Internet Blackout and Sunday Tournaments

As I write this, they are playing the final table of the WSOP Main Event. I am going to do my best to avoid finding out who won and watch it "live" on Tuesday night. Of course this will require me to avoid surfing poker blogs and watching ESPN in case they show the winner on the crawl below the main screen. I don't know, but I'm thinking it might be kind of tough.



Today was the monthly rakeback freeroll with a $20,000 prize pool. In two previous attempts at this tournament, I may have played a combined 20 hands. They were quick and inglorious exits. Especially embarrasing after clearing the afternoon with my wife, and coming out of the "man cave" fifteen minutes later saying, "I'm done".



So in my tradition of over analysis I thought I would review all the hands I played:



1500 in starting chips. 563 players and they were paying 89 players.



Starting blinds were 15-30.



1. Ad6d utg. I raised since it was the second hand of the tournament and I figured half the table probably was not at their computer yet. Instead I get called in 3 other spots. The flop is 8-7-4 with one diamond.



The blind checks and I check. The player behind bets 250 and the button calls 250. The blind folds and I decide that it's too much to draw to my inside straight. Of course there is a 5 on the river and I would have got there. Not a good start.



2. KsJc in the cutoff. 1335 in chips. I open raise to 100 and win the blinds.



3. Blinds are 20-40. 1335 in chips. I have KsKc in the cutoff. I open raise to 100 and win the blinds.



4. Blinds are 25-50. I have 1,255 in chips. AhQd in middle position. I open raise to 150 and win the blinds. By now I figured out three different players that registered and did not show up to play the tournament. They are getting blinded off. Thanks to poker tracker I can figure this out quicker than the guys without it. We'll see how long until they catch on.



5. Blinds are 30-60. I have 1,240 in chips. JhQd on the button. Folded to me, I raise to 180 and win the blinds.



6. 30-60 blinds and 1,330 in chips. The blinds are on two players who are absent. I am ready to raise with any two cards except I wake up with AhQd. I open raise to 180 and win the blinds. I am going to need some action eventually.



7. Very next hand I raise QJo and win the blinds again.



8. 30-60 blinds and 1,510 in chips. Tc9c in late position. I open raise to 180 and win the blinds.



9. I steal the absent guys blinds again with QhTh.



10. 1570 in chips. Blinds are 40-80. One of the absent guys is in the big blind. I open raise with JdTd to 240. The small blind who is playing and has a decent sized stack catches on to my game and reraises all in. I fold.



11. 1,250 in chips. Blinds are 40-80. I have K7o on the BB. The SB is one of the other absent players. By now it should be apparent to anyone who has been paying attention which players are not there. It's folded to the button with 1,930 in chips. He raises to 240. I reraise all in, figuring it's a straight steal. He folds and I finally win a pot with more than the blinds in it.



12. 1,570 in chips. Blinds are still 40-80. The blinds are on the two absent players again. Once again I wake up with a real hand, two jacks. I open raise to 240 and win the blinds. Sigh.



13. 1,570 in chips. I complete with T8o in the small blind. There is one late limper. I check fold the flop.



14. Blinds 50-100. I have 1,530 in chips and Ac9h in the cutoff. It's folded to me and I raise to 300. MaliceUW in the BB with 1,960 in chips makes the call. The flop is 5d-As-5c. MaliceUW checks and I check behind. I check because I am either way ahead or way behind. This way I can keep the pot smaller and possibly induce a bluff from a small pocket pair. The turn is the Td. MaliceUW checks again. I bet 300 and he calls. The river is the 8d completing a backdoor flush draw. He checks and I check behind. I win after MaliceUW rolls over QcTs. I guess I could have value bet the river there again, but I would have been totally committed to the hand and I was happy to get to showdown cheap.



15. Blinds 50-100. I have 2,180 in chips. One of the absent players finally showed up and busted the first hand he played. The other guy is still there and in the big blind. There is no small blind. It's folded to me and I raise with A8o and win the one blind.



16. Blinds 50-100. I have 2,280 in chips. On the button with JTo and it's folded to me. Instead of the obvious raise, I decide to limp in for 100. The small blind folds and the BB checks. The flop is 9-Q-9. It's checked to me and I bet 200 and win the pot.



17. I raise the absent guy's blind again and win without contest.



18. 2530 in chips. I have AQo utg. I raise to 350 and it's folded to the button who calls. The blinds fold and there is 850 in the pot. The flop is 9s-7c-8s. I swallow hard and make my continuation bet bluff of 450 and the button folds.



19. 2,880 in chips. Blinds are 50-100. I am in the small blind with AQo. The BB is short with only 220 in chips after posting the 100 blind. It's folded to the cutoff who open limps. He has 3,900 in chips. The button who is also short, folds and it's to me. I feel like I should isolate the short BB so I move all in. The BB folds and the limper folds and I win the pot.



20. 3,330 in chips. Blinds are still 50-100. I am on the button with Ac3c. It's folded to me. The small blind has only 170 left after the blinds. I am hoping if I limp, the big blind will come along and we can try to eliminate him. Instead the small blind folds and we see the flop heads up with the BB who has 4,125 in chips. The flop is As-4s-3s. I have top and bottom pair, but now I have to worry about the flush. Cha59 leads out for 150 into the 250 pot. I play small ball and just call. The turn is a 2h. Cha checks and I check behind. I know I am giving away a lot of draws here, but my hand is really nothing but a bluff catcher and why face calling a big raise? The river is a Jd. Cha checks again and put out a little bet of 200 that maybe a naked ace or smaller two pair might call. He folds and I win a small pot.

21. I have 3,630 in chips. Blinds are 60-120. I am in middle position with AdKs. It's folded to me and I open raise for 360. The big blind is absent and everyone else folds. I win the blinds again.

22. 3,810 in chips. Very next hand I pick up JcTc. It's folded to me again and this time I try limping. Everyone else folds to the BB who has 5,434 in chips. He checks. I flop top two pair and put out a small 120 bet and scare him off. I wonder how many chips I might have had if I had managed to get any action at all on these hands?

23. 3,810 in chips. I open raise AQo and win the blinds.

24. 3,990 in chips. I am finally moved to a new table. I assume the stacks with less than 500 are others that have not shown up for the tournament and are being blinded off. I see 3 such stacks. I have AhQs utg and the BB is one of the short stacks. I decide to min raise to 240. It's folded to the cutoff who reraises all in for 2,686. I decide to be patient and not take the possible coin flip and fold. I believe I was distracted on this hand by my son. If I look at the odds, I would have to call 2,246 to win 3,100. I am only crushed by AA, KK, QQ, and AK. I am not exactly crushed by QQ but it's not good. There may be an argument for calling, except I know nothing about this player and I don't know if only raises with good hands or sees my small raise as a steal?????

25. Blinds are 80-160. I pick up pocket 9's and raise to 400 and win the blinds.

26. 3,950 in chips. Very next hand I pick up AdQs. I open raise to 400 and sun4ever in the small blind calls with 2,866 behind. He is the one who reraised me in hand 24. The flop is 6c-Th-Qc. Sun4ever checks and I bet 500. He folds.

27. Blinds are up to 100-200. I pick up 8d9d in middle position. I raise to 600 and everyone folds.

28. 4,270 in chips. Blinds 100-200. I have JdJs utg. I min raise to 400 and everyone folds except PKRPORO in the BB who calls the 200. The flop is Th-Qh-Ad. Yuck! He checks and I check behind. The turn is the 4c. He checks again. I think about betting. Nope I want a cheap showdown and the free chance at my straight draw, so I check again. The river is the 3s and PKRPORO leads out for 600. I figure I have to call and he shows me AQ for two pair. I was behind the whole way and got away pretty cheap. One of the very few hands I have played that made it to the river and I lost.

29. 3,070 in chips. I have 8s7d in the small blind. Everyone folds to me and I complete. The BB checks. I whiff the flop and it goes check-check. The turn is another blank and I bluff 200. It works and he folds.

30. The very next hand I have A4s on the button. It's folded to me, I raise and win the blinds.

31. The very next hand I pick up AQs in the cutoff. I open raise and win the blinds again. 3,870 in chips now.

32. Blinds are 120-240 with 25 ante. I have 3,820 in chips and AdQc in early position. I raise to 720 and win the blinds and antes.

33. I open raise KQo in the cutoff and get reraised all in by the big blind and fold.

34. 3125 in chips and I pick up Jacks in middle position. I open raise to 720. It's folded to sun4ever on the button and he reraises to 2,665 total. It's folded back to me. I thought that was the rest of my chips so I just called. It turns out I still had 485 left. The flop was kind of ugly as it was Qs-5d-Ks. I figure I meant to go all in anyway so I put in my last 485 in chips and get called. He shows 99. Sweet! The turn is 5 and the river is another Queen and I double up!

35. 5,675 in chips. Blinds are 150-300 with 25 ante. I have AdKc on the button. Tony63 open raises all in for 2,972. I reraise all in to isolate. He turns over Qd7d. The flop is Js-Ks-9s. Neither one of us has spades, but now I have to fade a Ten instead of his pair cards. The turn is a King and the river is a 2 and I win another race.

36. 9,197 in chips. I pick up Kings utg+1. I raise to 750 and get reraised all to 1,899. I call and he shows pocket 7's. I win again!

37. Blinds are 250-500 with 50 ante. I have 9,046 in chips and AJo on the button. I open raise and win the blinds.

38. 10,046 in chips. Blinds 250-500 with 50 ante. I have QdTd in middle position. I open raise to 1,250. I am called by the cutoff and the small blind. I finally get action when I have a crappy hand. The flop is 3-8-7 rainbow. In spite of the innocuous flop, I am not interested in c-betting with two other players in the pot. It's checked around. The turn is a Jack and the small blind bets 2,900 into a 4,650 pot. I fold and the cutoff folds.

39. 7,496 in chips. I have AhQh in the cutoff. Blinds are 300-600 with 75 ante. Mary Van King with 21,000 in chips opens for 1,689 in early position. It's folded to me and I just call. The flop is 2c-4c-2h. Mary leads into me for 1925 into a 4,953 pot. I fold.

I guess the play was to reraise all in or fold. There is no reason to call off over 20% of my stack. I think I was confused because Mary had enough chips to call my raise and not be too concerned. Plus I think we were getting close to the money bubble.

40. 5,582 in chips. Blinds are 300-600 with 75 ante. I pick up pocket tens in middle position and raise all in. Everyone folds and I add 1400 to my stack.

41. Blinds up to 400-800. I have been blinded down to 3,457 in chips. I have pocket 7's in the small blind. LE2Jog with 13k in chips raises to 2,300 in middle position. We are already in the money and I am ready to take a race. I reraise all in. LE2Jog is priced in to call with any two, but he rolls over 99. I don't hit the miracle and I am out in 59th place. I win $70 and I am happy to finally cash in the big free roll.

The overall summary is that there were 243 hands and I played 17% raising 14% and my total aggression factor was 4.3. I really could have used a little action on my hands. In 20 of the 41 hands I played, my raise went uncalled and I just won the blinds. I played a couple of hands badly, but overall I am happy.

While the Free Roll was going on, I decided to open another tournament just to keep me from getting bored. I found a $26 satellite into the FTOPS 9 for $322. They were guaranteeing 20 seats and 15 minutes before the start time there was going to be an overlay. Suddenly a rush of registrations hit and they had enough players to guarantee 27 spots and 28th would get $60. There were 365 players.

I did some quick math and figured out that the average chip stack when the tournament would end was $19,500.

I wish I had the hand histories of the other tables. When it got down to the last 34 players, I opened up the other tables to see where I stood. I never had more than 11,000 in chips and I was getting short towards the end. I kept looking for a spot to move in, but either my cards were horrible or some other short stack had already moved all in in front of me. Plus the player directly to my left had over 30,000 in chips and had shown a propensity for calling light.

Here were my hands towards the end:
This is starting with 7,580 in chips and the blinds were 800-1600 with 200 antes.
A4s on button, raise in front of me
42o
43s
T7o
Q7o
T7o
T5o
Q6s
62s By this time I was so low, that I was guaranteed to be called.
Q7s I only need one more player to bust.
T5s
62o
J4o
T6o
J4s I am all in due to the big blind. Two players call and the small blind calls all in, but he has more chips than I do, so if we both lose, he still finishes ahead of me.

The flop is 4c-Js-Ts. I'm pretty sure I'm ahead. The King comes on the turn. That makes me squirm. The river is a 5. The players turn over A9o, QTs, and Q3s. I quadruple up! The bad news was the other all in had the ten, so he was not eliminated either.

In the mean time I see a couple of other all ins suck out to stay alive on the other tables. Finally 4 hands later, the bubble finally bursts and I win the satellite! Ship the $322

So my final take for the weekend was $366. That was definitely a nice comeback from the beating I have been taking at the cash tables.