November 19, 2008

• Day 2 - Venetian Deepstack Series

   

        I played another $340 buy-in Deepstack tournament at the Venetian.  Today I did far far better than the first tourney I played.  Yesterday, I got knocked out in the first hour and a half.  Today, I went really deep and got to the final two tables and ended up getting KO'ed in 15th place out of approximately 300+ players.  My gameplay for this tournament was probably one of my best performances I have ever played.  I surprised myself how well I played and have no regrets on any of my plays, even towards the end when I got knocked out, I wouldn't of played the hands any differently.  I was pretty much chipleader throughout the whole duration of the tournament until the final 3 tables, that is when I caught a slight cold deck and as the levels got higher my stack stayed the same and other player's stacks caught up.  The only problem is that these tournaments are more top-heavy than online tournaments, which is already top-heavy as is, so I ended up cashing for $790 making only $450 profit. while 1st place takes home $24k.  The worst part is, I played for about 12 hrs!!!  This is one of the main reasons I'm more of an online pro than a live pro, I make thousands of dollars more in almost half the time!  The only reason why I do play live is cause I like the experience and practice so that when the big live tournaments, like the WSOP, come around I am experienced enough to hold my own.  In my opinion, there's not much difference in tournament play between live and online as far as gameplay and strategies go.  Live takes more patience since you're not seeing as many hands an hour as online and you are only playing one table at a time.  Physical tells from opponents and you become a factor in decisions.  Keeping track of pot sizes and stack sizes takes more concentration since you have to calculate and gauge them yourself because they aren't automatically calculated and displayed on your table.  Other than that, my betting patterns, starting hand requirements, and tactical strategies are all the same.  There were plenty of key hands in the tournament that attributed to me being chipleader but there is mainly one hand I was very proud of how I played it and according to the other players at my table, was a "world-class professional call down":

  Blinds 800/1600 with 200 ante

  Opponent was a decent player but has been maybe too overly loose preflop, opening the pot with a very wide range of hands and relentlessly aggressive postflop in position.  He has built his stack to around 45k in chips which was second in chips at my table and first in chips being my stack with about 55k.  So we had most of the chips at our table and were close to even in chips.  When you go through the motions of playing this hand in your head keep in mind that my opponent has enough chips to leave me cripped and could have just about any combination of low cards that could connect with the board.

  Preflop:

  Opponent raises from early position to 4200, which he has been doing quite a lot.

  I call on the button with 76.

  Everyone else folds.

  Flop (pot = 12,600):   7 2 3

  Opponent bets 5k

  I call flopping top-pair with a crappy kicker

  Turn (pot = 22,600):  7 2 3 [ T]

  Opponent bets 12k.

  I call.

  River (pot = 26,600):  7 2 3 T [ J]

  Opponent stalls and cuts out some chips from his stack.  With a very confident voice announces "18 thousand".

  I take some time and reassess the texture of the board relative to what he can be holding in his hand.  After a few minutes of thought, I shake my head and mutter "Nope, you don't have it.  I call."

  I announce "I have a pair of 7's" as I flip my hand over.  Opponent stands up and looks across the table at my hand, puts on a disgusted face, shakes his head and mucks.

  Comments:  I played my suited connectors in position for two reasons (1) we have the deepest stacks at our table, and for as aggressive as he is postflop, my implied odds are infinite, (2) I had position on a loose/aggressive player.  To decent players this is a standard play.  I was pretty confident throughout the flop and turn I had the best hand but for pot control didn't want raise risking building a big pot I didn't want to play in.  By the river, his hesitation worried me a little and so does the Jack that fell off.  His river bet was definately small relative to the pot size and definately gives me the right pot odds to call but, it was small enough that it could've passed for a value bet with AJ or AT as well.  By the river, I had him on a range composed of: 55, 44, AK, AQ, AJ, AT,  and Ax suited.  Since he was a decent player I just couldn't imagine him betting a good portion of his stack on the river as a v-bet with any one pair type hand despite him being really aggressive.  I would expect him to give up on most of his bluffs and check the river w/ a one pair type hand.  There was no way he had anything better than one pair, the only real concern is if his leading bets on the flop and turn backed him into a pair of 10's or J's.  I finally decided that even with a pair of 10's or J's he would check the river and the only reason why he would bet was to 3-barrel bluff being his only way for him to win the pot.  I could've asked to see his hand since it was me who called his last bet, but I was pretty confident it was either AK, AQ, or Ax suited.  After winning this pot, he was very rattled and confused on how I could make that call and gave me more respect in later hands.  This hand looks like it's really easy to make the river call since his bet was so small compared to the pot and I did have top pair on the flop but when it's the only player at the table that could take most of your hard-earned chips at stake, it's a lot harder when you're actually going through the motions.

  I'll be playing the same buy-in tournament tomorrow, so we'll see if I can make the final table this time.  I'll keep everyone posted.

   

  • 6:19 am
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