Despite my delving back into the cash games, I’ve continued to donk around in a couple of tournaments.  I’ve recently played a couple of satellites to both Melb Champs and the ANZPT Melbourne.  I went deep in a couple and then finally the other night I broke through with a win in an ANZPT sat on PokerStars.

After dropping $215 in a satellite on two days earlier, I qualified for this satellite in one of the $8.80 sub-satellites. I don’t remember too much about this sub-sat as it was a turbo, other than I didn’t rebuy at the start, I doubled twice and tripled once before adding on to be top 3 at the break. It was smooth sailing from there as I grabbed a seat for just a $16.80 investment.

The satellite only got 32 starters which was surprisingly low as only 3 ANZPT Melbourne seats would be up for grabs. I managed to build up from $3k stack to $4k pretty quickly, and with a good structure I pretty much sat tight on those chips without too much happening. As we got down to the last two tables, I then went on a mad tear. I picked up pocket aces three times (twice in consecutive hands) and ace-king within one orbit. Not surprisingly I got paid off to storm from a shortish stack to be amongst the leaders. Then as we approached the final table, the following hand came up. It’s pretty sick, yes I was running good, but I’m amazed he didn’t stack off here. Did I misplay it to not get his whole stack?

PokerStars Game #27400553977: Tournament #153770645, $200+$15 Hold’em No Limit – Level VIII (150/300) – 2009/04/23 8:43:43 ET
Table ‘153770645 5’ 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: dufchips (13398 in chips)
Seat 2: grunter321 (11354 in chips)
Seat 3: kyomi (10876 in chips)
Seat 6: A6540 (4236 in chips)
Seat 7: TheBigHef (14756 in chips)
dufchips: posts the ante 25
grunter321: posts the ante 25
kyomi: posts the ante 25
A6540: posts the ante 25
TheBigHef: posts the ante 25
TheBigHef: posts small blind 150
dufchips: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheBigHef [5h 5d]
grunter321: folds
kyomi: folds
A6540: folds
TheBigHef: raises 600 to 900
dufchips: calls 600
*** FLOP *** [2d Qd 8c]
TheBigHef: bets 979
dufchips: calls 979
*** TURN *** [2d Qd 8c] [5s]
TheBigHef: bets 2300
dufchips: calls 2300
*** RIVER *** [2d Qd 8c 5s] [3h]
TheBigHef: bets 4500
dufchips: calls 4500
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TheBigHef: shows [5h 5d] (three of a kind, Fives)
dufchips: mucks hand
TheBigHef collected 17483 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 17483 | Rake 0
Board [2d Qd 8c 5s 3h]
Seat 1: dufchips (big blind) mucked [2c 2h]
Seat 2: grunter321 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: kyomi folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: A6540 (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: TheBigHef (small blind) showed [5h 5d] and won (17483) with three of a kind, Fives

We got to the final table and I was chip leader as Grant “grunter321” Levy warned me he was about to play like a maniac to drop a few of these guys. I LOL’d and stood back with my healthy stack to watch the carnage until I picked up AA UTG and raised. The second biggest stack to my immediate left, and interestingly also from Hobart, three-bet and it folded back to me. I wasn’t going to mess around so I put in a four-bet and did a little jig. He shoved and I called. He showed AK, and I tingled. Dear god, no funny business! The board bricked and I had 40k, and 4x the second biggest stack with 8 players left! Talk about DING!

I sat back with my huge stack and let Grunter do most of the work to eliminate the others. I could’ve raced with him once with AK, against what he later said was pocket jacks, but decided against it. We got down to four-handed with three seats on the line and I still had close to 40k. The short stack had about 10k and open shoved from the button with the blinds at 400-800. I had AJ in the small blind, and although the villian was tight I think I had to make the call as the big stack against the short stack to take a shot at the win. He showed AQ and doubled through. Shit, now things got very interesting.

Suddenly thoughts of yet another bubble flashed through my mind as I’d just blown my chip lead. Tears welled in my eyes. It couldn’t happen, could it? Things continued to go pear-shaped. I raised with TT and had to ditch it as Grunter re-raised, what he later said was another set (blessed). I then opened with AQ and the same short-stack shoved on me again. Four-handed it felt like a call, and I so wanted to bust this guy and end it, but somewhere deep I found a crying fold.

I was now hurting as the seat was slipping away, as I was now one of the shorter stacks. Out of nowhere the same guy then open-shoved for 16k from the small blind into my big blind of 800, and I insta-called with pocket queens. He flipped KJ and I couldn’t watch. The board bricked and it was victory for the good guys. Grunter grabbed a seat also which should help keep him off the streets. It was great to have some of his run good brush off on me, and man it felt good to run like Grunter for a day! Hopefully this time I can convert it into a big score.

It’s over!  The epic battle between good versus evil has gone the way of the good guys with victory in the 10k Challenge over the valiant, but sadly outclassed, Duck.

I had a good evening on Party Poker where I picked up a small win and a final table which put me within $100 of victory.  I kind of wish I’d played on that evening to end it quickly, but unfortunately I slept and the run-bad gods set in to torture me a little more before ending the challenge.

I think I went on to play another 20 or so tournaments without cashing.  I bubbled 6 tournaments in that time with a couple of brutal beats.  The two that stand out were AA vs KK vs QQ, where a Q on the flop was the difference between bubbling and being chip leader with 12 to go and a few G’s for first.  I followed it up later that evening with KT vs K9 on a king-high flop, and watching my opponent make a runner-runner king-high straight-flush. LOL donkaments.

Finally one dreary Monday morning I registered in everything I could find and by 10am I’d clocked another min-cash in the PokerStars $55 100k Guaranteed to tick past the $10k barrier!

Victory!

So what came of this silly challenge and was it worth it?

I collected a net $575 win from Tim for the side bet – $250 for the win, $100 for the best live results and $225 for final table bonuses.  However if you look at my actual results, by guestimate puts me at around that same figure down.  I have every tournament tracked, and could do some stats, but I don’t think I’ll worry.  More important is how I’ve actually been playing and whether I’ve been able to improve my game.

I’ve never really ever taken tournaments seriously until this challenge, which was one of the reasons why I agreed to it in the first place.  I was keen to improve my game and concentrate on getting some results.  I think I have achieved that to a degree.

A huge incentive for this was for me to get a major live tournament cash result and I achieved that at the JHDSS.  Tim was a huge favourite to win the live results side bet, especially after he flew out to a big lead early on, so I’m very happy to get this result.  However online I was hoping for better results.  While I think I put in plenty of volume, I didn’t get that big cash result.  Not enough final tables in big tournaments and not enough wins.  While there will be a lot of hit and misses in tournaments, you really need to make sure you get that big cash when the opportunity arises.  Unfortunately I fell short on too many occasions.  I didn’t win the races that mattered and I had some rough luck when deep, so that left me with too many min-cashes and not enough large results.

I felt like I was playing well, so perhaps it’s just variance.  Or perhaps there’s something I need to work on to try and accumulate a bigger stack when entering the money stage of the tournament.

One other positive to come out of the challenge was that I also picked up my first Pot Limit Omaha win.  I followed that up with a couple of other PLO cashes, which was pleasing.  PLO is not a game I’ve studied or thought much about, I only play for fun, but I think there are elements from PLO which can help me improve my Holdem game.

While I feel like I’ve improved, I have discovered how much I hate tournament poker.  There are big highs when you win but a lot of pain in between.  If you’re playing well, most tournaments are probably going to end in a bad beat story, since you’re (hopefully) usually getting your money in good and there are a lot of landmines to get past in these things, so eventually one might go against you.  In a cash game you can reload and continue to punish the bad players.  In tournaments, there is no comeback.  You’re out and you lose your money.  I found that part hard to take, and tilted a lot more at bad beats than I would in a cash game.  Especially when I’ve gone deep. Fprtunately I got through the challenge without breaking any stuff, but the neighbours must think I’m a madman from all the yelling. Or a wifebeater.

So I will be happily going back to my cash games now to grind out some profit.  I don’t know if playing exclusively MTTs is a profitable venture for me and I don’t think I can handle the brutality.  However I’ll still play the odd tournament for fun and hopefully that big score is still within reach.

In regards to the bet itself, Ducky has commented in his blog Tilted Behvaiour that he would change a few things for the next challenge as he was unhappy that many of my cashes were in <100 player tournaments.  Fair enough, however I don’t think much would change.  The rules were set at the start, and I felt that I always had an edge in being able to play more volume online.  I played many <100 player tournaments as it was in the rules.  It allowed me to pick up extra FT bonuses which frankly was just smart as I collected an extra $25 bonus each time.  In fact, when I had a decent lead I probably should’ve played MORE small tournaments to collect more FT bonuses before the challenge ended.  However there was always the threat of Duck collecting a massive score at anytime, and I respected that and was never comfortable with my lead.

Duck also said suggested that the next race be done based on PLB points, and I totally agree with that.  That would restrict it to 100+ player fields, but would allow buy-ins of less than $22. For the record, I would’ve won if this race was based on PLB points also, and I think I would be favourite to beat Duck in such a challenge.

However I won’t be back to defend my title in the next race to 10k, so good luck to anyone who takes part.  It’s just not a profitable or pleasurable use of my time.

I do however still have one tournament goal.  At the start of the race I toyed with the idea of reaching the Australian top 100.  Half way through the race, I thought that was a fantasy.  Now that it’s over, I still think it’s a realistic goal.  I’m in no rush, and if I can play a few majors here and there, I can pick up enough points to get there one day.  More immediately, I have my target set on Tassie’s #1 online ranking!  I’m currently #2 but within striking distance!  Joshua Reid, your ass is mine!

GG Ducky, see you on the cash tables.  Peking duck all round?

So since the JHDSS I’ve been playing plenty of tournaments to try and end this “Race to 10k” once and for all.  Duck landed a nice online score, but I’ve been able to chip away with plenty of small cashes.  I feel like I’ve been playing really well and getting some consistent, deep results, without grabbing a big cash.  My biggest result was 8th/762 in a Full Tilt $26 NLHE which was worth close to US$450, but of course the US$4.5k for first would’ve been a little sweeter and ended this race!

Despite playing well, and being on the verge of a big result, the lack of profit is frustrating.  So I went and donked around in some cash games the other day.  It was all a bit meh, which then turned into tilt, which evolved into full-blown monkey tilt after this hand:



Gross. So after relieving myself of the last cash I had in my TonyG account in a fit of wild rage, I happy returned to the tournament grind with renewed focus and tolerance.

After a couple of final tables, including some miraculous PLO results, I have a nice little break on Ducky.  I know he’s capable of landing a 5k score at any time, so I’ve got to keep the foot down and get this final $1.5k asap.

Current Standings:
thkcduckworth: $5,756.37
TassieDevil: $8,513.39

Final Table Bonuses:
thkcduckworth: $25
TassieDevil: $175