I've received some texts and emails from concerned readers regarding the delay in posting my Sunday tournament report. Some fearing the worst, that I was owned so badly I was avoiding the post. While it wasn't a Sunday to remember, it wasn't THAT bad, and I learned a few valuable lessons along the way. So to put my concerned readers at ease, here we go. WARNING: There will be some boring hand analysis in this post since there were some good hands to learn from....or vent about ;)
So I started my day in pretty typical fashion with breaky and coffee. Then I threw on some Kenny G and did some push-ups to get me in the zone. Ok well maybe I'm being ridiculous, I did not do any push-ups. Got going with the Sunday Warm-Up at 11am and some others. The day started out bad when I lost half my stack very early in the warm up with a monster hand that turned bad. I got dealt KK in the small blind. There was an early positon raise and I re-raised to build the pot and protect my big hand. He flat called so we saw a flop that came K-6-4 with 2 diamonds. Great flop. I bet, he called. Turn was a rag diamond. Ok, he might have a flush, but unlikely. I bet again, he calls. The river was a fourth diamond, and I have 2 black kings. Any diamond in his hand beats me. I figure if I check to him I'm showing him that I'm giving up without a diamond and he can steal it with any bet that I basically have to fold to. If he was playing some type of other hand without a diamond another bet would win me the pot. So I throw out a small-ish feeler bet and he immediately shoves all-in, leaving me no choice but to fold...sigh, goodbye half my stack 20 mins into the tournament. I would guess he probably had the AQ of diamonds. My luck didn't get much better and I busted about an hour later.
I took one afternoon tournament deep-ish. It was a $162 6-max (6 players per table rather than 9) with a 100K gtd prize pool. I finished around 20th out of about 650 entrants. I got a little over $700 for that which isn't too exciting considering that basically just balanced out the fact that I didn't cash in any of the majors.
The last major of the day (the Sunday Second Chance), I built up a pretty nice stack within the first hour. I had about 11K in chips (started with 3K) when the blinds were at 150/300. Then a very tough, but also very interesting hand arose. I was dealt QQ in mid-position, the third best preflop starting hand. An early position player, who I think was second to act and also had a big stack, raised to 600. I re-raised with my QQ to about 1600, to get a better idea of where I stand based on how he reacts. He flat called for the extra 1000 chips to see a flop. OK, immediately I feel the most likely hand he has is anwhere from 88 to JJ, possibly AQ suited, or a little less likely but still possible, AK (a lot of guys would re-raise me again with AK there) There is probably a 15% chance he is slow playing a big pair, like KK or AA (QQ very unlikely since I am holding it as well) and all other times he is re-raising me again with those. I had notes on this player from previous tournaments and knew he was strong and plays for a living. Although he is not really getting proper odds to call with smaller pairs, it's possible he would in this case due to the implied odds of us both having large stacks. The odds of flopping 3 of a kind when you already hold a pair are about 8:1, so you want your potential winnings vs. risk to be high. Anyway, the flop comes J-6-4 rainbow (all different suits). Pretty good flop for QQ. He checks to me, leading me to initially believe he is playing one of those smaller pairs or maybe AQ/AK. I bet about half the pot, and he throws in a small re-raise. Fishy. I call to see what he does on the turn and gain more info. The turn was a blank (some small and probably meaningless card), and he insta-shoves all in. WHOA. It costs me my entire stack to call. Now I have a really rotted feeling that my QQ is no good now. My initial thought was that he had JJ, 66, or 44 and is putting me on AA, KK, or QQ and has faith that I will call and pay him. Then I thought maybe he was slowplaying AA and put me on KK or QQ thinking I would call. UGH...or maybe he put me on a hand like AK and figures he can push me off of it with his marginal hand of TT or something? Hmm, not likely since he's too good to risk that many chips on a semi-bluff. I had a really bad feeling, but for some reason I reached for the 'call' button. He turns over JJ, I miss the last 2 Q's in the deck on the river and he sends me to the rail packing. I do not consider this bad luck, it was a bad call and a spot I easily could have (and should have) escaped from.
That is part of my game I need to work on. Getting away from really good hands that seem to have gone terribly wrong. I was a huge favorite preflop against JJ in that spot, but the flop was unkind and I turned into a huge underdog. He gave me all the info I needed to know my hand was not good anymore, but I didn't trust my gut. I think right now that is one of the biggest differences between me and the guys who are playing cards for a living and making millions. It's that fear of being bluffed that is a tough thing to deal with, and I need to learn to trust my instincts a little better. Great learning experience, and who knows, it might pay more dividends down the road than had I won that hand.....
Well, this wasn't the most exciting of posts, but the poker players in the audience might have found it interesting.
Unfortunatley I do not have any sailboat updates for my troubled readers at this time. I assure you I am working tirelessly to find you the answers you deserve. A big thanks to Katy for the sailboat education. It's becoming apparent that her passions extend beyond cycling.
OMG THE MASTERS STARTS THURSDAY...WOOOOOOOOOOOOO. With that gaining much of my attention Thursday thru Sunday, very tough to say if I'll be at the tables before next week!
Thanks for reading.
Josh
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