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!