Day 2: $340 Terminator NLHE w/$100 Bounties

I find myself at Table 20, Seat 7 with 5,000 brand new shiny chips in front of me with half hour levels… only one problem… we’re 11 handed. Yeah, fuck you too Crown.

The blinds start at 25/50 and I find myself involved on the very first hand in the SB with effective stacks of 5k

Dealt to SwoopAE: As Qd

Folded to CO
CO calls 50
BTN raises 175 to 225
I call
BB folds
CO folds

Flop: Ks Js 8c

I’m pretty much done with this hand if he fires a reasonable bet since it’s all over his range and i’m behind a low PP anyway so I check.

Villain bets 200. That’s odd. I decide he must have a low PP or a monster and elect to call and lead most turns then give up if I get any further action unless I hit something.

Turn: Ah

Well, that changes things. Leading this card makes no sense so I check.

Villain bets 500. I don’t really like this but I have to call down now since the only hands that should be beating me here are AK, AJ and sets. I elect to call and checkcall most rivers.

River: 9d

The river changes nothing really, so I check with the intention of going with my read since I essentially only beat a bluff or a very badly played AT on this board. Villain bets 1,000. I’m thinking about folding but villain’s mannerisms seem fairly weak so I make an ‘I don’t beat anything other than a bluff but villain could be a spewy retard because it’s live poker’ call.

Villain shows 73 offsuit and I take down a nice pot with my bluffcatcher. Who am I kidding, i’m just a station.

Anyway, i’ve got off to a nice start and i’m up to nearly 7k.

I stay mostly uninvolved for a while, win and lose some small pots raising preflop and then either cbetting or giving up with mixed results and then find myself in another hand at 100/200 with a stack of ~7500. I cover most players at the table, BTN has ~2200 and SB has ~1400.

I find 2d 2h UTG+1 and those of you who have played with me know this is my ‘lucky hand’. I consider mucking since the stack sizes are awkward but we’re 9 handed at the moment so whatever, I raise. I make it 500.

BTN elects to call, leaving ~1700 behind. BTN is a spewy live donk who limpcalls and flats large raises out of position only to checkfold the flop and stuff like that. He’s awful.

In any case, SB elects to go all in for 1400, only 900 on top of my raise. With a bounty worth a third of a buyin on the line and potentially two if BTN calls with the largest stack being 11bb, I snap reshove and BTN tank-folds. LOL, donkaments at BTN flatcalling a quarter of his stack and then folding preflop. Anyway…

Villain turns over Qc Qs and I remain in my seat, calmly telling villain that I have the stone cold nuts and he’s going to the rail. After all, I have my lucky hand and i’m going to run good today. Villain starts yelling ‘HOLD, ONE TIME!’ and stuff like live donks yell when they’re all in.

Flop: Jc 6c 5h

Um, two please?

Turn: 3c

I haz teh gutshot!

Unfortunately, villain has picked up a flush draw so I only have four outs.

I calmly repeat that I have the stone cold and ask the dealer for a two or a four.

River: 4s

Ship it! I make a straight and villain starts cursing at either me or the dealer, it’s hard to tell. He tells his friend on the rail that i’m a ‘fucking donk luckbox’ and I tend to agree. It’s fun being a luckbox though.

I find myself with about 9.5k and then go completely card dead, stealing once per orbit for the next three levels. I raise preflop with Ah 7h at 200/400, get one caller, flop a nut flush draw and open shove. Villain quickly mucks. I play position and win one hand per orbit without seeing a hand better than KcTc (which I folded) for about two hours (only about 6-7 orbits/4levels for live poker) and find myself sitting with 9,000 at the start of 500/1k with the average at 18k. I jam some random hands on the SB two orbits in a row then on the button on the next orbit. I also pick up a pot when SB (a nitty woman named Kim who is apparently good but seems to be a massive nit) limps and I jam some random two cards like Q6 and she folds. I haven’t seen a pocket pair other than 22 yet and my next best hand after the AQ on the first hand was ATo or some rubbish. Still, i’m staying afloat because my table sucks. With no antes though, accumulating is hard so i’m just staying afloat.

Finally, on the last hand of 500/1k, I find Qd Qh in MP. A weak player limps UTG+1 and I raise to 5,000 with a ~10k stack because it’s live poker and he’s going to view that as weak because he’s retarded and i’ve been going all in a lot. It folds around to villain who elects to shove and I quickly call. Villain has Ac 7c and i’m looking good to double up with ~22k in the pot.

Flop: Kc Jc 9h

Well, I never said it was going to be easy.

Turn: 9d

Hold, please.

River: 4h

I somehow hold and climb to 22k, which is close to the average. We’re down to a little under a quarter of the field.

At 600/1200, I find a nice spot to jam over a limper with AJ, he tank-folds and then says he had AQ.

My response to that can be best described by watching Durrrr’s facial expression on the HSP episode when Eastgate just calls Durrrr when Eastgate has A6 and Durrrr has 62 on the 66xxx board. Limp-fold to the 15bb stack is optimal, sir.

I continue stealing blinds on the BTN and CO every orbit and jam every SB into the nitty BB who only has ~12k, he continues to fold.

I eventually find AQ again and jam over a raiser who folds and suddenly I have 37k despite only having gone to showdown three times during the tournament, twice of which was during the first level.

At 800/1600, my friend James raises to 4500 with ~25k on the CO, I say ‘sorry James’ and snap-shove my ~35k with 99 on the SB, BB immediately overcalls for about 17k, much to my disgust. James folds Ah Jh face up and I pray to be up against AK. Sadly, BB has KK and i’m going to need to bink a nine. Suckout again perhaps?

Flop: Q87
Turn: 2
River: 6

I brick out and find myself with ~18k as the blinds go up to 1k/2k. At this point we’re down to about 40 players, with 251 runners and 20 places paid.

I open shove A8o on the button, AQ UTG+1 and 33 UTG over the next orbit without callers to move back to about 27k. Some idiot tank-folds and claims he has AK to my UTG shove. LOL, Donkaments. ‘But I didn’t have a made hand’, he protests, when the table laughs at his perceived nittiness. He didn’t show the hand though so who knows. I fold my blinds and then wake up with Jc Js on the cutoff with about 35 players left and ~24k. Cool. UTG raises to 6,000. Not cool. Fortunately, UTG is a young Asian Gambler Kid™ who is beyond retarded at poker. Example: At 500/1k, he opens 4.5x in MP with AsTs, gets shoved on for 13x, the shove gets overcalled by a guy with 28x, he flats the overcaller, checks the 8x7s6s flop, overcaller jams, he tank calls getting over 5-1 with 13 clean outs after putting half of the effective stacks in preflop, then gets there. Seriously, he flatted a shove and overcaller pre for 60% of the stacks then considered folding once he hit as hard as he could realistically expect to hit. Anyway, for this reason, I know i’m way, way good against his UTG range and I also know he isn’t folding to a 12BB shove after i’ve open shoved 3 of the past 10 hands. I move in, he calls and tables Qh Qd. Of course the idiot has a hand. Anyway, a jack would be nice. Maybe two of them.

Flop: Tc 8c 6d

I pick up some runner-runner draws. It’s a start. How about the nine of clubs on the turn?

Turn: 2s

Well that didn’t help. Jack, please. I’m going to win this tournament. I feel it.

The river… is a king. The paint got me all excited. Oh well.

I head off to the rail with my single bounty chip for a loss of $240 and yet ANOTHER top 20% of the field without cashing finish. I’m getting a lot of those.

I watch James for a while but he loses a big flip with about 30 left and sadly, the remaining members of Team Obnoxious Jerks both fail to cash in the event.

Tomorrow i’m thinking about playing Day 1a of the $550 250k GTD event.

A rundown of today, by the numbers

Tournaments: -$240 (-$340 Buy-in, +$100 cash for bounty)
Cash: $0

Net: -$240

As if I would have two winning days in a row.

I’m feeling good about tomorrow though. I won 1/3 key races today, went to showdown 6 times all tournament (4 AIPF, won 2/4, the AQ hand and a checked down bvb pot which I won) and still accumulated well, ran up a stack twice and just lost the key pots.

I wouldn’t change how I played any hand today, at all, so i’m very happy with my play but disappointed with the result, obviously.

Maybe tomorrow i’ll start my journey towards that huge score. It should be about 60k for the win in tomorrow’s event. That would be nice.

Live poker. Sigh. Gotta win those races… um, I mean 20/80s… whatever.