The Bat Cave

First off, I’d like to congratulate myself on my best showing in this tournament last week when I finished 2nd for $235. Today’s tournament was interesting to say the least. My stack was riding a rollercoaster throughout the duration.

Key Hands:

Blinds 25-50, 3 limpers in front of me. I limp OTB with As9s. Flop comes K43 with two spades. One of the blinds leads out for 150 and two people call. I pop it to 600 since no one has really shown strength. I get two folds, but the last caller stays with me. The turn is a blank and he check-calls 800. River is another blank and he checks to me again. I bet 800 and he calls and shows K9. Not really happy with my play on this hand. Not only did I dump off roughly 75% of my stack, but I didn’t read the situation very well. Throughout the hand, I put my opponent on a draw because of the way he was playing it. If that was the case, unless he caught a running pair, there’s no reason for me to bet the river, since Ace high is likely to be good. If he has a King and decided to call the turn, he’s never going to fold the river for the same amount as my turn bet. That’s just simple math and a bad play on my part. On the plus side, this player enters this tournament every day and this will be valuable information for the future. Unless he had some sort of dead read on me, his play here is super terrible. He was willing to play a huge pot for nearly all of his stack in the first level with top pair, weak kicker out of position. I stand by my flop play, but my turn and river play is pretty bad.

Blinds 50-100, a few people limp in, I have J3os in the BB and only 600 behind. Flop comes J54 and I just ship my remaining chips. I get a caller and figure I’m drawing to 3 outs but I’m ecstatic when he shows 99 and doubles me up.

Blinds 50-100, 1 limper, someone raises to 300, I have AQ and 1600 so I just ship it. The raiser calls me and shows KT and I hold and I’m roughly back to my starting stack.

After a few swings and misses my stack is down to somewhere around 2200. Blinds 100-200, two people limp in, the small blind calls and I look down at QQ in the BB. I could ship it here, but I’m willing to risk getting knocked out of the tournament for a little value, so I just pop it to 800. The first limper folds, but the button and SB both call. The flop comes beautifully with AQ9 and there’s no need to get coy since I figure someone has at least an Ace and I put my remaining 1200 in. I get called in both spots and my set holds vs AQ and JT and I triple up.

Blinds 100-200, a few limpers and I limp OTB with Ac9c. Flop comes J9x with a club. UTG bets 600, it folds to me, and I float the flop. The turn card is the Tc and he bets out 600 again. The bet size doesn’t scream strength and I strongly consider raising, but I think my current hand might have a shot of being good and I’d be sick if he re-raised all-in and I had to fold. The river is a 3h and he bets out 600 again, which is quite an annoying bet. Not only is he giving me great pot odds, but he’s shown relative weakness on the past two streets, which tempts me to raise once again. However, considering the last two bet sizes, I figure calling is best since my hand might actually be good. The way he played it, I feel like a 9 might actually be his most likely hand. He shows me QJ though (making a call likely if I did raise the turn) and scoops a third of my chips.

With the blinds at 200-400, it folds to the SB who completes and I check with 85. Board comes 974 and I take it down with a 700 bet. One person limps in the next hand, I call with A3os and the BB checks. Flop comes Axx and I check, BB checks and the limper bets 700. I go all-in figuring it’s unlikely for him to have an ace here. He folds and I’m back around 5000.

Blinds 300-600 and UTG doubles it to 1200 and it folds to me in SB with As7s. I check out his stack and he’s only got about 2000 left so I decide to take a flop with him. Flop comes 753 with one spade and I ship it and he folds.

Blinds 300-600 folds to me and I have about 10,600 now and make it 1500 to go with 8d7d. Folds to the SB who doubles it up to 3000. BB folds and this is a pretty wack situation for me. My hand is garbage and he’s made a raise that is begging for a call. On the other hand, I’m getting 3.4 to 1 to call and I have position and I’d still have around 7000 behind if the flop does me no justice… so I call. The board comes J87 and I’m ecstatic when he instantly ships it. He shows QQ and the turn comes a Jack and I’m out of the tournament. Ghey. 11th place, one off the final table.

Lastly, a sour note for those of you that have been following my poker posts. I recently cashed out all my money online and starting at the end of March, I won’t be playing poker at all for the next several months as I’ll be attending college to finish my degree at The University Of Washington and can’t afford to have any distractions. Sorry!