Longish tourney trip report- Atlantic City

[Lottery Larry]

The following is what I got from my notes from my trip to ACity last weekend.

I would like a comment on the 44 hand at the Trop. along with the hands at the 300/600 level.

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I planned to hit several tourneys in the morning and then possibly one more in the evening, with cash games in between. I started off at the Taj Mahal, buying in to the 10:15 $80+20 NLHE tournament. Because the numbers were low, the Taj delayed the start of this until 10:25. We eventually ended up with 4 tables, holding 33 players, and only one woman. I looked down at my 8 green, 8 black and 8 purple chips, looked at the players- some were experienced, and there was one clump of younger guys at the opposite end of the table- and I planned on playing better than I had the last time I entered the Taj tourney (when I'd laid down Jacks to a reraise early on).

Within the first 6 hands, I had lost T2K at the T25/50 blind level. I raised a good hand, took the pot preflop. Then I reraised someone while holding AK and I raised him, to T600, on the flop and bet the rag turn for T1200 more before checking the river and seeing AJ.

My next hand of note came in the second 20-minute round. 5 limpers to my $T100 blind, and I check my Queens waiting for the flop. The flop came 9c6c5d. I don't have a club.
The SB opens for T175, I made it T600. The early limper calls, the middle limper makes it T1500, all others fold. I had T1400 left and pushed all-in; surprisingly, both called. They checked down the turn Queen (yay!) and the river Tc (boo!). My set was good, having sucked out on MP's flopped bottom set (lucky me) and the early limper's 98o?? I now am among the chip leaders at my table with over T6K.

Continuing my bad play in the 2nd round, later on I make it T350 to go, in early position. Only the tight player on my left calls. When the 653 flop comes, all of the chips go into the middle. I foolishly called his smaller stack when he raised all-in over the top of my flop bet with 99, to see what I should have expected- a big-pair JJ. Now I'm down to T2K again.

I continued to be aggressive, but I did not getting much help from the cards. I'd win one pot preflop after a 3x raise, then I'd lose a later pot when I'd dump on the flop that I missed completely.

In the fourth round, with T150/300 blinds, the button with the biggest stack raises it T350. I look at black tens in the BB, look at the re-raise amount I'd have to commit my stack to calling later anyway, and push in my last T1775. The button thinks for a while, says "I'll gamble with you" and calls a small portion of his stack with AT.

The dealer burns, pulls the 3 cards together in his hand for the flop, and starts turning the stacked cards over in his hand. The As is on the bottom! The Ace-high flop gave me a flush draw on the turn but no help on the river, and I was the 3rd or 4th player out.
That was about the only hand I played well in that tourney.

Since there wasn't much action going on at the Taj at that
time, including no $3/6 rotation game (Omaha/8, Stud/8) that I was looking to play in, I walked over to check out the House of Blues cardroom at the Showboat. They'd started a $40+10 tourney at 11 a.m.; when I got up there at 11:40, there were 5 tables for the tourney and one cash game table with no seats (based on the chip stacks, I'm guessing it was $6/12 or possibly a $1/2 NL game.)

I decided to head over to the $100+25, one add-on NLHE
tourney at the Tropicana, which was scheduled to start at 12:15 p.m.
I got there just before the scheduled start and was one of the last few of the eventual 131 players. We started with T4000 and blinds of T50/100. Everyone who lasted through the first hour, to the 4th round, had the option for a $100 add-on for another T4000.

Early on, I was playing tight- I picked my spots to raise,
winning most of the hands I took beyond the flop without having to show down. Then right before the end of the 3rd round I made a steal raise in early position with A5s, after UTG limped, thinking I had a good chance to take down the pot and avoid having to add-on.
Players had been talking about an earlier player who was pushing his shorter stack really hard in the earlier rounds- guy next to me said "it's too early for that" at that time, when the player in question pushed all-in (and was knocked out).
However, both blinds and the limper called my T825 bet (blinds were T150/300 with T25 antes). I folded when UTG bet the QJ5 rainbow flop (none of my suit) and eventually got to see the AJ, JTc, and JTo hands that had called me.

My stack was back down to T4800 and I was planning on passing on the add-on, since the average stack after the break wouldn't be double mine and I was already down 2 tourney buy-ins for the trip so far. However, I luckily looked at the blind structure again for the 4th round- T200/400 with T50 antes- and realized that giving up 25%
of my stack on each circuit wasn't the way to go. So, I added on the T4000 and was slightly above the average stack among the remaining 12 tables.

Sometime during that round I raised to T1500 with A8h, got
several callers and check-folded when several bettors emerged. The Ace on the turn got a 1500 bet from someone, but I was happy to know that the all-in had AJ and I'd ducked a bullet.

I had T2800 at the T300/600, 50 ante level when I dumped A5o
(wasn't sure if I should have raised there). The next hand, UTG limps and I raised with A9o- all folded and I was up to T4700.
When I hit the BB, 2 limpers allowed me to see the flop for
free with my 32o. When the flop came AA3, I bet out T1500 and the loose big stack thought for a long time, then folded. The next hand, I held Q7 when everyone folded to me. I thought about raising, but the BB had 2x my stack. Even though he wasn't playing very loosely, I still decided to fold.

The poker gods rewarded me for my patience with KK on the
button! Even better, UTG opened for T2000, dropping everyone between us. I pushed in my stack, the raiser put in his last 1650 with AJ, and I was up to around T13K.

Blinds were now 500/1000 with a 75 ante when I picked up ATs
in middle position. The big stack limped in early position (he'd been playing a lot of loose hands and calling with some second and third pairs), I made it T4800 and I got an all-in caller for T2850 holding Q9h. The flop of T22 was very nice; the river King would have hit the big stack (he claimed).

The very next hand, I had ATo when 2 players limped in
front. I decided it wouldn't work twice in a row and dumped it.

At the second break at 2:25 p.m., we were down to 7 tables. 66 add-ons (only slightly above half the field at the end of the 3rd round- that seemed like a bad decision by the passers?) had brought the total chips up to 788K, spread among 55 players, so my T17500 was a little over 20% higher than the average stack.

However, with the next round being T800/1600 and 100 ante, I didn't really have much of a stack even so. I didn't respond to the guy to my left, who kept talking about how this tournament was one of the "best values" in the city. While it was nice that the top prize was $10K (2nd was $3800, paying down to 9th for $291), I couldn't see how having an average stack of only 4 1/2x the cost of a circuit was a GOOD thing after slightly over 2 hours of play.

The average stacks were too small to allow much real play. The first hand after the break, UTG big stack raised to 5K holding 6h6d. One player called all-in for T1200 with T9s, the SB put in his last 3K holding A3o. I think the sixes were good anyway, but he got a 4-card flush by the river to make sure of it.

A hand I am still questioning was when I held 44 and was
four seats behind an all-in player, early position, who pushed T4K. I folded (which I thought was probably a bad choice, on reflection), but I would have run into the SB's KK that came back over the top.

It was 3:40 when a pivotal hand came up with 3 tables left
and 8 players at our table. Blinds were T2K/4K, 300 antes. On the previous hand, a big stack who'd been playing a lot of loose hands aggressively and getting lucky- he had a bigger stack early and was gambling with it- got his Aces cracked by some small hand that got 2 pair against him.

Now he was UTG and threw all of his chips into the pot, obviously still on tilt. He only had T5100 and I read him as
having less than a strong hand. The player in between umped, and I decided to move all-in (with only two big stacks behind me, including the suckout player from the Aces hand).

The BB threw in his last T5300 after I pushed my 18,100 into
the pot with J8s. He held 92h, the tilter had J3c, and I was in even better shape when an 8 flopped. My hand was better than the other two by the river.

Unfortunately for me, the big stack on the button had called
preflop, after thinking for a long time. His QQ was the best hand, and instead of doubling up my stack and having a decent shot at getting to the final table, I was out of the tourney along with the other two players.

That's it- I won't bore you with my 12 hours of limit play after that (and I don't remember much now, anyway)

[ansky451]

[ QUOTE ]
My next hand of note came in the second 20-minute round. 5 limpers to my $T100 blind, and I check my Queens waiting for the flop . The flop came 9c6c5d. I don't have a club.


[/ QUOTE ]
Thats horrible.

[ QUOTE ]
Early on, I was playing tight- I picked my spots to raise,
winning most of the hands I took beyond the flop without having to show down. Then right before the end of the 3rd round I made a steal raise in early position with A5s, after UTG limped, thinking I had a good chance to take down the pot and avoid having to add-on.

[/ QUOTE ]
I dont think any of that made sense. Don't play if you really don't want to add on. I don't considering raising from early position when someone has already limped, a "steal raise."

[ QUOTE ]
The very next hand, I had ATo when 2 players limped in
front. I decided it wouldn't work twice in a row and dumped it.

[/ QUOTE ]
Obviously.


[ QUOTE ]
Now he was UTG and threw all of his chips into the pot, obviously still on tilt. He only had T5100 and I read him as
having less than a strong hand. The player in between umped, and I decided to move all-in (with only two big stacks behind me, including the suckout player from the Aces hand).

The BB threw in his last T5300 after I pushed my 18,100 into
the pot with J8s. He held 92h, the tilter had J3c, and I was in even better shape when an 8 flopped. My hand was better than the other two by the river.

[/ QUOTE ]
Try describing the action in order. I don't mind the push, since he literally has any 2 cards and you want to isolate.