31 October 2009

After good nights sleep I decided to go the Blackpool G for the £100 buy in deep stack end of month tournament as I am not that experienced with large field tournaments that use running antes. As usual this tournament was well supported attracting a strong field of 173 players generating a prize fund of £17,300. The game went well for me in the early stages and whilst I did not have any major clashes I maintained my stack and was tracking the average well despite not really picking up and big hands. Obviously I wanted to get chips as best as I could however I was also aware that being a deep stack I needed to not ‘donk off’ chips as this would be very damaging in the later stages. The table was a mix of players from a total calling station to very experienced strong players. As with previous recent games I went prepared to play strongly in position with good starting hands but also looked for opportunities to take blinds where possible, this I did successfully and reached the break bang on average chips without any drama.

After the break the running antes started and through the next 3 levels I continued to play strong poker making some very good reads on other players and maintained my stack on or about the chip average. A new player joined the table following the unsurprising exit of the earlier mentioned calling station. I know this player from previous tournaments, a younger player who has more moves than a chess champion, who continually steals blinds raising with marginal hands. Over the next 4 orbits he raised my BB every hand but I was never holding anything I fancied making a stand with. By the next orbit the blinds were 600 / 1200 with a 75 chip running ante. As usual he went for his chips and looked at me, the obligatory 3,600 raise followed into an unopened pot. The rest of the table folded and I had already made my mind up that no matter what my hole cards were I was going to make a stand. The rest of the table folded and I looked down and saw J, 4 off suit. I called his bet having decided no matter what the flop came I was going to get in first and bet it strongly as I was confident he was raising with garbage (I do have a read on this player and this confirmed he was on ‘the steal’). The flop came a delicious Jack high and I raised it to 7,200 with him nearly burning the cloth as he quickly mucked his cards. Point made!, thank you for your donation of 3,600 chips.

Two orbits later I was on the button when I found 8,8. I raised it strongly and picked up a quick call from the small blind, having observed him for the last 5 hours of play I was confident that he was holding a big Ace but not a pair as he re-raised before the flop with pairs. The flop came 4,4,3, two hearts and he checked. I fired a strong bet at the pot, 7,200 and he re-raised putting me all in. I called immediately as I knew my pair was good and the cards went on their backs, I was spot on he showed A,Q suited in hearts. He was clearly surprised to see my 8,8, holding however as in many of these situations he had the last laugh when he hit runner, runner hearts to knock me out! (24% shot approx).

Ok so I was out but not down, my exit hand was the first I lost in 6 hours of poker, when I got my chips in I was a big favourite. Of course I was disappointed however the original field of 173 was down to 60+ and I had played very good poker throughout.