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