FTOPS Event #8: $500 NLHE Heads Up

I finished 12th in this, out of 1024, meaning I made it to the Sweet 16. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about hands here because I’ll probably make a video of this for Poker Savvy Plus. But here’s the quick rundown:

Round 1- Guy was awful, I don’t remember much beyond that. He started making some massive pre-flop shoves, probably because he knew he was getting outplayed, so I had to gamble with him a bit. I actually got it in bad pre-flop to a cooler but sucked out to stay alive, and I finished him off eventually.

Round 2– Pretty similar to the first, if I recall correctly.

Round 3– I drew Yuvee04, winner of an unprecedented 4 FTOPS tournaments. Apparently he’s mostly a high-limit Stud/Razz/HORSE player, though I think he won PLO and NLHE tournaments as well. He was probably my toughest opponent and had a quite unique style that was clearly influenced by playing in fixed limit games. He was a little on the passive side but made good reads and did some weird stuff like min-raising turns and rivers. Here’s a good example of him snapping me off with K-high:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (2 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) (t3300)
BB (t2700)

Hero’s M: 73.33

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q, 4
Hero bets t60, BB calls t30

Flop: (t120) 7, 7, 9 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t77, BB calls t77

Turn: (t274) 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (t274) 3 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t166, BB calls t166

Total pot: t606

Results:
Hero had Q, 4 (one pair, sevens).
BB had 6, K (one pair, sevens).
Outcome: BB won t606

This was the only match where I felt outmatched. Don’t get me wrong, I put up a good fight, but I did feel he was a little better than I was. If he had as much heads up NLHE experience as I do, I’m sure he would have mopped the floor with me. I sucked out on him, he sucked out on me, etc., we were the last match of this round to finish, but eventually I won a coin flip to bust him.

Round 4- This was another tough one. My opponent was m_reed, a very solid TAG who I’ve played with a fair bit at MSNL and who now makes videos for CardRunners. We were very evenly matched, and once again I was the last one to finish. I was fortunate to get momentum early in the match and just sort of lean on that.

Round 5- Some crazy fish. He was stupidly aggressive, bluffing a lot but sometimes in bad spots and also overplaying hands. That can be a surprisingly difficult style to play against without cards, and he semi-coolered me every time I got a good lead on him, but eventually I busted him.

Round 6- Villain was Keith “da murdera” Ferrerra, which didn’t mean a lot to me until I googled his name. Apparently he’s a pretty well known tournament player and won the Wynn Classic. I read an interview with him where he sounded pretty smart and correctly explained a polarized range, but he didn’t turn out to play as well as I was expecting. He 3-bet like 1/3 of his hands, but I just started calling and owning him post-flop. I won a big pot off of him in a pretty funny way:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 20/40 Blinds (2 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) (t4076)
BB (t1924)

Hero’s M: 67.93

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9, 4
Hero bets t80, BB calls t40

Flop: (t160) 9, 2, 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t88, BB raises to t240, Hero calls t152

Turn: (t640) 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t222, BB raises to t600, Hero calls t378

River: (t1840) 3 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Total pot: t1840

Results:
Hero had 9, 4 (two pair, nines and twos).
BB had Q, 5 (one pair, twos).
Outcome: Hero won t1840

Round 7- Of the 16 left, I only recognized like two names: Shannon Shorr, and this guy jigga man who I’ve played a lot with at 3/6 and 5/10 NLHE. I would have much preferred to draw one of the other 13, but I got jigga. We actually played a little heads up cash once, he challenged me but quickly quit. Nevertheless, he was a tough opponent. I’m not happy with the hand I busted on:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 20/40 Blinds (2 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) (t2520)
BB (t3480)

Hero’s M: 42.00

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, 2
Hero bets t80, BB calls t40

Flop: (t160) 2, K, 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t77, BB raises to t220, Hero calls t143

Turn: (t600) 10 (2 players)
BB bets t480, Hero calls t480

River: (t1560) A (2 players)
BB bets t2120, Hero calls t1740 (All-In)

Total pot: t5040

Results:
Hero had K, 2 (two pair, Kings and twos).
BB had Q, J (straight, Ace high).
Outcome: BB won t5040

I think I ought to shove the turn. There are a few worse hands that can call, and even though air is a lot of his range, I don’t think he’s bluffing the river. My hand just looks very strong when I call turn. The river is very much a crying call, which is why I ought to just stick it in on the turn. I convinced myself this might look like a good card to bluff and maybe he can even value bet bare Aces, but pretty much I let him freeroll me and he got there.

And I just busted the Stars $500 in like 24th, dude in the CO made a questionable but I guess OK call with A9o when I shoved A8o from my BTN. Now I’m tired and pissed at poker tournaments and probably won’t play the PLO8 tomorrow, which is a shame cuz I was looking forward to it. I am playing the 1K tomorrow night though.