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Im not one for making a deep run and cashing in a big buy in event and still walk away miserable , but this one really stings. I have no one to blame but myself . No excuses like someone else's bad play, the structure got out of control, or that I was so short stacked and had no other options. Ive played in 4 of the Foxwoods 2k Deep Stacks over the last year, and I have cashed in all 4 of them, including one 1st place win. The structure is a poker players dream. We start with 40k stack, 1 hour levels and they've added levels to fill in the gaps that other deep stack events leave out. I finished day 1 with about 84k which was a bit below average but left with me with plenty of play to make a run for the final table day 2.We came back with 34 players left , 15 getting paid. I was able to build my stack to a hefty 340k within the 1st 3 levels without much confrontation. I generally closed out all hands I entered preflop or after a continuation bet on a flop. We hit the money bubble and I found myself with the chip lead of about 640k with 14 players remaining. There were 2 others at my table with about the same stack but I had them both covered. One of them was to my right, with 580k and although he showed some gamble early , he was pretty much in lock down mode and actually discussing how this could be chopped at the final table. He was a cash game player and seemed to be relatively new to tournaments. I found myself in a position to increase my stack in preparation for the final table. The payouts where similar from 15th down to 9th . I was in the BB with the blinds 10k/20k , a well known Foxwoods pro was in the cutoff and playing very erratic, opening with a wide range and bluffing quite a bit . The action folded around to him, and he limped from the cutoff with about a 220k stack. My initial reaction was that he was hoping I would shove on his short stack . The sb with 580k completed and I checked my K10 off . The flop came K-Q-J rainbow and I felt that I would have the opportunity to check raise the cutoff all in , after he would likely bet out that flop. The sb checks, as did I, and the cutoff leads out for 100k. I dismissed the sb was even in the hand until he starts cutting his chips and throws out a minraise . This has me thinking what hands can he be check raising with given all the variables of the hand. I narrow it down to 3 possible hands, bottom 2 , a pair with the draw, or 9-10 for the bottom end of the straight. From his play , Im confident he will fold the 1st two hands if I shove. If he has the straight , im drawing to a chop and the nuts as back up. However, I truly couldnt seeing him check raising with the bottom end of it with that board. Well I was right , he didnt have 9-10 , and from our conversation after the hand , indeed he would have folded two pair or a draw. Indeed , I did move all-in and was met with the unpleasant surprise of the player calling and excitingly show me A-10 for the NUTS! After analyzing my play , and discussing it with fellow "poker heads" there was just no logic to my approach to this hand. The player wasnt experienced enough to check raise without a hand he was going to fold, and he would have surely lead out if he wasnt sure if he was good. I di dnt need to put such a solid stack at risk in that situation. Chalk it up as experience , and move on to the next grind.
See you at the BORGATA WINTER OPEN! |
This past weekend I played in a great event run by the Borgata. The Ultimate Satellite Package Tournament. They have been doing this for a few years now and I feel that with some new changes , they really perfected the prize package. Here is how it works -- you put up 1k , and 1 in 30 players win a 10k seat into the Borgata main event in Sept. (prize pool is generally over 5million!) the package winners also receive 20k in cash along with the seat.
