfully to make a five bet to 30,000 and gives me his glare. Wow, what am i to do here? This table seems ok, much tougher than my previous ones but with a couple of soft spots, plus it will break in about 90 minutes. I just decided to let it go and he proudly showed me 98 offsuit. I really don't get why you play tight and then go supercrazy in this spot, but I give him credit as his move got through.

A couple of other bad spots and I was left with a suoershort stack and I collapsed over the bubble line with 7bbs. I got one double up after the bubble burst 77 v A8 and got a couple of resteals through to get my stack to back over 120k. Average is about 210k.

Still feel like I'm playing well and have had a shortstack every day for the past week but been super patient. Hope I can make something happen tomorrow.

Updates at gsoplive.com

[taz115]

Good luck today!

[the_hawk]

Looks like he's out in 26th. Nice run.

[philhux]

Out in 27th. huge 3 way pot.

Earlier I'd 4 bet jammed with KQ and got looked up by AQ. BOOM king on the turn to double up to a biggish stack. Guy said he thought I had a lot less chips and might have folded if he knew I had so much but there you go.


Bustout hand:

5000/10000/ 1000 ante

I min open to 20k from EP2 with QTo. My stack is 330k and this is my standard open for this tourney. The table has been playing tight and although there are lot of resteal stacks on the table, nobody has been restealing with anything like proper frequency and probably never light.

In the hijack, an older German recreational guy thinks for a bit and flatcalls. He has me slightly outchipped. Then the cutoff who started the hand with 140k also comes along.

Flop is KT8 all spades, I have the queen of spades. I lead out with 45k with is just over half the pot. The German guy thinks and plays with his chips for ten seconds and then calls. The third player then instashoves for 120k. I don't see what else I can do but shove here. There's no way I can fold and I really hate just calling. I can't see either of them having KK and I have a ten blocker, but a set is still possible.

I'd be very unlucky if one of them had AK or AT with the ace of spades, so my pair and flush draw combo is going to be live in someway, perhaps ahead or more likely with outs. Finally if I shove then maybe the German guy folds some hands that are beating me like a king, pocket jacks, AT or even the naked Ace of spades, - getting him to fold and taking on the shortstack with a tonne of deadmoney is a great spot, so I like my shove. He thinks for a moment and then calls with pocket 8s for the set. The short stack has a small flush, I think he has 56 of spades, so his flatcall pre with 14bbs is clearly ridiculously bad.

Ace on the turn means I can hit 6 spades to scoop or a jack to win the hefty sidepot but river is a brick and I'm out in 27th for just under €4k. If I win the hand I think I then go second in chips and my table was playing quite tight and scared, the prize structure was very top heavy with 100k for first. I like my play and it was a good chance to try and get a megastack for the final table.

Still a losing trip but it could have been a lot worse. I'd recommend the GSOP tournaments to anyone, satellites on ongame, a supersoft field for sure and at least I get my Czech flag on Hendon Mob