Before I can tell you how my Sunday lesson came about let me tell you about my Saturday. I had spent the entire day grinding out 3 mtt's like no body's business. I had some solid finishes in them and if not for some bad luck or no luck I would most likely have shipped them. Was a fun ride and my strategy and game play works. I take advantage of weak play, play back from the blinds, 3bet for power, 3bet to get info, 3bet for control of the pot, and don't risk my tourney life with a weak hand.... DON'T RISK MY TOURNEY LIFE WITH A WEAK HAND!!
I mean this strategy works. I have proven to grind it deep in an MTT as of late with very good success. Saturday I made it deep in all 3 while only getting a pair of Aces and one pair of Kings. Obviously, the opponents folded to my raises and I just got the blinds. It can be done. You can win a tournament with out getting the big pairs. Play the player and do what they aren't willing to do.
So move to Sunday and it started out just like any other poker day and was feeling the emotional high about Saturday. I can't be out played, I didn't get any luck on Saturday and ran deep. The only way I can get knocked out is by getting UL and rivered by some bs hands.... see whats coming next?
Played about 10 mtt's yesterday and yeah, you guessed it I got beat every which way by runner runner Turn-River cards. I mean, my sets got blown up by over sets, my trips by bigger trips, my straights by boats, my flushes by bigger flushes, and the sweetest one my Flopped Aces full of Tens by runner runner Ten's for QUADS!! So it was bad but on the bright side I hit my monthly allocations of bad beats in 1 day. So its down hill from here on right? lets hope so.So I decided that my bad luck was due to the fact I was playing weak fields and they got lucky. There fore I wanted to test my skill with the big boys. I tend to do this from time to time to kind of guage where I am at, especially after a good week. I have never done this while on tilt or in the midst of a bad day. I tell my self I am way bigger then a bad beat. It won't bring me down even after a horrendous day where the Bad Beat monster dominated me.
I set of to play in the 40K Guarantee. Its a $75 buy in MTT where all the online grinders play. Its their Bank roll builder that allows them to give it back on the Sunday's to the rake gods. Even at this level of buy in poker is poker. Yeah they don't call on a whim but instead they will re-raise you a bit more. In either case I shot to the top of the leader board with in the first couple of levels. Yes! I was sitting at number 1 with a 2-1 chip lead over 2nd place. I was 3betting and outplaying them and there was no difference then any other game. I loosened up at times and made what seemed to be a bad call on a short stack. I had about 32k and raised from the button to 2k, Big blind moved all in for 6k, so it was 4k more for me to call so I insta-called with K4o! BB shows Ad9d... Flop 4h4dTd! whooot but oh oh... Turn another diamond and my "I'm a bad ass" feeling was short lived lol But it put everyone on notice that I was crazy & would snap call their short stacks.
Now to the good part... I was able to grind away and regain those chips that I lost and then some. It was about 20 players away from the money. I was top 10 in the standings, I had great control of my table, used wise judgment and never... NEVER risked my tourney life with a bad hand till.... yeah...
I'm sitting in the Small blind with about 35k and the Button raises to 4k. He has about 14k and I know he's just trying to steal so I figured I move all in on him with my AdJdsoooooted. So I move that lever over to the all in and click it as fast as I could. No sooner then I do that it hit me... 1. The big blind has 300 more chips then I do, and 2. I don't know a single thing about him. He just moved to my table. Fuck, I say to my self, and sure enough he calls my raise. The Button insta-folds, and the BB shows a HUGE pair of 8's!!! WOW! Risks most of his chips with that hand. What a dumb... Flop KsXX... that has to be the worst... Turn 9s... COME ON AJAJAJAJAJ River 3! I am out! That was the most AWESOME CALL I have ever seen. Well to me it was since I normally don't play at those levels. Hell I've seen it in a $5 game and even done so myself, but to do it in a $75 game with 20 players or so from the money is that much better. Yes, I messed up. I broke my own rule DON'T RISK MY TOURNEY LIFE WITH A WEAK HAND!! and I paid for it. But I have to give "IAMADONKASSMOTHA" for making the right call. ;)
I had played a very good game up until that point. It has been weeks since I've done a bone head play like that. Had the Big blind been short stacked as well then yes its a good play, but not if they can bust you out of tourney. I normally take my time when making a decision. I let that timer go whether I am going to fold, call, or raise. I didn't do that this time. I played it like a nub is way worse then a noob!
So if I can do what I know I have to do I can see myself shipping this MTT or the next soon.
Angel 'gijoe' Valdez
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