Final table post
I'm at the final table (after a very long 2 tables w/5 hands blind-raping shitfest) of a $1+$0.20 buy-in on Stars.
This tournament was weird in that LOTS of people went out VERY FAST about half an hour in. I check the tournament leaderboard, and it had gone from like 5-7 people out to 20 people out in a matter of 10 minutes.
So, I basically played 1 hand in this -- TT held up vs. 99 (and an Ax stack), I tripled up. "Stole" a couple of times with AQ or QQ and got it folded to me.
Warning: This is a running diary. I'm sure I typoed. I'm sure I misspelled and mispunctuated. Ask me if I'm using weird terminology.
Another warning: This is long.
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Guy just went all-in with KQo, got called by a big stack with AJo. K on flop, turned Q. Crap.
Remember, only 7 pay here and the final table is 9. ($ Payout: 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 14)
I am the short stack. Ulp.
8 left. J9 called an early-position all-in which turned out to be AA.
After 1 blind-raping, I'm down to $2k with 300/600 blinds. Gotta either steal or double-up soon. But I can't even get dealt anything with a face card.
What's really bad is that the monster chipleader is right behind me. But at least he's not aggro.
Just folded AT. Probably would've gone all-in if the chipleader hadn't raised before me in UTG.
Blinds 400/800. Why are the short-stacked people going all-in with the best hands? :-(
I really want to cash, obviously. Would make me feel somewhat better.
They let me check from the BB with T3, flop is T-5-5. I go all-in (my stack is literally 900 now; compare to 30k chipleader and 6000ish avg. stack), get 1 caller (not the chipleader, weirdly); he flips over 99. Wooh! Now up to 5000 in chips; puts me 5th in chips.
{I was about to give a small primer on shortstack play and how I was doing it all wrong b/c I'm a scared player, but I got lucky.}
Just folded A5 and A3 consecutively, even though I still only have like 6 BBs in my stack. Now's a good time to mention that the antes are 50, so I expend $400 in antes each round in addition to 1200 in blinds. That puts my "M" right around 3. Which is better than I thought it was.
Just folded J9s.
Folded KT after the blinds. Flop 9-T-4. Turn 9.
69 all-in vs. 45 on 556 flop. I am now in the $$$. Often, the play loosens up because, hey, "I won something" and/or it's all gravy.
Blinds now 6k/12k, antes 75. I have 2700. And I'm still folding suited Aces (none ever larger than 4, man!)
SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!1 I checked in BB with K3 suited (haven't you guys heard of "don't give free cards"?). Flop 6-3-6, I go all-in, gets folded. I pick up $5k. Still alive.
Chip leader is 35k. Calls an all-in with Q6 vs. lower stack's KJ. Flop 4-9-6, and there are 6 left. I'm actually 3rd in chips.
Guy doubles up with AT vs. KQ from chipleader. I'm 4th in chips.
Shortstack guy gets all-in with J2 on 4AA board. Called by #2 in chips with QT. Out. 5 left.
Blinds 1/2k. Ante 100.
Ha! I'm in the big blind with 82. Flop 928. All-in. Turn 2. Ha! I'm now #2 in chips (9k).
Next hand, I have J9 in SB. I try a blind steal to a guy with about a 4200 stack (min raise is now to 4k). He folds. 13k stack.
3-way all-in, 77 vs. AQ vs. Q4. Board 98KQJ. I'm now #3 in chips with 4 left. (Damn kicker rules, why couldn't 2 guys go out here?)
Back in BB -- my good-luck spot -- with 63. Button raise, SB call, I fold.
I have to try to steal the blind when he has 700 chips left. I have 54 suited. He had J8 of the same suit, so my awesome flush means little.
That guy's all-in on the next hand. Called by both big stacks. All-in had AT with a T on the board. Other guy has 2 hearts on a 2 heart board, but no luck. Still 4 left. I'm last in chips with 7800 to 17k, 27k, and 15k.
All-in with A3 vs. the SB. Folded! 10k in chips.
Same hand, different suits. I fold the SB since the Button raised, hoping the BB will tango with him. Nope.
A4 suited now on the button. A call by the guy behind me, and I fold. Flop 78T, 2 hearts. Draw, you assholes! Turn 3rd heart blank. River blank. Stop checking! Minbet, call, minraise induces 2 folds.
A2. Jeebus. Fold.
37 in BB? Awesome fucking hand. I check. Flop 753. I call, hoping for more action later. 3rd spade card comes on turn, I poosh, he calls with J3, 1 spade. Nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade nospadenospade. River 9d. Yes! 2nd in chips again.
2nd break. There are 2-4 minute breaks every hour.
Status:
Blinds 1500/3k, ante 150
Chipleader: BIGBUCK9455, $19,895
2nd: pit boss 747, $17,894
3rd: Grey IV, $16,682
4th: SnapperLuver, $13,029 (this guy was the runaway huge chipleader coming into the table, with like 40k+ in chips; he's been down in the 2k range at certain times here)
I check 4th-place money. It's $5. Moving up means more than just a buck now -- it means 2 bucks, and 3 bucks more to 2nd, and 4 bucks more to 1st.
I push with A7, folded. 19k.
T3, I check in the BB. Board AA4. He bets, I fold. I'm probably being bluffed left & right here, but I don't care. This is fun now. Unfortunately we're all playing pretty weak/tight & respecting all-ins, so I don't know how likely it is I'll move-up due to attrition now.
Guy went out in 4th as I launch AIM Express to IM Kenny to come sweat me. I'll update later. [Update: BIGBUCK9455 -- the annoying asshole of the table -- calls the blind and then a minraise. Flop Q42, 2 hearts. He bets 3000, call. Turn 9, he checks, other guy bets 3000, call. River 8, no flush, he other guy bets 3000, he calls all-in. He was playing A3, the other guy A9.]
Blinds crazy, esp. with 3 peeps. Down to 6500. Must push/luckbox soon, or I'll be leaving with a cool $7.
A9 offsuit. Poooooooooooooosh. He had 96, so I've got domination. Hooray! Back up to 13k.
KQ. Reraise all-in. Get called by KT -- phenomenal position, he's essentially drawing to 3 outs. What shit, man. Split pot with 2 pair on board, King kicker.
Old chipleader is up to 35k again. I'm 3rd by a little. #2 goes in, fold.
I push J7, flop T47. He had 89. River 7.
I'm now chipleader. Push with A4. He calls K8. Flop KKT. Ugh! Turn T. Me: "I think you were destined to win that one." He's now chipleader. This is CRAZY.
QT suited. Pooooosh. 34 suited?!?!?!?! Flop 72K. Turn 9. River 10. I'm #2 barely.
72 offsuit in SB. I let the guy have the blind out of respect for karma & shit.
2k/4k, ante 200.
Blindstealing's important now, since the chip lead swings on every hand.
All-in AK vs. Q2. I spike an ace, I knock out the long-time chipleader and I am 2nd place!
A8 heads-up. Push, fold.
This is all cat-and-mouse. I know some people just go aggro-crazy, but I like folding some to set up a later trap.
QJ. He minraises, I push. He folds.
Q3 vs. K7. He turns a K. Ah well. now down from 50k, I have 30k (me) vs. 37k (him).
KJ suited. But folded to me ... damn.
All-in, JJ vs his 22. He flops a deuce. Asshole. I'm down to 6k.
Next hand: What horseshit.
A7, vs 35 hearts. 3K9 (1 heart), turn K hearts, river Ace of hearts to give me 2 pair but him the flush.
I won $10!
This post is so long, I'll do a separate post to analyze my play in this. (Amazing things: Just this one win, despite having lost ~10 buy-ins & $4, puts the bankroll very near where it was before.)
posted by Woodshed @ 1/20/2006 07:49:00 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Lots of jargon, what does aggro mean?
Aggressive. Meaning a lot of betting & raising.
There are two main descriptive dynamics of play:
Tight vs. Loose — Solely describes # of hands played.
Weak/passive vs. Aggressive — Describes how you play a hand: Only check/calling (and folding a lot) would be super-weak, betting and raising at every opportunity would be very "aggro"; also called a "maniac."
The combination of loose and aggressive is sometimes hard to play against (though it is not the generally considered optimal play style — that's tight/aggressive). Against a maniac, you basically tighen up and wait for a monster hand.
Other terms I used a lot (ask me more):
Minraise—You have to raise/bet in multiples of the big blind (unless you're going all-in). So with the blinds 100/200, somebody might bet out the minimum allowed (200). A minraise would be to 400, etc. etc. This is not considered normal play, though; 3xBB is the rule of thumb preflop, with 4-5 common in high-stakes games. (The purpose of this, generally, is to give sub-par hands bad odds to call.)
Push—To go "all-in"; e.g. "push" all your chips into the pot. Pretty much a necessity late in the tourney, since you want to make the other guy make a difficult decision for all his chips.
Stack—The totality of chips held by a player; "big stack", "small stack", etc.
BB—Big blind. No particular significance other than an easy way to reference your # of chips without needing to know the blind/ante level.
"M"—The number of orbits you have left in your stack if you don't voluntarily put $$ into the pot. With 100/200 blinds and $25 antes and 4 players in the game, you would divide your chipstack by 400 (100+200+[25x4]) to arrive at your "M". (A stack of 2800 would have an M of 7 at this level, etc. etc.) The book Harrington on Hold 'Em uses this a lot as an estimate of your status in the tourney. When your M dips below 4, you are considered to be on life support.
Domination/dominated—When one or more of one player's outs will make another player a better hand; e.g., when I had A9 vs. 96, I have the other guy dominated because the 9 is tainted (I would win b/c of the kicker).
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