I even knew they were putting a cap on registration for these, but I waited until the last minute to register anyway. Both the $150 (at 1000) and the $1500 (at freaking 100) buy-in events were locked, so I played the $15 for a lark. I don’t know if it was locked at 10K, but it got damn near that, with more than 9000 runners. I saw the field in the $1500 and was kind of glad I didn’t play it, though it presumably would have been softer with a larger field.
The structure was great and the opposition terrible, so with a lot of patience I was able to grind my way through my first table with no real difficulty. I roll my eyes whenever Daniel Negreanu mentions “small ball”, but against a weak field it really is an awesome strategy. No one was playing back at me ever, so I just stole like a demon pre- and post-flop without ever putting much at risk until I had a huge hand. The few times I did, I lost one big flip with AQ vs. 66 against a guy who limp-shoved on me from the SB (that one I think was mandatory) and when I reshoved 99 into KK (and probably I should have just folded pre-flop, even four-handed to a CO raise, given stacks, reads, etc.).
A very similar strategy worked well for me at the second table
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $15.00+$1.50 Tournament, 1250/2500 Blinds 300 Ante (5 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Button (t39651)
SB (t131070)
Hero (BB) (t196924)
UTG (t41296)
MP (t91059)
Hero’s M: 37.51
Preflop: Hero is BB with K
, A
UTG bets t7500, MP raises to t90759 (All-In), 4 folds
Total pot: t20250
Towards the end of the second table, there were two hands where I got away from small ball and swung for the fences. They were the end of me:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $15.00+$1.50 Tournament, 1250/2500 Blinds 300 Ante (3 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
BB (t203211)
Hero (Button) (t193874)
SB (t102915)
Hero’s M: 41.69
Preflop: Hero is Button with J
, J
Hero bets t5555, SB raises to t17500, 1 fold, Hero raises to t193574 (All-In), SB calls t85115 (All-In)
Flop: (t208630) K, 2, 9
(2 players, 2 all-in)
Turn: (t208630) K (2 players, 2 all-in)
River: (t208630) 7 (2 players, 2 all-in)
Total pot: t208630
Results:
Hero had J, J (two pair, Kings and Jacks).
SB had Q, Q (two pair, Kings and Queens).
Outcome: SB won t208630
Although it sounds absurd since I was raising 60-70% of my hands on the button, I think I should have folded this pre-flop. This was the first time this player had re-raised me all tournament, and I was picking up chips so easily that there wasn’t a need to felt him here. Obviously not folding JJ pre-flop with 30BB effective stacks and an insane image isn’t going to be a huge leak, but I do think folding would have been correct here. And then a few hands later, there was the one that did me in:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $15.00+$1.50 Tournament, 1250/2500 Blinds 300 Ante (3 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Button (t118106)
Hero (SB) (t94614)
BB (t287280)
Hero’s M: 20.35
Preflop: Hero is SB with A, A
1 fold, Hero bets t7500, BB calls t5000
Flop: (t15900) 10, 8, 2 (2 players)
Hero bets t8888, BB calls t8888
Turn: (t33676) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets t22222, BB raises to t270592 (All-In), Hero calls t55704 (All-In)
River: (t189528) Q (2 players, 2 all-in)
Total pot: t189528
Results:
Hero had A, A (one pair, Aces).
BB had 6, 8 (two pair, eights and sixes).
Outcome: BB won t189528
I’m definitely going to lose some money here, but I think it’s a too optimistic to go for his stack. I’d rather check turn and then either bet-fold river (if he checks back the turn) or check-call turn and bet-fold or check-fold river depending on the card and his turn bet size.