A Deepish Sunday Run

I got up big stacks in both the $200 UB and the $500 FTP tournaments today. The UB went south when I called a tiny raise from the CO with 64s in my BB. He had been active, we were both kinda deep stacked, and there were antes, so I was getting quite good odds. Anyway, I check-raised all in with my open ended draw on an A75 flop. His range for betting this flop ought to be really wide, but he had AK and knocked me down to 15 BB’s. Then I folded a bit, shoved AJ, got called by 88, flopped a Jack, and lost to a turned 8.

I doubled up very early in the FTP (which started with 250 BB stacks):

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold’em Tournament, 15/30 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

Hero (SB): 4,910
BB: 5,605
UTG: 5,000
UTG+1: 5,230
UTG+2: 4,955
MP1: 4,955
MP2: 4,610
CO: 4,540
BTN: 5,195

Pre-Flop: (45) 7 7 dealt to Hero (SB)
4 folds, MP2 raises to 135, CO calls 135, BTN folds, Hero calls 120, BB folds

Flop: (435) T 7 5 (3 Players)
Hero bets 275, MP2 calls 275, CO calls 275

Turn: (1,260) 9 (3 Players)
Hero bets 1,000, MP2 calls 1,000, CO raises to 4,130 and is All-In, Hero raises to 4,500 and is All-In, MP2 folds

River: (10,520) 3 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

Results: 10,520 Pot
Hero showed 7 7 (three of a kind, Sevens) and WON 10,520 (+5,980 NET)
CO showed 8 5 (a pair of Fives) and LOST (-4,540 NET)

I’m leading here just because these randoms tend to be too passive for my taste and I want to make sure the bets get into the pot. I also think that, unlike better players, these guys won’t play for pot control the way they should with top pairs, overpairs, etc. In other words, I’m not missing out on a bet from marginal hands and I’m setting them up to lose a lot when they have a worse made hand.

In all honesty, the fact that the overcaller woke up on the turn scared me. He really should have fastplayed a big hand on the flop as deep as we are, as drawy as the board is, and with two people already showing interest in the pot. Even though the 9 only completed gutshots, I didn’t think it was inconceivable for him to have a straight or a set of 9’s.

Of course, people are idiots early in tournaments and folding a set of 7s would be absurd in this spot. So we get it in and he’s got bottom pair and a gutshot after calling with 85o pre-flop. That works. Best of all, the guy’s screenname, and I swear I’m not making this up, was “WideRange.” You certainly do, sir.

After that, nothing happened for a while, but it didn’t need to. I got ground down to an average stack, then doubled up when AK beat out TT. As I was getting blinded down again, I noticed a big stack named EazyPeazy. I didn’t recognize the name, but he was playing well. I googled him and found a bunch of links about him playing 1K/2K mixed games with Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese, and Ted Forrest. So of course I found a spot to 3-bet him in position with 94s.

Other than that I was pretty card dead and quiet, though. Eventually I picked up KK in early position, raised, and called a shove from the BB, who was actually the third player (who folded on the turn) in the hand posted above. Anyway her 66 flopped quads to knock me down to 12 BB’s. The very next hand I picked up AQ and shoved in. JJ called, but I won the flip and doubled back up.

I still wasn’t catching much in the way of hands, though, and as the bubble approached I was getting short stacked. However, my table was wickedly tight and I managed to get away with quite a few open shoves without ever getting called. I took another hit when the action folded to one of the more active players with a 10x stack on the button. He shoved, and I called with A7 on my BB, only to lose to his K2.

After paying the small blind and a few antes, I was left with a 3.5x stack. The action folded to me, and I would have shoved any two cards, though I happened to get QQ. Astoundingly, no one called, which was actually fine. As short as I was, winning the blinds and antes uncontested is a fine result even with QQ.

This moron on my right was stalling every single hand, which was both annoying in its own right and particularly bad because I was rarely in a position to steal his blind, though it was ripe for the taking. I did once shove Q8o under the gun just because Stally McStallerson was in the BB.

Even after the bubble burst, play continued to be very tight, and I stayed alive but short through well-timed shoving. Finally, I moved in with 33 and a 10x stack UTG+1 and got called by JJ to bust in like 223 out of more than 3000 participants. Sadly, that was worth barely twice my buy-in back. However, I did bust FTP pro Sigi Stockinger, which was good for a $200 bounty. Also, I’ll be getting a T-shirt in the mail, so that’s something.