$5,000 NL HE Shootout

News / John Tabatabai / 10 June 2008 / 6

The $5,000 NL HE Shootout my first ever tournament representing Betfair, it was my first big WSOP tourney of the series and I couldn't wait for it to begin.

It was of course the $5,000 no limit hold em shootout. You have to win your first table to get through to table two. Once in the second stage you are guaranteed some cash ($17,000) in this case, if you win that you then make the final. Sounds easy right? Unfortunately, the field had all the big names and not many donkeys.

I arrived 15mins late, only to find a player already out. However, the biggest surprise was to see fellow team betfair pro, Dr. Sorel Mizzi on my table. SO SICK !! Dario minieri, roy winstone and couple of other bracelet holders and pros. Not ideal STT table, but ah well, what can you do.

My plan was going to be to chill out, see how aggressive the table was going to be and pick my spots carefully. With 8 players left, blinds 150-300 and 25 ante, I opened UTG with AQdd for 1100, Dario as usual reraised to 2250. Dario had about 7k left, I had about 10k, if folded to me I was going to rrr and get it in good Im sure. After a long contemplation Sorel min reraised to 4500, action folded back to me. I know sorel can rrr here super light, however, I just couldn't see him putting in half his stack on a bluff against two people who can be either considered as superdonkey loose or brain damaged loose. We both mucked, and I guess Sorel had a good hand. I made a few steals preflop, won blinds and couple of times got played back at...nothing much really happened till blinds increased again to 200-400 with 50 ante. Everyone folded to the aggressive player to my right, he made it 1600 total. I had 8k remaining and decided it would look stronger if I made a small raise instead of shoving, so made it 3k total. He quickly shoved AI. I only had Q8o but there was approx 13-14k in the pot and I had 5k left behind, so I called, he had 66 and I flopped an 8 and doubled up !! In hindsight, trying to be smart there and min raising wasn't great. I should have just shoved and put him to the decision of what to do with his hand. The way I played it meant that I had to then make a tough decision that I shouldn't have had to make. Also, greater fold equity in shoving I think against this type of opponent.

Same blinds, folded to me on button with Sorel in the BB, luckily I finally pick up a real hand and had been raising a lot, so with my AK I did my usual raise, praying for SB or Sorel to not believe me. Luckily, after SB folded Sorel shipped his last 7k in and I quickly called. He had K5, so I was in greeeaaatt shape! Flop came K-10-4....4....4 !! Team betfair, I can feel the love baby! Chop chop.

We are down to the last 5 players now, bracelet holders either side of me with Sorel and Roy in the middle. Roy opens for 1400, with a 15k stack. I look down and find 44, and have a similar size stack. Given the format of the tournament, where 2nd gets nothing, only first proceeds to the next round, I decided to flat call hoping either the SB or Sorel would squeeze and get good odds on a 50-50 or hope they had A-2, A-3...I'm not sure if this line of thinking is just too risky and I should have just raised and taken down the pot. It would increase my stack to 17k, but still leaves me against world class players and average chips. I pussied out and decided to go for the gamble and flat called. Sorel did shove all in, Roy folded and I called for the remaining 7k leaving myself with 7k if I lost. AS it turns out, Sorel had AQ so I guess the money would have gone in even if I reraised Roy in the first instance. Unfortunately, I lost this race and was looking short. Blinds now went up to 300-600 with 75 antes. At least now my decisions were simpler, shove and pray. Skilful poker, just what I like. After a couple of well timed shoves, it became my BB with K-10o. Folded round to sorel, who raised on the button and expecting a fold I shoved. His insta-call wasn't really what I was hoping to see. I was even less happy to see him have AK! However, as the love is spread through team betfair I managed to flop trips and double through. Sorry Sorrel.

The guy to my right started to get even busier than he already was, and was taking out the rest of the field by himself. Before I even knew it we were 3 handed. I had a mere 15k chips to their remaining 85k. Every hand was raised, so I opted to just wait for any Ace or picture cards. 2 orbits later, the SB put me all in and I was ecstatic to call with AQ, looking for a nice double up and get back into the game, get some chips and play poker. However, his 10-8 hit the flop and I was sent back to my hut in the bellagio.

Even though I bust 3rd, it was great to actually play against great player and remember why I was here in Vegas. Not to play cash every minute of every day, not to tilt or get angry, to blame bad luck, but to realise it was going to be a 6 week marathon. Not a sprint. Several events, just need to keep a cool head and analyse the various scenarios I was presented with, see what I could have improved and take that to the next tournament. On Wednesday is the $5,000 NL HE. Can't wait.

Good luck all,

John KunkuWap Tabatabai.

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Donk-A-Mint | 10 June 2008

nice first post JT. couple of questions:
- are you playing all the pre-ME WSOP tourneys?
- are the events filling up quicker than last year?
- where are the softest cash games?

cheers,

DM
Mikel | 10 June 2008

Great entry Sir! Keep them coming, this is 1st class poker blogging!
J. Stone | 10 June 2008

Nice one Tucker :)
john tababbtabtabitabi | 10 June 2008

Thanks guys for comments. DM, im not playing all the tourneys, just a few of the WSOP ones, and most of the daily bellagio ones. I will do a little report shortly on my bellagio progress. Softest cash games, i think are the capped 2-5 and 5-10nl games in bellagio as the max buyin is only 100BB like online, you dont get many good players playing them. However, the other games, people sit in very deep making the games somewhat harder. Still, they all suck. However, clearly, i am the king of sucking as i am currently doing my bolox!
apal | 14 June 2008

Interesting post but you have a rubbish name:) Was tabatabai taken when you chose KunKuWap as your user name?

What name will you be playing with on Betfair Poker?
Prince P | 19 June 2008

Do you consider folding at the first opportunity when you have American Airlines in your pockets a first class strategy?