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Out level 7
Apr. 29th, 2009 08:04 pmWent out on level 7 after a disappointing day, all in all. Looking back, I don't think that I would have played many hands differently. I wanted to play a game that I was comfortable with, rather than try to adapt.
Hands of interest. Level 1, got AK utg and raised it to 3x. Italian calling machine defends his big blind. Fired half pot on flop if T86. Called. Fired pot bet on Turn of T864. Called. River was a 7 and it went check-check. He turns over AT and I'm down to 27k or thereabouts.
Second interesting hand was level 2. I got QQ in the Small blind. We're still at 200x BB as default stack, and I got six limpers. This was strange territory for me. I called (if I raise I have no idea how much to put in to avoid a dificult situation on most flops) and flop came QT8 two diamonds. I led out small and got one caller. Turn was an Ace and I check-called a smallish bet (700). River was a 9 and I check-called a 1000 bet, losing to AJs (gives hiim the straight).
I can play that hand lots of different ways with hindsight, but top set is a dangerous hand on that flop. Queens are an easy raise with 100BB, but not so easy with 200. If there were any hand in the day that I liked my play least, it was this one, even though I only lost 2000. It was never going to be easy to play OOP, but I should have found a better line.
Third interesting hand was level four or five, so we are up to 100 big blinds as the default, except that I was now down to about 19k, so I only had about 60 big blinds.
I limped UTG with TT, planning a pot-comitting reraise if I sensed a steal from anyone on my right (in this case, a very good US player, something 555 online, and now Juha Helpi was on my immediate right). Anyhoo, it didn't come (perhaps an utg limp smelled too much). Instead I got a limp behind and a completion from the SB and the flop came QT6. I led out 700 into a 1600 pot, but no-one wanted to play.
My low point was about 17k and I shoved a couple of times, plus winning another on a hand that saw a flop that I really don't recall, because I was playing the opponent rather than my hand.
And then, with blinds on 300-600 and 50 ante, I picked up red kings in the cut-off. French ex-rugby player Philippe St Andre raised to 1800 and I have a choice of shoving my 23K-ish or reraising to 5,500 or something like that. My major fear about the reraise was that I could really see the Spaniard on the button looking to play here, and I didn't really fancy two opponents if I was effectively committed. Plus I felt that St Andre (who had quite a stack) was getting a bit tired of disciplined play after seven hours. So I shoved.
He called (after a bit of thought) with A9o. An Ace came on the turn and I Go Home Now.
Perhaps I should have reraised to 5500 here, because I had position on the initial raiser and he was fairly easy to read. He would probably fold to my pot bet on the flop. On the downside, if the flop comes Axx and he checks, I really have to shove the flop anyway. Hell I got it all in at 75%, what more do I want?
Winning that one would have got me to an average stack with 50 big blinds, i.e., something to play with.
I had some tough opposition, Dave Saab and the US guy were blindingly good to my inexperienced eyes. The Three Italians and one Spaniard were technically competent, but not any better than say $100 tournament players online. Two of them went out and one built up a nice stack.
Still, it would have been nice to have got some decent cards (the only hands I got were OOP in a deep stack game -- horrible) and had the luck early on that the rugby player had -- JT9 flop when he had KQ, against an opponent who had come in with Q8. But, basically, the way I play, I need to win those 75% jobs on day 1 to have a hope of making the money.
+++++++
So, what to do now with the spare days? Read some books by the pool I guess. Let's hope the weather holds up. I might even try some swimming....
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Hands of interest. Level 1, got AK utg and raised it to 3x. Italian calling machine defends his big blind. Fired half pot on flop if T86. Called. Fired pot bet on Turn of T864. Called. River was a 7 and it went check-check. He turns over AT and I'm down to 27k or thereabouts.
Second interesting hand was level 2. I got QQ in the Small blind. We're still at 200x BB as default stack, and I got six limpers. This was strange territory for me. I called (if I raise I have no idea how much to put in to avoid a dificult situation on most flops) and flop came QT8 two diamonds. I led out small and got one caller. Turn was an Ace and I check-called a smallish bet (700). River was a 9 and I check-called a 1000 bet, losing to AJs (gives hiim the straight).
I can play that hand lots of different ways with hindsight, but top set is a dangerous hand on that flop. Queens are an easy raise with 100BB, but not so easy with 200. If there were any hand in the day that I liked my play least, it was this one, even though I only lost 2000. It was never going to be easy to play OOP, but I should have found a better line.
Third interesting hand was level four or five, so we are up to 100 big blinds as the default, except that I was now down to about 19k, so I only had about 60 big blinds.
I limped UTG with TT, planning a pot-comitting reraise if I sensed a steal from anyone on my right (in this case, a very good US player, something 555 online, and now Juha Helpi was on my immediate right). Anyhoo, it didn't come (perhaps an utg limp smelled too much). Instead I got a limp behind and a completion from the SB and the flop came QT6. I led out 700 into a 1600 pot, but no-one wanted to play.
My low point was about 17k and I shoved a couple of times, plus winning another on a hand that saw a flop that I really don't recall, because I was playing the opponent rather than my hand.
And then, with blinds on 300-600 and 50 ante, I picked up red kings in the cut-off. French ex-rugby player Philippe St Andre raised to 1800 and I have a choice of shoving my 23K-ish or reraising to 5,500 or something like that. My major fear about the reraise was that I could really see the Spaniard on the button looking to play here, and I didn't really fancy two opponents if I was effectively committed. Plus I felt that St Andre (who had quite a stack) was getting a bit tired of disciplined play after seven hours. So I shoved.
He called (after a bit of thought) with A9o. An Ace came on the turn and I Go Home Now.
Perhaps I should have reraised to 5500 here, because I had position on the initial raiser and he was fairly easy to read. He would probably fold to my pot bet on the flop. On the downside, if the flop comes Axx and he checks, I really have to shove the flop anyway. Hell I got it all in at 75%, what more do I want?
Winning that one would have got me to an average stack with 50 big blinds, i.e., something to play with.
I had some tough opposition, Dave Saab and the US guy were blindingly good to my inexperienced eyes. The Three Italians and one Spaniard were technically competent, but not any better than say $100 tournament players online. Two of them went out and one built up a nice stack.
Still, it would have been nice to have got some decent cards (the only hands I got were OOP in a deep stack game -- horrible) and had the luck early on that the rugby player had -- JT9 flop when he had KQ, against an opponent who had come in with Q8. But, basically, the way I play, I need to win those 75% jobs on day 1 to have a hope of making the money.
+++++++
So, what to do now with the spare days? Read some books by the pool I guess. Let's hope the weather holds up. I might even try some swimming....
_____________
