Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Yay Me!!!!

OK, let's get the downbeat stuff out of the way first.

Since my last update I have lost every cash session and got raped in the process. How many 2 outers must a man endure in big pots? Also, I had the chip lead in the Fitz 125 FO but donked it away stupidly to finish 7th. This is the type of thing I have been trying to get rid of from my game. Losing chips on a bluff is one thing, but bad play that causes me to lose chips is another. I still managed another final table though although only 24 runners. Good tourney though.

On to the good news which I'm sure most of my few visitors are already aware of - I have won my ticket to the Irish Open in Citywest on Easter weekend. I went to the Sporting Emporium (and had the usual frustration trying to park remotely close to it, grrrr) where they had a €150+15 with 1 rebuy or topup for €150. I expected a good few runners to turn up, but in the end 130 had paid in to this with 112 of them either rebuying or topping up, to generate 8 tickets. A lot of work to get through it seemed.

The night started badly for me. I only recognised a few of my starting table, not that it mattered, with the chief to my right. I yoyoed a lot with my first lot of chips when I shoved for 2975 after a limper at 100/200 and a raise to 600. The limper instashipped for just less than I had, and the raiser called after a think. I had AKo, raiser has JJ, limp/shover had 5c3c. Genius. 3 on the flop, and 3 on the river sealed that deal. Made no difference to me as i was behind to JJ anyhow, but JJ man was not happy. Standard in general with one or 2 exceptions was terrible. Rebuy just before the break it is then!

After the break I got a nice donation when I raised with KQ suited, got called by one of the blinds. Flop K85r, check I bet 1k, call. Turn is a T, check, I go all in for my last 2k, he calls and tables J5o. WTF? No help for him and I double up. Then I get 55 UTG, make a bit of a mess of the hand I think, but I do one thing right when I make a call of an allin on the turn on a 7664 board with 55 which is good against KTo who had raised preflop and bet flop and turn. I am not particularly happy with my play in the hand, but I made the right call in the end anyhow. I lose a few chips before this happens........

Table breaks and I am moved to a table with a hyper aggressive guy and a few randomers and Vera. I got a near double up from hyper aggressive guy when I call one of his frequent preflop overraises, and check flop and turn hoping he will commit himself as I have enough of it to be confident I am well ahead a lot against him and know he won't resist a double check. He bets 4k on turn into a 7k pot, I go all in for 8k and he folds quickly. Not much drama for a while before the SB to my BB loses a few chips and has been quite active at the table. There is one limper for 1200 and SB shoves into my BB for just over 12k. The original limper has about 16k or so and is a poor player, and I have about 32k at this stage. I look down at ATo and think the SB's range here is big enough to justify getting involved. I call and the limper folds after a think (said he had J9). SB tables AK and it is an oops for me, but a T99xx board sees me get lucky. I still think it was a standard enough call really, but he did get unlucky.

I was not getting much cards to play with so any time I entered a pot and met with resistance or a reraise I generally lost chips on. I was dwindling from my comfortable position however and blinds were starting to bite. I'm not sure an awful lot of drama outside the standard happened me for quite a while, and real cards were a rarity. I was getting a lot of A rag hands, but almost always UTG or after a raise, so hard to play and I decided to bide my time. After a while it looked like my time had come when I got AsJs and shoved for 35k (3k/6k) but the BB looked at his cards and uttered 'Ah sure I guess I might as well' this made me fell that I was well ahead when he pushed for about 20k total, but was a bit puzzled and annoyed (by the fact that I was dominated) when he tabled AKo. Not to worry, a nice J on the turn came to the rescue, and I was beginning to see how easy this dogging thing actually was, no wonder so many other poeple are at it constantly!!!! Hard luck sir.

At this point we were down to about 12 or so and it was very nervy with 1 big stack on each table and the rest floating between medium and tiny. I was towards the smaller end of that scale sadly until the following happened when we were 5 handed (4k/8k). Pat Storan pushed for 60k, and I looked down at KK. As soon as I saw them I immediately thought, this is it, I am going to go out on a real hand, a bad beat story for my blog. Woe is me. After I had finished scorching the felt and waiting for Eshan to decide if he would put some of his multitude of chips into the pot blind, then deciding not to, I turned my KK over, to be greeted by AK. Every card kept appearing to be an A on the flop, turn and river, but thankfully, none of them were and I had doubled up to over 100k. Phew. I felt sorry for Pat to run into a cooler like that at such a critical time 2 away from the tickets, but delighted for myself for doubling up. Pat never got going again and went out a couple of hands later so we formed a final table of 9 with 1 unlucky soul going away with nothing and 8 happy punters.

It only lasted a couple of hands, and at 5.40am we were finally done and I had got my ticket at the 3rd time of asking

1st time - Spent €210, returns €180
2nd time - Spent €210, returns €500
3rd time - Spent €315, returns ticket

So if you include the €150 tip I left (I had to borrow cash for that even), I got my ticket for €205. Not too shabby. I won't be playing another one of those this year despite the fact that I have a good record in them, especially in the Emporium where I have qualified for 3 major tourneys from 4 (maybe 5) attempts.

I told Alex to submit me for day 1B as I probably would not be able to get the Thursday off work due to ongoing crap that bores me, so I am certainly not going to enlighten anyone else that doesn't need to know about it. I am looking forward to this now, and hoping for a few breaks along the way as I know that if a few things go my way I am capable of going deep in this. I am not really the 4 bet bluff soul reading type player that garners a lot of attention, but I have enough to my game, despite several shortcomings (including not being able to pull of the 4 bet bluff soul reading moves), to look forward to this with hope.

Now to win the Fitz end of month, CHL's end of month and the SE start of month in the next few days. Now that would be a story, and I'd love for you to be reading about it, but holding ones breath might involve a very long wait. I'm not greedy, winning one will do me :)

For now, adios.

3 comments:

El_Stuntman said...

excellent work sir, now just take down that small little tournie over Easter...

and no deals!!

Rounders123 said...

Just focus on not to getting soul read than trying to soul read!.

Great stuff and g'luck in the big one.

smurph said...

Just a small note to wish you the best of Luck in the Irish Open...

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