Last nights 20-in in the Fitz.

DeVore

I havent played this tournie for a while now (read: a few weeks) as I've either been playing bigger tournies or been away!

I like this tournie a lot and its been kind to me over the months but recently the pre-freeze out part seems to have become something of a gamble fest. Thankfully last night I landed on Table 1 and never moved. Also it was populated by good solid players for the most part and the plays were sane enough.

I had 160 credit behind the counter so I could rebuy to the maximum but given that I got complete muck for the first two levels I took on the table image of utter rock and played tight.

Despite the crappy cards I managed to get my stack up to 8500 after the break and was feeling fine about things. My cards didnt improve a whole lot but a few calls at the 200 and 400 levels that I had to put down put a sizeable dent in my stack and I found myself with only 4,500 in chips. This will not be the last time I will look at a stack that small...

Then my cards turn to muck again and I scrap and scrounge the blinds each round, usually bluffing Vivion who is on my left when I'm SB (if you are reading this, sorry Viv but I almost never had anything when I raised you post flop).

Every time I built a hand decent stack it would get shredded again due to some out draw or dodgy call on my behalf but for the most part I was very happy with myself as I clung, Garfield-like, onto my table. 25 players became 24, 23, 22... eventually we had 16 between two tables but I was still looking at 4000 and the blinds are 500/1000 now!

I get a pair of 4's and am UTG so its now or never and I bet it all, 3 callers and a full board of cards over 4 later, I'm checking the time to see when I'll be home but miraculously noone has hit anything. 16K, an almost playable stack! I can hardly concoct 3 hands and 5 board cards that dont give someone a pair or a straight or a flush!

Along came a spider. Or actually, AK suited and it sat down beside AJo. Literally! So, back to 4000 I go but by then the blinds are at 1k/2K. Once more into the breach sees me with 10K and I steal the blinds exactly once each round to try and stay alive. I was getting the worst run of crud cards you can imagine so right then, survival was paramount and keeping up with the blinds would just have to wait!

The crack on the table was terrific, Paddy Hicks was in flying forum accusing me of being a pup for stealing his blinds and giving the pots "a little raise, shure you'd have to wouldnt you?". Vivion was playing a stormer but was also caught in "medium/biggish stack" syndrome, where you can be scared off by the increasingly desperate medium/small stacks who are throwing around chips to escape the chasing blind-levels. Chris (a lady whose surname escapes me) was playing a blinder too and had had cards and flops all night.

The three smallest stacks on my table were doing a great job of staying alive, much to the increasing irritation of the bigger stacks. There was nearly a Brothers-In-Arms feeling going on between the three of us! Then a bloodbath happened on the other table and 3 players went out in the same hand and final table formed.
I had the second least chips with about 8K (the least had 500 only!) and was chuffed just to make the money! I sneakily suggested a deal to take 100 off top and 50 off second and pay everyone and since there was a general feeling of sympathy for the guy with only one pink chip I guarunteed myself 5 euro profit! (Vivion actually objected to the deal until he got 5 euro from the guy for laughs, and then gave it back to him).

Final table, first hand, I get the best hand of the night for me, JJ and I go all in to rob the small blind and corner the BB who is the guy with 500 chips! I get 1000 of the 1.5K small blind and knock out the BB. More hanging on by my fingernails, more stealing blinds occasionally and then a serious of big hands collided including AJ of mine to AT. AK of mine to AQ and then immediately afterwards I ran into AQ with AJ. Shortly after that AT of mine outdrew AJ! All of these were button,sb or BB hands and so were being played aggressively! When the dust settled there were 6 of us and Paddy Hicks started to do a little dance on our heads. Massively stacked Paddy seemed to simply *will* his chips to multiply. Every time I looked over at him he was rearranging another enourmous stack of chips, perched, Gollum-like on them. I'm nicknaming him Paddy "Evil Little Goblin" Hicks!

Vivion succumbed to what looked like simple fatigue, frustration and a loss of concentration on his part and took 5th.

Finally here is the hand I went out on and its an interesting situation. The blinds are 3K/6K and I have 21K. Ross who is smallest stack has only 5K and is in the BB. I have 88 in the SB. I'm happy!

The problem is that Chris calls ahead of me and Chris and Paddy have monster amounts of chips (100+K each) and I'm pretty sure that if I play this hand passively my head will be next on the chopping block. Besides, I have a real hand and I want to play a big pot rather then a small one. Since Ross is all in on the blind anyway, I figure I should reraise Chris and either have her fold or go 50-50 if she has big cards. My reasoning goes like this:
If Ross wins and I win then I get paid off. If Chris wins, we're both out, I'll be third and hey, thats likely anyway! If I win, I'm in with a fighting chance! Its very unlikely Ross is going to win and I'm not.

Chris has KQ and calls, I turn over 88 and we watch as Ross turns over his, as yet unchecked, cards. The first is a 9 and I say "oh, not too wild about that". The next is another 9. Oh god. Terrible hand for me, Ross is actually leading now!! I start cheering for Chris who obligingly hits a K on fourth street, dismissing both of us and splitting the top prize with Paddy. 400 notes from 40 given the cards I got seemed like a result!

DeV.

Dub13

Very well played Dev,one more question for you.

Do you live in the Fitz...?You must have an Apt just over it right...?

Lafortezza

DeVore wrote:

I'm nicknaming him Paddy "Evil Little Goblin" Hicks!

iiiiieeeey-iieeeeeey-oooooohhhh

DeVore

I have an apt about 600 metres from it! I wouldnt mind a bed in there, free coke, all sky channels, cheap food, poker every night... throw in an xbox and an internet connection and I'd never leave!

DeV.

Skitbra

DeVore wrote:

400 notes from 40 given the cards I got seemed like a result!

DeV.

Would you say so?

Dub13

You lucky thing.I am heading in tonight for the 100 any tips...?


I feel ashamed trying to tap into all the poker talent of Boards

DeVore

Skitbra wrote:

Would you say so?

If you'd told me at the 400 levels that I was going to get my money back I'd have been happy. You dont think 360 profit for the night is a result?

DeV.

Skitbra

Of course. You said it seemed like a result as if you thought it should've been better.It was definitely a result given the cards you got.

careca

DeVore wrote:

perched, Gollum-like on them.

The best description of Paddy Hicks that I have ever heard. Lol.

DeVore

Of course. You said it seemed like a result as if you thought it should've been better.It was definitely a result given the cards you got.

ah I see. Yes, but I'm kinda hard on myself as a player too. Any game actually, but currently Poker more then anything. If I get second I will tend to ponder why I didnt get first rather then celebrate second. I'm still kicking myself for not doing better then getting to the last two tables of a tournie litterally chocked full of world champions.

I am and probably always will be, an unmittegatedly bad loser.

I dont think I could have done better last night. So I'm happy enough with what I got. It nicely wiped out a few really fnckin hideous bad beats I had recently at the cash table.

DeV.

DeVore

Dub13 wrote:

You lucky thing.I am heading in tonight for the 100 any tips...?


I feel ashamed trying to tap into all the poker talent of Boards

Er... I wouldnt imagine that many players here (myself definitely included) could claim to be more then simply a page ahead of you in the manual!
The better we all get the more we improve relative to the vast numbers of poker players out there!

There's no substitute for table time though. Simple experience and exposure to flop after flop will teach you more then anyone else can imho.

DeV.

ps: can you tell I'm bored in work today or what?!

Dub13

DeVore wrote:

There's no substitute for table time though. Simple experience and exposure to flop after flop will teach you more then anyone else can imho.

DeV.

ps: can you tell I'm bored in work today or what?!

I agree 100%,I am playing alot less online (to many nutters) and alot more in the Fitz.


Yea you sound bored,but Happy.