1. 2008-03-04 19:31:57

   Tournament Luck

   After a long time, I wanted to play a tournament. So over the weekend, played a big tournament. I haven't played any sort of tournament in over a few months, but was itching to play one. The tournament had 100+ people. I got seat 3 and I am happy about it. At the first level, I didn't get any cards to play and there was a raise by seat 10 or seat 1 almost every other hand. They were being super aggressive. I decide to sit back, watch the action and get a feel for the table. Most of the table seemed like check callers. Seat 10 was check-raising a lot and seat 1 was raising pre-flop and followed through with a continuation bet. I got small PPs with nothing on the flop. So just gave some chips, but nothing worth worrying about.

   Ace-King Raise and Multiple Callers

   In the third level, I got AK under the gun. I raise it to three times the BB and got 4 callers. The flop has a king and 2 small cards. So I get two-thirds the pot and get one caller (seat 8). The turn pairs one of the smaller cards and I check. The guy behind me bets and I check-raise him. He mucks immediately. I get the pot. Then I get AK twice again and people fold to my pre-flop raise.

   Ace-King vs KK

   There are 5 limpers into the pot and I was thinking Seat 8 seemed a little funny when he called. He seemed a little anxious when he limped in. I thought this guy was slow playing something big. So I decide to muck my hand unless it's a big pair. I look down to see KK on the button. This was an easy raise, but I wasn't sure what Seat 8 had. I raise it to 4 times the BB. Everyone folds and Seat 8 goes all-in. His stack in one-third of mine. So I call immediately. He shows AK. So my read was right. He catches his Ace on the flop and I ship him my chips. Although I lost the pot, I felt I had a good read on him. For rest of the day, he didn't play a hand if I raised.

   Lucky Big Blind

   There are 4 callers and I see 52 in BB. I check and the flop comes A34. Obviously, I checked and a middle player bets and I raise. UTG player goes all-in and middle player folds as expected. I have the nuts and I thought UTG has 2 pair or a set. I call and he shows AA for the top set. He slow played his hand from UTG. Lucky for me, my hand help up and I busted him. So the lesson he taught I guess was not to slow play AA in a tournament. Again I was feeling good about my read.

   Letting go of QQ

   After the break, the first hand I get is QQ and I am UTG. I raise my usual 3 times the BB. Everyone folds and button goes all-in. Normally, this would be a easy call. He had probably half my chip stack, but it wasn't an easy call. He was playing fairly tight and seemed to be paying attention to the table. I took couple of minutes and the table was saying I got caught and I should stop 'hollywooding.' I finally let go of the QQs face up (putting him on AA or KK) and everyone was shocked. The button was shocked as well, but he was nice enough to show me AA. Phew... dodged the bullets. Again I was feeling good about it.

   Final Hand

   Now the last 30 people left in the tourney. Now there are 4 big chip stacks at my table and I am like 3rd or 4th. I am being very careful on who I play hands with. UTG player raised to 4 times the BB and he was fairly active and again I have QQ. This time I thought he had a small PP or AK/AQ. Either way, I thought I was leading and I raise him 3 times his raise. He immediately goes all-in. Now I had to think this over again. I still thought my original read was right and called him. He shows 77. He was dominated and I am happy with my reads so far. The flop comes 234, the turn is a 6, but the river is a 5 and my tournament is over.

   I thought my reads were good and was very confident in my play, but without luck on your side, you cannot win a tourney. So now I am looking forward to a new day and a new game :)

   It is on...

   Posted by Linus at 2008-03-04 19:31:57

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Comments on “Tournament Luck”

1. • Posted by Nick L g 2008-03-08 14:34:42
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   • Excellent lay down with QQ that would be so hard to say the least to make. but if you have the read you have the read. Sorry that you got unlucky, you should be patting yourself on the back on a well played tourny.

2. • Posted by Jason M g 2008-03-05 08:37:13
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   • Wow, what a terrible end to a well-played tournament. You'd think if there's a straight on the board you'd at least get a chop out of it! Aargh!

     Where did you play? The LC? I want to hit one of those again some Sunday morning. I've done well there the few times I've played. Next time you are planning on going, let me know.

     Nice check-raise w/ the . I don't do that enough with good made hands.

     There are too many good blog posts to catch up on! Nice post.

3. • Posted by Krishna (unverified) g 2008-03-04 23:36:45
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   • Tourney needs lot of luck and you might go long way and may not cash.
     On the other hand you can lose whole stack in cash game. I tend to do that with pocket pairs a lot.

4. • Posted by Krishna (unverified) g 2008-03-04 23:34:59
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   • Losing with top set hurts! Read my post about my live session. But in my case there was no slow playing.

     Nice laydown on the QQ hand. The table must have given you lot of respect for that.

     Nice read on the final hand.
     I lose a lot with QQ too.
     Too bad you got sucked out. He must have put u on AK, AQ or he must be a donkey gambling when both of you when both of you have big stacks.