Sometimes I suck...

A former student of mine wanted to back me into the Sunday Million today... I've done ok with people backing me in the past so I decided to go ahead and do it. I busted with about 1/2 the field gone after an up and down beginning... the key hand, in hindsight, was a mistake. Initially I analyzed it as just being unfortunate timing but in hindsight I think the better play would have been to call pre-flop and lead out on the flop. Here's the hand:

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Seat 1: ShankingYou (10800 in chips)
Seat 2: GoldGame (15175 in chips)
Seat 3: Pilu1978 (11700 in chips)
Seat 4: joetrapper (21295 in chips)
Seat 5: He_simply (42275 in chips)
Seat 6: ME (23100 in chips)
Seat 7: Great Baisen (13200 in chips)
Seat 8: finalvision (9964 in chips)
Seat 9: tucisloose (11986 in chips)
He_simply: posts small blind 300
ME: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [Ac Qh]
Great Baisen: folds
finalvision: folds
tucisloose: folds
ShankingYou: folds
GoldGame: raises 1800 to 2400

Gold had not been completely out of line over the course of the tournament but he was definitely a liberal user of the Gap Concept. As such I thought his range of hands included small pairs, smaller aces then mine, and dominated hands like KQ, QJ.

Pilu1978: folds
joetrapper: folds
He_simply: folds

He has 12.7 left after his raise, definitely enough to fold, so I do have folding equity. I don't like calling out of position because then what do I do if I miss the flop (as I said, looking back at it now, this would have been a better play because he'd been fairly solid post-flop... I made his decision easy for him)... definitely can't just make a regular re-raise because if he pushes, I have to call. An argument can be made for folding but given the fact that the hand is heads up and the action has been fairly normal, I think that would be playing too tight. So I push... he thinks for a bit but finally makes the correct call (if you have AK in his place you HAVE to call).

ME: raises 20700 to 23100 and is all-in
GoldGame: calls 12775 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [2d 9s 6d]

See if I had just called and led out on the flop, I very likely would have won the hand if he is not one of those overvalue AK idiots.

*** TURN *** [2d 9s 6d] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [2d 9s 6d Ts] [9c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ME: shows [Ac Qh] (a pair of Nines)
GoldGame: shows [Ad Kc] (a pair of Nines - Ace+King kicker)
GoldGame collected 30650 from pot

Lost with 9's a bit later and that was that. I'm usually my harshest critic... was not happy with the end of my tournament because there was no reason to put myself in a position to cripple myself. I could have called and risked another 2500 on the flop instead of an additional 12K.

That being said my tournament wasn't ALL bad... I had put myself in decent position with a couple of key hands... I never had a pair bigger then tens the entire tournament. Here are a few of them:

Seat 1: Pickles7 (9500 in chips)
Seat 2: GoldGame (12425 in chips)
Seat 3: Pilu1978 (12650 in chips)
Seat 4: Sooners (4725 in chips)
Seat 5: jc_bluej (11725 in chips)
Seat 6: ME (8875 in chips)
Seat 7: Great Baisen (13575 in chips)
Seat 8: finalvision (9700 in chips)
Seat 9: Pokerpablo7 (6825 in chips)
finalvision: posts small blind 50
Pokerpablo7: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [Jh Th]
Pickles7: folds
GoldGame: folds
Pilu1978: folds
Sooners: folds
jc_bluej: folds
ME: raises 200 to 300

Pretty standard play for me.

Great Baisen is disconnected
Great Baisen is connected
Great Baisen: calls 300
finalvision: folds
Pokerpablo7: calls 200

Not necessarily the result I wanted... Great has been very loose and called me down earlier with nothing but a draw and hit a weak pair on the river and called with it to win the pot (I was bluffing... I don't typically bluff calling stations but I didn't know at the time that's what he was)

*** FLOP *** [8c 9h Ac]
Pokerpablo7: checks
ME: checks

Not a terrible flop for me but I decide to see if I can get a free card or at least an inexpensive card... the last thing I want to do is bet and get forced off of my draw with a big raise. I think many people make this mistake of betting automatically if they raised pre-flop when they hit a draw.

Great Baisen: bets 500
Pokerpablo7: folds
ME: calls 500

I can call that, especially against him since I think I have great implied value.
*** TURN *** [8c 9h Ac] [7s]
ME: checks

Bingo, gonna go for ye olde check raise.

Great Baisen: bets 1000

Thank you for cooperating. Now I want to make a bet that I think he will call... I think a bigger one will look more like a bluff then a smaller one, and I want to set up the all in river bet by relatively committing myself with my turn bet. Normally I'd raise 2000 to 3000 but I up it a little more against this guy because I think he'll call.

ME: raises 3000 to 4000
Great Baisen: calls 3000

I know he's not folding the river now... the rest is going in.
*** RIVER *** [8c 9h Ac 7s] [2c]
ME: bets 4075 and is all-in
Great Baisen: calls 4075
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ME: shows [Jh Th] (a straight, Seven to Jack)
Great Baisen: shows [As Ks] (a pair of Aces)
ME collected 18100 from pot

Great obviously should have folded on the turn to the check raise, but some people just can't get over top pair, top kicker. Those players are the bread and butter... the ones that pay my bills.

Seat 1: ShankingYou (14045 in chips)
Seat 2: GoldGame (14175 in chips)
Seat 3: Pilu1978 (20125 in chips)
Seat 4: joetrapper (16325 in chips)
Seat 5: jc_bluej (9100 in chips)
Seat 6: ME (9900 in chips)
Seat 7: Great Baisen (15800 in chips)
Seat 8: finalvision (10264 in chips)
Seat 9: tucisloose (19186 in chips)
ME: posts small blind 200
Great Baisen: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [6h 6d]
finalvision: folds
tucisloose: folds
ShankingYou: folds
GoldGame: folds
Pilu1978: folds
joetrapper: raises 800 to 1200
jc_bluej: folds

I'd lost a pretty big pot earlier to joe (took 1/2 my stack) with AQ against AK on a A65A2 board. He was very active... raised a lot first to act and bet the flop anytime someone checked to him. Many players would push all in here, but I wanted to give him the opportunity to bluff the flop and was willing to take the chance. Obviously if the board comes AKJ, I fold, but if he has a hand that fits that board he's not going to fold pre-flop anyway.

ME: calls 1000
Great Baisen: folds
*** FLOP *** [2c 7h 4d]
ME: checks
joetrapper: bets 1600

Got the flop I wanted and the bet I wanted. I remember with the AK vs AQ hand that he continued to be aggressive after I called him on the flop, so I decide to take a different line here and give him an opportunity to make one more bet on the turn.
ME: calls 1600
*** TURN *** [2c 7h 4d] [7d]
ME: checks
joetrapper: bets 4000

This is tough. A good card for my hand but I'm not sure I have any folding equity here... still I think I have the best hand so I gotta go with it.

ME: raises 3100 to 7100 and is all-in
joetrapper: folds

Personally I think if you're gonna bet 4K here, you might as well bet 7100. I really can't see folding here... if he has two overs he has 6 outs or about 6:1 to improve and is getting nearly 5:1 with no threat of an additional bet on the river. But to each their own I suppose.

ME collected 14000 from pot

Joe wins a pretty big pot off of me later in this hand:

Seat 1: ShankingYou (11900 in chips)
Seat 2: GoldGame (13775 in chips)
Seat 3: Pilu1978 (9600 in chips)
Seat 4: joetrapper (25595 in chips)
Seat 5: jc_bluej (12900 in chips)
Seat 6: ME (17100 in chips)
Seat 7: Great Baisen (14400 in chips)
Seat 8: finalvision (10864 in chips)
Seat 9: tucisloose (12786 in chips)
ShankingYou: posts small blind 200
GoldGame: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [Ts Th]
Pilu1978: folds
joetrapper: raises 400 to 800
jc_bluej: folds
ME: calls 800

I know he's weak... he raises more with his better hands, so I just call here because like the previous hand I feel like I can outplay him post-flop.

Great Baisen: folds
finalvision: folds
tucisloose: calls 800
ShankingYou: folds
GoldGame: folds
*** FLOP *** [5d 4d 3h]
joetrapper: bets 1200
ME: raises 2800 to 4000
tucisloose: folds
joetrapper: calls 2800

I figure he's on some type of draw here... either has a 6, an ace, or diamonds. Any safe card on the turn and I'm gonna pop it.

*** TURN *** [5d 4d 3h] [2d]
joetrapper: bets 4000

That might very well have been the worst card in the deck that could have come... now any ace or 6 beats me... even if I'm still ahead I don't have any redraws. Maybe I'm the one getting "outplayed" now... but I can't call. Well I can but I'm not going to.

ME: folds

Then shortly before the AQ vs AK crippling hand I get this one... really don't get the JTs call but I was glad to see it. I actually said "shit" when he called until I saw his hand.

Seat 1: ShankingYou (11700 in chips)
Seat 2: GoldGame (15175 in chips)
Seat 3: Pilu1978 (11700 in chips)
Seat 4: joetrapper (30595 in chips)
Seat 5: jc_bluej (10800 in chips)
Seat 6: ME (11400 in chips)
Seat 7: Great Baisen (13800 in chips)
Seat 8: finalvision (10864 in chips)
Seat 9: tucisloose (12886 in chips)
Great Baisen: posts small blind 300
finalvision: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [As Jc]
tucisloose: folds
ShankingYou: folds
GoldGame: folds
Pilu1978: folds
joetrapper: folds
jc_bluej: raises 1800 to 2400
ME: raises 9000 to 11400 and is all-in
Great Baisen: folds
finalvision: folds
jc_bluej: calls 8400 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [Kd 4c 5s]
*** TURN *** [Kd 4c 5s] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [Kd 4c 5s 5h] [9d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jc_bluej: shows [Js Ts] (a pair of Fives)
ME: shows [As Jc] (a pair of Fives - Ace kicker)
ME collected 22500 from pot

On a more positive note, the heads up matches went smooth today. I went 9-3 and won the $100 in 4 hours and 16 minutes. In 4 days I am 39-19 and only twice have I lost more then two in a row. There was one match that took 55 minutes... my opponent literally timed down every single hand. Not sure if he was just trying to tilt me or had a terrible internet connection. At one point he had me outchipped 2700 to 300 and I thought about just throwing it all in and moving on to the next one, but since I'd lost the previous one I didn't want to just concede in order to play a $50 heads up match, so I fought back, put up with his annoying time outs, and came back to win. Definitely a testament to how much my game has changed. 5 years ago I would have said fuck it and just gave up.