Well after 3 consecutive Team Tourney Final Tables my run came to an end last night. I had everything setup perfect projecting a completely loose image. I think the newer players at the table thought I was crazy.
Nothing exciting happened but I had some nice chip accumation early. I had some huge reads on some of the players. It was pretty awesome. For those that have not figured it out, I play this little game with myself called guess the hole cards. Its how I pass the time in between hands that I am not in. I try to put every player in the hand on a hand. Sometimes it does matter as I use range (for example 66-88 is really the same hand especially early in a tourney). I use a scoring system on how close my reads are. And then when I am in the hand I know how close my reads are for the game. If my reads are really on I will trust them more later on in the game. (This will make more sense later). I am not sure my reads had ever been better.
When I got 3300 in chips I got AK in ep. My table image did not lend itself very well to AK at this time. Blinds were low enough that I could not die on it but the pot could get big enough where it could get crazy. Well blinds were 40/80 and I raised to 200. The player directly to my left made it 400. It folded all the way back to me and I really wanted to re-raise but I decided that this was one of the more solid players at the table and I could find so many better spots when I had a better starting hand. I also contemplated folding as the min-raise seemed confusing. I flat called.
The flop was
6H7H9H
My problem was I did not want to look at my cards for a heart because I knew I had one. I had AKo and both my cards were red. I checked and my opponent checked. I was confused now. Re-raise preflop, checked to him and he checks. I figured he flopped a flush a with AHQH or something huge like that.
The turn was a black 8. I knew for certain he had not hit yet but I had to look at my cards for the info on his. Low and behold I had AHKD. This changed everything. I immediatly put him on AXKH. I knew I had him crushed because if a heart came he was in trouble. I decided to get a little sneaky. I figured I bet half the pot and he calls and hits his heart I instantly push all-in and he will have a hard time folding. I knew it was impossible for him to flop a flush and I was certain of his cards. I bet 400. He said "I am sure you didn't hit that board". He raised 1000 more which really was what I wanted. I went to go push all my chips in and then I realized...this is the team tourney. What if he had 1010 or something wierd like that and he decided to check the flop. Or he had AA or KK or something sick like that. I did not thinking calling the 1000 was an option but I did not want to let my teammates down by finishing 10th. So I folded and my opponent told me he had AKH. It was a horrible feeling but I agreed to play as a team and I can't complain about the rules I knew about. The last few team tourneys our team was so close to winning and we always had one guy who busted early and it was always a wierd play like the called all their chips off with QQ in level 2. So I moved on but that 800 chip loss was huge. (I also had my opponent drawing to split only and I was on a giant freeroll. That's how I spell "fold equity").
The rest of the game was insignifcant. I called a raise on the button when a weak player raised weak. I did it because I had 33 and I was certain he had AA or KK. I know that's sounds wierd but I figured hitting there would mean doubling up for sure. The flop was 457. He bet 300 into a pot of 700. I called. Turn 8. He checked. LOL that was funny. I checked. The river was a 2. Was a funny board. Every low pp from 2-8 had him crushed except for 33. He bet 300 into a 1300 pot on the river. I quickly called because I can't fold getting those kind of odds and I wanted to confirm my read. He had AA....LOL. I could have pushed all-in and he was calling. All I needed was any low pp but 33.
I then sat an entire level without a hand and was in the "push zone". I had 1600 left and blinds were 100/200. I pushed with KQ and everyone folded. Next hand I got AKs. I push everyone folds. The very next hand UTG, I get KJs and I mucked. I just wish the AK came last because that is a great hand to push with a 3rd time because someone might call you with a weak hand like AQ or AJ.
I lost some chips with my blinds and then was on the button when the weak player who I had a monster read on came in for a raise. I looked at my cards saw AJ and instantly pushed all-in. Now AJ is not a normal push for me there. As a matter of fact against 90% of players its an automuck for me but I was certain of my read. It folded back to the player (blinds were 150/300 and he raised to 600, it was 1300 more to call. He had about 2000 left). He shrugged his shoulders and insta-called. He had A5, proving my read again and he hit his 5 on the flop. So that was it, I played conservative and still busted 8th at my table!! I was please with my play because I played my read which was perfect and it did not work out.
None of my teammates faired well either except for James who busted at the Final Table on a suckout. Not a good showing for WNP but I am certain we had the best quality players although the new format brought a much better play all around.
I played in the cash game after the team tourney and netted $160 profit which meant a small $80 profit on the night. I still find the cash games at river extremely soft. When I did hit some nice board unfortunately it was not against the weaker players so I didn't get paid.
I am only finishing this blog on Sunday because I have been busy this week. I had an interesting night Saturday night but I am going to save that for its own blog.
Turning Stone is so close now!
Mark Silver
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