I played my first donkament in almost 3 years (not counting the occasional $1 spin-n-go I play during work meetings) and it was quite an emotional rollercoaster. It was the 80K guaranteed $100 MISCOOP tournament. I feel like I played really well, but ultimately bubbled out. I think I may have gotten karma'd a bit. I made a fishy play early on when I made a -EV call with a FD & Gutshot thinking that if it didn't pan out I would just fire bullet #2 rather than ride a shorter stack to the rebuy bubble. It worked, and a bit of rungood later and I was in 2nd in chips in an 800 player field.
One hand in the middle that got me a bit was this one. I think it's a good river fold but it stung because that would have been a monster pot. Preflop may have been a little loose but given that it was a minraise + the antes in the pot, I'm not folding this. Flop I'm ready to mostly give up. Then when I turn a double gutter, I figure I can fire small because he has a lot of give ups. It probably could have been a little bigger, but what's he really doing with KQ no diamond here? Then I get there OTR and make a smallish value bet. I discounted this shove being a blocker play because I'd expect a bet from the A
a lot, but slowplaying the nuts made more sense. Still this opportunity had me wondering what if.
PokerStars - 4000/8000 Ante 1000 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
MP: 42.51 BB
MP+1: 103.15 BB
MP+2: 19.94 BB
CO: 54.18 BB
BTN: 29.31 BB
SB: 18.15 BB
Hero (BB): 52.87 BB
UTG: 35.75 BB
UTG+1: 10.17 BB
9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB,
Hero posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.62 BB) Hero has 6
5
fold,
fold,
MP raises to 2.2 BB,
fold,
fold,
fold,
fold,
fold,
Hero calls 1.2 BB
Flop: (6.02 BB, 2 players) 7
T
3
Hero checks, MP checks
Turn: (6.02 BB, 2 players) 9
Hero bets 1.81 BB, MP calls 1.81 BB
River: (9.64 BB, 2 players) 4
Hero bets 4.34 BB,
MP raises to 38.38 BB and is all-in,
fold
MP wins 18.32 BB
Then the big crusher. This took me from a solid stack that could easily fold my way into the money and then some, to crippled. Not much to see here other than one of the bigger BBV beats of my life. I've lost tons of 200BB pots this way, but something about going from a top stack in a big tourney to crippled just hurts way way more.
PokerStars - 4000/8000 Ante 1000 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
SB: 46.44 BB
BB: 13.19 BB
UTG: 103.93 BB
UTG+1: 53.04 BB
MP: 22.87 BB
MP+1: 7.42 BB
MP+2: 8.51 BB
Hero (CO): 43.65 BB
BTN: 35.23 BB
9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB,
BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.62 BB) Hero has 8
8
fold,
fold,
fold,
fold,
fold,
Hero raises to 2.25 BB,
BTN calls 2.25 BB,
fold,
BB calls 1.25 BB
Flop: (8.37 BB, 3 players) 6
8
6
BB checks,
Hero checks,
BTN bets 4 BB,
BB raises to 10.81 BB and is all-in,
Hero calls 10.81 BB,
BTN raises to 32.86 BB and is all-in,
Hero calls 22.05 BB
Turn: (84.9 BB, 3 players) Q
River: (84.9 BB, 3 players) T
Hero shows 8
8
(Full House, Eights full of Sixes)
Main Pot [40.81 BB]: (Pre
18%, Flop 90%, Turn 2%)
Side Pot#1 [44.09 BB]: (Pre
20%, Flop 91%, Turn 2%)
BTN shows Q
Q
(Full House, Queens full of Sixes)
Main Pot [40.81 BB]: (Pre
55%, Flop 9%, Turn 98%)
Side Pot#1 [44.09 BB]: (Pre
80%, Flop 9%, Turn 98%)
BB shows 5
K
(Flush, King High)
Main Pot [40.81 BB]: (Pre
27%, Flop 1%, Turn 0%)
BTN wins 84.9 BB
I actually crawled my way back up to a stack that had a decent shot at the money before my bust out hand, which is probably a close decision. On one hand I have JJ and 20BB so getting it in seems trivial. I know JJ shrinks up against a 3-bet, but I felt this guy was 3-betting wide enough to go with it here. In a deeper cash game this is probably a fold, but here, I felt like I can just rip it and let what happens happen.
PokerStars - 5000/10000 Ante 1250 NL - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
CO: 21.32 BB
BTN: 36.38 BB
SB: 18.23 BB
Hero (BB): 20.6 BB
UTG: 84.93 BB
UTG+1: 50 BB
MP: 15.06 BB
MP+1: 40.65 BB
8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB,
Hero posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has J
J
fold,
fold,
fold,
MP+1 raises to 2 BB,
fold,
BTN raises to 6 BB,
fold,
Hero raises to 20.47 BB and is all-in,
fold,
BTN calls 14.47 BB
Flop: (44.45 BB, 2 players) T
3
K
Turn: (44.45 BB, 2 players) A
River: (44.45 BB, 2 players) K
Hero shows J
J
(Two Pair, Kings and Jacks)
(Pre 18%, Flop 8%, Turn 5%)
BTN shows Q
Q
(Two Pair, Kings and Queens)
(Pre 82%, Flop 92%, Turn 95%)
BTN wins 44.45 BB
Overall I think I played the tourney OK. It's probably not something I will make a regular habit of, both from a schedule standpoint and a regular game comfort thing. At least I made almost all my buyin back playing a 100NL table on the side. In the past I think I have been too passive in tourneys not wanting to bust early. I was definitely much more aggressive in this one. If Stars does more of these series with big top payday tourneys, I'll definitely try to play them. A few times a year seems about right.