January 2009 - Posts
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By
raildog
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Jan 05 2009, 05:49 PM
With the blinds at 2000/4000-400 I lost a couple of hands and was back down to 47k when I rather boldly called an UTG all-in with A9 in the BB, which held up against KT. That took me back to 78k, and things got even better on the next hand when I tangled with a player called Tommy T83. His pic was of him sitting at a live game, so I Googled him and found he was some kind of successful internet player (he’d played in the ultra-ultra-tough Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure and came fifth in the Sunday Warm-Up for $18.7k so he obviously knew what he was up to).
Anyway, I can only blame the infusion of beers for the battle of the blinds that followed when I completed in the SB with, er, J7 (I was hoping to take it away on the flop, okay?), and TommyTG83 checked pre-flop, with just the two of us going to a flop of 527. I bet $8k, he went all in for $92 and I called, which was just stupid. But I tend to get a bit too defensive against tough players, not wanting to get pushed around by aggressive betting and raising. And so it was Tommy’s A7 vs my J7.
However, in the key hand of my tournament I hit a jack on the turn, putting me up to a whopping 159k, which I’m sure put me in the top five stacks. It was loose to call with J7 (although it was only going to be the two of us to the flop) but I don’t feel too bad now about hitting the jack; I had top pair and also factored in that TommyTG83 had seen me probably playing weak-passive and thought a big bet would make me fold. But talent always outs and although he was down to 18k, half an hour later he’d clawed his stack all the way back and then some, staying level with me for quite some time until one of us vanished to another table.
Kate Bosworth: supervixen
Over the next half an hour I tightened up, not wanting to squander my stack yet again, but I managed to win another 9k with KQ pre-flop and then at 8pm I won 73k when I went to war in the SB against a mid-position villain who went all-in with A8. There was no way I was going to blow this now; they’d have to blind me out or wrench the chips from my cold, dead hands. I was on the third showing of 21 by now but hell, it had worked so far, though I made a mental note to give up my superstitious ways next time I went deep in a tourney or I was going to get very, very sick of seeing Mr Spacey and the gang, though Kate Bosworth is very easy on the eye.
K-Boz: excuse me love, can I tell you a bad beat story?
With blinds at 3500/7000-700 I picked up 99 in mid, raised to 28k, got re-raised by the button all-in and called. I had 99 and 179k, he had AQ and 84k and there were a horrible few moments while the board blanked out. It might seem a bit reckless but he’d been v agg, very defensive of his button and blinds and he needed to win a chunk of chips. But I should have guessed it was a flip – not sure I’d bother calling that if I was in that situation right now. I reverted to splashy mode when I picked up AK and lost a huge $137k after raising, calling an all-in reraise from the SB and racing against JJ. He flopped a set and the river ace was obviously no good. Sighs.
But I got all but 5k of that loss back six hands later with pockets eights against pocket fives, and another 36k with KK when I got into a raising war on a JJx flop. Thankfully he didn’t have the jack and folded. Hungry now and quite pissed. I pop out for more beers in the rain. Oh God, I know all the script of 21 now. At least it looks glamorous and is not very stressful.
The tightening up years
I really, really tightened up during the next hour and my stack just went up, hardly any dents at all, and in six hands I won the blinds and antes three times, at 27k a pop. By now I’ve texted the world and his wife because I know I’m going to make the final table. A couple of friends log on and my concentration starts to take a nosedive as I MSN them and keep up the texting, not to mention the beer and the movie. What a professional.
At 9.30, after playing for six and a half hours, there was another really sick hand – the sickest of the tourney – where I raised with A6 (we’re seven handed) and got a call with a pair of nines and as big stacks we both check it down on a very dangerous board. On the river he showed 99, but my ace kicker played on the QQ7KK board. Sick. Oh well, you gotta get lucky to win big-field tourneys so no use beating myself up. A huge $377k now.
I pick up a load more blinds and antes, and the contested pots I did win were for an average of $100k a time now, including a rivered straight. I can’t deny I ran well! Then things went up another gear when I find pocket eights (one of my very luckiest hands) and raise preflop with them and then when board comes king high. Villain folds and I rake a 200k pot.
Finally it’s my turn to get unlucky when we’re five handed and trying to lose one person to start the final table. In the SB, my 87 suited looks good on an 855 flop and I bet it, get called by the BB. Both checked the turn. I called his river bet, which was horrible to have to do as there were now four clubs but he made is just enough that I had to do it and of course he had a flush. That knocked my 916k down to 616, a third of my stack gone! Eurrgh, should have folded. Four clubs on the board, you idiot! Go and drink some coffee!
The final table
But then everything went right for me again and suddenly poker was the easiest game in the world when I flopped a straight (220k profit), win AQ uncontested pre-flop (195k profit) and made two pair with aces and tens (379k profit), all in the space of four hands. Just as well, as I never play short-handed anything so I needed some help. Trying to lose our tenth player to start the final table is agony. I so desperately want to make it! Finally it’s me who strikes the death blow, calling an all-in with AT suited, going up against 55, board brings two of my suits, turn is no help to me but then there was an awesomely lovely ten on the river, giving me an extra 645k and kaboom I’ve made the final table! COME ON, THE RAILDOG!
I made the first elimination within a couple of hands and then kept on trucking, 80s CB radio style, with a mixture of good cards and also by exploiting a quite cautious table. Down to five players, I found KK and was lucky that someone else had AK. We’re all in pre-flop, the board gave me a flush on the turn and I won the biggest pot of my entire tournament – and indeed tournament career - $6m.
Four handed, I went on a tear and won four out of four hands for another $1.4m. At just gone midnight I knocked out a guy in third place when I got into a reraising war with K3, which might seem bizarre but the other guy was very short. He had KQ, we got it all-in before the flop and I spiked a miracle three on the river. Oops. I didn’t play the heads up very well but my stamina was all but gone by this time. My opponent did not seem very strong and I think there was a good chance I could have chipped away, but I ended up all in with A4 against his pocket tens, and failed to improve.
Final result: 2/1953, $6,460 (£4,460). Buy-ins: $31.80.
I’m quite annoyed about it now as I never get it in with ace rag, I just don’t, I hate it, and I didn’t remotely need to. Any moron could see I only had one live card at best. Grrr. Oh well. I have not peeked at the prize money yet but do so now... and then text everyone the result (as well as buying MGMT's Time to Pretend, the official song of the tourney, which I heard at least three times over the opening credits of 21. Quite an apt name for a poker game, too). Next year was going to be “the year of cash”. Looks like it’s going to have to be the year of the tourney again. Better get the backflow ready...
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By
raildog
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Jan 03 2009, 05:37 PM
At the start of December, the month ahead - in fact, the two months ahead - looked very worrying: I had no freelance work booked. Was this the beginning of the end for my magazine shifts as print media finally died out, or was it simply that magazines drop at least one issue over Christmas and no-one needed me? Luckily it turned out to be the latter, but that didn’t help my situation at the time – not only did I have the Blackpool jaunt coming up (which was never going to be EV+), but there was, well, Christmas and, like, all those presents and shit.
Despite these realities, I was really excited about the prospect of a month without having to get up in the cold and schlepp into work on the tube with various bastards’ gadgets hissing all the way. The unfounded optimism was due to my belief that I could maybe grind out a small profit playing tourneys all day. And when it got going, it was fun, I have to admit.
The morning walk through Walthamstow Market to Sainsbury’s – it’s Europe’s longest, market lovers! “It is reputed to be a mile long, but in fact measures approximately one kilometre,” says Wikipedia. Arseholes. Anyway, I like that walk at that time of day. The morning stroll makes you feel like Rocky, albeit a Rocky who can’t be arsed to run any more, preferring to check out the second-hand DVD stall.
Defiant farewell
And Sainsbury’s is civilised in the morning, no hectic weekend types, just old people. A few eccentric old people, for sure, but hey, that’s how they roll. On Tuesday, December 30, I bought some food and left the supermarket. There was some foreign bloke selling The Big Issue. It’s a freezing day and he had a thin anorak on. I walked past him, felt bad and went back and gave him four quid. It’ll be funny if I win a lot of money at poker later, I remember thinking. He’d be my talisman.
I went for a coffee in Costa, finished making notes on Harrington 2 and headed home, where I finished making the Raildog banner you see today. Busted out of a Stars $11 freezeout (so much for Haribo), had lunch and settled down to the $8 rebuy. I couldn't justify playing this as I didn’t have the roll for it (I didn’t have any roll, in fact) but I justified on the grounds that I’m switching to cash studies soon and this was my defiant farewell to tourneys.
And my best results by far have been in the Stars rebuys, because they are supersoft, one of the last outposts of poker where sitting and waiting for a hand will usually get you into the money. To recap, my biggest wins to date had been:
1) $1,106, 7/1071, $11 Stars rebuy, October 2008.
2) £500 William Hill, 1/70?, freezeout, July 2007.
3) £500 William Hill, 2/70?, freezeout, September 2007.
4) $727, Stars $80k, 10/1701, August 2008.
5) £280, High Street House (swanky private members club Soho House’s Chiswick offshoot) tourney, 2006.
Splashing around
So on a cold afternoon on the penultimate day of 2008 and I signed up for the $8, did the double buy-in and chose The Firm as my backflow (see sidebar list for latest backflow chart). I like to get to 7k by the end of the one-hour rebuy periods and 10k in the 90-minute ones. But nothing really happened for me and by the first break (60 mins) I had a slightly disappointing $6.1k. After the break I got involved in a ton of hands when the antes kicked in, just splashing around in the way that Harrington advises against, but I win a 1.5k pot which gets me back to where I was.
On the last hand before the second break I get aces in the cutoff (blinds 150/300), mid-position with a juicy stack of 31k raises pre-flop to 900, I min-raise to 1.8, he calls and then on a ten-high raggedy flop bets a whopping 9.3k into a pot of 4.2k. I went all in for my last 5.7k, (never afraid of a set, me) he called (never afraid of a bigger pair, him) and booom another ace on the turn makes me feel all warm and comfy and then suddenly I’m up to 15.7k. The Fawlty Towers series one that I’m backflowing seems to be bringing me luck so I keep it on and end up watching the full six episodes.
I topped it up a short while later when I raised to 1.6k with 86 unsuited in late-ish (okay, mid) position and four of us saw the flop (blinds 200/400-50), which brought me a straight draw. Luckily no-one was interested in the flop and we checked it to the river, which brought me a very well disguised ten-high straight. My value bet was not called and I raked a nice 6.8k pot.
Two hours 41 mins in to the tourney I won another 3k with a raise with KT in the BB and got rid of the only limper, then a couple of hands later won 15.7k when I called a 5xBB raise from a mid-position player and went all in with KQ following his slightly bigger than half-pot bet on a KJx flop. I don’t have HUD stats available on replay but I’m guessing he was agg and I wasn’t worried about AK or KJ too much. Up to 28.8k with blinds 300/600-50. Poker: so easy when you get the cards.
Big smiley friend
Reviewing this on Tracker, however, I was playing nice and tight by now; the splashing around and limping had stopped and I was playing hands decisively (for a while, anyway). I won a simple hand with AQ on an ace-high (if mono-suited) board (danger, meh) and the 4.2k from that seems to have had its usual effect, which is to make me limp into more pots and splash around hoping to hit some miracle,and I promptly took a few silly hits in short succession.
But Fate was my big smiley friend this day and at exactly 6pm, after three hours’ play, I limped in with JT in late, board came 66T, I bet at it, the small blind called, and called on the next two streets, unable to lay down his pocket fours. He obviously didn’t believe I had a six or a ten. God knows why I was so convinced that he didn't either, I either had some good stats on him or was just spanking the bet button like a madman. I think I’d started on the beers by this time so maybe that had something to do with it.
The SB busts out and I’m up to 43k. I manage to haemorrhage 9k of it when it was folded to me in the SB and raise to 4k with A2s, BB goes all in for his last 9k, I call, he has 89, board blanks out – until the river, when he spikes a 9. Oh well, I had the best hand going in. I bleed more chips and then around 6.30pm it all kicks off again (blinds 600/1200-125) when I raise on the button for 3x with AQ, BB goes all in for 33k and I call (my stack is a much diminished 27k, and there’s always the added factor that the blinds might think you’re stealing so it was an easy call). Villain has sevens, board comes down no help to Raildog untillllllll the river, which is a nice fat ace. Now I’m up to 56k.
I got the feeling I’m going deep in the money for once (on luck alone, if nothing else), and I was definitely on the beers by now. I had had the Kevin Spacey blackjack flick 21 on a backflow, and being a typically superstitious poker player I decided the film is lucky and started playing it through again.
I splashed around for the next half an hour and a few big pots were outweighed by losses, taking me down to 37k, when I decided to do or die and played three of four successive hands, starting with an all-in bluff with AK on a 456 flop, then another 4k when I got a walk with K4, then an all in with AK on the button following a big early position raise. Villain folded, I raked 23k, taking me to 70k. A bit reckless but someone up there obviously liked me on this, the last tourney day of the year (wasn't going to be able to play the next day). By now I was tense, hungry, tipsy and a bit sick of watching 21. It was just lucky I didn’t know I still had five hours to play…
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