Last tournament of 2005! - €300 21/12/2005

A report from Pokerevents' Winter Festival €300 Freezeout:

Right so, I thought I throw together a short report of what I remember from last night at the Westwood Hotel in beautiful Galway. The tournament was due to start at 8pm, but did not get underway until nearer to 8:30. There were 116 runners, starting stacks of 8,000. 11 tables, as far as I recall. Not a huge number of familiar faces to me, though I think BigDragon, Daitho, DeV, Fatboydim, NickyOD and Kincsem were in attendance. I only recognised one chap on my starting table, and since I went to school and college in Galway, who knows if I've ever played against him before.

I was seated in seat 9, we had a full 10 for the first hand of the night. Blinds were 25-50. I was dealt K8 hearts, two limpers before me, I called, button limped, SB and BB kept it friendly. The flop was 8 diamonds and J 4 hearts. The blinds and early limpers checked, I bet 150, the button and SB called. The turn was the magical A hearts, giving me the nut flush. SB checked, I checked, button bet 500. SB folds, I dwelt for a while and finally called. Bet 600 on the river (another heart), the button called quickly, he had a much weaker flush. Nice way to start the tournament, up to about 9500. Didn't get much for the next few levels, won the blinds here and there but it was a fairly loose table, very hard to bluff pre-flop with so many willing to call with Ax. Twice after taking down the blinds I showed my hole cards, AKo and 99 (wanted to establish a real 'rock' image with these loose players, which I did, looking back I'm not sure this was the smartest thing to do). Had to lay down AK after a big pre-flop raise and a raggy flop. AQ cost me a bit on two occasions. Went into the break (after 2 1/2 hours I think) with 7600, still 80+ runners live.

During the break I heard BigD's sad story and saw that some other boardsters were going well. Resumed at the 200-400, 50 ante level, knowing I needed to make a move in the next 30 minutes. After about 10 minutes, I found 55 in the SB, one limper. Both the BB (tight, aggressive) and limper (loose, thought he was fairly weak) had me covered, and I decided (probably without thinking it through) to push. BB folded immediately, the limper dwelt for about 3 minutes and finally called. On went the coat until I saw he had called for 2/3 his stack holding A4 spades. He found a 4 on the flop, I found another 5 and received a 17k stack as my reward. Average stack at this stage was 13k I think.

About 25 minutes later I raised to 2000 preflop (300-600 blinds, 50 ante) with AK suited. All folded to the BB, who quickly decided to raise all in. He was a good but fairly loose player, willing to take risks. I didn't put him on AA-QQ, and thinking of the range of hands he possibly had pushed with, thought I had a better than 50% of being ahead. I called, he flipped AQo, I doubled up to more than 45k. Only 50 or so runners left but they were dropping like flies now. One chap on my table, very inexperienced, had won his ticket via a boylepoker satellite and more than trepled up to a big 55k stack, he announced he was going to sit on it until the final table. As there were more than 900k chips in the tournament and many hours of play to go until the final table, you can see why some of the rest of us smiled at this.

Went card dead for the next few levels, until over an hour later at the 500-1000 blinds, 100 ante level I again found AKo, with a stack of about 37k or so (around the average). A good, agressive player with a dwindling stack went all in for about 16k. I had a definite read on him I, he had made similar agressive moves earlier in the night with KQ and QJ hands, I had a very strong feeling my AK was in front of Ax. I called, everyone else folded, and sure enough he had AJo. Winning this would really put me back in control of my tournament destiny with about 55k and a strong player gone. The thrice-curséd Gods of Poker stuck a big bad J on the flop to double him up and leave me approaching the red zone with a stack of 21k.

I wasn't dead just yet though and promised myself to get over it and kick some ass. Stole a pot or two during the next 30 minutes to maintain my stack. During the 1000-2000 blinds, 200 ante level (only about 20 players left I think), I found 99 in early position. I really needed to make a move here, so quickly decided on the following tactic: most of the agressive players at the table (some really good players) were to my left, between me and the BB. One had pulled off an audacious move goving over the top of a big pre-flop raise with J 10, almost putting the raiser on tilt by showing. I figured if I limped, chances were someone closer to the button would put in a raise to push me (the rock) and the blinds off. I would then push and either take a nice big pot pre-flop, or more likely, force a showdown where I was ahead. If I ran into a bigger hand, so be it, I needed to double up and now was the time to do it. One of the late position players limped also, and the SB pushed for 16k. BB folded. Again, I thought about what he was holded and reckoned it was much more likely I was ahead than behind, and called. The other limper folded. The SB had a look of misery on his face as he turned over KQ hearts, the flop was raggy but contained two hearts, a black ace on the turn, and there it was, a 6 hearts on the river. He lets out a mightly yell of victory, much like the ones our ancestors must have uttered after stabbing a wooly mammoth in the gonads or bashing an antelope in the back of the head with a rock. I may have muttered a profane word or three under my breath, I can't rightly recall. Without futher ado we were on break, two tables left, blinds about to go up to 1500-3000, 300 ante, and I was the tourament short stack with 4400, starting UTG. I did not have a happy break.

First hand back, I throw it in automatically after a cursory look at my cards (89 hearts, not bad at all), the blinds plus antes were now worth 7500 so I expected a few callers to check it down, no, all folded to the BB, the inexperienced player. He knew enough to call me on the blind, he turned over 22 quack quack. I caught an 8 on the turn and immediately was BB and in desperate need of doubling up again. I think I layed that BB down to a big pre-flop raise, likewise with my SB, but threw my chips in again on the button (can't remember what I was holding, this was after 2:30 and I was quite exhausted) and got the blinds. Doubled up again UTG with A 10o vs 10 3o and found myself on the BB with KQo and about 19k in total. Only 15 left, average stack was about 60k. However, with two big chip leaders, a stack of about 40k looked good at this point. Folded around to the button, the player who survived his AJ vs AK scare against me. He raised to 16k, the SB folded. I again thought this was the hand to make my stand with, he had shown himself to be agressive with similar or slight weaker hands, I could be dominated but that's poker. I pushed, he called with A9, the board didn't help me home I went.

Had an interesting night, I thought I played some good poker during the mid part of the tournament and with my short stack immediately after the last break (this is where my image helped). I was very beaten down after losing the AK vs AJ and 99 vs KQ battles, probably because I was in an unusually confident mood up until this point. Oh how I wished I got to that final table...