Saturday, October 15, 2005

Monthly 2 Table Tournament last night

Right after the bloger tourney, I hosted my monthly tiki lounge 2 table tourney.

Highlights:

Player gets Aces THREE time in 8 hands, wins only the third one!

Three players all in and I am forced to call when WELL behind on pot odds. Painful.

Forced to go all-in with 5 players left because I have a poket pair, am out of position, and folded would leave me with an M of ONE. My 33 flop a set and beat pocket ACES.

I raised from Utg with the hammer, only to let it go to a re-raise. He had AK.

Once again, letting strategy guide me instead of tactics. I finished in first. I got a break on the set of 3s to avoid 5th, but still I feel good. I only had about 3 races all night. I was ahead in two of them and they held up. On the third I flopped my bottom card and that held up.

I continue to work on my instincts. I think about what Phil Ivey does before he acts. When it gets to him, his eyes dart around the table and check the stack sizes, replay the betting, and quickly calculate his option. THEN, he looks at his cards. I learned from that. I even played one hand without even looking at my cards. I lost it, but I played it perfectly.

Inflection point
I have an open ended straight draw with 6 players left. The big stack and I are the only 2 players. I go all-in on the Doyle semi-bluff. He thinks for a LONG time and call it with KING HIGH?! How do you make that call? I mean, he WAS technically ahead. But HOW do you make this call? I hit the straight and doubled up. This was the turning point as I had enough chips to coast to second place.

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