Thinking that we're getting older and wiser, when we're just getting old. David Gilmour
As yesterday was a public holiday, it was the ideal opportunity to play in the 888 Deep Stack Tournament at 10.30 in the morning. I'm working during the week and normally busy doing other things on the weekend, but Queen's Birthday Monday was free. So I cranked up the computer and immediately got a user message: "Please wait just a few seconds while we update the software". I knew what that meant straight away: freeze-out.
So, muttering and cursing under my breath, I went through the now familiar routine. I uninstalled my 888 software, went to the website and started downloading the new version of the program. I knew I'd miss the 10.30 Tourney, but there was another at 12.30. Just after midday I got an error message informing me that the download had failed. Cursing loudly and colourfully, I began the download process all over again. To cut a long and frustrating story short, I eventually got into a tournament at 3.30 pm. The prize pool wasn't anywhere near as good as the Deep Stack Tourney, but at least I got to play. So why do I stick with 888 despite all this crap? More about that later...
Meanwhile I played in a tourney where big pre-flop hands played a large part in my fortunes. First up I put myself at an early disadvantage by forgetting a golden rule that is written in capital letters in my poker notebook on several different pages. With T5 in the big blind I got to see the flop for free. A Ten on the flop gave me top pair. I just called my opposition's small bets on the flop and the turn, then he put in a big bet on the river. There was a possible straight on the board. I called. The golden rule is: IF NORMALLY PASSIVE PLAYERS START RAISING, FOLD. THEY JUST HIT A MONSTER HAND. He had a straight.
I managed to build my stack back up a bit after that, but then I picked up KQ in the small blind. I am seriously considering dropping KQ as an early position starting hand, but in this case I raised three times the blind and got called by one player. Inevitably there was an Ace on the flop, and a Queen, just to keep me from folding. Anyway, the Ace paired on the turn and I convinced myself that that my two pair was good. In the end, most of my chips were in the pot when my opponent showed A7 for trip Aces. Once again I have confirmed my inability to correctly play a paired board. The fact that my opponent made an idiot call is little consolation.
At this stage things were looking grim and with fewer than ten blinds left, I was preparing for an early finish. Then I picked up AK, went all in and, much to my surprise, doubled up. I picked up AK two more times over the next few hands and it came in for me each time. By the time we were approaching the bubble (the last ten players) I had a mid-sized stack. This allowed me to continue playing through the bubble and pick up a few chips from the shorter stacks. By this stage my goal was to continue playing aggressively and set my sights on first place. That's when I hit KQ again.
With 24 blinds I was the third highest stack of six players. I put in a minimum raise and my opponent, with fewer chips than me, re-raised. This should have set off alarm bells. It didn't. I called. The flop was Q J 6, giving me top pair and second kicker. The other player bet 4x blind. What I should have been thinking is this: "With a pre-flop re-raise and now a big bet, he must have something good. I'm in trouble if he has AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AQ, or QJ. In fact the only big hands I can beat are AK, AJ and KJ. Do I really want to risk it?" But what I was actually thinking was: "I've got top pair with a King kicker. The only hand I really need to worry about is AQ. Let's put him to the test". So I went all in and he called and showed pocket Aces.
That move left me crippled with just five blinds left. So I waited to get a halfway decent hand to go all in with. A couple of hands later I went all in with QT and got called by a player with... pocket Aces! That was the end of my tournament, finishing 6/86. Not a bad result considering my own efforts to shoot myself in the foot.
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