So, after vilifying Hold'em in favour of the more obscure poker variants for the last little while, I decided to visit Poker Stars yesterday and take a crack at a couple of sit-n-go tournaments (hereafter referred to as SNG's, just in case there's a person somewhere on the planet who hasn't heard the term before...). Stars is currently running a promotion called Battle of the Planets, where a player can compete in SNG's each week for a chance for some prizes. I'll save the advertising for Stars themselves, but let's just say that there's a potential overlay for playing some SNG's and leave it at that.
I joined three $5+$0.50 nine-player SNG's, and then, just for kicks, decided to play in one of the $4+$0.40 180-player twenty-table tournaments that start up every few minutes. All games were NLHE, since I don't like playing (translation: I'm not smart enough to play) more than two tables at a time when playing different games. The three single-table SNG's went pretty well, as I finished with a 5th, a 2nd, and a 1st place, which resulted in a $19.50 profit. Ironically, the first one that I finished was the one that I won; the statistics showed that it only went for 53 hands.
In the meantime, the 180-player SNG had gone past the first break, and I was in decent, if not great, shape. I had doubled up with the nut flush vs. a Q-high flush on the fourth hand of the tourney, then added another 1000 chips when my opponent and I each flopped trips, but my AQ outkicked their QT. All was quiet until a short stack and I each got all of our chips in preflop with AQos, and we chopped up the small blind. Almost two hours in, I was under 3000 chips with the blinds at 150/300/25 ante, when I doubled up with JTos vs Q9os. My opponent had limped in late position, and I raised him from the small blind to isolate. He called, and the flop came down AJ8, all clubs. As he had limped initially, I couldn't put him on an Ace. I had the T of clubs, so pushed all-in with second pair and the third nut flush draw (yes, I was desperate). My opponent called with the Q9, which included the Q of clubs, so he had a draw to a Q, any club, or a T for the gutshot straight. I managed to survive his double-draw to 14 outs when the turn and river brought the 4 and 6 of spades, and I was up to a more playable stack of 6400.
After waiting patiently for a couple of orbits, I was dealt AKos on the button, and a short stack went all-in UTG for about 40% of my stack. I raised all-in to isolate, and he won the race with his 33 when the board only paired once and I didn't catch either overcard. Back down to 3000 chips for me, with the blinds now at 200/400/25 ante. I pushed with 66 after one limper, and took down the pot to get back above 4000, and then doubled up a few hands later with AK vs. AT after a board of KJ2JT (no Queen!!!). At the second break, I was slightly above average with a stack of just over 9000 chips, with about 40 runners left and the top 18 getting paid.
I started getting pushy as the table tightened up, even though we weren't really near the bubble yet. I came over the top of an early limper with AJ when an Ace flopped and he min-bet into me. The same player tried raising a few hands later, and then turbo-mucked when I re-popped it with AQ. I then busted a short stack, when we saw a flop of KJx and my KJ held up against his AK. Within short order, I had moved from an average stack to 20k in chips, and into third chip position at my table (about 8th overall).
Next came a huge hand; I was in late position with QJc, and when UTG went all-in for 45 more than the BB, it encouraged 4 of us to see the flop of KT9 rainbow, which gave me the nuts. A player in middle position bet 2400 into the 4000-chip pot, and instead of calling and trapping, I got impatient and pushed all-in for another 15000. The bettor called with KT, but missed his 4 outs when the board bricked, and I was now at almost 40k, the chip leader at the table and second overall.
Hereabouts I tried to be the sheriff when a couple of very short stacks pushed, but my JJ lost to A2 and A5, who carved up the pot after the river Ace. We were now past the bubble, and the play started loosening up again. I busted a short stack with AK vs. AT, then folded a lot of hands, and suddenly we were at the final table.
I was second in chips with 47k, with the average at 30k. Here I went card-dead, and only saw one flop until we hit the third break. We were now 5 players, with one monster stack (130k, he had busted all four players and had almost half of the chips in play), and the rest of us between 27k and 44k, with blinds going up to 800/1600/150 ante. I tried raising UTG with 66, but laid it down when someone else jammed. I got those chips back with 87 in the BB, when I raised the bettor all-in on a rainbow flop of 743 and he mucked. There was not a single hand during this period where the BB got a walk - every pot was raised pre-flop, and about a third were re-raised. Despite this, we went a few orbits without any substantial change in the stacks. Then I was dealt 55 UTG, and decided to muck it rather than give up chips to a re-raise that I wouldn't be able to call. I was congratulating myself for this play when the chip leader raised and another 40k stack pushed and was called. Their hands were a bit surprising; A9 for the all-in and A4s for the chip-leader, and the all-in survived after a board of T635K. Yes, my 5's looked pretty good at that point, but there was no way I was going to give two players action with them pre-flop. This boosted my confidence, as I thought that both players seemed to be a bit desperate, and for the first time I thought that I might be able to outplay them.
A few hands later, I raised UTG with QJos, and was called by the new chip leader (who was being very, very aggressive with his stack) in the big blind. We checked the 875 flop, and I called his all-in bet when the Jd came on the turn. He turned over A3d for the nut flush draw and an overcard, but the Ten of hearts on the river doubled me up to 80k, and put me in the chip lead by a few thousand. On the very next hand, UTG raised and I re-raised from the BB with 44. He called, and we saw a flop of 532. I pushed with the pair and open-ended straight draw, and he insta-called with 88. I still had 32k behind, but that was a moot point when the beautiful 6 landed on the river, and I took down the 100k pot and eliminated a player.
Four-handed, we played a couple of levels without any real change to the situation; I still had about half of the chips in play, and the other stacks were fairly balanced. There were only a couple of showdowns during this time, and the aggression level was still high. I tried being sheriff twice again against the shortest stack, but doubled him up each time when his hands held up. This seemed about to happen yet again, when we got it all-in preflop. His A8 dominated my A4, so I prepared to be down to about 100k in chips. This time, however, I sucked out and found a 4 on the river, and we were three-handed, with me having 65% of the chips in play.
Three hands later, I busted the shortest stack with QTs vs J8s when he made a move and we both whiffed the board. So, onto heads-up play, with a 4-1 chip lead. Two hands in, my opponent moved almost all-in (2k left behind), and I had an auto-push with AcJs. He turned over 5d5s, and the board paired my Ace on the AQ2 of hearts flop. The turn was the 9 of hearts, putting a 4-flush on board. Neither of us had a heart in our hand, therefore he would win on a one-outer (the 5 of clubs), and we would split the pot on any heart. These ten outs missed when the river came the 2s, and I had finished in first place for the first time in a 180-player SNG (click image to enlarge):
Needless to say, I was pretty pleased with this tournament, and was surprised by how easy it had seemed in retrospect. After a day's reflection, I am still happy with my play, and even though I was lucky a couple of times, I still wouldn't change very much about how I played the hands. This was a very nice bankroll boost for me as well, so perhaps I'll consider playing in some tournaments in the $10 range in the near future (like Saturday with Dr. Pauly, if I can clear it with the wife... :0) For the statistically-minded, here are the stats that I requested from Poker Stars after the tourney :
300 hands played and saw flop:
- 5 times out of 45 while in small blind (11%)
- 17 times out of 47 while in big blind (36%)
- 22 times out of 208 in other positions (11%)
- a total of 44 times out of 300 (15%)
Pots won at showdown - 17 out of 24 (71%)
Pots won without showdown - 31
So, I voluntarily saw 11% of the flops (not in the blinds), and won a very high percentage of showdowns. The majority of the non-showdown pots won occurred when we were approaching the bubble, and at the final table when we were trading raises. Tight-aggressive seems to be the way to play these things, along with a good dose of luck in the right places, of course.
Thanks for reading, and take care!
1 comment:
Very nice! Congrats!
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