SSC Event #4
Thursday, 2 April 18:00 GMT
$2,000 guaranteed six-seat no limit Hold'em rebuy
990 runners, $750 starting chips, 10 minute blinds
I finally got a nice result to talk about. In yesterday´s tournament, the 6-seater rebuy, I made my first cash of the series! My good play which I showed in almost every event up till now finally got rewarded with a decent 28th place finish. Not an immensely great place yet, but certainly a step into the right direction and a result which gives me confidence towards the next couple of events! I’m sure that if I continue playing the way I did so far some more good results will follow.
I’m not gonna bore you with every hand I played and won that’s just too much, given the fact that it was a 6-seater and I played pretty aggressive all the way through the tournament a lot of pots were played almost the same. I picked up a lot of pots preflop uncontested with raises in position with marginal hands and when I got some action on my raises I picked up a large amount of pots on the flop with continuation-bets and once in a while with a good made hand. After that being said I will now walk you through some key hands that made it possible for me to get as far as I did in the tournament.
Only using 1 rebuy right at the beginning of the tournament to give me a decent playable stack right away I didn’t have any problems to make it to the first break. In the break there was a short amount of time to make a add-on to get some additional chips, but unlucky enough for me I missed out on that opportunity thanks to a little software lag! Missing this add-on meant for me that my at that point a little below average stack shrunk into a short-stack!
Being pretty pissed off about that I decided that I would go all-in on every decent hand I found. That hand being [Td Qd]vs. [Ah Kh] I was In need of some help of the dealer. Like some sort of miracle the board showed [9d 8d Qh Tc Jd] me winning the pot with a Straight Flush! The next couple of blind levels I was able to slowly build out my stack and the next big pot wasn’t played until just before the second break.
I got dealt [Ks Kc] and made a $4000 raises witch 2 players, one big stacked Idiot and the player in the BB called. On the flop [8d 8h Jh] and the others checking into me I decided that my [Ks Kc] was winning and moved all-in for my remaining $7,970 to make sure a free card wouldn’t outdraw me and pick up the pot right away. Surprisingly enough for me the player of which I already thought he was an idiot proved to be so and called my all-in with only [7d Td]!! giving him only 4 outs to win.. Lucky for me he didn’t suck out on me and I more than doubled my stack to $29.040 chips, $25.110 being the average and went into the second break with only 148 players left.
With just 70 players more needed to go out after the break it wasn’t really hard for me to make that money finish. I continued playing like I was doing whole tournament long and easily made my first cash! I even battled myself through to the 3rd Break, but not much later after that, I made one of my first mistakes of the day with [7h 4d] which did cost me my whole stack. I limped in from the SB and when the flop came [9c 8d 4s] I fired away a $30.000 bet with only about 28K behind making me pretty much committed to the pot. Unfortunately for me the first limper shoved all-in having me covered and after I called hoping he would be on a straight draw he showed [8c Ac]. The [Ad] on the turn and the [5h] on river didn’t help me and I was out in 28th place.
Maybe I could have made it to the final table with some more luck and patience but that’s just guessing. All in all a fair decent result of which I can be pretty content. Hopefully I can keep this form and make an even better result in one of the next events. Wish me Luck!
Greetz, Durdy
vrijdag 3 april 2009
donderdag 2 april 2009
SSC Event #3
SSC Event #3
$4,000 guaranteed no limit Hold'em Deep & Steep
1036 runners, 8000 starting chips, 5 minute blinds
Here I am again with some inside information about my doings in the Small Stack Championships events. For the first time this year I am not writing a story from behind my computer inside the house but on my notebook at the balcony of my apartment. Ok it´s my parents place, but hey that’s just a little unimportant detail. The reason of me sitting here instead of safely inside the house is that today the sun is shining here like it didn’t do for about 6 months! Well at least I can´t remember when it the last time happened that you could find me sitting here in the middle of the day writing with my sunglasses on and enjoying the nice weather and a nice ice cold beer! Enough about it time to tell a little bit about yesterdays tournament.
I’m not a big fan of the Deep & Steep format to be quite honest. Given the fact that the blinds go up every 5 minutes in a blind structure that by itself already annoys me, (yes I think the gaps are too big they should take a look at the other sites and fix it that’s just my opinion tho) these kind of tournaments always end up in a crapshoot where the luckiest player wins. And well talking about that, luck I didn´t really have last night!
I picked up some decent limping hands at the start hitting 2 pairs and big draws, but unfortunately ran into a set twice. I didn’t lose a lot of chips though in these pots, which could have happened if the opponents were a little better. After 20 minutes I finally found a great starting hand, [Kd Ks]. I did my usual 3.5x BB raise as being the first in and surprisingly enough 3 players behind me called. On the flop that came [6h Qh As] I checked and after someone raising it and even a reraiser on top of that I couldn’t do anything else than give up on the pot and fold my kings and search for a better opportunity to win a big pot.
About 2 blind levels later I got dealt [Qh Qc] on the BB. With two limpers already in I made a slightly bigger raise than normal only having the SB next to me to flat call. Once again the flop came with an over card [2c Th Kc], but with the player in the SB checking and me being in position I decided to make a big continuation bet this time. I raised $1,100 and unlucky enough for me the SB Check-Raised All-in. After some thinking I safely folded my Queens. Which was the right decision given the fact that the player showed his [Kd Jd] the exact hand I put him on before the flop.
After these 2 pots my stack was seriously crippled. A couple of hands later picking up some little pots uncontested but not really building out my stack I still had only $4,045 left with these blinds going up like crazy already being $300/$600 ante $75, not a great position to be in, I decided to move All-in with [Ac Jc]. With two players calling one holding [Kh 9h] and the other [Ad Kd] and a board that came [As Tc 8d] I was I desperate need of a Jack to come! Lucky enough for me the turn showed the [Jh] and after the river giving me a [Jd] for a Full House I won the pot with a hugh suckout!
After an hour of play at the first break I had a $12580 stack already a lot below average with 486 people left in play. Unlucky enough for me I didn’t even get one big hand to move in with after the break. My stack slowly shrinking and the blinds still rising out of proportions the tournament ended up in the crapshoot I thought it would be at the beginning of this, A sick all-in fest!
At the 16th blind level the average stack already being less than 8 BBs and with me holding an amazingly big stack of only $9,080 and [2c Jc] on the BB, blinds being $1,500/$3,000 $300 ante, I only could hope for the best. On the flop showing [Jh 8c 6c] top pair and a flush draw better than I could dream of, I instantly moved in for all my chips. My little stack of course couldn’t scare of the player holding [7h 5s] for an open-ended Straight draw who called. And once again like in every event I played up till now my hand couldn’t hold up! The [7s] on the turn and [5d] on the river gave her two pair and knocked me out.
I can’t say I enjoyed this one. The bad tournament set-up and the 288th finish out of 1036 also didn’t help. Well I’m off to have a drink with a nice girl I met last week. Hope I do better with her than so far in the SSC.. Wish Me Luck haha!
$4,000 guaranteed no limit Hold'em Deep & Steep
1036 runners, 8000 starting chips, 5 minute blinds
Here I am again with some inside information about my doings in the Small Stack Championships events. For the first time this year I am not writing a story from behind my computer inside the house but on my notebook at the balcony of my apartment. Ok it´s my parents place, but hey that’s just a little unimportant detail. The reason of me sitting here instead of safely inside the house is that today the sun is shining here like it didn’t do for about 6 months! Well at least I can´t remember when it the last time happened that you could find me sitting here in the middle of the day writing with my sunglasses on and enjoying the nice weather and a nice ice cold beer! Enough about it time to tell a little bit about yesterdays tournament.
I’m not a big fan of the Deep & Steep format to be quite honest. Given the fact that the blinds go up every 5 minutes in a blind structure that by itself already annoys me, (yes I think the gaps are too big they should take a look at the other sites and fix it that’s just my opinion tho) these kind of tournaments always end up in a crapshoot where the luckiest player wins. And well talking about that, luck I didn´t really have last night!
I picked up some decent limping hands at the start hitting 2 pairs and big draws, but unfortunately ran into a set twice. I didn’t lose a lot of chips though in these pots, which could have happened if the opponents were a little better. After 20 minutes I finally found a great starting hand, [Kd Ks]. I did my usual 3.5x BB raise as being the first in and surprisingly enough 3 players behind me called. On the flop that came [6h Qh As] I checked and after someone raising it and even a reraiser on top of that I couldn’t do anything else than give up on the pot and fold my kings and search for a better opportunity to win a big pot.
About 2 blind levels later I got dealt [Qh Qc] on the BB. With two limpers already in I made a slightly bigger raise than normal only having the SB next to me to flat call. Once again the flop came with an over card [2c Th Kc], but with the player in the SB checking and me being in position I decided to make a big continuation bet this time. I raised $1,100 and unlucky enough for me the SB Check-Raised All-in. After some thinking I safely folded my Queens. Which was the right decision given the fact that the player showed his [Kd Jd] the exact hand I put him on before the flop.
After these 2 pots my stack was seriously crippled. A couple of hands later picking up some little pots uncontested but not really building out my stack I still had only $4,045 left with these blinds going up like crazy already being $300/$600 ante $75, not a great position to be in, I decided to move All-in with [Ac Jc]. With two players calling one holding [Kh 9h] and the other [Ad Kd] and a board that came [As Tc 8d] I was I desperate need of a Jack to come! Lucky enough for me the turn showed the [Jh] and after the river giving me a [Jd] for a Full House I won the pot with a hugh suckout!
After an hour of play at the first break I had a $12580 stack already a lot below average with 486 people left in play. Unlucky enough for me I didn’t even get one big hand to move in with after the break. My stack slowly shrinking and the blinds still rising out of proportions the tournament ended up in the crapshoot I thought it would be at the beginning of this, A sick all-in fest!
At the 16th blind level the average stack already being less than 8 BBs and with me holding an amazingly big stack of only $9,080 and [2c Jc] on the BB, blinds being $1,500/$3,000 $300 ante, I only could hope for the best. On the flop showing [Jh 8c 6c] top pair and a flush draw better than I could dream of, I instantly moved in for all my chips. My little stack of course couldn’t scare of the player holding [7h 5s] for an open-ended Straight draw who called. And once again like in every event I played up till now my hand couldn’t hold up! The [7s] on the turn and [5d] on the river gave her two pair and knocked me out.
I can’t say I enjoyed this one. The bad tournament set-up and the 288th finish out of 1036 also didn’t help. Well I’m off to have a drink with a nice girl I met last week. Hope I do better with her than so far in the SSC.. Wish Me Luck haha!
woensdag 1 april 2009
SSC. Event #2
SSC. Event #2
Tuesday, 31 March 18:00 GMT
$500 guaranteed pot limit Omaha
520 runners, 2000 starting chips, 10 minute blinds.
After the unlucky 115th finish in the first event, just short of the money, it was now time to play the second event. Pot Limit Omaha was scheduled next. Even though I once won a PLO Tournament it isn’t a format in which I really have that much experience. I’m more of a PLO cash game player and the short stacked play I use there can’t be really used in a tournament I think. Well we will see what will happen in this event. I can’t really say much about my changes upfront. Given the somewhat bigger field than usual I might have a little advantage over the majority of players who seldom play PLO and overestimate their marginal starting hands. Or overplay their great looking Hold’ em hands like big pairs.
In the first 30 minutes I didn’t really play well. Better said; I played bad! I was involved in way to many pots and made the mistakes I hoped the other players would make against me. I once overplayed my middle 2 pair and saw to many flops with hands without much flush or straight potential.
Late in the 4th blind level I finally won a nice pot. With a stack of $1,580 I min-raised with [Jh Ah Ts 9d] from the BB to $200 and the SB who limped in called. The flop came [Td Kd Th] giving me a set with Full House outs, runner runner Flush and Straight possibilities. The player in the SB bet out only the minimum and I reraised him for $400 total. He flat called and the turn came [4h]. Once again he raised the bare minimum which didn’t seem to represent a lot of strength to me. I didn’t put him on a Full House and I instantly moved all-in for my last $980 chips. He called with [Jc 4s Qs 7s] with only an open-ended straight draw. The [2c] didn’t help him and I doubled with my Three of a Kind tens.
In the next 25 minutes before the first break I picked up some little pots and as I did in the first event I survived the first hour. Like yesterday once again with a below average stack. Only a mere $3610 while average was $5279. With 200 players left in play I was in desperate need of picking up some good hands and double through.
Unfortunately for me I missed out on some double opportunities with medium run down hands like [9c 8d 7h 5c] and [8s 6s 5c 4d] which both would’ve given me the nut straight. And by not getting any action on my all-in raises with hands such as AAxx and KKxx I was once again down to a very short stack. I only had $3,210 chips left with $400/$800 blinds. Given the fact that I was in the BB my tournament life wouldn’t last much longer without some help of the Pokergods.
I held [5s Jc Ac 8h] and in the four-way pot and I decided to check and move in on any flop that would give me some outs with the chance of a triple up or more. As some kind of miracle the flop came [4s 7h 6d] giving me the nut straight at that time. So as planned I instantly move all-in for the remainder of my awfully short stack. One guy called my all-in with [Td Ks 9s 8s] giving him pretty decent outs to outdraw my Straight. And yes that’s what happened. The [5c] on the river gave him a better Straight!
A bit unlucky maybe, but that was the end of my tournament. This time I finished in 85th place out of the staring 520 players, while the first 60 got paid argg! Again not that bad, but I’m not content with the way I played. I played way to many hands in the start and played too tight in the middle stage and because of that I missed out on some nice double opportunities. Well I hope I do better in today’s event!
Greetz, Durdy
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