Bah

I decided to play my first online multi-table poker tournament in a while on Saturday night. For some reason, I had a good feeling about it. It seems that when I am playing my best cash poker, I am playing poorly at tournaments, and when I am playing my worst cash poker, I am playing well in tournaments. Since I have had a bad month or so at the cash table (including one of only two live losses in the last year or so), playing a mid-size buy-in tourney was an obvious way to come back.

I decided to play the 7pm Pokerstars $100 buy-in, and the 8pm $27.50 tourney. In the 7pm I started off slowly, leaking about 500 of my starting chip count of 3K, and then about 90 minutes into it I ran into a big (and lucky) hand. Blinds of 75/150, I had about 2700, UTG raises to 450, and then 5 players call, and then the SB calls as well. That leaves me getting some ridiculous sum of 250 to call into a pot of 2500 or so. I have Qd7d, and debate the merits of all 3 options, moving in, calling and/or folding. I decide that moving in is likely go elicit at least one call, due to the especially juicy pot odds that I will be offering, and at the same time I can’t pass up 10-1 odds with a suited hand like that, so folding it out. After calling, the flop comes KT5, with two diamonds. I immediately move in for essentially a pot sized bet with my 2nd nut flush draw, and UTG moves in over the top of me, and the rest fold. UTG flopped a set of tens. The board runs out J9 to make me a straight, and I essentially triple up. Following that fortuitous hand, I maintain myself in the top 10 or so all the way into the money (top 72 got paid $192 at least). Mid-way through the money though, I start to go a little card dead, and the table is active, so I just sit and wait for a while, hoping to get an opportunity to start stealing or a big hand. Finally my chance comes around 25 players or so left, as the overactive chip leader opens, and I jam with 99. He calls with A5 and I hold up and am suddenly above average.

I am still sitting above average, when the two fateful hands come up. There are 16 players left, with a payjump from $460 to $590 coming at the next knockout (1st place is worth upwards of $11K). I don’t have a problem with my jam in hand 1 from the button. Both blinds are around 8-9 BB’s, and with the pot potentially adding 12% to my stack, moving in seems worth it. The BB instantly calls with what I consider a somewhat marginal hand for the situation, A4. I don’t fault it but I don’t like it either, as he is barely ahead of me best case, and could be way behind. If he were a little shorter stacked (about 25-30K) I could see it, but here I thought it was close, and ranging towards a fold.

PokerStars Game #22079560681: Tournament #119387997, $100+$9 Hold'em No Limit - Level XVIII (2500/5000) - 2008/11/15 23:39:49 ET
Table '119387997 65' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Kucko06 (50006 in chips)
Seat 2: phins1013 (86156 in chips)
Seat 3: Steeser (72275 in chips)
Seat 4: REALLY STOOP (40018 in chips)
Seat 5: Jamieg1981 (43310 in chips)
Seat 6: moyave (179016 in chips)
Seat 7: Jurunasp (167946 in chips)
Seat 8: rusostreet (150267 in chips)
Kucko06: posts the ante 500
phins1013: posts the ante 500
Steeser: posts the ante 500
REALLY STOOP: posts the ante 500
Jamieg1981: posts the ante 500
moyave: posts the ante 500
Jurunasp: posts the ante 500
rusostreet: posts the ante 500
REALLY STOOP: posts small blind 2500
Jamieg1981: posts big blind 5000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Steeser [Jc Qh]
moyave: folds
Jurunasp: folds
rusostreet: folds
Kucko06: folds
phins1013: folds
Steeser: raises 45000 to 50000
REALLY STOOP: folds
Jamieg1981: calls 37810 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (7190) returned to Steeser
*** FLOP *** [Qc Ah 8s]
*** TURN *** [Qc Ah 8s] [5d]
*** RIVER *** [Qc Ah 8s 5d] [Kd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Jamieg1981: shows [Ad 4c] (a pair of Aces)
Steeser: shows [Jc Qh] (a pair of Queens)
Jamieg1981 collected 92120 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 92120 | Rake 0
Board [Qc Ah 8s 5d Kd]
Seat 1: Kucko06 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: phins1013 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Steeser (button) showed [Jc Qh] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 4: REALLY STOOP (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: Jamieg1981 (big blind) showed [Ad 4c] and won (92120) with a pair of Aces
Seat 6: moyave folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Jurunasp folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: rusostreet folded before Flop (didn't bet)

So unfortunately I miss, and suddenly I am crippled, down to about 6 BB’s. So, of course, the very next hand, I pick up KK, and have a trivial shove. As expected, the initial opener calls, although he took a while despite his significant pot odds, telling me he wasn’t too fond of his situation.

PokerStars Game #22079573387: Tournament #119387997, $100+$9 Hold'em No Limit - Level XVIII (2500/5000) - 2008/11/15 23:40:28 ET
Table '119387997 65' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Kucko06 (49506 in chips)
Seat 2: phins1013 (85656 in chips)
Seat 3: Steeser (28965 in chips)
Seat 4: REALLY STOOP (37018 in chips)
Seat 5: Jamieg1981 (92120 in chips)
Seat 6: moyave (178516 in chips)
Seat 7: Jurunasp (167446 in chips)
Seat 8: rusostreet (149767 in chips)
Kucko06: posts the ante 500
phins1013: posts the ante 500
Steeser: posts the ante 500
REALLY STOOP: posts the ante 500
Jamieg1981: posts the ante 500
moyave: posts the ante 500
Jurunasp: posts the ante 500
rusostreet: posts the ante 500
Jamieg1981: posts small blind 2500
moyave: posts big blind 5000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Steeser [Ks Kh]
Jurunasp: folds
rusostreet: folds
Kucko06: raises 7990 to 12990
phins1013: folds
Steeser: raises 15475 to 28465 and is all-in
REALLY STOOP: folds
Jamieg1981: folds
moyave: folds
Kucko06: calls 15475
*** FLOP *** [4s Th 2c]
*** TURN *** [4s Th 2c] [Js]
*** RIVER *** [4s Th 2c Js] [5s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Kucko06: shows [Tc Jh] (two pair, Jacks and Tens)
Steeser: shows [Ks Kh] (a pair of Kings)
Kucko06 collected 68430 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 68430 | Rake 0
Board [4s Th 2c Js 5s]
Seat 1: Kucko06 showed [Tc Jh] and won (68430) with two pair, Jacks and Tens
Seat 2: phins1013 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Steeser showed [Ks Kh] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 4: REALLY STOOP (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Jamieg1981 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: moyave (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: Jurunasp folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: rusostreet folded before Flop (didn't bet)
So, of course I lose a hand that would have vaulted me back to average, despite being a big favorite, and miss out on a big payout at the final table.

The result of this hand of course made me go back and think about the previous hand, where I gave up most of my chips. Had I not lost/played the previous hand, I would have likely had enough chips to 3 bet the original raiser and take down the pot uncontested. But that’s just results oriented thinking. I realize that the first play was a reasonable aggressive play, that just didn’t work out.

Oh well, it’s always depressing to run late into a tourney only to fall short of the big money.