Me. I’m a 24 year old web developer living in London. I’ve been playing poker for about 9 years, knowing the rules for about 4 of them. Over the last few years i’ve been grinding the micro stakes 6 max games and playing any micro stakes live tournament in the vicinity. Unfortunately this hasn’t got me anywhere mainly due to 1 thing, Motivation. Maybe with sprinkling of being terrible thrown in for good measure.

2014.

My volume last year was pitiful, especially if you consider I was unemployed for 5 months. Most of the hands were at 10NLz and more 25NLz towards the end. Live tournament wise I ran well in the larger tournaments that I decided to YOLO, leaving me with a tidy profit and the tournament bug.

Hendon. http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=289520

What Now. Its 2015 and I'm not getting any younger. It's been awhile since I've played a online or live other than with friends.

I've put in no volume this year mostly due to being ill and stars being down for me over the last week or so when I finally wanted to get my grind on.

I've set some achievable short term goals to help keep up motivation.

[ ] More hands per month than last year combined
I only played 27k hands last year. This is easily achievable playing zoom even with a full time job.
[ ] Final table a live tournament
Over the next few months the UK small stakes tournament scene is chockablock with a decent tournament almost every week. Even if its only a small casino comp it would be a great confidence boost.
[ ] Play a bigger tournament in the UK (UKIPT, GUKPT, GPS)
I played a UKIPT last year and found it to be a lot softer than I expected. I imagine a GUKPT or a GPS are of a similar skill level.
[ ] Play a WSOP event
Yesterday I booked flights to Vegas for 10 nights. I plan to play the monster stack so this is just a placeholder goal for now, but a nice once to keep me motivated. I will be playing a few satellites as well so this hopefully isn't the only WSOP event I play this year.

I figured I'll add some ludicrous long term goals, because who doesn't like to dream!

[ ] Final table a major tournament
I have to play a major tournament first but crazier things have happened.
[ ] Make the brown power rankings
This has to be the only ranking that matters for an Asian poker player.
[ ] 500NL+
Making the dollar.

What's next. Well tomorrow is my first live tournament of the year. APAT Coventry, £110 buyin. Hopefully the PGC run good is real. After that hopefully stars will rise again and I can restart the 2015 25NLz grind.

TL;DR Asian guy playing tourneys and zoom has dreams.

GL budd

Lol at the brown power rankings!

Gl mate

Well APAT Coventry didn't go as planned. Day 1 was super swingy with my stack going from the 15k starting to 5k and back several times in the first few hours. Luckily I was able to cooler some people late in the day so still made Day 2 with 38,600 (19BB) despite 4Bet folding JJ the last hand of the night.

Day 2 started well as I doubled with QQ > 88. I got my stack up to 140k and then the following hand happened. For some reason they've called me George Liperis but you'll get the jist.

Its not clear from the post but the action went as follows: I min open UTG, UTG+1 jams around 12bb, Guy in MP reshoves with around 15bb and I call to see the bad news.

That pot left me with 8 big blinds 5 places from the money. Unfortunately they didn't last long as I jammed QTo in the CO and the big stack in the big blind tank calls with AQ! gg.

While we were waiting for the taxi home, a kind women at the casino gave me and my mates a little gift...



Hopefully these socks will provide the missing run good for the next few tournaments. I may give them a test run tomorrow at the Zoom tables.

Well this week went terribly. Dropped 4 buy-ins at 25NL and then moved down to 10NL where I quickly won 4 buy-ins only to lose them over the next few thousand hands. At least the volume is good...


H1 - Still not sure if this is good or not. Seems like too good of a river not to bluff. Villian time banked down to 1 second but couldn't find the fold

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 104.6 BB (VPIP: 38.10, PFR: 23.81, 3Bet Preflop: 20.00, Hands: 22)
SB: 100 BB (VPIP: 23.88, PFR: 17.99, 3Bet Preflop: 10.77, Hands: 294)
Hero (BB): 158.8 BB
UTG: 78.04 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 50.00, 3Bet Preflop: 50.00, Hands: 4)
MP: 100 BB (VPIP: 25.93, PFR: 18.52, 3Bet Preflop: 20.00, Hands: 27)
CO: 102 BB (VPIP: 19.69, PFR: 14.57, 3Bet Preflop: 6.45, Hands: 264)

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has Q A

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.48 BB, fold, Hero raises to 9 BB, BTN calls 6.52 BB

Flop: (18.4 BB, 2 players) T K 6
Hero bets 9 BB, BTN calls 9 BB

Turn: (36.4 BB, 2 players) 4
Hero bets 21 BB, BTN calls 21 BB

River: (78.4 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero bets 119.8 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 65.6 BB and is all-in

Hero shows Q A (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 75%, Flop 31%, Turn 16%)
BTN shows Q K (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 25%, Flop 69%, Turn 84%)
BTN wins 201.6 BB


H2 - Bluff gets through.

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 98.88 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
SB: 105.32 BB (VPIP: 22.64, PFR: 20.75, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 53)
Hero (BB): 101.4 BB
UTG: 222.16 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)
MP: 100 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 3)
CO: 297.8 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 2)

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 8 8

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 3 BB, fold, Hero calls 2 BB

Flop: (6.4 BB, 2 players) 3 5 K
Hero checks, BTN bets 3.68 BB, Hero calls 3.68 BB

Turn: (13.76 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero checks, BTN bets 9.88 BB, Hero calls 9.88 BB

River: (33.52 BB, 2 players) 6
Hero checks, BTN bets 20 BB, Hero raises to 84.84 BB and is all-in, fold

Hero wins 70.2 BB


H3 - I'm not sure if I should be finding a fold at some point.

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 138.24 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
SB: 100 BB
BB: 292.6 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 6)
UTG: 172.68 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 20)
Hero (MP): 109.12 BB
CO: 101.2 BB (VPIP: 30.77, PFR: 15.38, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 13)

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A K

UTG raises to 3.4 BB, Hero calls 3.4 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold

Flop: (8.2 BB, 2 players) 4 K 6
UTG bets 7.84 BB, Hero calls 7.84 BB

Turn: (23.88 BB, 2 players) J
UTG bets 22.8 BB, Hero calls 22.8 BB

River: (69.48 BB, 2 players) 3
UTG checks, Hero checks

UTG shows A A (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 93%, Flop 91%, Turn 95%)
Hero mucks A K (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 7%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)
UTG wins 66.36 BB


H4 - Confirmed huge station

PokerStars - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 51.5 BB
SB: 76.2 BB (VPIP: 44.44, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 18)
BB: 31.1 BB
UTG: 94.8 BB (VPIP: 42.86, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
Hero (MP): 224.6 BB
CO: 106.7 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 28.57, 3Bet Preflop: 50.00, Hands: 7)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K Q

fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, BTN calls 3 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (7.5 BB, 2 players) 8 J 4
Hero bets 4 BB, BTN calls 4 BB

Turn: (15.5 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: (15.5 BB, 2 players) 2
Hero checks, BTN bets 14.8 BB, Hero calls 14.8 BB

BTN shows Q 9 (High Card, Queen)
(Pre 29%, Flop 27%, Turn 34%)
Hero shows K Q (High Card, King)
(Pre 71%, Flop 73%, Turn 66%)
Hero wins 43.1 BB

The plan for the next week to to try and win for once. I'm close to a couple bonuses so I only need a few buy-ins before I take another shot at 25NL.

Bump. A lot of poker has and will happen so I’m restarting this thread, so here is a brief recap of what's happened over the last 15 months.

So where do I start, in my last post I had just dropped 3 buyins shot taking 25NL, with plans to regrind at 10NL before taking another shot. This never happened. Unfortunately for me my housemate got made staff at pokerstars and this prohibits me from playing on the site. gg stars, gg online poker. The silver lining of the stars debacle is that I no longer needed my bankroll on stars, and gave me a much needed monetary boost before my upcoming trip...

Ever since I got into poker, watching old episodes of the main event, I dreamt of going to the poker mecca that is Vegas, and finally that dream came true. It should be every poker player's goal to go to Vegas at anytime of year, but going during the WSOP is the nuts for a fanboy like myself.

In my initial post I said that one of my goals was to play a WSOP event, and leading up to Vegas it seemed unlikely that I would have $1500 to drop on one tournament, but fortunately I had a deep run in a RIO daily deepstack on the second night of the trip, finishing 30th for $1,039. A bittersweet finish after losing a flip for 5% of the chips in play to bust, but a fun way to start my first trip to sin city. This gave me the much needed confidence and more importantly money to flick in the day 1b of the monster stack.

The monster stack is the highest buying tournament I had played at the time and still is, so unsurprisingly I was a little nervous. As tables go, I imagine mine was on the worse side given the huge field size. As i sat down I instantly recognised Andrew Teng, a british pro who has very good results in UK poker tours. I also had the runner up of last years monster stack and later the table would be joined by $50k HORSE champion, David Bach. The first half of the day went pretty smooth, chipping up nicely, felt in the zone. Had one of my hands appear on the live text coverage on WSOP.com, which happened to be one of the most boring hands i’ve probably ever played. The fanboy in me was loving it though, seeing my name where I normally see the big names that I admire.

Here is the update on WSOP.com

Obligatory stack picture. This was after I had won a few hands.

Me next to a guy with a marvelous tache.


Getting towards the end of day 1 I played a hand vs David Bach. David opens Hijack, I 3bet button with ATo, he calls. Flop QTx, 2 clubs. I decided to check back as I can get put in a lot of tough spots facing a check raise, but in hindsight It may make my hand easier to play if I just cbet. The turn is a low club, he leads small and I call. River is the Ac, giving me 2 pair and bringing 4 to a flush. He checks. I check back as I think i'm ahead a lot of time, but will never get anything better to fold, even any weak flushes will check call the river as I can’t have many flushes. He shows JTcc for a turned flush and scoops what at the time was a significant pot relative to my stack size.

A few hands later I 3bet a CO open from the SB with JJ. Flop is Q44. I make the mistake of c-betting. Villain thinks for a bit and clicks it back. I tanked for ages here. In the end I didn’t think anyone would click back the flop with a Q and decided to commit the rest of mystack. He tank called with QJo and we don’t get the miracle jack. A super frustrating way to bust, but I was in the best place in the world to drown my sorrows!

Again I would recommend Vegas to anyone reading this, as I’m assuming you’re a poker player and hopefully not someone from work snooping on me. Disneyland for adults it is.

Detilting at a pool party.

One of the most fun meals I’ve ever had happened in Vegas, at a place called Hot n Juicy Crawfish. Many crawfish gave their lives that day.


Fast forward to September and I still have the WSOP bug, a lucky for me there is still a glimmer of hope of winning that shiny bracelet with the upcoming WSOPE, and a local casino was offering a £50 tournament where top 2 spots win a package to Berlin and entry to the Oktoberfest event. I ran hot in this tournament, I got it in bad in standard spots and hit 3 outers twice and by the time we reached the final table I was around 3rd in chips. First hand of the final table I win a flip, so only 6 people away from a free trip the Berlin. A few hand later it folds round to me in the SB and I look down at TT. The BB is 3rd in chips and I am currently second. I open and he snap jams for 26BB, I shrug and call it off. He shows the mighty A3o and I do not win. This cripples me to less than a big blind, which I can only double a couple times before busting in 8th for £350. A tough one to shrug off given the amount of equity I had just lost in that flip.

Fast forward 6 months. In this period I played a few live tournaments with no success. Fortunately my housemate seemed to be unbustable and I made a decent amount through swaps. Confidence was at an all time low despite busting a lot of the tournaments in fairly standard spots, but I still had a chance for redemption in the upcoming APAT WCOAP, which is essentially a miniature version of the WSOP, but with buyins ranging from £55-£220.

The plan was to play the regular no limit, mix max, 6 max and maybe the main event depending on the outcome of previous tournaments. I bricked the 6 max and the regular no limit tournament in fairly uninteresting hands. I played an interesting hand in the mix max to bust. We had just moved to the 6 max portion of the tournament, and I have the dream table. One of the first hands I play I open KQo UTG, and an older lady defends big blind. I double barrel the A346 board and check back the river K and beat 55. An orbit later the lady from the previous hand opens UTG and I 3bet AKo fairly big, she calls. Flop A86hhh, I cbet, she snap calls. Turn 8, she snap jams for a little under pot effective. Another tank for ages spot. I think that flushes think about raising flop, as do sets, and she doesn’t have that much 8x that she would raise utg and then call an utg+1 3bet. So I call expecting to see some worse Ax, but get shown 89o Still unsure about this spot as older ladies do have the reputation of never bluffing.

As a result of this bad run, I decided to not play the main event. I was nursing a vicious hangover the morning of anyway, so in hindsight it was probably a wise choice. The final day of the WCOAP then came around, and so did the heads up tournament. I decided that I would give it one last shot because how often can you play a live heads up tournament for £55. I got a bye in the first round and my second round match lasted less than 20 hands, after one huge hand early on. The hand starts with the button limping blind, after mistakenly putting in the big blind and deciding to leave it in there. I look down at the KK and make a 4x raise which he calls. Flop J85r. I bet, he raises, I just call. Turn 9, not the best but I can’t fold given my stack behind and how crazy he had been in the few hands we had played. So I check, he jams, I call, he shows KJo and I hold leaving him crippled. I win 2 more matches with similar ease and find myself in the semi finals. This is where I begin to run bad, and despite pulling off a few big bluffs to keep myself back in the game, I lost a standard flip to bust. I precede to run like jesus in the 3rd place playoff and win 2 matches in a row, it was a best of 3, to take 3rd for £420 and most importantly, the bronze medal. As you can see I was very happy with this result! It was great to finally cash a tournament after such a long run and I'm glad it happened in this tournament, no doubt the most fun I've had playing live poker in a long while.



Since then I have played a few tournaments, with no luck, i’ll spare you the hand histories of me butchering hands or getting sucked out on. I have also started playing online again on the wonderful site that is Sky Poker, which is going very well and gives me a much needed confidence boost for the upcoming month or so.

My lifetime SkyPoker graph. The last month is from around the 70th tournament onwards.


My plan is to play the following tournaments over the next month:

28th May - £150+20 Superstack
10th June - £200+20 25/25 London
29th June - £100+10 GUKPT 6max Side Event

And if things go well we will YOLO:
1st July - £500+50 GUKPT London Main

So the first tournament on the list is tomorrow. I am going to try and take note of any interesting hands both for this thread and so I can get better as player. I think the mistake I tend to make is to only focus on bustout hands, or big hands that I lose, so I will try and note down every hand I VPIP.

TL;DR Asian guy bricks a bunch of tournaments, still dreams of the elusive tournament bink.

So spoilers, I did not win the superstack, but what I did manage to do was note down every hand I VPIP’d. It was actually a lot harder than I could have imagined, starting out 5 handed meant hands went swiftly and trying to remember the details of the previous whilst playing another hand was tough. So without any delay, here are the hands from the first 3 levels.

Tournament Details:
30K starting stack
30min levels on day 1

BB50 - 30k stack - 600BB
The first level in these tournaments usually plays shorthanded as most punters like to late reg.

Hand 1
Were 5 handed. UTG opens to 125. I flat 66 UTG+1 and everyone else calls, for the family pot. Flop Q57, checks round to the button who bets 350. I just fold, he can be stabbing in position a lot, but it’s a little less likely given we have gone 5way to the flop.

Hand 2
Folds to me in the SB. I raise to 200 with K2s. I think sizing bigger is better given we are 600BB deep. BB calls. Flop 934. I cbet 225. I have a backdoor straight and flush draws and he misses this flop a tonne. He does call. Turn A. I think he calls all Ax on the flop, 9x won’t fold for one more bet and most of his 4x/3x are A3/A4, so I check planning on giving up. He checks back. River 7. He bets around half pot. I fold. 56 gets there and I think he would check back a lot of Ax/9x on the turn for pot control/deception.

Hand 3
Note: This hand was played vs my friend, whom I had a 15% swap with. He has a propensity to abuse the fact we know each other.

UTG+1 opens to 150, I flat AQo in the CO, both blinds come along. Flop AT3cc. UTG+1 bets 300, I call, everyone folds. Nothing to note here, not folding, not raising. Turn K. He bets 800. Again I don’t see any merit in raising/folding, so I call. River T and he bets 1300 into 2800. This is where the hand is interesting. I obviously don’t beat any value bets and at best I will chop with AQ/AJ. I have decent blockers to KQ/AT and I think i get more credit with a raise given we are friends. In the end I had a lapse of judgement and figured i was chopping too often to fold and decide to call. He shows AKo, nh buddy.

Hand 4
BTN opens to 125, SB calls, I call with 64o. A loose peel, but given the small sizing and how deep we are, I think i should be calling here. Flop K99, and I check fold.

BB100 - 26525 stack - 265BB
Lost a small chunk in the first level, but i still felt good about the table.

Hand 5
UTG opens to 300, BTN calls, SB calls. I have J7o in the big blind. I decide to fold. J7o doesn’t play that well vs a UTG raise but still might be a call given the pot odds. Still not sure.

Hand 6
I open AQhh UTG to 300. UTG+1, UTG+2 and BB call. Flop 877 no heart. I just check planning on giving up the pot. Its very likely that I will get 1 caller with very few good turn cards to barrel. UTG+2 bets, BB calls and I just fold.

Hand 7
UTG min raises, UTG+1, UTG+2 flat, I have AcAd in the BB, and make it 1200. Folds round to UTG+2 who calls. Flop 956cc. I quite like checking flops out of position with strong holdings for deception and having the Ac makes me more inclined to do it here. I still think he bets all pairs, flush draws and sometimes the occasional KQ that he has given my display of weakness, so i'm not missing out on too much value. He doesn’t bite however and checks. Turn 4. Now I am a little confused, but he may check back showdown value sometimes so I think I should bet, so I go ahead and bet 1200, which he calls. River K. Not the best card for me as it's a overcard to a lot of his value, but I can't check as I don’t think he is bluffing that often. So I bet 2500. He thinks for a while and min raises to 5k. Super weird lines are usually nutted, but i‘m obviously not going to fold for this sizing, so I call and he shows the Q2o.

Going into level 3 we have 33525 at BB200. A decent first few levels, nice to have more than starting stack.

Thoughts on the hands appreciated

Here is the rest of the tournament. I have marked the more interesting/bigger pots with ‘!!!’ so they are easier to identify if you don’t want to read all the boring smaller pots.

BB200 - 33525 stack - 168BB
A good first few levels, but still too early to be comfortable.

Hand 8
UTG and UTG+1 limp, I make it 800 with 99 from the CO. BB, UTG and UTG+1 all call. Flop T86r. checks to me and I cbet 2100. I think this is a mistake. It’s too big, the pot is 3300, so i think I can go as small as 1200 here and fold out the same hands that have equity and still lose less when called by Tx. BB and UTG+1 calls. Turn is a 3. BB leads 2k and +1 calls. I fold. When he leads small he always has showdown that doesn’t want me to check turn. I don’t think calling here to hit a gutshot is good even with the price but I think I could consider a raise. I have blockers to the nuts and can credibly rep a straight plus it puts all 1 pair hands in a tough spot. I just take the easy way out a fold. It goes to showdown and BB shows T2s and takes it down.

Hand 9
UTG limps, MP minraises, SB calls, I call from BB with T8s, UTG calls. AKJr flop and I just check fold.

Hand 10
MP opens to 600, next to act flats, I overcall JJ. Both blinds call. I think 3betting here is probably better as once i flat we go 5way+ a large percentage of the time. Both blinds end up calling and we go 5way to the flop which is K97dd. Sb leads for 500, initial raiser flats, direct left makes it 2500, and I fold.

BB200 ANTE 25 - 29525 stack - 148BB
Bled a little over the last level, but I still have many big blinds to work with.

Hand 11 !!!
UTG and UTG+1 limp, I complete SB with 92s. Flop T97cc, checks to +1 who bets 500, I call and UTG+1 calls. Turn T, checks through. River 4. Think I have the best hand here a lot but I have better hands to bet for value, so I check, UTG checks and UTG+1 bets 2k. On the larger side but I’m never folding given that this is the villain from Hand 7. I call and he shows A4o.

Hand 12 !!!
UTG opens to 750, +1 flats, and I call from the BB with QTss. Flop 743ss, i check he bets 1200, UTG+1 calls, I call. I don't think i’m raising this flop after UTG makes it so big pre, i think just taking our equity is good here. Turn T, checks through. River 8. I check as I can’t think of that many value hands that pay off a river bet, UTG bets 2100 and I call. He shows JT and we rake in a nice one.

BB300 ANTE 25 - 41700 stack - 139BB

Hand 13
UTG opens to 900, UTG+1 flats, I overcall with QTs. butt makes it 7775, everyone folds.

Hand 14
UTG and UTG+1 limp, old gentleman makes it 1400, I peel BB with TT, UTG rips for 30k, old man calls. I fold. UTG has AA, old man has KK.

BB400 ANTE 50 - 39000 stack - 98BB
Now the blinds are getting to the stage where it's pretty easy get stacks in and bust on one hand. I do not bust however as I do not play a hand this level.

BB600 ANTE 75 - 37950 stack - 63BB

Hand 15
I open UTG+1 to 1400 with QTs, +2 3bets to 3900. I fold. The player who 3bet had been really tight and a lot of people do not 3bet 99-JJ in this spot so I’m usually crushed unless he has AK.

Hand 16
UTG limps, but I don’t notice and think it's folded to me in the CO, so I make it 1400 with A6o. BB calls and so does UTG. A54r. checks through. Turn 9, bringing FD, UTG bets 3k, I call. River 2, UTG checks, I bet 4300, they fold.

BB800 ANTE 100 - 41525 stack - 52BB

Hand 17
BTN limps, I raise from SB to 2800 with AdQc, he calls. Flop A63, I bet 2200, he folds.

BB1000 ANTE 100 - 44125 stack - 44BB

Hand 18
UTG minraises, UTG+1 Calls, I flat 97hh in the CO, BTN flats. Flop JT6hss, UTG bets 6600, UTG+1 calls. I fold the gutshot and bdfd.

BB1200 ANTE 200 - 37625 stack - 31BB
Were getting to the fun part of the tournaments, where stacks are shallow and every pot is significant. Moved to a new table with some familiar faces.

Hand 19 !!!
UTG+1 limps (Q2o guy from Hand 7), I make 3400 with QQ UTG+2, he calls. I think I could go a little bigger. Flop A89, bleurgh. Check, Check. Turn 4, He checks, I think he just leads all pairs on the turn so I check back hoping he catches a piece big enough to call my river bet or he decides to bluff. River 7, he checks, I bet 4000, he folds. I think I should bet smaller on the river. I don’t think the 7 ever improves a hand that he would limp call with and i think it may induce a bluff raise if i make it 1600.

BB1600 ANTE 200 - 38625 stack - 24BB
Blinds keep on getting bigger, but I'm still comfortable playing with 24BB. One double up would put above the average stack.

Hand 20 !!!
I open to 3500 in the CO with KTo, older gentleman calls BB, flop 973r, I cbet 3200, he makes it 10k, I fold. It's tempting to shove here as a lot of weaker players raise a flop here with 1 pair for protection and then fold to a jam, but seems unnecessarily high variance given I don’t know how he plays.

Hand 21
I start the hand with 27k. UTG+2 opens to 3800, I peel BB with QTss. Flop AJ8ss, I check, he bets 4k, and I jam. Seems standard, I flop a mega draw and he bet folds better than Qhigh on this board. He says that he had 55, so I did get him to fold a pair.

Hand 22 !!!
CO limps, I make it 4200 on the button with KJhh, he calls. Flop Q57hh, I bet 5200, he calls. Turn 9h! He checks, I bet 9k, he puts me all in, CALL! He has 86dd and is drawing dead, giving me the much needed double.

BB2000 ANTE 200 - 80200 stack - 40BB
Great last level putting me right back into the tournament.

Hand 23 !!!
UTG opens to 5k, UTG+2 calls, I flat AThh on the BTN. Flop AK5, checks to me, I decide to check back. UTG would normally bet anything that crushes me and I think UTG+2 would stab a lot of made hands, so I check back for deception and to give them a chance to catch up or bluff. Turn 4, it checks to me and I bet 7k. UTG accidentally puts out too much, and UTG+2 snaps the 7k. It's ruled that UTG must raise to 14k, UTG+2 now folds for the extra 7k! Bizarre hand already. River Q. I feel bad for the guy so i check back, he shows TT and I rake in the pot.

Hand 24 !!!
I open the CO with J9s to 4300, BTN flats, BB comes along. Flop T83r, I cbet 5500, BTN and BB call. Turn 6. Checks round. This is a big mistake from me. At the time I thought that they both likely have made hands given I block draws and that I wouldn’t get many folds on the turn, but I have way too much equity to not barrel here. River T, Probably the worst card to bluff, so I check and it checks round. BB shows 86o to win. BTN had QJo. Very frustrating to misplay a hand that you should have won.

BB2400 ANTE 300 - 92700 stack - 39BB
Last level of the day. I have a decent stack, a little below average, hoping to finally make my first day 2 of 2016.

Hand 25
I open to 5000 UTG with 88, BTN flats. Flop J72r, I bet 5200, he folds.

Hand 26
MP opens to 5k, I 3bet HJ with A5s to 13k, they fold.

Hand 27
I open HJ to 5k with 55. CO and BB flat. Flop 977cc, I mean to bet 7k, but bet 12k, and get two snap folds. Im sure 7k would have had the same outcome.

Day 1 over. I finished with 121400 with 90 people remaining, 30 place paid.


Day 2
BB3000 ANTE 400 - 121400 stack - 40BB
My stack is around average. My table draw seems good and I feel good and rested.

Hand 28
I open to 6300 with A2s in the CO. Everyone folds.

Hand 29
Folds to me in the SB, I limp A7o, BB checks. Flop K94. I bet 3200, he folds.

Hand 30
UTG+2 opens to 6k, Co flats, I flat BTN with AQo, Bb calls. Maybe should find a 3bet here, but I don’t mind flatting in position. Flop 984r, UTG+2 bets 12k, CO calls, I fold.

Hand 31
I open 99 in MP to 6400. Everyone folds.

Hand 32 !!!
I open AJo UTG+1, BTN flats, BB flats. Flop J34r, I bet 7k, BTN makes it 27k. I call. 2 Turn. He shoves for 39k. I call. He shows KJs, guy to my right tells me he folded a K, so just need to fade 2 outs. River K After the hand the guy said he raised my flop bet as I bet really small and that he would’ve folded to a flop jam. Nh i guess.

Hand 33
BTN opens to 6500, I shove 57k from BB with ATo, he tank calls QJo. I get the T6498 runout to hit the showers.

Super frustrating to lose 2 big hands almost back to back to bust, but I can’t feel too bad as I did get it in good, but clearly the poker gods had other plans. The tournament however was great and I will try and play any future events. There is a silver lining however, a friend of mine, with whom I swapped 15%, came 16th for £630. He unfortunately bust when someone 3bet called J9 vs his TT for 30BB. nh wp.

Feedback would be appreciated.

TL;DR Op can’t even mincash, let alone win a tournament.