20k starting chips, 30 minute levels, $200k gtd. Started bang on time as per usual. Too early to report much, no one appears to be saying much other than me. Quelle surprise...
This is a one dayer, with a semi fast structure. I can fire an extra shell if needed. but we'll see the lie of the land. Hopefully we can keep yesterday's momentum going.
18k at the end of level one. seen a few flops and dodged around a bit. Early days.
We now have a full table. Good player from the PH event a few days back sits directly on my left. He likes to float and 3-bet a lot. On right is an older guy from Hawaii who isn't a bad player and who has a good attitude. We're already messing around. Also joined by Dan, a UK player I know pretty well, and who is a regular in these events.
Not too much going on. Drifted down a little by flopping yet another big combo draw that missed everything. Now on 15k or so at 100/200. For me staying at this table (not busting) is a big plus. A few good players for sure, but also some horrific ones. Sure if the right spot comes up I'm going to certainly take a punt today, but for now I won't be splashing around too much. Plenty of time for all that. 400 players so far, and they are dropping fast.
I lose with JJ vs a flush, and 66 on a 345 flop, down to 11k. Not ideal but still in the hunt.
A couple of guys are ridiculously overplaying hands. You can call it aggression, personally, I call it playing like a bull in a china shop, but to each their own. In one hand on an A 2 4 flop, AQ and A5 get around 20k each in the middle. it runs out a straight and they chop...the aggressive guy with apparently not much good humour who had the AQ looks disgusted, and the other player (who called allin on the flop was trying to justify his play, and then said "well, I didn't really like my hand". I said "Well don't worry, I didn't really like HIS hand (the other player) either once he turned it over". Dan laughed and the AQ looked decidedly unimpressed. Ho hum. He'll get over it.
I decide it's time to ramp it up a bit, and flop an up and down straight draw, and I push it when the opponent bets. He calls flipping over one pair, which turns out to be a pair of aces. Oops. I get there immediately and am back up to 23k. Lovely. Just in time for the first break as we end level 4.
This is a one dayer, with a semi fast structure. I can fire an extra shell if needed. but we'll see the lie of the land. Hopefully we can keep yesterday's momentum going.
18k at the end of level one. seen a few flops and dodged around a bit. Early days.
We now have a full table. Good player from the PH event a few days back sits directly on my left. He likes to float and 3-bet a lot. On right is an older guy from Hawaii who isn't a bad player and who has a good attitude. We're already messing around. Also joined by Dan, a UK player I know pretty well, and who is a regular in these events.
Not too much going on. Drifted down a little by flopping yet another big combo draw that missed everything. Now on 15k or so at 100/200. For me staying at this table (not busting) is a big plus. A few good players for sure, but also some horrific ones. Sure if the right spot comes up I'm going to certainly take a punt today, but for now I won't be splashing around too much. Plenty of time for all that. 400 players so far, and they are dropping fast.
I lose with JJ vs a flush, and 66 on a 345 flop, down to 11k. Not ideal but still in the hunt.
A couple of guys are ridiculously overplaying hands. You can call it aggression, personally, I call it playing like a bull in a china shop, but to each their own. In one hand on an A 2 4 flop, AQ and A5 get around 20k each in the middle. it runs out a straight and they chop...the aggressive guy with apparently not much good humour who had the AQ looks disgusted, and the other player (who called allin on the flop was trying to justify his play, and then said "well, I didn't really like my hand". I said "Well don't worry, I didn't really like HIS hand (the other player) either once he turned it over". Dan laughed and the AQ looked decidedly unimpressed. Ho hum. He'll get over it.
I decide it's time to ramp it up a bit, and flop an up and down straight draw, and I push it when the opponent bets. He calls flipping over one pair, which turns out to be a pair of aces. Oops. I get there immediately and am back up to 23k. Lovely. Just in time for the first break as we end level 4.
Back from the break, and I win a small pot with KK. The board runs out 3 8 9 10 J which isn't ideal, but the main thing is the good guys won the money. Over 500 players now and we are on the 25/150/300 level and cruising along. Still plenty of overplaying going on. For now I've screwed back down a little and am just waiting for one of the Kamikaze pilots to crash into the felt when they see Q9 on a 9 high flop or something.
Level 6 and I'm improving steadily, up to 33k.
Nearing end of level 7. A bluff went wrong, and I also got outkicked in a 2 pair showdown, back to 22k again. The decent player on my left got chopped to pieces, when he bluff-shoved into trips. He lost a huge proportion o his stack and now I feel he's basically shoving against any open, so I'm taking it gently.
Now reaching the end of level 8, and I've gone totally card dead....not seeing anything playable and mostly folding as preflop raises however big are just not getting through. I had a flurry of good hands early on, but now the reverse is the case. Just need to screw down a bit and wait it out. A couple of the maniac one pair overplayers have donated most of their stacks to the stronger ones at the table. Squaeaked along to the next break, losing the final hand when I found 88 in the big blind and had to fold on a KJQ flop. Ugh.
Level 6 and I'm improving steadily, up to 33k.
Nearing end of level 7. A bluff went wrong, and I also got outkicked in a 2 pair showdown, back to 22k again. The decent player on my left got chopped to pieces, when he bluff-shoved into trips. He lost a huge proportion o his stack and now I feel he's basically shoving against any open, so I'm taking it gently.
Now reaching the end of level 8, and I've gone totally card dead....not seeing anything playable and mostly folding as preflop raises however big are just not getting through. I had a flurry of good hands early on, but now the reverse is the case. Just need to screw down a bit and wait it out. A couple of the maniac one pair overplayers have donated most of their stacks to the stronger ones at the table. Squaeaked along to the next break, losing the final hand when I found 88 in the big blind and had to fold on a KJQ flop. Ugh.
There have been some ugly hands on the table. Thankfully I'm avoiding 90% of them, but a few of the shall we say, less sophisticated players, are treating one pair with a crap kicker like a set. This makes outplaying people tough, as you can only outplay good players, and good players are astute enough to see if you are short stacked and turn the pressure right back on you, so you need to pick your battles.
Dan doubled up, he was in a good spot with AQ when one of the table numpties put another 10k or so in with A4 and got crucified. I'm around the 10k mark, and with blinds now at 200/600/1200 it's becoming a struggle. Ironically I look on the table behind us, and two guys must have about 200k each! this dwarfs anything on our table, but of course, it's not how you start but how you finish.
Dear. God. Jesus.
I raise to 2900 out of a stack of 11,500 or so with AQ. Awful player makes it 6k, and a good player behind shoves for about 14k total. I give the original reraiser a spin all day long, as he could easily flip over A10 and I take my chances, but effectively, I have nothing, and one of them has to have a hand. I fold, going down to below 10k again, they both get the money in.
Good player: AK
Muppet: AA
Marvellous. I can dodge bullets. However I still have sod all chips.
My initial gameplan coming out here was to be considerably more aggro at the table and try to amass a bigger stack earlier. I am by no means a tight player, as those who know me can cheerfully testify, however, in amongst my many faults, stupidity isn't one of them. I also don't simply spanner off my or the investor's money because I'm having a bad day. Of course if I get it in bad, so be it, but from a situational viewpoint, I'm normally shoving or raising as opposed to meekly calling. Some will understand why this is a far superior approach to playing poker, even if the hands that flip over sometimes look slightly odd.
It just ended abruptly. fine it was a 6/4 shot, maybe a questionable call from the opponent, but if I'm honest he probably did nothing wrong by giving me a spin. He raised in late position with A5, and I shove with KJ offsuit. I don't imagine I'm winning, but I give him a fold option and I don't feel there's too much in it. Also, the blinds are about to go up...yet again.
He thinks it over and calls. It's approx 1/3 of his stack and he flops an ace. pretty much game over. At least he was one of the better players and also a nice guy. Home we go.
I could say it was a frustrating day, but I really don't get frustrated. It was just a bit of a damp squib where I needed to get well above start stack to make progress and it didn't happen. 0/5 on the trip. A small sample size so far but I'm not about to throw in the towel any time soon.
Dan doubled up, he was in a good spot with AQ when one of the table numpties put another 10k or so in with A4 and got crucified. I'm around the 10k mark, and with blinds now at 200/600/1200 it's becoming a struggle. Ironically I look on the table behind us, and two guys must have about 200k each! this dwarfs anything on our table, but of course, it's not how you start but how you finish.
Dear. God. Jesus.
I raise to 2900 out of a stack of 11,500 or so with AQ. Awful player makes it 6k, and a good player behind shoves for about 14k total. I give the original reraiser a spin all day long, as he could easily flip over A10 and I take my chances, but effectively, I have nothing, and one of them has to have a hand. I fold, going down to below 10k again, they both get the money in.
Good player: AK
Muppet: AA
Marvellous. I can dodge bullets. However I still have sod all chips.
My initial gameplan coming out here was to be considerably more aggro at the table and try to amass a bigger stack earlier. I am by no means a tight player, as those who know me can cheerfully testify, however, in amongst my many faults, stupidity isn't one of them. I also don't simply spanner off my or the investor's money because I'm having a bad day. Of course if I get it in bad, so be it, but from a situational viewpoint, I'm normally shoving or raising as opposed to meekly calling. Some will understand why this is a far superior approach to playing poker, even if the hands that flip over sometimes look slightly odd.
It just ended abruptly. fine it was a 6/4 shot, maybe a questionable call from the opponent, but if I'm honest he probably did nothing wrong by giving me a spin. He raised in late position with A5, and I shove with KJ offsuit. I don't imagine I'm winning, but I give him a fold option and I don't feel there's too much in it. Also, the blinds are about to go up...yet again.
He thinks it over and calls. It's approx 1/3 of his stack and he flops an ace. pretty much game over. At least he was one of the better players and also a nice guy. Home we go.
I could say it was a frustrating day, but I really don't get frustrated. It was just a bit of a damp squib where I needed to get well above start stack to make progress and it didn't happen. 0/5 on the trip. A small sample size so far but I'm not about to throw in the towel any time soon.