Busto first day

Hey!

Well unfortunately the DTD Grandslam didn't go my way. It was a very very sick tournament though. These super-deepstack tournaments are very fun, and with a good level of patience the rewards can be very decent as well. Yet unfortunately I didn't make day two, busting late into day one after beating 1/3 of the field.

There were a couple of interesting hands I played other than the usual small-pot poker that kept me afloat throughout the tournament.

At 200/400/50 I raise in middle position with AQo to 1100 and get 5 callers (told you there would still be a lot of dead money in the tournament ;) ). At this point I'm pretty much giving up on most flops and will be playing with a slight level of caution even if I hit either my ace or queen.

The flop came down a harmless J22 rainbow. Pretty dry board, but with 2 people checked before me and 3 to act behind, I checked, as it got checked round to deliver a queen on the turn. The queen gave two to spades putting straight and flush draws out there.

The big blind, who was quite an active young player led in from the small blind for roughly 1/3 pot. This didn't send too many warning bells as I had played with him for a few hours and he liked doing an Ivey and taking lots of shots at pots with mediocre holdings. Regardless with the action behind me, and the fact that a raise wouldn't invite in any worse holdings and only get called by hands that beat me, I smooth called the raise.

It folded to the button who was a young guy, yet I had only played about 4-5 hands with the guy. Without knowing much about how he played, seeing as he was young you could infer he is pretty good at poker to be able to afford the buyin for such a tournament, and I had yet to see him around before so its likely he travelled up especially for the tournament meaning he could be quite decent. Anyway, he then raises it up 4x the original bet to around 6000. It folds back round to the original better who quickly mucks and the action returns on me.

At this point, I have to put this guy on a range. I don't believe he has a hand like QJ here as any jack would likely bet the flop in position. JJ is an unlikely holding as he would have undoubtedly squeezed in position, particularly if he was any good. I beat all the other queens, and there just can't be many, if any 2's in his preflop flatting range. However, I could see him squeezing with a combination of drawing hands such as K10, possibly A10 and a variety of spades such as 9, 10 suited and stuff. He had a further 13-14k behind him, about half my stack, so after thinking for a brief moment I set him all in figuring that drawing hands raising on the semi-bluff compromised the majority of his range. Unfortunately this time he snap called me after flopping quads. Woops...

This left me at roughly the 50bb stack, a dented chip stack, but still plenty of room to manoeuvre and no need to panick. Over the course of the next 2-3 hours whilst being pretty card dead, I managed to add an extra 25% to my stack without showing down a hand. We reached level 8 and the blinds had escalated to 400/800/75.

I was dealt AA in middle position and opened it with my 21,000 stack to 2000. It folded to the button, a young girl who 3bet me to 5800. She had been playing pretty tight, solid poker without getting out of line. I doubt she was creative enough here to be 3betting me light, yet still I am concerned that she might do something stupid like 3bet/fold 99/10 10/AK/AQ with the 23bb stack effective. I elected to disguise my hand and smooth call the raise. To a good player with this stack size, this would look very strong, yet I didn't believe she would pick up on this. And so the trap was set.

The board came down as 2s, 4d, 9d. I had the AcAh but checked over to her. She bet almost full pot, and after I check/raised the remainder of my stack in she stated she was priced in and called with AhKd. So the trap worked, and I doubt she would have folded pre to my 4bet shove anyhow. Happy days right? Well unfortunately the turn and river gave running diamonds to see my 95% chance of doubling through and having an above-average stack diminish as I was forced to hit the rail. Big sigh..

Kind of lame, but I was very happy with how I played. I think my live game is improving a lot and I was very happy with how patient I played in the tournament, not stressing about trying to play too many hands but just biding my time and letting the right spots open themselves up to me. It was a great tournament and I'm glad I played it. It's just a shame I couldn't get much deeper in it.

Today is a £300 side event. As of 11am there are only 14 registered for it and it starts at 2am. So I doubt I'll play it to be honest. I think instead I'll hit the cash tables, probably a deepstacked £1/£2 game and see if I can get into the grind and work some stacks up.

Oh well, another day another dollar. Bring on 2010: the year of me winning a live donkament!