Played my first session yesterday, playing in the $130 buy in with 10,000 chips. There were 28 entrants and I got knocked out in 7th, not a bad start. An hour before the tournament started I sat down in a $1/$2 NL game and bought in short because I have discovered from past experience that I tend to run badly when I first sit down at a table. The bad run could continue for the entire session or turn around after a couple of hours but the first hour is usually bad news for me so by buying in short I minimize the damage of bad beats and bad cards. True to form I did not have a single playable hand for the hour I played so my losses were minimal, -$23. To contrast my run of bad cards with others at the table, a man sits down and his first hand is dealt AA. A young white man within a span of 15 minutes wins over $250 in 3 hands, in those three hands he flopped a set of 7's, flopped a set of 3's, and flopped top two pair. When I see things like this, how one person gets a spectacular run of cards, while my own hands are 10 3, J 2, & 9 4, never seeing a pocket pair or even an A, it makes me think it is this unpredictable, mystical side of poker which fascinates me. I don't mind getting bad cards while others are getting great hands, I just make the decisions that are appropriate to my own card fate and live with it, accepting the inevitable.
Not being surprised by my run of bad cards in the cash game, I was, however, confident that even if I had bad cards in the tournament I would have decent odds of doing well because past experience has shown that tournaments tend to be a blessing for me because I have cashed with a better than average percentage.
The tournament was a continuation of my run of bad cards but I was patient and waited while I watched others flopping sets and getting high pocket pairs. I was not complaining to myself, though, because some of those high pocket pairs were losing to inferior starting hands thus crippling some of the players while I myself simply blinded off a thousand in the first hour.
I made it to the
first break and was happy about that, I believe I played 2 or 3
hands, all from the small blind in limped pots. My main goal in any
tournament is a simple one, to last as long as possible, if I am
successful in lasting a long time then it gives good chances to place
in the money.
After the first break I found pocket 10’s and raised from utg +1 and my image of not playing any hands convinced everyone to fold. I was continually counting my stack size and was surprised that I was still close to the starting point of 10,000. I found AK unsuited in the big blind and the hijack min raised to 400 and I decided to end the hand by raising all in because we were still early enough in the tournament where I do not want to play big pots post flop with a drawing hand, if I raised to 1200 and he called and I miss the flop I’d be out of position and I either give up or pray he hit nothing and c-bet and if he calls I just lost half my stack. Not wanting to face this situation an all in raise would net me 700 chips with little risk, the odds of him having KK or AA being small due to his raise sizing and position so I knew there was little chance of a call and the player was not happy about my all in raise, he started talking and complaining about it and wondered why I would bet that much and I knew then it was the right play, people get angry with bet sizing when it puts them out of their comfort zone and forces them to lose a bit of control of the situation and as I took in the small pot he showed A6 unsuited and after this I had gotten into his head, someone who seemed timid had shown a propensity for high risk and he had no idea what to make of me.
After more folding I was down to 6000-7000 chips in the big blind and when it folded to the small blind she raised to 1200 and I looked down at QJ unsuited and decided to move all in due to my stack size dwindling and the current size of the blinds, the older woman hesitated for 30 seconds and decided to call and showed A10 off suit, which was good for me because I had live cards and I got lucky when a J hit on the flop and it held up for a double up and now I was set for while.
I made it to the second break with about 20,000 chips and soon after was at the final table and ended up busting out to the big stack when I had pocket 10's and he had pocket Q's. I believe I made my only major mistake by calling his all in bet. I raised from UTG to 5000, leaving me with 15,000 chips, not very much, but still relatively healthy in comparison to the other remaining players, and when the big stack raised me all in from the hi jack I knew he had me beat with a bigger pocket pair or was equal to me with AK, either way I was not going to be in great shape and I miscalculated my stack size and decided since I had already put in 5000 I was committed to call because I might not see a hand better than 10 10 for a long while, but since I knew I was beat the right decision should have been to fold and wait for a better spot to get my chips in. I did not suck out and I was thus out in 7th place, I felt good about my performance and loved the intensity of playing once we got down to 14 players, the energy level of the game was high and this is why I like tournament poker, cash games do not have a comparable sense of rising tension.
After the first break I found pocket 10’s and raised from utg +1 and my image of not playing any hands convinced everyone to fold. I was continually counting my stack size and was surprised that I was still close to the starting point of 10,000. I found AK unsuited in the big blind and the hijack min raised to 400 and I decided to end the hand by raising all in because we were still early enough in the tournament where I do not want to play big pots post flop with a drawing hand, if I raised to 1200 and he called and I miss the flop I’d be out of position and I either give up or pray he hit nothing and c-bet and if he calls I just lost half my stack. Not wanting to face this situation an all in raise would net me 700 chips with little risk, the odds of him having KK or AA being small due to his raise sizing and position so I knew there was little chance of a call and the player was not happy about my all in raise, he started talking and complaining about it and wondered why I would bet that much and I knew then it was the right play, people get angry with bet sizing when it puts them out of their comfort zone and forces them to lose a bit of control of the situation and as I took in the small pot he showed A6 unsuited and after this I had gotten into his head, someone who seemed timid had shown a propensity for high risk and he had no idea what to make of me.
After more folding I was down to 6000-7000 chips in the big blind and when it folded to the small blind she raised to 1200 and I looked down at QJ unsuited and decided to move all in due to my stack size dwindling and the current size of the blinds, the older woman hesitated for 30 seconds and decided to call and showed A10 off suit, which was good for me because I had live cards and I got lucky when a J hit on the flop and it held up for a double up and now I was set for while.
I made it to the second break with about 20,000 chips and soon after was at the final table and ended up busting out to the big stack when I had pocket 10's and he had pocket Q's. I believe I made my only major mistake by calling his all in bet. I raised from UTG to 5000, leaving me with 15,000 chips, not very much, but still relatively healthy in comparison to the other remaining players, and when the big stack raised me all in from the hi jack I knew he had me beat with a bigger pocket pair or was equal to me with AK, either way I was not going to be in great shape and I miscalculated my stack size and decided since I had already put in 5000 I was committed to call because I might not see a hand better than 10 10 for a long while, but since I knew I was beat the right decision should have been to fold and wait for a better spot to get my chips in. I did not suck out and I was thus out in 7th place, I felt good about my performance and loved the intensity of playing once we got down to 14 players, the energy level of the game was high and this is why I like tournament poker, cash games do not have a comparable sense of rising tension.
| Starting Bankroll - $800 | ||
| 03/21/19 | $130 buy in Tournament. | Result – 7/28 - $0 |
| $1/$2 cash game -$23 loss | ||
| $800 – 130 – 23 = = $647 |