Fun and jollity in my first decent sized event here at the DSE. I pick up KK almost immediately, and flop a set on a KAJ all-club board. I take off one card to a heavy bet in a 3 way pot, and the turn doesn't pair up. The aggressor goes all-in for the full remainder of his 20K stack. Marvellous. He shows the flopped straight. 2500 down but early crisis averted I suppose. I get a lump of it back with two pair shortly afterwards. Table is talking a little at least.
Screen says 133 players at present. More coming in. Little to report right now.
Few pairs, few draws, nothing develops. Trying to tiptoe and conserve early chips and not find myself in a sub-10K spot at the break. The levels are 40 minutes, so there's no need to get super out of line. Based on what I've seen so far, if I am lucky enough to hit gin on this table, then getting paid won't be a huge problem. Right now my 20K looks more like 17,500 as we start level 3. The KKK hand earlier could have seen me in much worse shape if I'd decided to be more trigger happy.
New player at the table, who somehow got seat 2 mixed up with seat 6, and had to relocate. He then gets the lot in preflop with JJ vs AA who was happy to oblige, especially when he flopped a set of Aces and crippled the newcomer. What a marvellous game.
First break. 15K from the initial 20K. Done nothing wrong, but in the last 30 mins we now have a full table, and the preflop aggression seems to have gone up a little. No huge deal but am not about to bleed too many chips trying to get too fancy too early.
Screen says 133 players at present. More coming in. Little to report right now.
Few pairs, few draws, nothing develops. Trying to tiptoe and conserve early chips and not find myself in a sub-10K spot at the break. The levels are 40 minutes, so there's no need to get super out of line. Based on what I've seen so far, if I am lucky enough to hit gin on this table, then getting paid won't be a huge problem. Right now my 20K looks more like 17,500 as we start level 3. The KKK hand earlier could have seen me in much worse shape if I'd decided to be more trigger happy.
New player at the table, who somehow got seat 2 mixed up with seat 6, and had to relocate. He then gets the lot in preflop with JJ vs AA who was happy to oblige, especially when he flopped a set of Aces and crippled the newcomer. What a marvellous game.
First break. 15K from the initial 20K. Done nothing wrong, but in the last 30 mins we now have a full table, and the preflop aggression seems to have gone up a little. No huge deal but am not about to bleed too many chips trying to get too fancy too early.
Back from the break and a little flurry of hands and some fancy footwork sees me pop back up to over 25K, which is a much nicer spot in which to be. Sometimes patience can be a heavy burden to bear when everyone around you is jumping in and out of pots, but it's very often the right move during the early stages of these things. From what I gather the MSPT has a lot of regs who follow the tour and play it, but also has a lot of inexperienced semi recreational guys who are probably never going to play a bigger buy in event than this in their lives, so can do some unpredictable stuff. The trick is spotting them early, as, like with so many people who buy in for these things, they likely won't win it, but they can ruin your chances of winning along the way.
I get moved to a new table. New set of mutants to try and unpick. We're now at 50/150/300 on level 5, and the clock shows 154/193 with people still lining up.
I get moved to a new table. New set of mutants to try and unpick. We're now at 50/150/300 on level 5, and the clock shows 154/193 with people still lining up.
Some fun stuff on my new table. Q9 vs KK get it in on a Q 9 6 flop. King on the river. 96 makes an ugly river straight to ruin another guy's flopped two pair. It's REALLY not time to be getting silly the way the table dynamic is running, but it's also possibly a good chance to get paid if you have position and get in cheaply.
Kathy Liebert just joined us on my right. We've played together a ton over the years. I lose a small pot when I try to take someone off a scabby ace. I don't succeed. Back to 22K.
Level 6 and up to 26K. I've taken two pots off Kathy.
One unsmiling older Asian (think Men the Master with even less humour) is outdrawing everyone for fun with suited dogshit. He likes to gamble and is hitting turns and rivers. All good, he'll keep. Another old calling station in shades keeps asking how much the bet is each time, calling, then hitting. A tad frustrating but part and parcel of these things.
162/220 left. 23K.
My table broke yet again. Crazy Asian guy follows me and is directly on my left now. That sucks. He took a hit when he got outdrawn himself for once and his AA got smashed by J10. I'm back to 19K. In 30 mins at my new home I've hit nothing, but am steady still and now down to 18K at the second break.
This table is TOTALLY silent. Not my ideal environment, but honestly today I'm not really in the mood to be the dancing monkey to get things warmed up just for the hell of it. I'll chug along and play ABC for the moment. Level 7 and 147/238 remain.
Been a good hour or so of utter card-deadness thus far. I'm grinding it out. We're currently at 75/250/500 and 1200 or so is the standard open.
Crazy Asian was up to about 70K. He's now out. I guess he just couldn't stop playing pots. That will only get you so far most of the time if you can't change gears. People are open shipping the lot with 10 10 and AQ offsuit, but much as I might like to say I'm that foolhardy so early in the day, I guess I'm really not.
The guy two to my right has been jamming at everything, and has lost 4 pots in a row now. I gently needle him about it. He takes it in good spirit.
Level 8 and it's been pretty dire. I've had nothing so raise with, steal with or see flops with. I'm keeping it tight. There are a couple of guys whose opens I could shove on pretty light, but at 75/300/600 and a 12K stack we're not there yet. Soon possibly!
Slight change in fortunes. I finally found one to play with AJs, versus A5 offsuit. We chopped it. Happy days. This is bloody torturous. 127/251 left as we go to 100/400/800. I jam one with a flush draw as I'm sick of getting blinded out, and win a small pot. On we go.
I grind up a little back to 14K, and a new dealer comes in. She immediately fluffs the deal, and exposes my first card, the Ace of Spades. She apologises profusely, and the table seems a tad perplexed that I'm not screaming obscenities at her. It's just a mistake. Why stress about it?
Of course my second card was the Ad. Hey ho.
Dinner break. 13K.
Back from break and the blinds are 100/500/1000. Time to get busy or die trying.
Registration is now closed for day 1A, and it says 08/268 now remain. Still a long ways to go but now would be a good time to actually pick up a hand or two, in what has otherwise been a pretty barren first day for me.
My table just broke yet again, and on my new table I see a 160K pot when AK (no clubs and Kc 9h get it in on an Ac 9c 3c flop. The flush draw doesn't get there and the guy with 70K leaves on a busted draw shove. I actually liked his shove a lot better than the AK's call with just one pair for a ton of chips, but I guess you have to gamble sometimes, and it just shows how poker has changed over the years.
Found my chance, and got it in with 99. AK gave me a spin and luckily I was good. Pinged back up to 26K as we near the end of level 10. Yay.
Level up. 91 players left and we're at 200/600/1200.
Well, I've ground my heart out all day. Stolen when I needed to, had almost no real hands, and am still here. It'd be nice now if things swing in the right direction, and reward my patience and measured approach with some love now we're in sight of the end of day one, and a well earned rest.
No. Poker doesn't work like that. I get screwed of course!
I limp QQ under the gun, and get a raise as I'd hoped. I then get a reshove from a player with a similar stack to mine. I'm pretty sure the original raiser is folding, and that (at the moment) I'm almost certainly good against the other player. I also shove, and the original raiser folds. Over we go.
Me: QQ
Villain: AQ with the Ac
I say I guess I'm in great shape, unless of course the Ace hits.
It doesn't. However, he does run out four clubs to river the nut flush and bust me. That felt pretty gross after 8 hours. Lots of oohs and aahhs at the table, but I just wish everyone luck and leave. Sometimes being right and getting it in good sucks. A lot. But no point getting upset.
My next event is supposed to be the DSE $1100 Bounty in two days, with a $100K guarantee. However, I am considering scrapping this and playing 1B of this event instead for the same buy-in tomorrow. The guarantee for the MSPT is $400K more than the bounty tournament, which kind of makes it a no-brainer (err...$500K... $100K...hello???) and I actually think it'll be a better tournament for me than the bounty, though hopefully not with the same grim ending as I had today. I'll sleep on it and decide in the morning, but from a purely financial perspective, playing tomorrow looks the better choice.
Kathy Liebert just joined us on my right. We've played together a ton over the years. I lose a small pot when I try to take someone off a scabby ace. I don't succeed. Back to 22K.
Level 6 and up to 26K. I've taken two pots off Kathy.
One unsmiling older Asian (think Men the Master with even less humour) is outdrawing everyone for fun with suited dogshit. He likes to gamble and is hitting turns and rivers. All good, he'll keep. Another old calling station in shades keeps asking how much the bet is each time, calling, then hitting. A tad frustrating but part and parcel of these things.
162/220 left. 23K.
My table broke yet again. Crazy Asian guy follows me and is directly on my left now. That sucks. He took a hit when he got outdrawn himself for once and his AA got smashed by J10. I'm back to 19K. In 30 mins at my new home I've hit nothing, but am steady still and now down to 18K at the second break.
This table is TOTALLY silent. Not my ideal environment, but honestly today I'm not really in the mood to be the dancing monkey to get things warmed up just for the hell of it. I'll chug along and play ABC for the moment. Level 7 and 147/238 remain.
Been a good hour or so of utter card-deadness thus far. I'm grinding it out. We're currently at 75/250/500 and 1200 or so is the standard open.
Crazy Asian was up to about 70K. He's now out. I guess he just couldn't stop playing pots. That will only get you so far most of the time if you can't change gears. People are open shipping the lot with 10 10 and AQ offsuit, but much as I might like to say I'm that foolhardy so early in the day, I guess I'm really not.
The guy two to my right has been jamming at everything, and has lost 4 pots in a row now. I gently needle him about it. He takes it in good spirit.
Level 8 and it's been pretty dire. I've had nothing so raise with, steal with or see flops with. I'm keeping it tight. There are a couple of guys whose opens I could shove on pretty light, but at 75/300/600 and a 12K stack we're not there yet. Soon possibly!
Slight change in fortunes. I finally found one to play with AJs, versus A5 offsuit. We chopped it. Happy days. This is bloody torturous. 127/251 left as we go to 100/400/800. I jam one with a flush draw as I'm sick of getting blinded out, and win a small pot. On we go.
I grind up a little back to 14K, and a new dealer comes in. She immediately fluffs the deal, and exposes my first card, the Ace of Spades. She apologises profusely, and the table seems a tad perplexed that I'm not screaming obscenities at her. It's just a mistake. Why stress about it?
Of course my second card was the Ad. Hey ho.
Dinner break. 13K.
Back from break and the blinds are 100/500/1000. Time to get busy or die trying.
Registration is now closed for day 1A, and it says 08/268 now remain. Still a long ways to go but now would be a good time to actually pick up a hand or two, in what has otherwise been a pretty barren first day for me.
My table just broke yet again, and on my new table I see a 160K pot when AK (no clubs and Kc 9h get it in on an Ac 9c 3c flop. The flush draw doesn't get there and the guy with 70K leaves on a busted draw shove. I actually liked his shove a lot better than the AK's call with just one pair for a ton of chips, but I guess you have to gamble sometimes, and it just shows how poker has changed over the years.
Found my chance, and got it in with 99. AK gave me a spin and luckily I was good. Pinged back up to 26K as we near the end of level 10. Yay.
Level up. 91 players left and we're at 200/600/1200.
Well, I've ground my heart out all day. Stolen when I needed to, had almost no real hands, and am still here. It'd be nice now if things swing in the right direction, and reward my patience and measured approach with some love now we're in sight of the end of day one, and a well earned rest.
No. Poker doesn't work like that. I get screwed of course!
I limp QQ under the gun, and get a raise as I'd hoped. I then get a reshove from a player with a similar stack to mine. I'm pretty sure the original raiser is folding, and that (at the moment) I'm almost certainly good against the other player. I also shove, and the original raiser folds. Over we go.
Me: QQ
Villain: AQ with the Ac
I say I guess I'm in great shape, unless of course the Ace hits.
It doesn't. However, he does run out four clubs to river the nut flush and bust me. That felt pretty gross after 8 hours. Lots of oohs and aahhs at the table, but I just wish everyone luck and leave. Sometimes being right and getting it in good sucks. A lot. But no point getting upset.
My next event is supposed to be the DSE $1100 Bounty in two days, with a $100K guarantee. However, I am considering scrapping this and playing 1B of this event instead for the same buy-in tomorrow. The guarantee for the MSPT is $400K more than the bounty tournament, which kind of makes it a no-brainer (err...$500K... $100K...hello???) and I actually think it'll be a better tournament for me than the bounty, though hopefully not with the same grim ending as I had today. I'll sleep on it and decide in the morning, but from a purely financial perspective, playing tomorrow looks the better choice.
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