Swing and a Miss

February had started out very bad for me. The first two weeks I was almost broke online as I kept missing the money in the 180 man sit n gos. I had a 6 buy-in down swing in my cash games and things were just not looking good for a non-existent bankroll. I took a couple days off and decided to focus on other things for the month. I started to review my tournaments in Poker Tracker and saw a lot of variance, bad beats, whatever. So it eased the mind a little to know I wasn’t playing horrible but it’s still very discouraging. Read some poker blogs and articles about variance and bad beats, mostly related to how it effects you mentally. I firmly believe that it’s just something you need to take a short break from and then play through. That’s exactly what I did.

I entered the 10K guaranteed on PokerStars this past Sunday. I was going to play the 200K but that thing is a monster with 30,000 players. Forget that! When I signed up the 10K had under 1,000 players so I was hoping for a overlay but thought it would be unlikely. By the time the tournament started we had 3,300 players and a $4,600 first place prize.

I grinded up my stack to T$4,600 just playing position and picking up small pots here and there. My table was very loose passive so I picked on the limper from late position and would normally take it down with C-bets. At the 60/120 15ante level I got my first double up and never really looked back from there. I got lucky when I overplayed KQ vs 10-10 in a multiway limped pot.

Poker Stars $10+$1 No Limit Hold’em Tournament - t60/t120 Blinds + t15 - 9 players

Hero (CO): t4270 M = 13.56
BTN: t3865 M = 12.27
SB: t3695 M = 11.73
BB: t6190 M = 19.65
UTG: t5270 M = 16.73
UTG+1: t2860 M = 9.08
UTG+2: t7660 M = 24.32
MP1: t4650 M = 14.76
MP2: t2878 M = 9.14

Pre Flop: (t315) Hero is CO with K Q
2 folds, UTG+2 calls t120, MP1 calls t120, 1 fold, Hero raises to t475, 1 fold, SB calls t415, 1 fold, UTG+2 calls t355, MP1 calls t355

Flop: (t2155) 3 3 7 (4 players)
SB checks, UTG+2 checks, MP1 checks, Hero bets t1500, SB folds, UTG+2 calls t1500, MP1 folds

Turn: (t5155) 4 (2 players)
UTG+2 checks, Hero bets t2280 all in, UTG+2 calls t2280

River: (t9715) Q (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t9715
Hero shows K Q (two pair, Queens and Threes)
UTG+2 shows T T (two pair, Tens and Threes)
Hero wins t9715

Nothing really eventful until this next hand. I continued to pick up blinds and antes from late position and hadn’t shown down a hand in awhile. Pretty standard here getting 2.8:1 on a call. With both players under 10BB and about half stacks in I decide to just ship it here. I was further behind the small blinds range then I thought.

Poker Stars $10+$1 No Limit Hold’em Tournament - t175/t350 Blinds + t45 - 9 players

Hero (MP2): t18170 M = 19.54
CO: t11525 M = 12.39
BTN: t5825 M = 6.26
SB: t6575 M = 7.07
BB: t4260 M = 4.58
UTG: t17378 M = 18.69
UTG+1: t2505 M = 2.69
UTG+2: t13974 M = 15.03
MP1: t4709 M = 5.06

Pre Flop: (t930) Hero is MP2 with A J
4 folds, Hero raises to t1025, 1 fold, BTN calls t1025, SB raises to t3150, 1 fold, Hero raises to t18125 all in, BTN calls t4755 all in, SB calls t3380 all in

Flop: (t19595) 7 5 A (3 players - 3 are all in)

Turn: (t19595) 2 (3 players - 3 are all in)

River: (t19595) 9 (3 players - 3 are all in)

Final Pot: t19595
Hero shows A J (a pair of Aces)
BTN shows 3 3 (a pair of Threes)
SB shows Q Q (a pair of Queens)
Hero wins t1500
Hero wins t18095

Then I just started to run hot as money was getting in pre-flop.

Poker Stars $10+$1 No Limit Hold’em Tournament - t625/t1250 Blinds + t150 - 8 players

Hero (BTN): t32619 M = 10.61
SB: t77655 M = 25.25
BB: t10740 M = 3.49
UTG: t13250 M = 4.31
UTG+1: t19630 M = 6.38
MP1: t27370 M = 8.90
MP2: t17574 M = 5.72
CO: t10612 M = 3.45

Pre Flop: (t3075) Hero is BTN with T T
2 folds, MP1 raises to t2990, MP2 raises to t17424 all in, 1 fold, Hero raises to t32469 all in, 3 folds

Flop: (t40913) 9 2 3 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Turn: (t40913) 4 (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: (t40913) J (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: t40913
Hero shows T T (a pair of Tens)
MP2 shows K Q (high card King)
Hero wins t40913

Poker Stars $10+$1 No Limit Hold’em Tournament - t625/t1250 Blinds + t150 - 9 players

Hero (BB): t55208 M = 17.12
UTG: t32415 M = 10.05
UTG+1: t76130 M = 23.61
UTG+2: t7965 M = 2.47
MP1: t10475 M = 3.25
MP2: t20080 M = 6.23
CO: t28055 M = 8.70
BTN: t18601 M = 5.77
SB: t11687 M = 3.62

Pre Flop: (t3225) Hero is BB with A K
6 folds, BTN raises to t3100, SB raises to t11537 all in, Hero raises to t55058 all in, 1 fold

Flop: (t27524) 8 3 4 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Turn: (t27524) J (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: (t27524) A (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: t27524
Hero shows A K (a pair of Aces - King kicker)
SB shows A Q (a pair of Aces)
Hero wins t27524

And next thing you know I’m in the top 5 chip leaders.

Poker Stars $10+$1 No Limit Hold’em Tournament - t750/t1500 Blinds + t175 - 9 players

Hero (SB): t57139 M = 14.94
BB: t36555 M = 9.56
UTG: t78955 M = 20.64
UTG+1: t4640 M = 1.21
UTG+2: t18650 M = 4.88
MP1: t20455 M = 5.35
MP2: t13107 M = 3.43
CO: t15626 M = 4.09
BTN: t33899 M = 8.86

Pre Flop: (t3825) Hero is SB with A Q
4 folds, MP2 raises to t12932 all in, 2 folds, Hero raises to t31500, 1 fold

Flop: (t28939) K 7 Q (2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: (t28939) A (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t28939) 2 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t28939
Hero shows A Q (two pair, Aces and Queens)
MP2 shows 8 A (a pair of Aces)
Hero wins t28939

I continued to raise 3-3.5x the BB to keep the pressure on my opponents. I usually make it around 2.5x this time of the tournament but there were some good players as we had under 100 runners left. I felt there were a couple players better than me but I had position on them and wanted them to know we were going to play a big pot if they called. For the most part they stayed out of the way.

I was getting really excited as we got down to 60 players. I could see the $4,600 in my hand. Shit, I was telling myself that I was guaranteed at least $1,000 for 6th place with me as the chip leader. Then I made a huge mistake that lead to me finishing in 58th place for a $53 payday.

My cousin came up in when this hand was developing and I lost concentration for a second. I’m not blaming it on just that, I know I butchered the hand. I could have let this go and easily coasted to the final table. Lesson learned…what’s the saying? Don’t count your chickens….. or Karma’s a bitch?

I wanted to get his entire stack so went for the slow play. In retrospect to stack sizes I should have raised it up here. Huge, Huge mistake. It’s a pretty easy fold at any point after the flop, but I lied to myself that he didn’t have it.

Poker Stars $10+$1 No Limit Hold’em Tournament - t2500/t5000 Blinds + t625 - 9 players

Hero (BTN): t181501 M = 13.83
SB: t97987 M = 7.47
BB: t55784 M = 4.25
UTG: t25859 M = 1.97
UTG+1: t153831 M = 11.72
UTG+2: t100960 M = 7.69
MP1: t142713 M = 10.87
MP2: t207606 M = 15.82
CO: t83155 M = 6.34

Pre Flop: (t13125) Hero is BTN with A A
3 folds, MP1 raises to t12500, 2 folds, Hero calls t12500, 2 folds

Flop: (t38125) K K 7 (2 players)
MP1 bets t17800, Hero calls t17800

Turn: (t73725) 5 (2 players)
MP1 bets t33500, Hero raises to t110000, MP1 raises to t111788 all in, Hero calls t1788

River: (t297301) 4 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t297301
Hero shows A A (two pair, Aces and Kings)
MP1 shows K J (three of a kind, Kings)
MP1 wins t297301

It still makes me sick to watch that replay in Poker Tracker. What a complete melt down after 4 hours of play. I’m disappointed but happy that I made it so deep. This is the second tournament I’ve made it deep in this year so I tell myself to use this as motivation. I know that I’m due to get a big score this year. I played a bunch of 180’s and MTTs after this with very poor results. I should have just quit because I was crushed and my later results showed it. So, I learned a couple very important things and this experience will help me in the future. Don’t get cocky and stay focused!

My live cash games went very well this weekend so more on that in my next post. Thanks for reading.

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