Tuesday, January 09, 2007
2 final tables in one day
I am still on my cash game break and only played a bunch of SNGs and MTTs on Stars. I actually final tabled 2 of the $22 Stars 180-SNGs. Here's a rundown of the first one.
Manage to chip up without any major confrontations. Made a couple of flushes in the 2nd hour to get a bigger stack. Then hover around average as the money bubble bursts. I have 99 in MP and about 9X BB when UTG+1 opens and with my stack and current stage of tournament, I think a shove is pretty much an automatic play. He calls pretty quickly with KK but I manage to suck out a set on the turn. Then on the final table bubble, I find AKs UTG+1 with about 15X BB. This is kind of a tricky spot. I figure any raise is going to commit me, so I open shove and get called in 2 spots by players who have about the same number of chips as me. I'm glad to see them flip QQ and JJ (bad overcall by JJ here) and of course, I hit trip Aces on the flop and I go into the final table 2nd in chips.
In the first orbit of the FT, this hand happens, I raise 3X BB with A8s from the hijack and get called by the BB. Flop comes 8-high, he checks, I c-bet about 1/2 pot and he shovels, I call and he shows J8. But he hits his Jack on the river. That pot would have given me a big chip lead but whatever. I still have a workable stack and honestly, I can't remember many significant hands after that. There was one hand 5-handed where I made a sick read and c/raised all-in on a stone cold bluff. I had KQ in the SB and I just completed since BB is a calling station and I didn't want to play a big pot with him OOP. Flop comes J-T-x with 2 spades and I have no spades. I check call his 1/2 pot bet with my straight draw. Turn is another spade, and I check again and he bets the same flop amount again and I call. River is a blank and I was ready to check/fold to a nice sized bet. However, he bets very weakly, slightly less than 1/3 pot and from previous hands earlier in the tourney, I noted that he bets these gay amounts when he has a marginal hand or air. So with this read, I c/raised him all-in and he folds. Then, I basically chipped up, other players get knocked out, then I called an all-in 3 handed with pocket treys and won that flip and entered heads up play with a 3:2 chip advantage. Manage to get my lead up to 2:1 at one point but lost a big pot to get back to even. Then decided to do an even chop for $900 each.
Next one was tougher for me. Basically just hung around all tournament with an average stack and entered the final table 4th or 5th out of 9. Was card dead and had to pick my spots well for resteals to keep my stack reasonable. Eventually we were down to 5-handed, I had TT in the BB and SB jams on me and I instacalled. He shows AQ and he wins the race. 5th was good for about $250.
Very happy with the way I played these tournaments. I know that once I have a workable stack in the 2nd hour (5000 or more), I've got a very good shot at making the final table. A lot of the players play very poorly on both the money and final table bubbles. Some are too tight while others are too loose. I think I calibrated myself quite nicely on both bubbles and made decent estimates of the push/calling ranges of my opponents. I'm feeling really confident about these tournaments right now. If only my cash game results were anywhere near as good....sigh...
So all in all, a +$1.1K day from tournaments and SNGs alone. I'll play more tournaments tomorrow and hopefully, more good news will follow. And once again, thanks to the FCPers who railed me on both final tables. You guys are teh nutz.
Manage to chip up without any major confrontations. Made a couple of flushes in the 2nd hour to get a bigger stack. Then hover around average as the money bubble bursts. I have 99 in MP and about 9X BB when UTG+1 opens and with my stack and current stage of tournament, I think a shove is pretty much an automatic play. He calls pretty quickly with KK but I manage to suck out a set on the turn. Then on the final table bubble, I find AKs UTG+1 with about 15X BB. This is kind of a tricky spot. I figure any raise is going to commit me, so I open shove and get called in 2 spots by players who have about the same number of chips as me. I'm glad to see them flip QQ and JJ (bad overcall by JJ here) and of course, I hit trip Aces on the flop and I go into the final table 2nd in chips.
In the first orbit of the FT, this hand happens, I raise 3X BB with A8s from the hijack and get called by the BB. Flop comes 8-high, he checks, I c-bet about 1/2 pot and he shovels, I call and he shows J8. But he hits his Jack on the river. That pot would have given me a big chip lead but whatever. I still have a workable stack and honestly, I can't remember many significant hands after that. There was one hand 5-handed where I made a sick read and c/raised all-in on a stone cold bluff. I had KQ in the SB and I just completed since BB is a calling station and I didn't want to play a big pot with him OOP. Flop comes J-T-x with 2 spades and I have no spades. I check call his 1/2 pot bet with my straight draw. Turn is another spade, and I check again and he bets the same flop amount again and I call. River is a blank and I was ready to check/fold to a nice sized bet. However, he bets very weakly, slightly less than 1/3 pot and from previous hands earlier in the tourney, I noted that he bets these gay amounts when he has a marginal hand or air. So with this read, I c/raised him all-in and he folds. Then, I basically chipped up, other players get knocked out, then I called an all-in 3 handed with pocket treys and won that flip and entered heads up play with a 3:2 chip advantage. Manage to get my lead up to 2:1 at one point but lost a big pot to get back to even. Then decided to do an even chop for $900 each.
Next one was tougher for me. Basically just hung around all tournament with an average stack and entered the final table 4th or 5th out of 9. Was card dead and had to pick my spots well for resteals to keep my stack reasonable. Eventually we were down to 5-handed, I had TT in the BB and SB jams on me and I instacalled. He shows AQ and he wins the race. 5th was good for about $250.
Very happy with the way I played these tournaments. I know that once I have a workable stack in the 2nd hour (5000 or more), I've got a very good shot at making the final table. A lot of the players play very poorly on both the money and final table bubbles. Some are too tight while others are too loose. I think I calibrated myself quite nicely on both bubbles and made decent estimates of the push/calling ranges of my opponents. I'm feeling really confident about these tournaments right now. If only my cash game results were anywhere near as good....sigh...
So all in all, a +$1.1K day from tournaments and SNGs alone. I'll play more tournaments tomorrow and hopefully, more good news will follow. And once again, thanks to the FCPers who railed me on both final tables. You guys are teh nutz.
# posted by SmuCox @ 11:30 PM 
