Fire versus Ice

If you have to play like God to go deep in a large 10 seater MTT, then you need to play like the Devil to do the same in the 6 seater equivalent. Oddly, although the rules are the same, the reduced number of players changes the game significantly. It’s like fire and ice.

The 10 seater game rewards solid technicians of the game, with a good understanding of odds and an abundance of patience. The 6 seater rewards the gamblers, who employ brute aggression and deception.

I can picture a full-ring game going on upstairs between the Lord and 9 angels on a pristine white table. Gabriel has just folded his UTG raise with pocket 8s to a re-raise. Meanwhile down in Hades on a chaffed black marble table, a demon is contemplating defending his big blind with 68 suited to an early position raise and Lucifer’s min re-raise. I digress..welcome to FTOPS #15 – Short-handed NLHE

I registered for this event from work in the afternoon, knowing that I would be at least 30 minutes late for the 7pm start. Since I thought it was a ten seater NL/Omaha “round of each” event, I thought this wouldn’t hamper my chances. Of course, I was somewhat deflated when I logged on at 7:45 to realise it was a short handed event, and due to the fact you pay almost double the blinds as a full table, my stack was down to 2200 from a 3000 start.

Great! Nevertheless, I recovered from this rocky start to finish 2nd out of 1,891 runners and take down $47.5k for the biggest single poker score of my career so far. In the 8 hours of play, there were probably many memorable hands I have forgotton, but I’ve put down some highlights below.

Hand1

I raise mid position with 57 off. Big blind defends.
Flop 2, A, K. Big blind leads for the pot, I raise 3 times his bet and he folds.

Hand2

Very next hand, I raise early position with 88 and same guy calls in small blind Flop A, 8, 3 - small blind leads, I raise 3 times his bet, he pushes
I instacall with the set He has nothing and I double up.

Hand3

I call a raise in the big blind with J♣9♣
Flop K♣ Q♣ 2♥. I check, he bets, I raise 3 times his bet, he calls Turn 10d completing my straight.
I bet (I don’t want the flush to come now really), he pushes and I call

I pray he doesn’t show AJ for the bigger straight but he has the nut flush draw and misses. Hmmm - I’m lucky I turned my straight instead of my flush there :)

There is now a whole hour sequence where I run good, hitting 2 pairs and sets and getting paid off. I get into first place and stay there for another hour or so. I then dip to 20th and then come back up to the top 5, when I get moved to a new table and I’m directly to the right of Canada’s Marcel Bedard, who has had a fair bit of WPT success. We are both big stacked compared to the table, and the blind battles between us are ultra aggressive - similar to when myself and Tom sit next to each other at the Loose Cannon.

Hand4

Folded round to me and I raise Bedard’s big blind with AKo. Called Flop 2, 5, 9. I continuation bet and it’s called
Turn 10. Check, Check
River Q. I check, Bedard bets and I re-raise the size of the pot. Bedard thinks and then calls me with the lone pair of 5s. I got owned on that one.

Hand5

Huge hand. Bedard has 200k, I have 240k
Folded round to us and I raise with A♦J♦
Bedard calls - pot is about 19k
Flop 5, 6, 9 with 2 diamonds
Check. Bedard bets 15k I call (its not so much about the odds - from our previous battles, even Ace high may be good here). Pot is 49k
Turn is J spades - a great card for me, as I have TPTK and the nut flush draw. Bedard bets 30k, I re-raise to 90k and Bedard calls.
Turn is an offfsuit 7, I check and Bedard pushes for his last 90k. I actually give strong consideration to folding here. Do I really want to come this far and call it all on top pair? The key factor is the nature of our previous encounters, so I call, pray. He only has 3s so I am up to 440k and leading the tournament again.

Hand6

I raise with A♠Q♠, called by big blind - pot is 24k
Flop Jd, 10s, 2d
He checks, I bet 20k and its called
Turn is 5h. Check, Check
River is 7c. I check, he pushes for 80k into the 64k pot.
No hand makes sense here. If he had 2 pair or a set he’d have pushed on the flop probably when I bet, because the pot size would increase his stack nearly 50%, and he’d be worried about the draws. On the river, both flush and OESD have missed if he had Q9/KQ. I don’t think he overpushes here with a pair because he had the chance to check it down, and he only gets called if he is behind (in his eyes). I call and win the 224k pot with Ace high :)

We are now approaching the final table and I have a tough time of it. My table has 4 of the top 5 stacks so we are all worried about busting each other given the huge prize jumps from here on. This is where the other big stack gave himself a real boost in terms of winning because he was going potty on the other table byullying the shorter stacks. Anyway, I make it to the final table in 3rd spot.

Hand7

I raise 48k with KQ (blinds 6/12 with antes)
Called by big blind
Flop 2, 5, 7 Check, Check
Turn 10 Big blind bets 60k, I re-raise to 180k (I think he is stabbing but he calls River Q Check Check and I win (I get a lot of grief from the rail for this hand)

Hand8

4 left. A raise and a call and I call in the big blind with Q9 (pot is 170k) Flop Q, 10, 9. I check, big stack bets pot and the small stack pushes for 400k. I call as does the big stack. The big blind has AQ, the small stack has KJ for the flopped straight
Turn 2
River 9

Honest Dave loves this hand - the house was always on its way, eh? I am chip leader with 3 left but now have the reputation of a village idiot after the last 2 hands.

Hand9

I am BB, there is a raise UTG and the small blind calls to make pot 300k (we are playing stacks of 700k to 2.5m). I have 47off and raise to 600k. UTG raiser folds so the squeeze should work but the original caller pushes for 1.8m more and I have to fold. The small blind slow playing a monster there I think - either that or he thinks I am some kind of donkey who re-raises big with 47off. ;)

The smaller stack then gets eliminated and we go to heads-up. I’m up against a well-known online whizz-kid and unfortunately out-chipped about 6-1. I also go card dead.

I finally bust out when down to 400k pushing over a raise with JQ and he has KQ. A great score - online tournies are such hard work mentally, but well worth it when you get the big win.

I will have to get out of the manic short-handed mentality in time for the return to the relatively serene 10 seater tables at Gutshot on Monday. Back to the fundamentals, after an enjoyable adrenaline-fuelled Friday night.

Fire versus Ice.