Planet Mark's Blog. Thoughts, News And Strategy For Poker Tournaments Of All Size

In-Running From The Mini-FTOPs 6-Max K/O Event

Thought I'd do an 'in running' hand-by-hand from yesterdays Mini-FTOPS  knockout event... Of course when this started it was in the hope that I would be reporting on an outstanding victory, marked by clever plays, daring bluffs and bubble suck-outs... no such joy! One thing we can say, at least the hand by hand commentary below is real-life...

Actually missed the start... was enjoying a Sunday roast and had no thoughts of interupting this for a mere poker tournament... folded a couple more before the first notable hand: First notable hand - stack around 4700, bb50, button opened to 150 and I flatted with 55... flop Q85... I check-raise small to build a pot after he bets 200... lead-call turn 8 enough to push river which is an ace, villan thinks for ages - time bank and all - then calls with QJ, actually started to worry I was being slowrolled. He has 400 chips left so no bounty for me! Call an overbet raise (6bb) from a singapore player with 10-10 on the button, effective stacks his 7,000... ace high flop and he leads 450, decide to float and see if I can take it away on the turn, no luck as he leads again for 1400 ish... soon get it back after limping behind 2 limpers with a K10 suited.. .hit my 10 though a low straight draw out there... crazy cally frenchy calls my flop + turn bets then folds on river with just a few hundred left... which he then spazzes out with next hand... now over 10k bb60 and fairly active image for the first break. ... quiet period, focusing on playing from position... tempting as it is to call the limpy limpers! BVB hand rer flop with mid pair + flush draw... called and checked turn / river... nothing calling that did not beat me and nothing folding I was not already beating! 11655 bb100 after 1 more blind steal.... 12250 left out of 16835 entrants. Call small raise + called with 10-9s from blinds... flop low end of straight draw, check check check turn  8 to give me 8910jq... lead half pot and folds! 12225 bb100, feeling comfortable and happy to be active too (usually too passive in these!). raise KJ and cbet 389 flop, get check-raised and fold. 11160 with bb120 and 11344 left (seems to be going down fast!) Aces UTG... raise just under 3x... all fold... booooo! Rough patch.. raise fold, blind away, raises ahead a lot and a total station flatting 70% odd (and limping) to my left... 10620 BB120... 10411 left, continues button vs blind... 3X3 flop lead repping the 3... no good repping to someone who does not look beyond their own hand though... so my error - called down with A-9!  9180 bb160 10105 left - not chilled now, frustrated, trying not to let it affect my play! 3bet qq on the button... fold... back over 10k with 10220! grrr... bvb again, flop top pair against mr 100% cbet... who cbets, he has 2k behind so I rer pot...my j10 vs his JQ... 7540 bb200 9025 left, relaxed again though... table getting more active, losing focus though ... 10 10 utg, 3x raise, no action. We have antes... bb240 ante 25 blind away a little... 2nd break starts, dissapointing hour with 7235 chips 7700ish left... got to get back into the action after the 5 minutes is up! Some poor play at the table, mostly calling-type errors... I have not yet managed to get myself into a position to take advantage though. New table and guess who is the smallest stack, me! At least I have the button, a few hands to take the temperature... no medium pairs for a bit please poker-gods! A walk thanks to a Russian disconnection... maybe this is my turning point!! 7185, bb240... 7193 left Flop top pair again bvb... rer small blinds lead and win a small pot 8270, still looking for the right spot to make a move KK... raise just under 3x and no action... grrr, thats the 2nd premium all folded pre! Raises ahead most hands, almost 4 bet a button raise with qjs but small blind did it instead, blinds now 340 with 6000 left... really want to get my chips in, with a chance to double and do something... becoming an oh-so-familliar tale! reraise the raise-happy Russian small blind bvb with 7-9, have a nice resteal stack and that puts me back over 8000... 20ish big blinds Aces! In the big blind...3 bet a button raise leaving myself exactly 5000 to make it look like I had room to fold to a 4-bet... no joy, folded, 9200 chips, bb340, 5600 left Tough spot with 99 - the crazy Russian to my right makes it 4.5x (bb now 400)... with 20 blinds I can not flat and really did not like my chances vs this big raise, he reraised on a 678 flop all in,,, now backto 3x raising... aaaaarrrggghhh, confusion - was that a nitty fold??! now feeling irritation... why do I always end up with the every hand crazy players to my right - would be great with chips but nothing I can do with 16BBs, really want to 3 bet all in rather than open at the moment...  we will see, 7040 stack, bb400, 4800ish left... IRRITATED! Walk! AK in BB... please one time, raise and insta-snap call from 44...no help on board, poof! I'm gone... Hey, Never mind... this will at least be a realistic blog post, got off to a great start, got frustrated by a calling station early then had to suffer an aggressive 2nd table while short and totally card dead... aces twice and kings once, played them the same way I do any hand I'd like to raise with but alas no action, that 44 snap was for 2/3rds of my opponent's stack by the way, but I got my money in for a raise (hate calling off all-in!) and was huge against any calling range which included 44...only question for me is whether I should have repopped the 9's with 20 blinds? Anyway, so happy days, here is raising a glass to real-life!! GL at the tables, Mark

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