I know I said I wasn’t going to use the blog to whine about stuff, but I’m making an exception, you’ll see why. The last few Saturdays I’ve either been out of town or had Boston Debate League obligations, so this was the first time in like a month that I’d gotten to play poker. Saturday is special because Poker Stars and Full Tilt both offer special weekly $320 tournaments, and Poker Stars also has its weekly $475 satellites for the European Poker Tour.
I was excited to play these, firing up the EPT Dortmund satellite at 11:15, the EPT Warsaw satellite at noon, the Poker Stars $320 and $109 tournaments at 1:00, and the Ultimate Bet $109 at 2:00.
Everything got off to a good start: I doubled up early on in the Dortmund satellite when there was a raise to 90, two calls, and then I made it 500 to go with AK in the Big Blind. The raiser folded, and the first caller thought for a moment before putting me all in for about 2000 more. I figured he had something, but could definitely be playing back at me a little light since it was a good spot for me to squeeze. Since he didn’t reraise the first raiser, I slightly discounted big pairs like AA and KK, figuring his most likely holding to be a good medium pair like 88-JJ. I called and out-raced his QQ.
I got knocked out of the Stars $300 almost immediately. Still in level 1, I called a late position raise with A4s in the CO. The BB called as well, and the flop came Q53, giving me a flush draw, a gut shot, and an overcard to the board. The CO overbet the pot for like 220, which was not a good sign for me. He likely had top pair with a good kicker and wants to get the money in. But if he has KQ, I’m a decent favorite, and even if he has AQ, I’ve got the equity to get it in. So I raise to 750, and to my surprise the BB hesitates and cold calls. I’m not sure what to make of that, but it’s probably good for me, since even if he has a set it doesn’t hurt my equity enough to counteract the added benefit of having better odds to chase my draws.
The first player now moved all in for 2500. I was definitely priced in to call, and the BB tanked before coming along as well. The BB had AQ and the other guy had KQ, a good situation for me, though I ended up missing everying and getting eliminated. But if anyone was wondering, yes, the Saturday $300 has some bad players in it.
In the Warsaw satellite, I lost a sizeable pot early on to a terrible player. Some guy in late position open limped, the terrible guy completed from the SB, and I checked A7 in the BB. The flop was J72r, and the SB min-bet for 30. I raised to 90 to chase out the limper behind me and see how the SB would respond. He called. The turn was an A, giving me two pair. He min-bet again, and this time I raised close to the size of the pot, making it 250 to go. He called again. The river was an 8, and he bet out 100. I really didn’t see how I could be beat here, and this guy seemed like a calling station, so I raised to 500, and he called with T9 for a rivered nut straight. Yes, he chased a gut shot on the flop and turn, then when he made the best possible hand on the river, he just called my raise. I was mad to lose the pot, but was licking my chops at the prospect of abusing this calling station, who was to my immediate right (best place for him).
The next few times he open limped I raised 5x with whatever cards I had (the EPT satellites have a great structure, so even after losing that big pot, there was still room for deep-stacked play). Generally he folded pre-flop or check-folded the flop. Eventually, I got the opportunity to make a big bluff that only kind of involved this guy but made me really happy anyway.
I raised 33 UTG to 90, the Button called, and the calling station called from the BB. On a Qs9x5s flop, he makes another stupid little min bet of 30 into a pot of 285. There weren’t a lot of draws for him to have, but whatever he had, I was pretty sure he was weak, so I made it 120, again to chase out the guy behind me and see how SB responded. Unfortunately, the Button called after some hesitation, and the SB called. Just from the timing of the Button’s call, I had a feeling he was weak and just didn’t think I had anything.
The turn was an off-suit deuce. SB checked, and I checked as well, looking to see what the Button would tell me about his hand. If his bet looked weak, I was planning to check-raise him all in. Sure enough, he bet 300 into a pot of 645. The SB folded, and I moved all in for 1890, forcing the Button to throw away whatever mediocre hand he had. That’s another nice thing about the EPT satellites: because they are a pretty big buy-in and have a good structure, people aren’t as willing to gamble for all their chips as they are in regular tournaments.
Anyway, I got up a nice stack in the Warsaw tournament, then got blinded down and ended up moving all in with AQs for 5x, only to be called by K8s in the BB. I flopped top pair but he turned a flush to knock me out.
By that time, though, I was in good shape in the other tournaments I was playing and not that disappointed. The guy whose QQ had lost to my AK some time ago in the Dortmund was still at the table, and he would berate me from time to time for my “stupid call.” Even though he’d recovered nicely and had a lot of chips, I could tell he was still angry.
At the 50/100 level, I picked up AK UTG and raised to 300. My little friend called on the Button, and we saw a lovely flop of K25r. I bet 450 and he called. The turn was a 9 and he called a bet of 1100. The river was an offsuit 4, and I put him all in for his last 3000 chips. He thought for two minutes before calling with TT. After that I was over 10K in chips and one of the top 10 stacks.
A while later I was moved to another table with a couple other top 10 stacks. I lost a few medium pots early on to a player on my left who clearly thought I was too aggressive. At the 100/200 level, I raised to 600 UTG+1 with 99, and the guy to my left immediately make it 1600. With his less than 3x reraise, I put him on a big pair, probably Aces. I had 12000 chips and he had me covered, so I could afford to call and try to hit my 9. Sure enough, flop is 9JcKc. This actually isn’t the best flop in the world, because if he does had KK or JJ, I’m in serious trouble, but there’s no getting away now. I lead out for 2400, he min-raises to 4800, I move all in and he calls a bit reluctantly with his AA. Now with 25K chips, I was in the top 3, though there were still some 40 players left, with 8 seats worth nearly $9000 a piece to be paid out.
Around this time, I realized I’d forgotten to register for the $320 Full Tilt tournament at 3:00. Oh well, I should focus on my Dortmund satellite anyway.
I tightened up quite a bit at this point, as smaller stacks were moving all in nearly every time I raised. This is a good strategy on their part, because with a big stack and a flat payout structure, I’ve got very little incentive to make a heroic call. Anyway, we get down to the final two tables and I am still sitting on 24K chips, which is about average. Blinds are 400/800, and it folds all the way around to me in the SB where I have Q5s. I don’t really want to fold when I’m ahead of a random hand, but if I just call, the BB, who has me covered will almost certainly raise. I guess I could have limp-raised all in, but I didn’t think of it at the time.
Anyhow, I was curious to know how he would respond to a raise anyway, so I made it 2400. He reraised to 7200, and I saw immediately that he had left the door open for me to run him over. He could fold to an all in and still be in the top 5 out of the 18 remaining, in very good shape to win a package. He certainly doesn’t need a big hand to reraise me, since he knows I don’t need a big hand to raise him and ought to be afraid of being eliminated myself. I move all in for 24,000, and he folds.
At that point I was in the top 5 and planning to hunker down for a while to see how everyone else was playing. If the play was wild, I might be able to fold my way into a seat at EPT Dortmund, or very nearly anyway. But it was not to be: the next orbit, I got QQ and raised to 2400. The same player reraised to 6000, and I got the sense that he felt he had a license to resteal from me this time, since there’s no way that I’d be gutsy enough to 4-bet bluff him again. He was right, except that this time I had the third best hand in poker. I moved in, forcing him to fold again. That was fine by me, as I had just moved up to 3rd place without a showdown. Had he called, I could expect to be ahead, but not far enough ahead that I’d want to risk being eliminated so close to the prize.
OK, now it was time to hunker down. Except that next orbit I got AA. The UTG player raised 4x to 4800, leaving himself about 14K behind. I moved all in, and he wisely folded. I’m pretty sure AA is the only hand I could have here. I may have folded KK rather than risk going to showdown for 40% of my monster stack against someone who could easily have a live Ace.
Now time to take it easy? Nope: next orbit UTG+1 raises to 3200, leaving himself about 12K, or 10 BB’s, behind. I have KK in the SB, and I actually considered folding, since I was in such good shape that I thought I might be able to avoid playing any more pots, or at least any more showdowns. I would have folded QQ, but since I was going to be risking only 20% of my stack, I decided to move all in. Unfortunately, he had AA, and I lost a big pot, though I was still in 3rd place.
I finally did hunker down for a long time, watching several short stacks go out. Unfortunately, in these satellite bubble situations, the trend is towards the middle. That is, big stacks like me tighten up and shorter stacks are forced to make moves, either doubling up and become big stacks or busting out. So with 10 players left, I found myself in 7th place, with the 3 stacks shorter than mine nipping at my heels.
Blinds were up to 800/1600, and for some time now I’d been folding most of the time and occasionally open shoving for like 16x or so. There was a lot of restealing going on, and I just wanted to win the pots I entered. Even with AA, I didn’t want to raise and call an all in from someone who could cripple me. So when I did get AA UTG, I just shoved in for 27K. Everyone folded, which was fine, and I showed the hand, so that they would be less inclined to call me in the future.
Twice, short stacks got all in and I was praying for them to bust, but both times they doubled up instead, putting me in bad shape. The first time, a guy raised ATs UTG and called an all in from the BB, who had AJs. The turn was T. The second time a short stack at my table open shoved 7 for 22K or so, and the chipleader made an absolutely atrocious (and instant) call with AJ. Unfortunately the 7’s held up.
This turned out to be foreshadowing. A few orbits later, I was up to 6/10, with 8 seats to be paid. The prize for 10th was about 5% of the prize for the 8th, and no one had less than 75% of my stack. I got 99 UTG at a 5-handed table and moved all in for 30K. The Button called me instantly with AK for basically his entire stack (it left him less than 2BB’s). I figured I was toast, but he flipped over AKs, which is an awful call. I think it probably would have been correct for him to fold KK and maybe even AA there, not that I’d expect him to.
I cursed him and held my breath. The flop was 567, a good one for me. My girlfriend sitting next to me held my hand and her breath. The turn was a King. I screamed and covered my face with my hands, sending my glasses flying off onto my keyboard. “Stupid @#$%!” I started shouting at this idiot who had just made a call that cost both of us equity to the benefit of the other 8 players in the tournament, would be one spot closer to winning a seat no matter which one of us lost the all in confrontation.
By the time I got my glasses back on the hand was over, my table had been closed, and Poker Stars was congratulating me on “winning” $475 (which was really just my entry fee returned to me, a hollow prize compared to the 9K seat that would have been a lock had I won that coin flip). I continued to stare, shell-shocked at the screen, not even caring as my AQ lost to KJ to put me out on the bubble of the Ultimate Bet $109 final table.
My girlfriend was quiet, not really sure what to say, I guess. Eventually she patted my arm. “It’s okay,” I told her. “I’m fine.” I probably should have apologized for blowing up, too (not that it was at her or anything). So much for my resolution to respond less emotionally when things go wrong.