An Uninspiring Sunday

Sunday’s tournaments didn’t work out well - I played 6 and only cashed in 1 for an $800 dollar loss on the evening. The lowlights:

PokerStars Sunday Warmup
Started well in this one - moved my 10k starting stack up up to 25k, primarily because some guy was happy to call off their last 5k on a ten high flush draw, on the turn against my set. Then this little belter comes up. Big stack (50k) raises to 1800 (blinds 300-600) in the cut off and I defend with A♥9♦. I would let this go against a tight player, but the big stack has been splashing around a lot.

Flop is 9♠ 8♥ 5♦

I check, he bets 4k, I check-raise him to 12k. He shoves for my last 11k and I decide to call him for a shot at the 50k pot, but fearing the worst. However he has 6♠8♠ for mid pair and a gutshot, but no worries, he hits running spades to bust me. I almost fell off my chair at that one - it’s not the worst beat in the world, but I simply can’t see what he is trying to achieve with his shove - it’s hard for me to put down most hands having already bunged 60 odd percent of my stack in the middle. Very disappointed with this one - I should have either moved on with a 6k bigger stack, or been in a really commanding position in the tournament.

Full Tilt Brawl
Doubled my opening stack to 6k, before going back down to 3k to a guy who held AA on a JT844 board (I held JT in the hole). My exit hand occurred very shortly after the debacle on the Sunday warm up above, so I may well have played it differently had I not had steam still coming out of my ears.

I was holding JT and got it in on a QT9 flop, as I had middle pair and open ended straight. However, my opponent had one of the worst possible holding - QJ - the same draw but a bigger pair to leave me drawing very thin.

Crypto 40k
Bled away about 800 of my 3k starting stack by playing too many hands, then this occurs: Player raises UTG to 150 and I find TT in the hole. I want to define my hand here, so raise in late position to 400 and he flat calls. At this point I put him on AQ, AJ, JJ, or any lower pair than mine.

Flop arrives 9, 4, 7 rainbow.

Checked to me which confirms my read on his holding so I lead for the pot with a bet of 950 leaving just 900 behind. However, when he check raises me all in, I know I am probably toast, but have to call for the size of the pot, and he shows KK for a well played hand and busts me.

Party 300k
Success of sorts - I finished 113th for $480. As always in these tournaments, the prizes that matter are at the top, so it wasn’t enough to rescue my evening. I played very well in this one early on, building my stack up to 35k from the 5k starting stack. However, I didn’t really kick on from there, and once we were approaching the bubble at 200 players, I decided to tighten up as I have had too many bubble disasters in recent weeks. The bubble bursts, but by the time it does nearly all players are moderately short stacked with blinds of 3k and 6k. I pushbot my way up to 60k, before getting greedy and returning to short stack 30k status after shoving J4 in the cutoff. I eventually bust shoving A7 in an unopened pot and getting a customer holding AJ.

Sunday Million
The fact I was playing very tight on the other table in the Party tournament, meant that I found myself playing too loose in the Sunday Million. I fluctuated wildly between 10k and 6k playing all manner of suited gappers trying to hit a disguised monster. When the blinds rose to 300-600, I tightened up, as with 7k in my stack I needed to find a spot to double up, or at least add some breathing room. I found it, when a loose medium stack raiser opened to 1800 in mid posit on and was called by a large stack behind. I shoved A9 in the BB for 7k total on the squeeze, and was snap called by the initial raiser. I was pleasantly surprised to see 88 (not sure how he finds a call so easily with the big stack behind him - if the big stack has AQ for example he is likely to call after the opening raiser has now gives him such good odds). The race was on, but I lost, and with it my tournament life.

I’m back at the Loose Cannon for a live game on Thursday, and that will kick off a busy 6 weeks or so. Several FTOPs events are on the horizon, as well as a busy live schedule. I’ll also be taking a Monday off work, so I can play the full Sunday programme some time in November. Time to fatten up the bankroll for next year I hope.

Also, interesting to note that while I registered a $500 loss for the period online, I was slightly up on poker, but spent about $550 on online rake. Food for thought!

October Challenge (FINAL) ($)
Goal	6,000
Bankroll	2,504
P&L Tournaments	(496)