After my significant loss on Wednesday, I decided I would play a little lighter for the next few days. I wasn't giving up on $2/$4 - but I wanted to make sure I was playing with the right frame of mind.
On Friday night, Lindsay got home early and wanted to play a tournament with me, so we sat next to the computer and talked about each hand as it came up - playing 2 no-limit hold'em tournaments at once.
The first tournament was actually a satellite to the $500+30 tournament on Sunday. I wasn't expecting much - but as it was a FPP tournament, it cost me nothing in terms of cash - so I was willing to take a chance again. I didn't really get anything going in it and was knocked out in 127th out of 300. The top 4 got the seats into the bigger tournament.
Anyway, the next tournament was a $10+1 no-limit hold'em tournament. Here, Lindsay and I were doing quite well - hitting our hands well and eventually made it to the money. The field was in the order of 1300 and it paid out to 135. After the money hit, I hit a hand to give me a reasonable stack, when this one came up:
Blinds are 600/1200 with a 75 ante. I'm in middle position with 9k in chips and it is folded to me. At this point there are 103 players left and the next payout level is at 99. The players after me have proven to be fairly weak, so I suspected a raise all-in would be enough to either a) steal the blinds and antes or b) get a call from a lesser ace. Obviously a bigger ace or a big pocket pair would call - but they'd have to be worried about me with aces or kings - especially since although I was the shortest one at the table - I wasn't behind by much.
In any case, I raised all in and was called by the BB. He flips pocket tens and we see the board: 89A (I have top pair), J (I have top two) and 7 on the river (gives him a straight). He had me covered by about 1500, so I was knocked out.
I have no problem with my play, as I suspect I had a better than 50% fold equity (considering the amount of time he spent thinking about the call - I suspect he was pretty close to folding himself). With about a 50% chance of winning the hand from preflop to river - that gives me about 3:1 that I win here. With the size of the pot - I suspect it would've been enough to propel me into the realms of the real money of the tournament. It just happens he outdrew me (after I outdrew him).
Sometime after the second tournament started and I was knocked out of the first, I decided to also play a $10+1 limit Omaha Hi/Lo tournament. With a relatively small field (311), I managed to finish almost to the final table at 15th. I had plenty going for me, but at the end, I just didn't have enough momentum to carry my into the final table. I'm very pleased with my play (as of right now - tournament report for this one and the one previous to be coming later today or tomorrow).
Lastly, I did play a little $2/$4 Omaha Hi/Lo again and managed to recover about $78 of my loss from Wednesday.
Due to a major toothache that manifested on Saturday, I did not play on Saturday. I can't express how much it hurt - but I decided against calling a dentist and tough it out until Monday. The tooth that hurt is one that I already have marked as needing a root canal - so you can imagine how happy I was to know that it now was likely infected.
In any case, on Sunday, Lindsay wanted to play some more poker with me, so I loaded up Pokerstars again. We didn't have any tournaments starting that interested us, so I signed up for a 9-player $20+2 Omaha Hi/Lo SNG. There wasn't anything special about it, though I did break out to an early lead. I managed to get myself knocked out in 5th - after one of my key hands was counterfeited on the river against two all-in opponents. It wasn't stellar play on my part - but I wasn't too upset about it.
After the SNG, I decided I'd play a few more hands before bed, but there weren't any limit Omaha Hi/Lo tables to play (10 player either $1/$2 or $2/$4). Instead, I signed up for a juicy $2/$4 Hold'em table ($35 avg pot, 35% see flop percentage). One of my early hands from this table:
I have pocket queens UTG+1. UTG limps, I raise and it folds around to the cutoff, who calls two bets cold. Now it folds around to UTG - who now reraises. (I have no read on this player, but I suspect he has a range of AK, KK, QQ, AQ, and JJ - just as a guess). I call the reraise - and now the button comes off with the cap (I don't expect this means anything - maybe a big pocket pair - but I doubt aces or kings for him).
The flop is AKQ - which could be really good if I was against AK or AQ - but I could be really hurting against AA or KK. UTG bets, I call and the other player calls. Curious. The turn is a low card (a 5 I think). This time UTG checks, I check and the button bets. UTG calls, I call as well. The river is another ace (possibly the worst card I can think of) and UTG bets. I make a crying call and the other player folds. UTG shows AK and takes the pot. I don't like the way the hand turned out - but I'm not sure how I should've played it.
I managed to recover from that hand however, and finished on the table after about 50 hands up by $43. It was a lucky finish as the table broke up in the last 2-3 hands and that's where I won the bulk of my money. Overall for the night, I finished up $21.
Numbers from the weekend:
2/25 $200 withdrawal to Neteller from Interpoker
2/25 $250 deposit to Pokerstars from Neteller
2/25 10:00pm 500FPP NL HE Satellite (300) 5468861, 127th 10:58pm, 52 hands, 0
2/25 10:05pm $10+1 NL HE multi (1355) 5472361, 103rd, 1:03am, 164 hands, +2.55
2/25 10:29pm $2/$4 O8 ring (10) $60 buyin, 2:13am, 157 hands, +78
2/25 11:15pm $10+1 O8 multi (311) 5472365, 15th, 2:48am, 184 hands, +26.32
$361.23
2/27 9:41pm $20+2 O8 SNG (9) 5677903, 5th, 10:37pm, 44 hands, -22
2/27 10:52pm $2/$4 HE ring (10) $60 buyin, $40 rebuy, 11:36pm, 57 hands, +43
$382.23Statistics: Posted by starstealer — Mon Feb 28, 2005 10:02 am
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