Live 6-Max Tournament at Deuce 9

There was a tournament planned for today, Saturday, but few people were available to come. It ended up being just 6 people, which isn't all that bad I guess. I love 6-max SNGs, this will be like one of those with a 100 times better structure.

I started out playing pretty solid/tight as I like to do when the blinds are so low. I don't see much need to get out of line early on when you're that deep in chips. I picked up a few hands that helped me to win a few decent size pots and I stole a few small pots here and there when I saw fit. The first real pot I played was:

Blinds 100-200
I'm on the button, with A-K off.
UTG (tight) folded, UTG+1 (loosest player at the table) limped for 200, MP1 folds, I make it 800 total, SB (tight) folds, BB (fairly solid) calls 800, UTG+1 folds.

Flop: (Pot: 1900)
K-Q-2, no suit.

He checked, I bet 1500, he called.

[I'm putting him on like K-J, K-T, J-T range of hands]

Turn: (Pot: 4900)
J, putting 2 spades out.

He checked, I wanted to bet here but he gave the impression that he was looking to check raise (just his personal demeanor) and that turn did hit a lot of hands I'm putting him on, so I checked behind hoping to keep the pot small in position with just one pair. If I bet and get check-raised all-in I can't really call and expect to be ahead of many hands.

River: (Pot: 4900)
4, rainbow board.

He checked, so now I obviously have to bet. I bet 2500 hoping it was K-T, he called with A-Q.

Final pot: 9900

That pot and few others really padded my stack up to over double the starting stack (of 10k) to around 22k and change. From there I just cruised while a couple people went out. Joe (from the A-K vs A-Q hand) ran into A-A and was out in 6th. Don (who had built up a nice stack close to mine) played a big pot against Kurt with A-J vs A-A which left him crippled, he then lost a semi-race 2 hands later with K-Qs vs A-J (against Kurt again) for the remainder of his chips and finished in 5th. Kurt busted in 4th to Will with Q-J vs A-Q on a Q-5-5 flop. The action was fast and furious until 3 handed and then everything sloooooooowed down, alot. We played 3-handed forever.

With the blinds at 400-800, I had about 18-19k when this hand went down:

Corey folded the button,

(Will had been limping a lot from every position, from his SB I had been punsihing him a lot with raises; something I usually don't do a lot of but his weakness was so vivid I knew I could pick up the dead money pre-flop)

Will limped in for 800.

I had Ac-Kc in the BB and made it 2k more to 2800 total. Bigger than my normal opening raise, but (A) he doesn't pay attention to that and (B) he actually looked like he had a real hand this time so I was obviously hoping he played back at me. He just called the 2k more

Flop: (Pot: 5600)
K-K-J, two spades. - BINGO!

He led out for 4000, I decided I didn't have enough to call without giving away the strength of my hand, but if I moved it I could have a huge range of hands (flush draw, straight draw, lower pair). I moved all-in for another 11k. He thought and thought forever which led me to believe he had like Q-J or J-T and was thinking of making some heroic call if he thought I was being a bully. He did call, with... honestly I'll give you 3 guesses as to what he had and you'll NEVER be right. Go ahead guess...

1

2

3

He had A-8 off suit. Haha. Like that's ever good against a nit like me.

Shockingly my hand held up against his monster Ace high. So now I had like 37k of the 60k in play - pretty insane.

Corey got low and made a lot of move ins to pick up the blinds a few rounds because nobody ever got a hand. He moved in with 2-2 and I called with A-9s and lost that race. He eventually got called by Will too, who had... Q-5 off. Corey had J-T and flopped a J. Then Corey and Will got it in again with T-T (Corey) vs 6-6 (Will). The flop had a 6 in the window, but was followed by a Ten. Will got low (like 12k) when...

Blinds 600-1200
Corey folded the button, Will min-raised to 2400 from the SB, I called 1200 more with Ac-7c.

Flop: (Pot: 4800)
7-4-3, two spades and a club.

He checked (for a first in a long while), I bet 4000, and he called leaving himself 4900 behind (I know - stupid).

Turn (Pot: 12,800)
2c, giving me top pair top kicker with the nut flush draw.

He checked, I put him all-in, he called with Kc-Qc.

6 outs with 1 pull from the deck and...

River: (Pot: 22,600) ALL-IN
Qs, Ugh! So bad...

All I could say was, "Wow, that was a nice flop for Kc-Qc... nice hand."

That dropped me down to like 20k. Nothing big happened during 800-1600 and then the blinds went up to 1k-2k with everyone having about 20k (10BBs) and it was move in poker time.

Eventually Corey limped the button with A-Q, Will raised from the SB, I folded T-5. Corey moved in and Will called with... J-6. He didn't pair and Corey and I were heads up and "in the money."

Heads up went back and forth just trading blinds for a while. The blinds went up to 1500-3000 with Corey having about a 2-1 chip lead after busting Will. We made a small deal since the blinds were so high (I only had like 6BBs) - Corey $80, Me $60, with $10 up top for whoever won the tournament.

On the final hand I had 29,500 and Corey had 30,500 with the blinds at 1500-3000:

I moved in with 5-5 from the SB, which I have no problems with given the stacks.

Corey called with K-J off and we were off to the races with him having two $500 chips left if he lost.

Flop: (Pot: 59,000) ALL-IN
Q-Q-T, great now he wins with any Ace, King, Jack, Ten, or Nine.

Turn: T
River: 9

He got there twice.

So Corey won, he ran well at the end which is kinda key in these SNG type tournaments. He played very well also, but maybe a little too tight late in the tourney in spots where if he hadn't picked up hands against other hands like he did (T-T vs 6-6, A-Q, etc) he most likely would have blinded down too low to win. But whatever, it worked so there must be a bit of logic to it.

Long time, no post

I haven't posted in a while for one reason - haven't played live in a while. Which is basically the only time I ever post on here. School has kept me from playing as much as I would like. The past few weeks I've been crushing the 45-SNGs on FTP when I get the chance to play, though.

Here's 2 wins just these past 2 weeks:I wish I could get 'em bigger, but this is 'large' (not so in my opinion)

[Yes, I do enjoy changing my avatar weekly...]

I don't keep much track of the 4ths and 3rds, but I did have one 2nd last week.

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I played live a few days ago. 4 handed NL cash - 25c/50c - with some friends.

I ended up down $5 (out of $50) after losing a big pot early and grinding myself back to near even. There were 2 exciting hands that happened the whole night - both all-ins both between the same 2 players.

Hand 1:

UTG (Corey's little brother who for some reason decided to play with us. He doesn't really do anything but open shove with marginal hands - AJ, KQ, KJ, QJ, small pairs) open shoves for $21, UTG+1 folds, I have Ah-Qh in the SB, BB jokingly folds out of turn.

I was ready to fold because calling here just doesn't seem right. I can fold and keep grinding away a profit (like I've been doing VERY well up to this point - up $10 without showing a hand). I was ready to fold when I decided I'd show him (even though I was 90% ready to fold) just to see if I get a reaction, then maybe I'll reconsider. I say, "It's not a tournament so I can show before I do anything..." I flipped over the A-Q of hearts and he then (without me saying anything) flipped over Ks-Qs and said, "Okay." He gave the initial impression that he thought I had called - which I then quickly did after seeing how far ahead I was. He was confused and said whatever run the board. I differred from running it twice obviously.

Flop:

10-9-2, rainbow

Turn:

J, "ugh."

River:

A, "nh..." [rolling eyes]

Hand 2:

The hand before Don raised UTG to $2, I folded, Corey folded, The Live One min-raised to $4, and Don moved in with J-J and picked up the pot. The Live One had K-10 I believe.

I had A-K off UTG and made it $2, Corey folded, The Live One min-raised to $4, Don folded, I thought if I shoved he might call with a lot of hands (he looked bored and ready to do something "exciting"), I shoved for like $35 and he beat me into the pot with an insta-call with... 5-5.

I chose to run this one twice as I didn't really wanna flip a coin for $70.

1st Flop: A-x-x Turn: x River: x

2nd Flop: 5-4-3 Turn: x River x

So we chopped it up and that was basically it for the night...

We should be having a tournament sometime soon. I can't wait.