Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
Haven't played in forever but finally had some time off so hit the local race track poker room to play a Saturday night tournament.
Buyin is $70 ($50 to prize pool, $10 rake, $10 optional add-on to dealer staff)
Start with 30K chips, blinds go up every 15 minutes. Structure is great in the early stages, but becomes oppressive and significantly luck-based late.
It's a re-entry for the first four levels so I played pretty loose, seeing lots of flops early in an attempt to take advantage of players who would pay off with weak holdings. Unfortunately for the first hour I didn't win a single hand and saw my stack drop to 25K
Since I haven't been raising at all yet, I decide to open up my game (if it doesn't fit, FORCE it!). Blinds 400/800 with a 100 ante and one limper, Hero is in LP with
and raises to 2400. Villian on immediate left cold-calls, limper calls. Three to the flop of
Limper checks, Hero fires 4K and both Villians fold. Hero flips up the bluff and badgers the table a bit, Villian on left who cold-called claims to have thrown away AK suited. Hero builds his stack back to 37K
With blinds at 1K/2K with a 300 chip ante Hero scores his first (and only) bustout of the night as a player shoves pre with
and Hero wakes up with 
and holds. Up to 60K
Hero begins to take advantage and raise a few extra hands each orbit, as there is now 6K up for grabs in the pot with blinds and antes each hand. Builds stack to, unfortunately, his peak for the event of 85K while the average is 60K
As we reach the break with 16 players in the field remaining (top 6 get paid) the average stack is 110K and Hero is sitting on 70k with blinds at 3/6K with a 1K ante
Hero is UTG and shoves with
and doubles-up a shorter stack who has 26K when his 
holds (Hero asks "will you take 18?)
A HUGE stack had gotten moved to our table and was either raising to 20-25K preflop a lot of hands (essentially forcing most players to play for their stacks, he'd have hands like
, 
, etc) or he'd try limping for 6K (and I would generally wake up with a shoving hand like and get it in, forcing his fold)
With blinds having ballooned to 4/8K with a 1K ante we are down to 13 players and Hero is sitting on a stack of 51K in the BB. Folds to the cutoff who raises to 20K. The button then shoves and covers both cutoff and Hero. Hero in the BB looks down at
and gleefully gets his chips in. The cutoff is pretty short at this point, but exercises caution and gets out.
Hero announces "just Aces" and Villain on the button says "Really?" and flips up
Of course the flop comes
and Villain holds, sending Hero to the rail in 13th. If I win that pot I'm up over 130K and have a shot (a little over a grand for first)
There were a couple of spots that were marginal where I had AT facing a preflop raise from a fairly tight player that I folded (he got one caller, flop KQJ and they both got it in, tight player had KQ) and another where that same tight player shoved pre from EP after a limper and covered Hero who was in LP with AJ off. I was in shove-mode myself but figured at best I was coin-flipping and opted to avoid the spot, since I still had fold equity with my own stack (didn't see villains holding)
Still, was a fun night, been forever with my work schedule since I've been able to play. Wish their structure wasn't so luck-based that deep and gave you room to play real poker, although with the blinds and antes so high you can chip up pretty quickly in a few hands of just stealing blinds.
Buyin is $70 ($50 to prize pool, $10 rake, $10 optional add-on to dealer staff)
Start with 30K chips, blinds go up every 15 minutes. Structure is great in the early stages, but becomes oppressive and significantly luck-based late.
It's a re-entry for the first four levels so I played pretty loose, seeing lots of flops early in an attempt to take advantage of players who would pay off with weak holdings. Unfortunately for the first hour I didn't win a single hand and saw my stack drop to 25K
Since I haven't been raising at all yet, I decide to open up my game (if it doesn't fit, FORCE it!). Blinds 400/800 with a 100 ante and one limper, Hero is in LP with
and raises to 2400. Villian on immediate left cold-calls, limper calls. Three to the flop ofLimper checks, Hero fires 4K and both Villians fold. Hero flips up the bluff and badgers the table a bit, Villian on left who cold-called claims to have thrown away AK suited. Hero builds his stack back to 37K
With blinds at 1K/2K with a 300 chip ante Hero scores his first (and only) bustout of the night as a player shoves pre with
and Hero wakes up with and holds. Up to 60KHero begins to take advantage and raise a few extra hands each orbit, as there is now 6K up for grabs in the pot with blinds and antes each hand. Builds stack to, unfortunately, his peak for the event of 85K while the average is 60K
As we reach the break with 16 players in the field remaining (top 6 get paid) the average stack is 110K and Hero is sitting on 70k with blinds at 3/6K with a 1K ante
Hero is UTG and shoves with
and doubles-up a shorter stack who has 26K when his holds (Hero asks "will you take 18?)A HUGE stack had gotten moved to our table and was either raising to 20-25K preflop a lot of hands (essentially forcing most players to play for their stacks, he'd have hands like
, , etc) or he'd try limping for 6K (and I would generally wake up with a shoving hand like and get it in, forcing his fold)With blinds having ballooned to 4/8K with a 1K ante we are down to 13 players and Hero is sitting on a stack of 51K in the BB. Folds to the cutoff who raises to 20K. The button then shoves and covers both cutoff and Hero. Hero in the BB looks down at
and gleefully gets his chips in. The cutoff is pretty short at this point, but exercises caution and gets out.Hero announces "just Aces" and Villain on the button says "Really?" and flips up
Of course the flop comes
and Villain holds, sending Hero to the rail in 13th. If I win that pot I'm up over 130K and have a shot (a little over a grand for first)There were a couple of spots that were marginal where I had AT facing a preflop raise from a fairly tight player that I folded (he got one caller, flop KQJ and they both got it in, tight player had KQ) and another where that same tight player shoved pre from EP after a limper and covered Hero who was in LP with AJ off. I was in shove-mode myself but figured at best I was coin-flipping and opted to avoid the spot, since I still had fold equity with my own stack (didn't see villains holding)
Still, was a fun night, been forever with my work schedule since I've been able to play. Wish their structure wasn't so luck-based that deep and gave you room to play real poker, although with the blinds and antes so high you can chip up pretty quickly in a few hands of just stealing blinds.
