AGGGHHH Vienna! - My trip and Fall report

Fatboydim

Vienna, famous for Opera, Coffee houses, Schnitzel and slabs of vanilla ice cream and milk chocolate. Oh no wait… That’s Vienetta.

First thanks for all the support… I still can’t shake the feeling that I threw away a great chance to make the final table let alone the money. And an apology for my collapse.

Played rock solid for the first day… finished third in chips and only 12.5k or so behind leader. Second day started slowly for me but I was determined to reach 90k which was my second day target. Anything more was a bonus.

First hand of note. I’m on around 70k. No real movement up or down. The table is an interesting one. Mostly solid players. One aggressive American kid, One aggressive Hungarian kid, Damo, one mad haired Austrian lady [tight-passive] one slightly bonkers Spaniard, James Browning from Poker Night Live on my right… Very solid and then on my left comes Jim Kerrigan. He can certainly play and gives off a good table presence. Within a few hands He knocks Damo out… And Damo is replaced by a moderate French player. I’m on course to clash with Jim and set the course for the rest of the day. I find AJs in the blinds and it’s folded around to me. I make it 3k blinds are 300 /600. Jim on SB makes it 13k to go… BB folds. I feel that Jim thinks I’m stealing… He’s still new to the table and maybe he’s making a statement. I decide to call and see what the flop brings. It come K55 rainbow. Jim thinks and checks. I think he’s ahead but he doesn’t have Aces or Kings. His check doesn’t feel like a check raise there’s a slight hesitancy. I feel he has to put me on a high hand… most likely AK so if I bet he may fold. I bet 10k. Now he’s thinking and looking at me. I don’t flinch. He says after a while… “I’m going to fold. I’d like to show you my hand… If I do will you show me your hand.” He folds queens and I show him my AJ. He reacts in a way that suggests to me that he could start to tilt… and I realise that as he’s a dangerous player I don’t want to go to war with him … Yet. The rest of the table think Jim = Rock. Fatboy = Chancer.

Later I’m doing ok with around 103k. I get dealt aces. Blinds are 400 / 800 I’m in mid position there’s been a limper and I make a big bet 6k knowing the Hungarian kid will call as it looks like an overbet and he likes to protect his blind. The table comes to life… They think I’ve got nothing… The Spanish guy is pointing at his cards and wishing for Aces out loud… They want to take me down. Hungarian kid calls. Flop comes 10s 8s 4c I check. Hungarian kid bets as I knew he would. 5k. I try to make it look like I’m weak. I raise to 10k. He thinks about it… I then try a move KP and I had discussed ala Andy Black. I look at the kid just as he’s bout to fold… He re-raises 25k and I push all in. But this time he does fold… I show the aces and he exclaims in horror that he didn’t realise he had the flush draw otherwise he would have called. Really???? [This player finishes 6th in the tournament] Now I’m on 140k. I’m chip. I say to Tom as long as I don’t do anything stupid I should make the money.

Now Jim Kerrigan goes on a roll of bad beats. He makes a great call when the Spaniard pushes all in with pocket fives pre-flop. Jim calls him with pockets tens and the Spaniard hits a straight on the turn. Jim officially goes into tilt. He’s in a hand with the French player. They reach the river, both have been betting… Jim asks the French player if he has sixes… The French player reacts to the speech play and says no I have A 10. [There is an ace on the board] Jim wants a ruling.
“He can’t tell me what hand he actually has… You can’t tell the truth in poker.” Kremsner rules that if the hand goes to showdown and the player has A 10 the hand will stand but the player will get a time penalty. As it happens Jim folds… But he’s steaming. From now on every time the French player is in a pot with him he calls time. Kremsner is run off his feet coming to our table to sort out disputes and even when the French Player is in a hand with another player Jim calls for the clock. So with all this going on I miss the bride of Dracula raising from UTG and the French guy flat calling the next hand… When it comes around to me I think it’s folded all the way and I have J 10 on the button… A good stealing hand. So I state raise and throw in 4.4k. But it’s already 6k and I now have to raise. Clearly had I been aware of the raise and call in front of me I would have folded the J10. Bride of Dracula doesn’t look happy… She raised the same amount when she had 77 so I put her on a pair now… mid-low. The French guy is short stacked and I put him on AQ he’s afraid of AK or anything bigger. I pick up on all this as I ask if I can raise to 14k rather than the minimum which is 10.4k [as they do not include the blind] Bride of Dracula flat calls the 10.4k as does the French guy. Flop comes 2 8 9 rainbow. My intention if I didn’t hit the flop was to check it down or fold. But this is a good board for me. Bride checks, Frenchie checks… I should have checked… Instead there’s 40k in the pot and a bet might take it down now. But I rushed at this… I made a bad move… I saw the draw and thought if I push all in they can’t possibly call. Forgetting my own read on the woman I suddenly start thinking they are both on high cards… Or at least what I didn’t do was I didn’t take the time to think… “What pair might she be holding?” A few seconds thinking would have sorted me out… But I saw the chance… and I knew Bride would fold unless she had the nuts… and Frenchie couldn’t hurt me even if he did win the pot. “All in” I think this was the only time I said it bar the Aces previously over the two days. Even a 20k bet would have sorted it out… But no… I go “All in” Like a big macho dickheaded donkey… Bride pops straight out of her coffin showing her fangs in a wide blood lusting grin. “Call” Frenchie folds… Bride has top set and I don’t improve.

This is a tragedy but… I don’t go on tilt. Average stack is 57k. I still have 64k. I still have these players sussed… and I can make moves. Then lady luck deserts me. Jim gets knocked out by his Spanish friend again lucking out. French guy goes… Chinese guy goes… We’re down to 30 players. The table changes shape… new players, bigger stacks. A little later I’m on the button with 10 9 suited. A new player with average chips has joined our table. A nice guy Johnathan Plens [The Canadian who finishes 2nd] He’s in Jim’s seat. I raise the button and he flat calls. BB folds. I hit my ten and bet. He flat calls. Turn brings an overcard so I check, he checks. Check, check on river… he has Jacks. Then the killer hand. Blinds still 800/1600 but about to go up. I’m in mid- position with A6c a hand I wouldn’t normally play in this spot but we’ve had two early position limpers. I get a feeling that if I limp too we might see a flop. Fold, fold, call behind me. Button folds, sb folds… Hungarian checks on BB. [Clearly he doesn’t have a hand.] my biggest worry are the two early position limpers. Flop comes Ace rags. Hungarian checks, UTG Check, - Check… I check… Bride checks.. Ok… good so far. Turn a 2h… This gives the board a flush draw if someone is holding two hearts in their hand. Again all to act in front of me check. Now I doubt there’s an ace to my right but Bride on my left might have an ace. I bet 6k. Bride flat calls. The rest fold. River is an ace. Now it looks like I have the winning hand. Bride is sat on 200k in chips… Maybe more… Could she have had a pair…? Maybe a lower set…? Was she drawing to the flush? - Something told me not to commit all my chips… So I lead out with 12k leaving me 11k. She called. I turn over my set with a six kicker. She turns over the worst played AJ I’ve ever seen. Why she doesn’t put me in for my last 11k at the end I have no idea… Even if she thinks I’ve hit my kicker for a boat…???? It’s crippled me. I play on as best I can getting my Canadian Friend to fold pocket tens to my pocket nines… I get back up to 22k. But eventually I succumb when trying to make a move with Q 10 on the button … I bet half my stack… and get re- raised to 22k. I have no choice but to try and outdraw my friend… So hoping he has AK or a small pair I call. He has AK and neither of us hit. So it looks like I’m out… Except it suddenly occurs to me that I never said all in… and that I may have more than 22k so I ask for a count. Sure enough I have 300 left over. A ruling is called for and it’s found I’m still in the game. Blinds are 1k / 2k antes 200. I put in my ante and declare that I’mm all in for 100 blind. The Canadian and Bride raise and call… Both have hands. Everyone else folds… Then the dealer flops four cards instead of three. Disaster… I haven’t looked at my hand at all… But clearly both Bride and the Canadian are unhappy as an Ace and a 10 have flopped… The flop has to be re-shuffled from the live cards and dealt again. This time a 2 3 and 7 all black come off… I laugh… That’s my kind of board. The Canadian and Bride check. A three comes on the turn. Then another brick on the river… the Canadian throws over pocket tens… Bride A 10…. 10 10 takes main pot… No wonder they were both unhappy. I turn over first a 2… and then a 3 I’ve made a boat and have to sit down again…. But shortly after I’m blinded out…. I finish 29th and very disappointed… I played one hand wrong. Due to a lapse in concentration because so much was going on at the table.

But a great experience and one I’m going to learn from… Onto the irish Open next.

shoutman

Looks like you played well apart from that one lapse of concentration.


Well done you should feel proud to have played so well amongst a top quality field.

careca

Great report and well played. Pity about that hand but I'm sure you'll come out of it with even more knowledge.

Daithio

UL Len!!!

I've done the same alot of times myself. I think it's from playing online so much, I sometimes make decisions alot faster than I need to and make mistakes as a result. I've been getting better at it recently, I always tend to take a bit of time over all my decisions now in the big ones. One positive is you're unlikely to do it again anyway!

TrueDub

One of the best reports I've read here - well done!

celticbhoy

Awesome report. I think the best ive ever read.

califano

TrueDub wrote:

One of the best reports I've read here

And he even left out the bit when he fell off his chair and almost overturned the table so probably could have been better!.

TrueDub

rounders123 wrote:

And he even left out the bit when he fell off his chair and almost overturned the table

That would be worth hearing about?:D

Fatboydim

rounders123 wrote:

And he even left out the bit when he fell off his chair and almost overturned the table so probably could have been better!.

LOL actually it was in there but I went over the 10,000 characters... Basically Bride of Dracula dropped some of her chips... People were leaning back to check if any chips were under the table. I lent back too far and started to fall James Browning grabbed my knee as did the guy on my left. I knocked the artificial flowers seperating the playing area from the cash tables... My foot kicking under the table... Had James and the mystery man
not grabbed me I would have completed the fall and the chips would have been flying. Interesting to speculate what would have happened next as I doubt anyone could accurately say what their chip counts were.

Mind you a bit worried about how long James Browning held my kneee afterwards.:D

Marq

Fatboydim wrote:

A good stealing hand. So I state raise and throw in 4.4k. But it’s already 6k and I now have to raise. Clearly had I been aware of the raise and call in front of me I would have folded the J10.

This exact situation happened to me in Barcelona. like yourself, I was motoring along nicely enough. about 9 hours in I get QJs in the SB. thinking it's folded around to me, I throw in chips to raise - but it's already been raised by an UTG player I can't see as he's obsured by the rather sizeable bulk of the buy in the BB to my left. I ended up calling a big raise, and then moving all-in first to speak when I flopped a straight draw, two overcards and a backdoor flush draw. I was at the bar soon after.

I remember thinking that after nine hours of solid play, one misunderstanding had led to me making two big mistakes. I've always thought that that's what makes tournament poker so rewarding - it takes persistent concentration to succeed - the smallest mistake can affect your whole tournament life.

Hard Luck Len, but well done on a good tourney (and report!)

DeVore

Len you played some of the best poker I've seen live and I've seen a lot of live poker
I don't think you can get away from the hand when you raise the raise, even if you just put in 20k more, its going to price you in if/when she comes over the top.

It seems clear to me (anyway) that the new guys in Irish poker are going to put the old guard to shame soon. The Irish open this year is going to be very very interesting because its the first year they'll really clash to any great extent.

Len, Mark, Dave and others, taking on Betson, Roche, Black...?

Oh yeah, bring it on!


DeV.

ionapaul

To echo what others have said, great report Len! Good luck in the Irish Open