#626 – Sunday, Muddy Sunday

My friend and assistant Shauna (who resembles a younger, even more attractive version of Sandra Bullock) called this morning and asked how it went on Sunday. “Ugh, terrible,” I told her. “I took the collar. Underwater about fifteen hun -”

“No, the Relay For Life Tournament! How did that go?”

I forgot for a moment that Shauna is my co-chair of Mission Delivery for Scottsdale Relay For Life and that the sun does not rise and set on my tournament poker record.

So here is a more accurate recap:

1. The Relay tournament was a huge success. There were a total of 524 entries, which raised $2,620 for Scottsdale Relay For Life. Railbirds.com got completely behind the tournament getting by their estimate 80-100 members to play, including running some “satellite-type” tournaments where the winners gave some of their winnings to put other players into the event.

Quite simple, Railbirds.com rocks! And thanks to all the other sites, blogs, and forum that talked up the tournament.

I was looking forward to actually winning the thing and donating the first prize – I think it was over $600 – to Relay, but it wasn’t to be. On the last hand of the first level, I got all-in with J-J against two other players, who held A-Q and A-J. I liked the match-up, until an ace AND a queen came on the flop.

I won’t dwell on my results yesterday, about which I’m miserable, but I want to point out a couple things about Sundays at Full Tilt, as well as one of my own observations.

2. The $100K Double Deuce has become a BEAST. Apparently, one of the recent client upgrades expanded the number of players a tournament can accommodate because I was surprised at the beginning of the tourney (Sunday, 16:35 ET) to see the number of entries racing beyond 7,500.

The tournament can now handle up tot 10,000 entries, and they got 8,625 yesterday. First prize was just under $30k, which is pretty incredible for a $20 + $2 buy-in. They also increased the starting chips from 2,200 to 3,200.

I finished in the money in the Double Deuce to previous two weeks, following an identical strategy: avoiding ace-paint except in late position for a big raise, not playing any strong starting hand without an over-bet raise, and limping in late position with any two cards. All these ideas were in response to four or five players limping into every pot. It was remarkable to me that so many people play that way. I definitely had to adjust to playing with so many players who limp.

3. My inconsistent results lately have led to my spending a lot of time analyzing how I play. I’m actually pretty satisfied with my play, generally believing the results have undershot the quality of my decision-making. But one area in which I am trying to make a change involves laying down hands.

It’s really difficult for me to lay down a good hand online. (Because most of my experience has been online, this is also an issue in live tournaments, and I’ve been working on it there, with some satisfaction.) In a large online tournament, especially where the bounty on my head as a red pro motivates some opponents to behave “unpredictably”, there are bound to be situations where a good hand ends up second-best.

That’s hard to do online. First, there’s always another tournament starting in fifteen minutes and, where my average buy-in is about $100, it usually doesn’t seem worth it in the heat of battle to show restraint. Second, people play so WEIRD online.

Here are two hands I had in different tournaments, just a few minutes apart. The first was in the $100k Double Deuce. I had Kc-9c in middle position. A player in front of me limped, so I limped. A player after me with a short-stack raised. The original limper called and so did I. I whiffed on the flop, which was Qh-2h-2c. Everbody checked. The turn was the three of clubs, which gave me a flush draw. Again, everyone checked. The river gave me a king-high flush, with the jack of clubs.

The original limper moved all-in for over 5,000. (There was 800 in the pot.) It was such a screwy move I didn’t know what to make of it. Based on how strange everyone was playing in this tournament, I didn’t even think about it much before calling.

He had 3-3, making a full house on the turn.

I don’t know, maybe I could have gotten away. Early in a tournament with over 8,000 players, is it better to double-or-bust? Or to realize you can’t win the tournament this early, but you can lose it?

Just a little while later, early in the $500 + $35 $1 Million Guarantee, I had to make the same decision on the river. In late position with Q-Q, I flat-called an early position raise. The flop was 9-4-9. The raiser bet 250 and I raised to 750. He called. The turn was another four. He checked and I did the same. I figured I’d keep from going broke against A-A or K-K, I was probably giving a free card to just 2-6 outs, and I could induce a bluff or get a marginal call on the river. The river was another nine, giving us a board of 9-4-9-4-9.

The other player checked so I bet 550 into the 1,800 pot. He instantly – I mean INSTANTLY – moved all-in for 4,000. I called, very reluctant.

He had A-K – he was playing the board!

With results like that, is it any wonder I have trouble finding a compass on this issue of laying down a big hand?

• No Related Post