Friday, May 09, 2008

The wheels come off the bus

In the riverchasers last night, I was playing particularly well. I even recovered and avoided tilt when an A6 made a one card flush on my AT and took 25% of my stack. But with 28 people left, I was 5th and chips and confident that I could win this one. I came in 19th. What the heck happened? Lets look:

We are at 250/500/25. I have about $14k in chips.
For you Harrington players, M is only about 12 even though Q is about 1.75
For you Hansen players: ante ratio is 5:1 and the table is often 7 handed.

My hands are very uneven and I am managing to steal or pick up a hand about once a rotation, which is only treading water. A poor run of cards and I fluctuate between $12.5k and $14k for a few rotations. Meanwhile blinds are 400/800/100 (ante ratio 4:1)
My M (and everyone else's) plummets to 7 despite being 2nd in chips at the table.

Critical hand #1:
Full Tilt Poker Game #6342141040: Riverchasers Online Tour (48006329), Table 8 - 400/800 Ante 100 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:37:50 ET - 2008/05/08
Seat 1: lightning36 (6,293)
Seat 2: OMGitsPokerFool (15,090)
Seat 3: twoblackaces (5,955)
Seat 6: gorilla_rc24 (9,242)
Seat 8: wwonka69 (18,632)
Seat 9: columbo (13,060)
antes 100
OMGitsPokerFool posts the small blind of 400
twoblackaces posts the big blind of 800
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to columbo [2c 2h]
gorilla_rc24 folds
wwonka69 folds
columbo raises to 2,400 <= must raise ANY chance you get 6 handed now.
lightning36 folds
OMGitsPokerFool raises to 14,990, and is all in
twoblackaces folds
columbo has 15 seconds left to act

I am getting poor odds here. Its another 12.5k to win 18k. 3:1 pot odds? is it really this close? But 22 is an easily dominated hand by any pair and is 50/50 at best.

columbo folds
Uncalled bet of 12,590 returned to OMGitsPokerFool
OMGitsPokerFool mucks
OMGitsPokerFool wins the pot (6,200)

I now have 10.5k, just a hair above avg.

The VERY NEXT HAND:

Full Tilt Poker Game #6342148677: Riverchasers Online Tour (48006329), Table 8 - 400/800 Ante 100 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:38:27 ET - 2008/05/08
Seat 1: lightning36 (6,193)
Seat 2: OMGitsPokerFool (18,790)
Seat 3: twoblackaces (5,055)
Seat 6: gorilla_rc24 (9,142)
Seat 8: wwonka69 (18,532)
Seat 9: columbo (10,560)
antes 100
twoblackaces posts the small blind of 400
gorilla_rc24 posts the big blind of 800
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to columbo [9h As]
wwonka69 folds
columbo raises to 3,200 <= I know its A9o from EP, but we are SIX handed, high blinds, high antes, and its not an awful steal hand.

lightning36 raises to 6,093, and is all in
OMGitsPokerFool folds
twoblackaces folds
gorilla_rc24 folds

This is an EASY call. 3k to win 10k. Unless he has a dominating Ace, I am in a must call situation at these odds.

columbo calls 2,893
lightning36 shows [Qc Ac]
columbo shows [9h As]

ARGH.

*** FLOP *** [8c Qh 9s]
*** TURN *** [8c Qh 9s] [Ah]
*** RIVER *** [8c Qh 9s Ah] [3s]
lightning36 shows two pair, Aces and Queens
columbo shows two pair, Aces and Nines
lightning36 wins the pot (13,986) with two pair, Aces and Queens

I am now the short stack for the tournament at $4.4k
I start shoving, but only get up to $5.1k when I finally get a pair.

Based on M, blinds just went up, and stack size, I will have to shove here regardless of action... (we are now at 18 players)

Full Tilt Poker Game #6342204944: Riverchasers Online Tour (48006329), Table 8 - 500/1000 Ante 125 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:43:05 ET - 2008/05/08
Seat 1: lightning36 (11,586)
Seat 2: OMGitsPokerFool (18,890)
Seat 3: twoblackaces (6,155)
Seat 4: Mattazuma (13,329)
Seat 5: RaisingCayne (25,875)
Seat 6: gorilla_rc24 (9,442)
Seat 7: scottc25 (6,035)
Seat 8: wwonka69 (17,032)
Seat 9: columbo (5,167)
columbo antes 125
columbo posts the small blind of 500
lightning36 posts the big blind of 1,000
The button is in seat #8

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to columbo [7d 7s]
OMGitsPokerFool folds
twoblackaces folds
Mattazuma folds
RaisingCayne folds
gorilla_rc24 raises to 9,317, and is all in
scottc25 folds
wwonka69 folds
columbo calls 4,542, and is all in
lightning36 calls 8,317 <= huh?

gorilla_rc24 shows [4d Ad]
columbo shows [7d 7s]
lightning36 shows [Qd As] <= HUH?! This makes little sense to me. TWO all-ins and too early to panic, but you call with AQo?

*** FLOP *** [9h 8s 4s]
*** TURN *** [9h 8s 4s] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [9h 8s 4s 5h] [Ac]
gorilla_rc24 shows two pair, Aces and Fours
lightning36 shows a pair of Aces
gorilla_rc24 wins the main pot (16,251) with two pair, Aces and Fours
columbo stands up

And just like that, 5th to 18th.

3 comments:

lightning36 said...

The reasoning: gorilla_rc24 had been raising with crap hands for some time. I was almost certain that I had him beat and decided to call him. Your call made me pause, but I was thinking that I either had you dominated or was 50/50% against your pair of less than Q-Q. So ... I might win it all, or if you beat me, I would still get gorilla's 4,800 when he was busted ... leaving me at about where I started the hand. Fiendishly clever and a good risk, I thought.

I have been approaching too many final tables being the short stack. I was willing to go with my reads and take a chance for the big stack. And damn ... I was right on, but gorilla hit his stupid 3-outer.

As it was, gorilla finished 9th and I finished 8th even though I was crippled in that hand.

Ahh ... what could have been.

btw - nice playing with you. I always appreciate playing against good competition.

Anonymous said...

One lesson you missed from Gus's book is avoiding giving yourself a bad all-in situation. With your opponents' stacks so low, you're really in an all-in-or-fold situation preflop. He favors doing the all-in move yourself, and giving your opponent the hard decision.

It's possible that A9 and 22 are good enough for that situation, given your M of 7. Maybe you should be playing deeper tourneys?

columbo (at eifco dot org) said...

great comment Godard!