OzExorcist
Broomcorn's uncle
Thought I might share this with y'all (sorry if it's a bit long) - yesterday I played in the opening event of the PokerNews Cup at Crown in Melbourne (Live Reporting | 2007 PokerNews Cup - Australia | Champ Event 1 - $175 No-Limit Holdem)
The buy-in was $175, with just over 550 players. I didn't cash, but I was happy with how I played for the most part.
I think I had the measure of my first table, and I managed to get myself up to around 4500 (from the 3000 starting amount) - mostly in hands without showdowns, just C-betting with hands like AKs. I wasn't getting many premium hands, but I was at least getting playable ones: ATs, couple of middle pairs, etc. I was sitting on about the chip average when the table got broken somewhere in the fourth level.
Things started going downhill on the new table. Went through a pretty bad card-dead run and only really played one pot - attempted a position steal from the cutoff with K7, the small blind called then lead at the flop for a decent amount, I ended up having to throw the hand away (Q93 rainbow on the flop from memory, I had no hand / no draw and not quite enough chips behind that I thought a shove could make him fold). Not my finest moment, but figured the timing was right for me to take a stab. Ended up going to the first break a bit under the chip average.
That table got broken a few hands after we came back from break, and the rest of the tournament pretty much went like that: don't think I ever made it a full round of the table without the table getting broken, so I didn't get a chance to get settled or get a read on many players. Not that it mattered much, I was pretty much in M < 10 fold or shove mode by that stage. But still. Got my stack back up to around 4000 on one of them with a couple of shoves that just picked up the blinds, got moved, got moved again.
At my last table, I ended up sitting down UTG. Threw my rubbish hand away (maybe it's selective recall, but I feel like I saw 69o and 23o quite a lot...
). Next hand I'm in the BB for 1000 of my 3800 stack with JJ. Player to my immediate left shoves for 3100, everyone folds to me and I call. He turns over aces, they hold up. Next hand I'm SB for 500 with 200 behind, with 43o. Middle position player shoves for about the average stack, folds to me, I throw the last 200 in and his 87o holds up. I was out about 180th - the money started at 60th. Still, I was fairly happy with how I played.
A few observations:
- The casino had to shut down all the cash games in the room to accommodate the start of the tournament. The upside was that, with nothing better to do, most of the cash game players bought into the tournament and pumped up the prize pool. The downside to this was that the casino wanted to get the cash games back up and running as soon as possible afterwards, so the tournament tables stayed 11-handed for pretty much the whole time (certainly the whole time I was in) so that there were more busted tables available to turn back into cash games. Quite a few players were grumbling about that.
- The average play wasn't that spectacular. Especially in the early levels, there was a lot of open-limping and min-raising, and it wasn't often I saw a player (let alone me) get put to a geniunely hard decision. I don't claim to be the greatest player in the world. I don't even claim to be above average. But I didn't feel at any time that I was badly outclassed.
- I came across an interesting ethical dilemma at one point: not all of the table numbers were clearly marked, so sometimes there was a bit of hunting about. During one table move, I found my seat and saw I was going to be sitting down in the big blind. I sat down and copped it on the chin, but I could also have kept wandering about for another 30 seconds feigning not being able to find my table: by the time I'd sat down then, the cards would probably have been dealt and I'd have wound up sitting out a couple of hands then taking the button. Maybe my inbuilt sense of fair play is holding me back?
So... there we go. One good hand and a double up somewhere in that middle dead period and I reckon I might've been good for a cash - the bubble broke only about an hour after I went out. Still, I had fun and I learned a few things to watch out for next time. Thanks for reading if you got this far
The buy-in was $175, with just over 550 players. I didn't cash, but I was happy with how I played for the most part.
I think I had the measure of my first table, and I managed to get myself up to around 4500 (from the 3000 starting amount) - mostly in hands without showdowns, just C-betting with hands like AKs. I wasn't getting many premium hands, but I was at least getting playable ones: ATs, couple of middle pairs, etc. I was sitting on about the chip average when the table got broken somewhere in the fourth level.
Things started going downhill on the new table. Went through a pretty bad card-dead run and only really played one pot - attempted a position steal from the cutoff with K7, the small blind called then lead at the flop for a decent amount, I ended up having to throw the hand away (Q93 rainbow on the flop from memory, I had no hand / no draw and not quite enough chips behind that I thought a shove could make him fold). Not my finest moment, but figured the timing was right for me to take a stab. Ended up going to the first break a bit under the chip average.
That table got broken a few hands after we came back from break, and the rest of the tournament pretty much went like that: don't think I ever made it a full round of the table without the table getting broken, so I didn't get a chance to get settled or get a read on many players. Not that it mattered much, I was pretty much in M < 10 fold or shove mode by that stage. But still. Got my stack back up to around 4000 on one of them with a couple of shoves that just picked up the blinds, got moved, got moved again.
At my last table, I ended up sitting down UTG. Threw my rubbish hand away (maybe it's selective recall, but I feel like I saw 69o and 23o quite a lot...
). Next hand I'm in the BB for 1000 of my 3800 stack with JJ. Player to my immediate left shoves for 3100, everyone folds to me and I call. He turns over aces, they hold up. Next hand I'm SB for 500 with 200 behind, with 43o. Middle position player shoves for about the average stack, folds to me, I throw the last 200 in and his 87o holds up. I was out about 180th - the money started at 60th. Still, I was fairly happy with how I played.A few observations:
- The casino had to shut down all the cash games in the room to accommodate the start of the tournament. The upside was that, with nothing better to do, most of the cash game players bought into the tournament and pumped up the prize pool. The downside to this was that the casino wanted to get the cash games back up and running as soon as possible afterwards, so the tournament tables stayed 11-handed for pretty much the whole time (certainly the whole time I was in) so that there were more busted tables available to turn back into cash games. Quite a few players were grumbling about that.
- The average play wasn't that spectacular. Especially in the early levels, there was a lot of open-limping and min-raising, and it wasn't often I saw a player (let alone me) get put to a geniunely hard decision. I don't claim to be the greatest player in the world. I don't even claim to be above average. But I didn't feel at any time that I was badly outclassed.
- I came across an interesting ethical dilemma at one point: not all of the table numbers were clearly marked, so sometimes there was a bit of hunting about. During one table move, I found my seat and saw I was going to be sitting down in the big blind. I sat down and copped it on the chin, but I could also have kept wandering about for another 30 seconds feigning not being able to find my table: by the time I'd sat down then, the cards would probably have been dealt and I'd have wound up sitting out a couple of hands then taking the button. Maybe my inbuilt sense of fair play is holding me back?
So... there we go. One good hand and a double up somewhere in that middle dead period and I reckon I might've been good for a cash - the bubble broke only about an hour after I went out. Still, I had fun and I learned a few things to watch out for next time. Thanks for reading if you got this far
