NAPT Day 2 Update

I started the day with 30K, quickly ran it up to 80K, dropped back down to 40K, ran it up to 130K, dropped down as low as 36K, then quickly ran back up to 140K and finished the day with 127,200.

Despite the swings, it was actually a really boring day. It was a soft starting table, but a couple of people lost their chips early and soon better players had taken their seats. The field is tough enough that it probably was a softer than average table throughout the day, but that doesn’t mean anyone was giving chips away.

I got my first double up early, opening with 22 in early position and getting called by one of the weaker players. I bet-shoved a 2d 7c Tc flop and held vs. ATs. After that I won a small pot raise-calling 44 in the CO vs. a German online player who turned out to have TT but couldn’t win the flip. It was a shame, because we’d been talking and he was the friendliest guy I’d played with all day.

He was soon replaced by Matt Waxman, who proved to be a good player but a much less pleasant table mate.

Another newcomer to the table was Alan Sternberg, winner of the recent Bay 101 Shooting Star Bay 101 event. Not long after he arrived, I opened AJs on the CO and the loosest player at table called on the BTN. Alan squeezed out of the BB, and I decided to 4-bet-call for about 40 BB’s, half my stack. Alan has AK, but based on how he played throughout the day, I’m happy with how I played it and chalking it up to a cooler.

Pretty soon I was in push/fold mode and shoved TT UTG only to be called by Alan’s KK. I turned a set to stay alive and double up.

Excited to have enough chips to play post-flop, I won a few pots that way and got up well over 100K. Then I started tangling with Aaron Merlman, who thanks in no small part to me is now in 2nd place overall. I don’t want to get into details here but I lost some big pots and ended up back in short stack territory.

Blinds had just gone up to 1500/3000/300, and I was in the BB with about 37K. Waxman opened to 6300, which I felt he could do with quite a wide range given my situation. He got flat called by a few players with loose standards, and I woke up to KTo in the BB. At this point the pot was nearly the size of my stack, and while I didn’t expect to have a lot of fold equity, I thought everyone’s ranges were pretty wide and I could probably get it heads up. I shoved, Waxman re-shoved 99, and I won the flip.

He was pretty unhappy about that and berated me a bit, but I’d play it the same again. I just stayed quiet and let him grumble. That stuff doesn’t get under my skin in terms of affecting how I play, but it does making playing much less enjoyable for me, which sucks. People who behave that way are one of the reasons I don’t like live poker.

The next hand, a loose player opened to 8K UTG. He only had about 70K behind. He got two calls from people who would definitely have 3-bet him if they had big hands. I found 88 in the SB. It would be a perfectly reasonable spot to flat 88, but I figured that especially with the dead money in the pot, I could afford to race with UTG. I squeezed it to 25K, and he called, which I was not expecting. Mercifully the other two folded and we saw a 9-high flop with three spades. I don’t know whether I had a spade, but it didn’t matter. I shoved, and he folded, telling me he had AQ no spade. From what I saw of his play, that sounds about right.

After that I just coasted through the rest of the day, stayed out of trouble, and bagged up a slightly below average but very healthy stack. There are 74 players remain, and 56 will be paid $7500. We play 8-handed tomorrow. Wish me luck!

PS I’m told that the Home Game tournament wasn’t available for registration today. Very sorry about that. I definitely scheduled it, but this wouldn’t be the first time the Home Game system deleted a tournament I had scheduled (once it even added one!). We’ll do the 2-7 NL next weekend, when I’ll definitely be available to play.