So day 3, feeling great.
Very first hand of the tournament, young reg opens, guy ships 15bbs from the SB, I cold call 99 in the BB and then the or jams 45bbs. Pretty yucky spot, sounds so fishy to say this as everybody with a pair in the history of poker thinks their opponent has AK, but I really felt like he had AK from his timing and stuff he was saying to me. He had a hand which seemed like it didn't care what happened and this makes sense with AK because he knows he's flipping at worst. I ended up folding somewhat regretfully.
I quickly lost another chunk and was down to 270 from 360. I think mentally I was perhaps a little bit effected here, as I kept doing throughout the tournament I just kept trying to visualise myself from somebody watching from the rail. Was I being the evidently tilted guy who doesn't look focused and doesn't look like he's really going to win the tournament, or do I look like the quiet guy that is taking every decision seriously and looks like he's the favourite to win. I tried to continue to sit upright.
I can't really remember too many hands, it was basically just me defending bb or opening from late position, very low variance, almost no 3bet bluffs at all in the whole day, just trying to stay out of trouble and slowly chip up. I rose from 270 to 600 at the start of the next hand. I can't remember sizings unfortunately but line was basically.
Tight reg who hadn't done anything at all out of line but was opening a decent amount opens MP, I flat HJ with ATcc
He cbets 1/2 pot isn KTThhx I call
Turn KTT4hhdd he checks I bet 3/4 pot ish, he calls quite quick
River KTT44 he checks I bet big, he jams quickly, I fold.
Now I know this is going to be a WTF *hand for many people but my reasoning at the time was very strong. On KTT4 double flush draw if he has a Ten he's very, very, very likely to keep betting it, if he doesn't bet it theres definitely a chance he c/r it, if he does c/c it theres a strong chance he doesn't do a huge shove over my big river bet and if he does decide to do that its unlikely he doesn't consider for more than 10 seconds whether he should or not.
So in my mind he never has Tx here. So wtf can he have. Hands that make a lot of sense KK/KT hands that make smaaaallll sense, 44. KK/KT would be natural hands that would check the turn just because they are invincible and I can call that flop with a lot of hands that will bluff but may fold to the 2nd barrel etc.
So for value I gave him KK/KT maybe 44 but I doubt it. Now I need to find some bluffs that 1) He gets to the river with 2) He would have the balls to shove with and 3) He would have the balls to shove so quickly with.
As soon as I bet I almost had the feeling that he had me beat and was going to go all in, I heard the words and literally jumped out of my chair, I couldn't believe it, well I could but wow is this really happening to me right now. I started with 5-600, he has put in around 180k on the river and around 60k before and the average was 175k ish. There was 90 minute blinds, this really was a ****ing huge pot. He did 2 things in the hand that really made me want to call, two big live read things. I think I would have folded quicker but these live tells were wanting me to call. I was sure he had KK and I could just visualise myself sighing as he flips over 2 red cowboys. I thought for maybe ten minutes and folded, probably one of the biggest folds I've ever made, especially in the circumstances.
He instantly turned over 33. I was in shock. WTF just happened, he cbet flop, and c/c turn with 33?!?!?! Whaaaaaaaaaat. I was really tilted haha, I knew in my mind there was 45 minutes or so to the break so I just folded and tweeted for 30 minutes. I was pretty sure I was fine but just didn't want to punt it off. I still had 2.5x average stack and had an amazing table.
We came back from the break and literally for the next 4 hours all anybody spoke about was this bluff the guy had made, it got a little annoying after a while, I just wanted to get on and continue playing but they kept bringing it up again and again, I think I took it pretty well overall.
I spoke to some good friends and they actually told me about all the positives of the hand, I had been able to be disciplined and not try to play for a chip lead pot despite losing in vegas so far/having a potential bad mindset etc and also that it should give me confidence in my live reads moving forward.
The day went on a long time, we started with 114 and would finish with 26, I obviously played so many pots and a lot of them were interesting but only three stand out to me at the moment.
Tight Russian opens button, I defend BB 3 way (sb brazilian fish)
Russian cbets a62, I call
Russian checks back a625
Russian bets big on a6255
Now this is the board and everything that would just make me snap fold here, I was sure he had a strong hand, he didn't bet his hand like a7/a8 kind of hand, it was very much AQ/AK, I had so much in my mind from people telling me "how can you fold? people just lose their heads" that I just decided to call. I kinda regret calling, I was good in the hand, he had QJs but this was the first time in the tournament where I didn't go with all my reads and everything that was telling me inside. I won the pot and went to my tournament peak after the hand, but I was somewhat dissatisfied with myself, despite being happy with myself for folding AT. Weird ****ing game.
2nd hand.. We redraw at 27, I get a new table with all new players. I limp at 10k BVB with K3ss and BB makes it 22k. I call. Flop is 982r I check, he bets 32k I thiiiink I see something and he seemed like the kind of guy who would cbet like a5 or something if he raised for initiative pre so I raise to 92k. He tanked ages and I told him "I don't know you at all, but we've both played all day on different tables and got really deep, I promise I have a better hand than you, you should fold, we finish the day in 5 minutes and if you show me I'll show you a better hand" he folded 83 (!!) and I obviously had to show. I didn't really feel that bad about this, I guess its just a part of the game. If I can get a guy to fold a 180k pot when I have 400k then I'm going to try!
Last hand was the 2nd last hand of the night, I've opened 4 out of the first 6 pots on the table, but there is 3 big stack with lots of chips 4-5 to my left. I have 99 and limp for 10k from UTG+1, I think its a good adjustment. Folds to the SB and he makes it 47k out of 240k stack. I was so confused, my gut and everything inside me was telling me to shove, he shouldn't have QQ+ with this sizing, but rationally inside told me to probably fold and wait for a better spot. I had gone from 270-580 playing pretty solidly/small ball and this would be such a huge pot. I folded, but felt pretty bad about it afterwards. The day finished and I went home knowing there was 25 people between me and the bracelet. I really wanted it.
Day 4 started off well, I defended BB vs Barny with K8dc flop and turn got checked through and then I bet 1.5x pot on
JT7ddx2xAd, he folded which was a nice start and then I played prettttty tight, the day before I was talking almost non stop and having a lot of fun with the whole table which was/is fine, but today was game day, I was staring everybody down, very focused, looking for the tiniest of tells and trying to verify them, I really, really wanted to succeed. I had just 4bet 3 hands earlier… Hand is opened, 3bet, I look at black kings, 4bet, fold, 5bet all in. I call, I have around 550k He has around 600k. Red Queens, other guy who folded grabs his AQ back out, everybody is absolutely dead in silence waiting for the board to run it. J782…..Q.
BAM, it took me back so much at the time. I can see the queen just repeteadly hitting the river as if I was pressing back/forward on the pokerstars hand replayer. Everybody in the tournament was watching and most came up and shook my hand/told me they thought I played great. I walked past the far table and they were speaking about how it was great news I was busted.
I went to the payout place and it takes ****ing forever so had 40 minutes to just contemplate. I didn't say a word to anybody just thought about everything. I was really fine, I felt totally OK, ofc I was gutted but I had put myself in a position with KK v QQ deep in the best structured NLH MTT of the summer. That wasn't in my hands. I went into the day with no expectations except to play good. Throughout the tournament I stuck by myself, did things that others would think were terrible but backed myself.
If I felt bad I definitely wouldn't have played the 2500, but I felt fine.
Was out relatively quickly (level 5 100/200/25) fish UTG makes it 1000, I have 13.5k ish. Pretty close but I defend J7cc. Flop 642ccx, I check, he checks back. Turn 6432ccxc I bet 2000 into 2200, he takes a lonnnnng time and puts me all in for 12.5k ish, I obviously call. He has AxKc for the very ambitious turn jam vs my pot sized bet. River is the Ac and I'm GG. Previously when I've taken bad beats better than expected the next one is always the one where I feel really bad as if its a snowball effect and the "why does it always happen to me" but again I felt really ok with everything, ofc I was unhappy to lose, but no real strong emotions, I posted bridge hunting, but was just joking.
All in all, not a very good day!
Tomorrow is a day off which I intend on using, back the next day for $3k 6max, looking forward to that one, hopefully can make some good decisions that don't include folding full houses.
By the way, the support I received on here and twitter was amazing, really, really, really, really, really thankful for that, I wanted to do it for you guys as much as myself! Thanks so much once again.
out of your diary/blog