Second Place is the First Loser
Well, I finally ended my crummy streak in MTTs tonight and yet I still feel sick. Why is this you ask? Probably because I finished 2nd and I think I should have won. I had $15 left on FullTilt and after donking around a little bit, I bought into the 1 AM $5.50 with almost the last of my money (I probably had about a buck or two left). I played a great tourney the whole way and luck was essentially on my side until the very end.
I made one semi-mistake in the middle stages when I had about 11k with about 60 players left. I raised in EP with AhKh and the BB re-raised, I pushed and he had me covered by just a little and called with AdAs. The flop brought 2 hearts and the turn was another and I sucked out on AA and never really looked back. I felt bad enough about it, that I told him I'd refund his buy-in if I final-tabled, which I did. But really, I don't think I played the hand that badly. I probably should have just called pre-flop, but it's not like I was gonna fold on the flop with a 4-flush and 2 overs. So in retrospect, I don't think I could have done much differently.
From there, I played very good, solid poker to reach the final table. I won 2 key coinflips with 99 and another at the final table when it was 3-handed, so I guess that was my lucky hand for the tourney. I made one really sick call at the final table too, that I think I should write about. I'm not sure whether it was donkified or really good, but I would tend towards good. With 7 players left and the blinds at 2500/5k with a 600 ante, I had 100k and the chipleader with like 130k was directly to my right. He limped UTG and I made it 20k with QhJh, a guy to my right called the raise and had about 77k left behind and the chipleader called the raise as well, putting 71k in the pot preflop. The flop came J3K and it got checked around. I didn't like the 2 callers and the fact that I only had middle pair, so I checked after the chipleader did and the guy behind me checked as well. I decided that they wouldn't be checking Kings on the flop and that I was going to bet a blank turn, well, the turn was another 3 and the chipleader bet the pot for about 5k less than I had in my stack. For some reason I got the action a little wrong and instead of pushing for my last 5k as well, I just called, I was of course pot committed now and would have to put my last 5k in on the river anyway. Well, the guy behind me called as well, leaving himself only about 6k, not really sure what he was thinking. The river was a complete blank, I think it was a 5 or something but I'm not sure. The chipleader bet 5k into me and had like 5200 so I just went all-in. The other guy folded and the chipleader called and mucked 22, and I took down a pot of 296k. Sickest call I've ever made and I think it was probably the right one.
After that I cruised to heads-up going in with a chiplead of about 340k to 160k. I made a very costly mistake heads-up though I raised on the button with Qc8c and he called, the flop was Txx with 2 clubs and he bet the minimum (which he'd been doing a lot of), I raised it 4 times his bet and he called. The turn was a blank (2s I think) and he bet the minimum again, and I pushed like a donkey. He had JT and I didn't improve on the river and he took a huge chiplead. In hindsight, after he called my raise on the flop and donkbet the turn I should have just called hoping to catch my flush on the river or fold if I missed. It was a mis-step and a fairly costly one since the tourney ended a few hands later when he min-raised on the button and I pushed with QTo and he called with 55 and won the race. That push may have been a mistake as well, as I still had 120k and the blinds were only 4k/8k. Then again, I thought he might fold and I don't know that it was all that smart of him to risk doubling me up and letting me back in it on what was likely a coinflip at best.
I think poor heads-up play cost me about $160, as 2nd cashed for $280 or so, $160 less than first. But, you live and learned and I learned that I definitely need to work on my HU deepstack NL game. I think that's what was killing me when I was playing the $20+2 SnGs on FTP a while back as well. I kept finishing 2nd and now I know why. I am happy that I'm back off the tourney schnide and I once again have confidence that I'm capable of playing well and going deep. I just need to remember that there is a ton of luck to deal with.
Incidentally, I played 2 tourneys on UB tonight as well, busting early in both. One on a donkey move and one when I raised pre-flop with QQ, got two callers and pushed all-in for a ridiculous amount on a flop of 86x with 2 spades I think. I got called by A7o and he hit an Ace on the river to break me. It was probably the most ridiculous MTT call I've seen, since the size of the pot in proportion to my push was very small and he had a nothing hand. He may have had a gutshot to go along with the Ace (I don't remember for sure) but it was still incredibly silly. So, I probably could have done well in that one also, but that's the breaks.
Finally tonight, since I haven't blogged in a while, I'll report that I'm doing pretty well in the 2/4 this week as well. I've probably played 2-3k hands and made about $2-$300. I'm at 2.08 BB/100 over about 13.5k hands if I recall correctly. I think I'll probably move up after I've completed 20k hands of 2/4 as long as my winrate is 2 BB/100 for those 20k. I should start playing 6-max at some point, and I'll probably do that as soon as I have a job and feel like I can afford to move back down to 1/2. Right now I need to be playing as high as I can to maximize my earn rate in case I have to take some out to help cover bills for a couple weeks. I also need to finish HPFAP and read the SS2 limit section. I plan to get into that very soon as well. For tonight though, I think I may go grab some breakfast, then hit the hay for a few hours. Happy New Year to any and all readers I may have.
Current Bankroll -
About $2900
I made one semi-mistake in the middle stages when I had about 11k with about 60 players left. I raised in EP with AhKh and the BB re-raised, I pushed and he had me covered by just a little and called with AdAs. The flop brought 2 hearts and the turn was another and I sucked out on AA and never really looked back. I felt bad enough about it, that I told him I'd refund his buy-in if I final-tabled, which I did. But really, I don't think I played the hand that badly. I probably should have just called pre-flop, but it's not like I was gonna fold on the flop with a 4-flush and 2 overs. So in retrospect, I don't think I could have done much differently.
From there, I played very good, solid poker to reach the final table. I won 2 key coinflips with 99 and another at the final table when it was 3-handed, so I guess that was my lucky hand for the tourney. I made one really sick call at the final table too, that I think I should write about. I'm not sure whether it was donkified or really good, but I would tend towards good. With 7 players left and the blinds at 2500/5k with a 600 ante, I had 100k and the chipleader with like 130k was directly to my right. He limped UTG and I made it 20k with QhJh, a guy to my right called the raise and had about 77k left behind and the chipleader called the raise as well, putting 71k in the pot preflop. The flop came J3K and it got checked around. I didn't like the 2 callers and the fact that I only had middle pair, so I checked after the chipleader did and the guy behind me checked as well. I decided that they wouldn't be checking Kings on the flop and that I was going to bet a blank turn, well, the turn was another 3 and the chipleader bet the pot for about 5k less than I had in my stack. For some reason I got the action a little wrong and instead of pushing for my last 5k as well, I just called, I was of course pot committed now and would have to put my last 5k in on the river anyway. Well, the guy behind me called as well, leaving himself only about 6k, not really sure what he was thinking. The river was a complete blank, I think it was a 5 or something but I'm not sure. The chipleader bet 5k into me and had like 5200 so I just went all-in. The other guy folded and the chipleader called and mucked 22, and I took down a pot of 296k. Sickest call I've ever made and I think it was probably the right one.
After that I cruised to heads-up going in with a chiplead of about 340k to 160k. I made a very costly mistake heads-up though I raised on the button with Qc8c and he called, the flop was Txx with 2 clubs and he bet the minimum (which he'd been doing a lot of), I raised it 4 times his bet and he called. The turn was a blank (2s I think) and he bet the minimum again, and I pushed like a donkey. He had JT and I didn't improve on the river and he took a huge chiplead. In hindsight, after he called my raise on the flop and donkbet the turn I should have just called hoping to catch my flush on the river or fold if I missed. It was a mis-step and a fairly costly one since the tourney ended a few hands later when he min-raised on the button and I pushed with QTo and he called with 55 and won the race. That push may have been a mistake as well, as I still had 120k and the blinds were only 4k/8k. Then again, I thought he might fold and I don't know that it was all that smart of him to risk doubling me up and letting me back in it on what was likely a coinflip at best.
I think poor heads-up play cost me about $160, as 2nd cashed for $280 or so, $160 less than first. But, you live and learned and I learned that I definitely need to work on my HU deepstack NL game. I think that's what was killing me when I was playing the $20+2 SnGs on FTP a while back as well. I kept finishing 2nd and now I know why. I am happy that I'm back off the tourney schnide and I once again have confidence that I'm capable of playing well and going deep. I just need to remember that there is a ton of luck to deal with.
Incidentally, I played 2 tourneys on UB tonight as well, busting early in both. One on a donkey move and one when I raised pre-flop with QQ, got two callers and pushed all-in for a ridiculous amount on a flop of 86x with 2 spades I think. I got called by A7o and he hit an Ace on the river to break me. It was probably the most ridiculous MTT call I've seen, since the size of the pot in proportion to my push was very small and he had a nothing hand. He may have had a gutshot to go along with the Ace (I don't remember for sure) but it was still incredibly silly. So, I probably could have done well in that one also, but that's the breaks.
Finally tonight, since I haven't blogged in a while, I'll report that I'm doing pretty well in the 2/4 this week as well. I've probably played 2-3k hands and made about $2-$300. I'm at 2.08 BB/100 over about 13.5k hands if I recall correctly. I think I'll probably move up after I've completed 20k hands of 2/4 as long as my winrate is 2 BB/100 for those 20k. I should start playing 6-max at some point, and I'll probably do that as soon as I have a job and feel like I can afford to move back down to 1/2. Right now I need to be playing as high as I can to maximize my earn rate in case I have to take some out to help cover bills for a couple weeks. I also need to finish HPFAP and read the SS2 limit section. I plan to get into that very soon as well. For tonight though, I think I may go grab some breakfast, then hit the hay for a few hours. Happy New Year to any and all readers I may have.
Current Bankroll -
About $2900
posted by TheCinciKid @ 5:27 AM
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