Having not played a poker championship tournament for some time, it was great to finally hit the felt for two of the upcoming Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series events.
Monday saw me take part in the $340 No Limit Holdem Terminator where each elimination saw you receive a $100 bounty on top of the normal prizepool. Although I sold a small section of my action on ChipMeUp I happily swapped 5% with Tom and Josh while Heath opted to sit out the percentage swap since he only had a small part of action courtesy of selling out on ChipMeUp.
My strategy was to play fairly tight until antes came in because the structure was pretty decent and I really didn’t want to leak unnecessary chips which may cost me in potential bounties. With a 15,000-chip starting bank, it wouldn’t be until the 150-300 level where I saw my stack soar after winning a few decent pots before flopping a set of fours and getting someone to donate their whole stack with just top pair on the turn. Several hands later after a new player limped under-the-gun, I made it 1,025 from middle position with
7♥
5♥ and was called by a player in late position as well as the limper. I fired out 1,375 on the
10♦
8♥
6♠ flop with the player behind smooth-calling before the limper made it 4,000 to go. Since we were all deep – roughly having 30,000 in chips each – I decided to make the call to try and win a massive multi-way pot if I could spike my straight or hit some kind of backdoor flush.
The player from late position made the call also as the
9♠ was delivered on the turn and the under-the-gun player led for 7,000. I thought for a while before sliding in my stack of 5,000 and 1,000-denomination chips to put both players all in. Surprisingly the smooth-caller from late position made the call as the turn aggressor folded to see my made straight up against a set of sixes. Fortunately the river bricked and I was now up to roughly 85,000 with two bounties under my sleeve.
A little while later I lost a three-way pot holding
A♥
K♥ against jacks and sevens after I three-bet an open to roughly 4,000 and called off another 15,000 to see a pot of 50,000 in the middle (the player holding jacks was short). I flopped a flush draw but bricked my fifteen-outer to slip back to roughly 60,000. Quite tilted, I went for a walk to try and calm my mental state so I wouldn’t proceed to stack off, and on return I pretty much folded for a few levels not managing to catch any hands or find decent three-bet or squeeze spots.
With around two tables until the money, Joe Hachem moved to the table and we exchanged some friendly banter as we normally do – with this being only the second time we’ve played together since we met in 2007. As my stack dwindled, I opened
9♥
8♥ only to have Hachem ship it on me. I Hollywooded for a little and folded before grabbing another bounty when my
A♥
8♥ held up against a weaker ace before eventually finding a double through Hachem when I open-jammed (after shipping the hand previously) from early position with Ace-King and being in great shape against his King-Queen. I flopped an ace, and that was that, as Hachem soon exited as we were about a table from the money.
I sat with a semi-decent stack of thirty big blinds, but with short-handed play and easily the best remaining players in the tournament on the table, I found it nearly impossible to accumulate. Whether I opened light, or three-bet, nothing seemed to work, and as we got to within a few spots from the money, my stack was somehow down to just over ten big blinds. It was just leaking chips in these pots, but with the bubble taking forever, the blinds had increased three times, but when I looked down at Ace-King in the big blind, I had no other option but to ship it all in over a Ben Savage under-the-gun open. He deliberated for ages before calling with nines only to see me spike trips to knock him out and receive another button; my fifth for the tournament after taking care of another short stack.
Eventually the bubble burst and when my jacks were unable to outdraw an opponent’s kings, I was out the door in 15th place (out of 156) for a $374 payday plus a further $500 in bounties. Josh managed to make the money also, but busted just prior to me as we decided that a 5am breakfast run to Maccas was exactly what was needed to cure our bust-out tilt!
* * * * * * * *
Having spiked a cash in the Terminator, it made playing the $340 Eight Game Mixed a little more easier on the pocket as Heath and Tom were also part of the 59-player field.
Funnily enough both me and Tom drew the same table and it was a fairly uneventful few levels as a small amount of chips were just transferred around the six-handed table. Finally me and Tom tangled in a 2-7 Triple Draw pot when I caught a ten-perfect on the final draw after he stood pat with a jack. He bet, I check-called, and he went on tilt although he completely understood my reasoning for making the call apart from the ridiculous pot odds that I was getting after three of us exchanged chips on every street.
That table broke, and I moved to one that featured Dale Townsend, Peter Vratsidis and Ang Italiano. With some decent double average chips, I quickly increased my stack in the No Limit Holdem orbit. Dale opened, the guy between us called, and I three-bet
Q♣
J♣. Both players folded and Dale stated he folded Ace-Queen. The next hand I opened Ace-King and won the blinds, the next hand I opened Queens before Peter three-bet his blinds, I four-bet and he folded as I showed my hand before winning the blinds the next with Ace-King again … talk about a heater!
That heater would kind of continue in the Pot Limit Orbit when I was dealt
A♥
A♣
6♠
4♠ and Dale potted with
K♦
T♠
8♣
4♥. I re-potted, and then Dale gave the lame speech that every donk gives when they fill like issuing a bad beat. Eventually he made the call as a
8♠
6♦
2♣ flop fell and I shipped in what remained of my stack. Dale obviously called, and when the river landed another eight, I got another speech as I exited in 22nd place.
