Pud's Poker Progress / Matthew Pitt / 10 April 2008 / 2 Comments

Since my last post it's been a case of so near yet so far with regards to my tournament playing having not cashed in my last six games and I'm break even for the month (writes Yorkshire Pudding). On Tuesday I played five 90 man tournaments with decent success, finishing 5th, 6th, 8th, 35th and 64th (top 9 paid) for a $25.30 profit, nothing to write home about but as I'd not played any MTT's for what seems an age, I was pleased with my play although there were a few situations where I wasn't sure of the optimal play. However, yesterday was an entirely different animal indeed.

Having caught the multi-table tournament (MTT) bug after my good run the previous day I decided to ramp things up and play some larger field MTT's,hoping the good run would continue and hopefully make a decent score, well decent in comparison to the stakes I'm playing. First up was a $2.25 MTT with 72 runners meaning only the final table of nine would be paid.Nothing much happened in this game, I played pretty badly and finished in 21st place. Next up was a $3.30 game with 197 runners meaning the last 21 would be paid out. Again, there wasn't much to shout about in this game but this hand in particular goes to show why tournaments can be very profitable indeed. I mean, WTF was the villain thinking? I basically stole the blinds and posts preflop before I outplayed someone but still lost a massive pot which crippled me. Here I get JJ in the SB and JJ, although one of the top ten starting hands, is very vulnerable in a multiway pot. Limping here isn't awful hoping to flop a set but that only happens about once in 7.5 times. The pot already has 270 chips in it and it wouldn't be a disaster to be able to take the pot here and now so I make a raise to 350, which is over the size of the pot. This amount should allow me to take the pot right now or at least force out the majority of the limpers. I get one caller and the flop is ten-high so I'm liking my hand right now. I think if villain had a pair of tens preflop he'd have raised and from watching him I seriously doubt he has 33 or 66. I'm a bit worried about the potential flush draw and I make a continuation bet (c-bet) of 759. Now this is the first time I've not bet an even amount so will look odd to anyone watching. It has it's desired effect and villain pushes all-in. I make the call and I'm delighted to see him show AdTd for top pair top kicker and no flush draw. My joy is short lived however as the river brings an Ace and decimates my stack! A couple of hands late I push Ah5h and the same villain calls me with Jd9d. I spike an Ace on the flop but the turn is a Jack and the river a 9 and I bust out in 69th spot.

Next in line was a $5.50 MTT with 336 people entered,paying the top 36 spots. Again I fought my way through the majority of the field but fell short again finishing in 90th spot after making a call with TT and losing the race against AK. His raise screamed AK or AQ and I was prepared to race for a decent stack going into the second break and unfortunately the Poker gods (amen) decided it wasn't meant to be! Determined to make my hard work pay off I entered another $2.25 MTT this time with 121 entrants meaning the last 12 players standing would be rewarded. I got off to a dream start flopping a set of 4's, then a set of 5's then turning a fullhouse with AK all within the first 8 hands! Unfortunately for me this rush of cards were short lived and I soon found myself back around average. Trying my new looser style I found my stack size swing from one extreme to the other but the lack of quality from the other players allowed me to stay afloat by stealing the rising blinds at will. Shortly after the second break I was in desperate need of chips and shoved all-in with Ace-Jack but was called by the big stack who held a pair of jacks and I received no help, again, from the board and finished in 14th place. Extremely frustrating finishing just two places out of the money after over two hours of play!

I was also involved in a couple of hands which had to be seen to be believed! The game was a $1 rebuy where you could rebuy your chips once and also have an add-on at the break.I rebuy from the off so I have 3k in chips and two hands in I get AA and end up all-in just to be against another pair of Aces! LOL! Four hands later I get a pair of Kings and end up being against another pair of Kings! You couldn't make it up! Things didn't go too well in the rebuy and I busted in 97th from 245 entrants around 70 short of the cash.

My biggest disappointment came in my final game of the day, another $3.30 game but this time we started with 3k in chips. 348 players ponied up the cash to play meaning a first prize of $215 which I had my eye on. I didn't really get involved in many pots initially because the table was mental to say the least! The first real pot I won I decided to gamble with 7d6d and got very lucky in flopping the nut straight. The cards dried up for a while before I was able to bluff off a half decent player with 66 on a King high flop ! Boooom! I kept picking up a few nice pots but then the blinds and antes ate into me before this beauty happened to propel me into the top 3 in chips! After that I really ramped up the aggression and was the chip leader for some time too. I tangled with the massive stack at my table with the massive hand that is 4d3d and won a 5k pot when she managed to fold AK. Unfortunately that made me look like a mad man which meant I could not find a fold in this hand where I lost a 60k pot which would have given me a huge stack. The villain here had come over some of my raises recently and after my 4d3d hand he could be making a play against me so I pushed all-in.Unfortunately for me he had Queens and I was left in pretty bad shape. Not to worry Ace-King to the rescue? Nope, I push all-in with Ace-King and the big stack wakes up with a pair of Kings and no miracle Ace for me and I go from chip leader to bust, 22 from the money, in 58th position. One time let me run good!

Sorry for the huge post but I think there are a few decent hands to get your chops salivating over! In my next post I'll give a little life update and hopefully I'll be bragging about taking down a tourney for a nice score and a much needed boost to my confidence and my bankroll!

As always, thanks for reading and best of luck at the tables!

Tags: hand replayers, mtt, multi table tournaments