I know, I've changed my haircut again, right?
So, the day has finally come. My first old geezer's tournament...
Technically, I was qualified to play in one of these things four years ago. However, Mum most importantly, Doyle, Covid, employment issues, visa issues, the end of the world, etc... an awful lot of stuff took priority over poker. However, it had to happen at some point, my first ever seniors event. The starting table in the Encore ballroom feels a bit like like god's waiting room. Not a pair of headphones or a hoodie in sight, however, no conversation at all either, which was somewhat surprising. I'll see if I can soften them up a bit.
A 30k starting stack and a 40 minute clock means it's a pretty decent structure. At present there are 486/501 elderly people jostling for position. Walking canes and mobility scooters litter the aisles, and the smell of stale urine and Werther's Originals is all pervading. There's a medical team on standby with a crash cart and emergency diapers...
OK, I'll stop. Too many jokes.
My table seems standard enough. I have to fold AK on a king high flop when the action dictates that half my stack will be in by the river at the rate the betting is going. At 100/100/100, I'm happy to let it slide for now and just plod.
I was starting to get that sinking feeling so far today, when I could see my stack just going in the wrong direction with every single hand I played, barring the first small pot that I won when we started. I laid down AK in a funky situation earlier as said, and the experts would no doubt all be shaking their heads collectively, and explaining how the spreadsheets and the pie charts clearly show that I'm supposed to get all my money in there, and if I go broke, I go broke. As you're no doubt already aware, I sincerely believe that a lot of GTO/2+2 strategy is utter horseshit, and of course I'm not afraid to say it. Nothing trumps instinct, and situational awareness. Nothing. Sometimes it's wrong of course, but you've either got it or you haven't. Maybe I've got it, maybe I don't. But I'm always trying. So, there's always that.
It wasn't going well and my 30k had dropped to 22k on level 3, when a hand came up against the guy I laid down the AK to earlier. The hand played out where the board showed J7654. There had been a bit of jostling on the earlier streets, but the guy seemed like he was either bullying, or had a big hand he was trying to protect by the way he was betting. On the river, he instantly moved all-in, and my gut instinct (see earlier paragraph) was that he either had air, a big pair, or top pair, top kicker. I had just rivered a set of 4's, which is still a tough spot, as he might have a multitude of holdings that have me beat. However, on this occasion, a set is a much tougher fold for me than one pair, and my gut says call, the speed with which he shoved the river being a big factor... make of that what you will.
I call. He quickly tables AA, and I give him the bad news. It was a weird hand, where he kept me in the pot by not betting too big, then bet big when he was behind. Not saying that what he was doing was wrong, it just played out kind of weird is all. I hop back up to 33k, and bust him in the process.
First break, and I'm more or less back where I began, on 31k or so.
Back into the fray, in a poker room that you could quite comfortably land a plane in, since the WPT has now moved from the Encore poker area and into the WPT designated main ballroom for the bigger events such as this one. I've applied a bit of pressure to a nice guy at the table, who it transpires from conversation, is a horse player, besides his poker endeavours. I flop middle set, and after a bit of heavy action, I jam the turn, and he then tanks. I think he has a big overpair, QQ or KK based on what happened in the preceding minutes, but he eventually lets it go. The cynic in me feels like he'd have rivered a bigger set if he made a poor call for all his money. That's the attitude Kevin.
I take a few hits, when good hands go bad, and drop back to 31k, as we reach level 5 and blinds of 300/500/500. 569/631 remain at present, so the fall out rate is not quite as lemming-like as the events where they also let the kiddies play.
Level 6 and a bonkers hand just played out. Bonkers because the peanut gallery will say I played it "wrongly", however, I'm still in, when I should have been out. Blinds at 300/600/600, and I look down at KK in middle position. A player opens to 1500, and I flat call, because (instinct, there's that word again) I have a feeling one of the players behind me is about to reraise. So, let's set the trap. One player calls the 1500, his neighbour then reraises to 4700 (ker-ching!) and one of the guys in the blinds now dwells for what seems like an eternity. He then very deliberately makes it 17,000 to play. OK, this was kind of what I was hoping for, but the radar is now telling me that this is, in fact, not really what I want at all. AA for the 4 bettor is a very realistic possibility in my mind, just from body language alone. Maybe KK also, or AK or QQ at the absolute worst. Whether I'm correct in my assumption or not, my belief in these things is that a lot of the time, avoiding the car-crash, and being able to outplay folks over the long run much better suits my style than just lumping it in every time I get a big hand, and hoping it holds. I muck my KK preflop (gasps from the gallery, yes, I know). The raiser behind me dwells up then calls the 17k, so heads up, these guys see a flop of QJ7. Eek.
When the dust clears, it transpires that the original raiser had 99 (and still wanted to put 17k in preflop with it), and the 17k 4-bettor actually had QQ, and had fortunately flopped top set. He wasn't folding for the rest of his chips preflop if I'd banged it with my kings, so as I say, it's actually one of those spots where if I'd done what all the experts say I should have done, I'd now be out of the tournament. So. There's that.
Level 7 and 484/731 still remain. I'm on 30k at 400/800/800.
Back up to 35k as we hit 500/1k/1k. It feels like a pretty fast tournament despite the slow clock, but I'm biding my time for now.
Sigh. Just call me the heartbreak kid. My QQ just lost to K 10, when I had him nicely on the hook and he decided to river trip tens and take 11k off my stack, spiralling me down to 20k. Balls.
Level 9, at 600/1200/1200. 424/777 are still swinging, and I'm in there amongst them, though the last hour has been pretty dire. I'm on 19k, so a double up at some point would be pretty peachy. I'm still resisting the urge to just spazz out and shove, but it's getting harder to be disciplined the more my stack dwindles.
15 minutes until the one hour dinner break (they give us high rollers in the bigger events a dinner break), but my stack isn't looking great to make it unless I at least get a double up. I'm not a fan of shove poker at all, but last few levels, I've missed every flop or been jammed on with a hand I can't really commit with. Buckle up.
It wasn't pretty, and I really can't say I'm overly proud of this style of poker, but I've managed to make the dinner break by virtue of shoving 3 or 4 times with some pretty scabby holdings, and talking it up a bit as I did so. Historically, my "big" starting hands haven't been good to me at all today, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. You have to suck it up and adapt, or possibly die in the attempt, at least making an effort to advance through the field. I guess I have a pretty solid table image, especially after I've named other people's hands correctly about 3 times before they turned them over. It's not the best spot in which to be... I'd much rather have 70k or so, but 18k with an hour of kicking my heels is something at least. It would have been very easy to have busted out hours ago, especially if I'd played the way the books will tell you to play when you get certain hands or find yourself in particular spots. But I'm still here. Let's hope for a bit of love during the next level or two instead, and hopefully we spin it up into a stack we can wield with a bit more vigour and style rather than just banging it in and hoping for the best.
I guess we got our answer pretty fast.
Second hand of the new level, I look down at AJ and prepare to get aggro... until there's a raise, and then a reraise before it even gets to me. I muck, and 99 and AK get it into the middle, with 99 holding up. A moment later, there's a raise under the gun, I squeeze out KK (not too much finesse needed this time), and I raise for about 3/4 of my stack, sending the message, but also sowing a bit of doubt in the opener's mind. This works out well in the end, because my buddy who flopped QQQ earlier when I folded my kings wakes up with JJ, and decides to go all-in. The original raiser mucks (but says afterwards that the JJ saved me as he'd have busted me on the turn), and my kings hold versus jacks, getting me back up to a much healthier 41k. The final number of entrants for today is 805 players, and 342 currently remain.
We're down to 279 players at 1k/2k/2k as we approach level 12. I haven't seen anything for a few orbits, and it doesn't take long for the chips to get eaten away again, I decide that taking the initiative and being the aggressor is pretty much always the smarter play in these spots. I look down at AJ, and a player I've gotten into a few tussles with opens to 5500. There's one caller, so around 16k in the pot already. I fancy the caller will muck, and I don't mind a race with the original raiser, if he wasn't opening light, which is certainly also possible. I jam for around 28k, and, as suspected, he calls and the other player folds. We go over, and it's my AJ versus 10 10. Not ideal, but it's a fair fight, and I got my money in first.
It means little though, as the board runs out with every face card apart from a jack, no ace hits, and I bust around 270th. I'm perfectly OK with the shove at tis stage; if I win it gets me up to around 60k and in great shape to cruise onwards. I got the money in first, and it ended up being a flip. It wasn't to be, so I'll just live with the decision, move on, and fight the next one in the same spirit. WPT Prime here we come.
Technically, I was qualified to play in one of these things four years ago. However, Mum most importantly, Doyle, Covid, employment issues, visa issues, the end of the world, etc... an awful lot of stuff took priority over poker. However, it had to happen at some point, my first ever seniors event. The starting table in the Encore ballroom feels a bit like like god's waiting room. Not a pair of headphones or a hoodie in sight, however, no conversation at all either, which was somewhat surprising. I'll see if I can soften them up a bit.
A 30k starting stack and a 40 minute clock means it's a pretty decent structure. At present there are 486/501 elderly people jostling for position. Walking canes and mobility scooters litter the aisles, and the smell of stale urine and Werther's Originals is all pervading. There's a medical team on standby with a crash cart and emergency diapers...
OK, I'll stop. Too many jokes.
My table seems standard enough. I have to fold AK on a king high flop when the action dictates that half my stack will be in by the river at the rate the betting is going. At 100/100/100, I'm happy to let it slide for now and just plod.
I was starting to get that sinking feeling so far today, when I could see my stack just going in the wrong direction with every single hand I played, barring the first small pot that I won when we started. I laid down AK in a funky situation earlier as said, and the experts would no doubt all be shaking their heads collectively, and explaining how the spreadsheets and the pie charts clearly show that I'm supposed to get all my money in there, and if I go broke, I go broke. As you're no doubt already aware, I sincerely believe that a lot of GTO/2+2 strategy is utter horseshit, and of course I'm not afraid to say it. Nothing trumps instinct, and situational awareness. Nothing. Sometimes it's wrong of course, but you've either got it or you haven't. Maybe I've got it, maybe I don't. But I'm always trying. So, there's always that.
It wasn't going well and my 30k had dropped to 22k on level 3, when a hand came up against the guy I laid down the AK to earlier. The hand played out where the board showed J7654. There had been a bit of jostling on the earlier streets, but the guy seemed like he was either bullying, or had a big hand he was trying to protect by the way he was betting. On the river, he instantly moved all-in, and my gut instinct (see earlier paragraph) was that he either had air, a big pair, or top pair, top kicker. I had just rivered a set of 4's, which is still a tough spot, as he might have a multitude of holdings that have me beat. However, on this occasion, a set is a much tougher fold for me than one pair, and my gut says call, the speed with which he shoved the river being a big factor... make of that what you will.
I call. He quickly tables AA, and I give him the bad news. It was a weird hand, where he kept me in the pot by not betting too big, then bet big when he was behind. Not saying that what he was doing was wrong, it just played out kind of weird is all. I hop back up to 33k, and bust him in the process.
First break, and I'm more or less back where I began, on 31k or so.
Back into the fray, in a poker room that you could quite comfortably land a plane in, since the WPT has now moved from the Encore poker area and into the WPT designated main ballroom for the bigger events such as this one. I've applied a bit of pressure to a nice guy at the table, who it transpires from conversation, is a horse player, besides his poker endeavours. I flop middle set, and after a bit of heavy action, I jam the turn, and he then tanks. I think he has a big overpair, QQ or KK based on what happened in the preceding minutes, but he eventually lets it go. The cynic in me feels like he'd have rivered a bigger set if he made a poor call for all his money. That's the attitude Kevin.
I take a few hits, when good hands go bad, and drop back to 31k, as we reach level 5 and blinds of 300/500/500. 569/631 remain at present, so the fall out rate is not quite as lemming-like as the events where they also let the kiddies play.
Level 6 and a bonkers hand just played out. Bonkers because the peanut gallery will say I played it "wrongly", however, I'm still in, when I should have been out. Blinds at 300/600/600, and I look down at KK in middle position. A player opens to 1500, and I flat call, because (instinct, there's that word again) I have a feeling one of the players behind me is about to reraise. So, let's set the trap. One player calls the 1500, his neighbour then reraises to 4700 (ker-ching!) and one of the guys in the blinds now dwells for what seems like an eternity. He then very deliberately makes it 17,000 to play. OK, this was kind of what I was hoping for, but the radar is now telling me that this is, in fact, not really what I want at all. AA for the 4 bettor is a very realistic possibility in my mind, just from body language alone. Maybe KK also, or AK or QQ at the absolute worst. Whether I'm correct in my assumption or not, my belief in these things is that a lot of the time, avoiding the car-crash, and being able to outplay folks over the long run much better suits my style than just lumping it in every time I get a big hand, and hoping it holds. I muck my KK preflop (gasps from the gallery, yes, I know). The raiser behind me dwells up then calls the 17k, so heads up, these guys see a flop of QJ7. Eek.
When the dust clears, it transpires that the original raiser had 99 (and still wanted to put 17k in preflop with it), and the 17k 4-bettor actually had QQ, and had fortunately flopped top set. He wasn't folding for the rest of his chips preflop if I'd banged it with my kings, so as I say, it's actually one of those spots where if I'd done what all the experts say I should have done, I'd now be out of the tournament. So. There's that.
Level 7 and 484/731 still remain. I'm on 30k at 400/800/800.
Back up to 35k as we hit 500/1k/1k. It feels like a pretty fast tournament despite the slow clock, but I'm biding my time for now.
Sigh. Just call me the heartbreak kid. My QQ just lost to K 10, when I had him nicely on the hook and he decided to river trip tens and take 11k off my stack, spiralling me down to 20k. Balls.
Level 9, at 600/1200/1200. 424/777 are still swinging, and I'm in there amongst them, though the last hour has been pretty dire. I'm on 19k, so a double up at some point would be pretty peachy. I'm still resisting the urge to just spazz out and shove, but it's getting harder to be disciplined the more my stack dwindles.
15 minutes until the one hour dinner break (they give us high rollers in the bigger events a dinner break), but my stack isn't looking great to make it unless I at least get a double up. I'm not a fan of shove poker at all, but last few levels, I've missed every flop or been jammed on with a hand I can't really commit with. Buckle up.
It wasn't pretty, and I really can't say I'm overly proud of this style of poker, but I've managed to make the dinner break by virtue of shoving 3 or 4 times with some pretty scabby holdings, and talking it up a bit as I did so. Historically, my "big" starting hands haven't been good to me at all today, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. You have to suck it up and adapt, or possibly die in the attempt, at least making an effort to advance through the field. I guess I have a pretty solid table image, especially after I've named other people's hands correctly about 3 times before they turned them over. It's not the best spot in which to be... I'd much rather have 70k or so, but 18k with an hour of kicking my heels is something at least. It would have been very easy to have busted out hours ago, especially if I'd played the way the books will tell you to play when you get certain hands or find yourself in particular spots. But I'm still here. Let's hope for a bit of love during the next level or two instead, and hopefully we spin it up into a stack we can wield with a bit more vigour and style rather than just banging it in and hoping for the best.
I guess we got our answer pretty fast.
Second hand of the new level, I look down at AJ and prepare to get aggro... until there's a raise, and then a reraise before it even gets to me. I muck, and 99 and AK get it into the middle, with 99 holding up. A moment later, there's a raise under the gun, I squeeze out KK (not too much finesse needed this time), and I raise for about 3/4 of my stack, sending the message, but also sowing a bit of doubt in the opener's mind. This works out well in the end, because my buddy who flopped QQQ earlier when I folded my kings wakes up with JJ, and decides to go all-in. The original raiser mucks (but says afterwards that the JJ saved me as he'd have busted me on the turn), and my kings hold versus jacks, getting me back up to a much healthier 41k. The final number of entrants for today is 805 players, and 342 currently remain.
We're down to 279 players at 1k/2k/2k as we approach level 12. I haven't seen anything for a few orbits, and it doesn't take long for the chips to get eaten away again, I decide that taking the initiative and being the aggressor is pretty much always the smarter play in these spots. I look down at AJ, and a player I've gotten into a few tussles with opens to 5500. There's one caller, so around 16k in the pot already. I fancy the caller will muck, and I don't mind a race with the original raiser, if he wasn't opening light, which is certainly also possible. I jam for around 28k, and, as suspected, he calls and the other player folds. We go over, and it's my AJ versus 10 10. Not ideal, but it's a fair fight, and I got my money in first.
It means little though, as the board runs out with every face card apart from a jack, no ace hits, and I bust around 270th. I'm perfectly OK with the shove at tis stage; if I win it gets me up to around 60k and in great shape to cruise onwards. I got the money in first, and it ended up being a flip. It wasn't to be, so I'll just live with the decision, move on, and fight the next one in the same spirit. WPT Prime here we come.