The theme for the night was “Implied Odds” for this tournament. I will get back to that later.
We talked a little poker strategy. Marie is an excellent cash/tourney player and had a lot of great advice. She knows I can build a stack, and also knows I tend to lose it in the late stages of a tourney. Her main point to me was that once I build a stack to go take a break and have a smoke. A lot of players go on tilt when they lose a hand. I am the opposite. When I go on a rush my over confidence will be my undoing. Even though I will have what appears to be the best hand, sometimes you have to lay it down.
The tournament started and 1st hand action went just like this… Blinds were 100/200, UTG players raises to 2k!!! YES! 2K!! 5 callers decide to go along. Flop comes Jack high rainbow and no straight draw. It gets checked down to the button where he bets ¾ of the pot. UTG calls and the rest fold. Ok.. I put him on AJ. Turn a blank card and not a threat. UTG checks again and Button this time moves all in. UTG player SNAP CALLS his bet. I mean even threw it down. So to my surprise when I saw AQo and Button shows KK daahhh!! The river is another blank and UTG is out! After the player was ear distance away the whole table broke out in laughter. I mean how could you not? It was an interesting hand but what caught my attention was that 5 players came along.A few hands later a 2nd player bust out holding AA vs J2o. Again the same thing happened. Someone raised to 3K and 4 limpers called. J2o was the BB and called because of…IMPLIED ODDS! It was an all in and J2 won with 2 pair. Of course the player holding AA was very upset and this hand set the tone for all the other donkeys to follow. Some argued he was nuts to play that hand, others praised him for doing so. I just kept my mouth shut. I read a blog from a friend that said her strategy was to not be friendly and to be unnoticed. You don’t want to draw attention to you because it makes it easier for players to remember you.
The J2o player won the tournament. He was solid and used Implied Odds wisely. His friends were not that wise and would call all bets in order to see the flop. They went out within the hour and one of them courtesy of moi =) I like it when I knock out the table big mouth. I see it as “I WAS RIGHT FOO!!”
Knowing their strategy I decided to use it against them for my first big double up. I had AKs from the Button and after 3 limpers came a long I raised 4x BB. They were all shocked that I only made it 800 since 2k was the norm. SB and BB of course called as ALL THE LIMPERS. I kind of played it small there. They weren’t going to fold to any bet and AK can easily be crushed with that many players in the hand so that’s why I bet it small. The flop came KK9 and it got checked to Mr. Implied Odds who bet 5k and all the players folded to me. I took my time like I always do and gave out some weak tells like shaking my head, exhaling deeply, etc and I just smooth called his bet. Turn, a junk card and this time Mr. IO checks it. I decide if I bet high he’s going to fold, but if I bet weak along with my weak tells he’s going to shove. I figured 3k would be good amount and no sooner then I put down my chips that he calls out loud “ALL IN”. I insta-call him and flip over my AKs and he shows me JJ!! No help for him on river and bye bye Mr. IO.
I take Marie’s advice and go chit chat with my girlfriend that is looking EXTREMELLY board. I don’t think she will ever attend another tournament of mine unless the tournament is at a casino that has a room she can go back to relax.
By now players are very weary of me and are folding to my raises. One hand I had JJ and raised 3xBB. I got one caller. The flop was J9x and I bet my set. The other player which was sitting to my right said “I have a very good hand, but I fear your bets. I fold” and showed me J9. I showed him my JJ to keep them thinking I only play good hands.
I kept up with the blinds by changing my raises from min to crazy amounts. Threw players off and made it sneaky especially since they were all about the 10xBB bet strategy.
This was a deep stack event with 20 min blinds, but as in most deep stack tourneys the blinds are nutty and get skipped. I got blinded down to about 40k at one point when I looked down to find AA on the SB. No limpers at all, the player in mid position moves all in for 28k and I insta-call him. He tells me I got you beat and shows pocket Tens. He quickly changes his mind when he see’s my rockets.
The very next hand I look down and see AA again! Whoot whoot! This time 3 limpers tag along and the same mid position player moves all in for 20k. I contemplate smooth calling it but am weary of all the others coming along like they have been. I raise it to 45k and all the players fold. One of them says show us your junk cards. I show them AA and they are like what? This guy gets all the cards… Flop Axx, turn X, river X. Another player out and I have about 90k.
At this point Marie’s advice comes to mind “when you stack up, walk away and get a smoke”. I am stubborn and don’t listen to her. Soon I am in the BB. Blinds are 1k/2k and I have KTs. 4 limpers in the pot and I just check it. I check the flop and UTG player bets 10k. I re-raise him to 35k and he shoves on me. I don’t put him on AJ because he had raised before with that hand. I call and he turns over KQ. I was over confident that the player didn’t have AJ and not once did I think he had KQ. Again I was blinded by my rush and didn’t walk away….Check! Will do so next time.
Thank you very much Marie and Johan for inviting me to play with you. It was a great experience and can’t wait to do it again.
