I played in NL Holdem blogger preliminary last night. 790 players were registered. Things started great. I doubled up fairly early and put my stack to good use. I didn't play too many hands, but those I did play, I played aggressively. After the first hour I had double the average stack and got moved to a new table. Everyone at the new table had big stacks. Even better two of the biggest stacks were loose passive calling stations.
I went out of my way to get involved with a very wide range of hands any time one of these calling stations had entered the hand. It paid off and I eventually stacked both of them when my suited semi connected hands made flushes. This put me in the top 10 chipleaders.
At the 3 hour break, we were on the bubble with 164 players remaining (itm was 153). I was 2nd largest stack in the tourney with 46K chips. I had a loose aggressive Russian to my right with 25K and a tight aggressive guy with 22K to my left. Both had A ranks on PokerProLabs. I had hit nearly every hand I had played and thought this was going to be my night to go deep. Then reality set in...
About 20 minutes after the 3 hour break, the TAG to my left raised 3x utg and it folded around to me in the bb. I had AK clubs. I put him on a pocket pair 10+ or AK. So, I reraised all in. He called with AKo. Two hearts on the flop, another on the turn and a fourth on the river gave him a K high flush. I lost half my stack but was still solidly in the game. This was the first big showdown that I had lost and was actually happy to "get it out of the way" since I couldn't expect to win every showdown throughout the tourney.
Two orbits later and once again I pick up AK in the bb. The hand folds around to the laggy "A" guy to my right. He still has about 25K and I had about 23K. Both of us were a bit under the average stack size. He shoved on me and it was an obvious steal. AKo was good enough since I needed to double up if I wanted a shot at the final table. I called and he shows Q3. He flopped 33x for a set and all my chips. I actually think he may have gotten a Q on the river for good measure - LOL! I was out nr 74. I won another $11 SCOOP ticket, but my final table dream went up in smoke yet again.
The blogger Main Event is on Sunday.
Roland GTX
I had the "pleasure" of watching your last 20 minutes of that game yesterday. But that's what poker is all about right?
ReplyDeleteToo bad that this sort of bad beat occurs after so many hours of solid play, and so close to the final goal.
Better luck next time :D
Thanks, I agree with you MrE. I don't even consider either of them to be "bad beats".
ReplyDeleteI'm just disappointed about getting knocked out. People were dropping like flies at this point in the game. The cards had been going my way. I had a big stack. I had a good table, and I started thinking that this was my night. Obviously it wasn't!
I played my A game and had a profitable evening. So all in all I can't complain. Perhaps Sunday, with some extra birthday luck, with be the night. Have you seen the prize package for winning the Main Event! No cash, but a pile of huge tickets worth $4860:
1 x $2100 SCOOP ticket
1 x $1050 SCOOP ticket
1 x $530 SCOOP ticket
1 x $320 SCOOP ticket
4 x $215 Sunday Million tickets
Even min cashing in any of these 8 tourneys would be my largest cash. I just need to win the thing first...