I played the rather fancily named Leprechaun "European Poker open" over the weekend. It was a €200+20 event which got 139 people in total and I ended up splitting first place for €7k. This is pleasing for all sorts of reasons. It's a great way to end the year. It gets me out of my December hole and I shall be on the Hendon mob making me a real poker player!
Overall I am generally pleased with my play. The field was pretty poor and I felt pretty comfortable for the vast majority of the tournament. I played on day 1A which was the Saturday. For once iPokers incompetence served me well. I wasn't going to play it but because they deleted the tournament and I couldn't unregister for it. I decided just to play it.
Early on things were quiet as tends to be the way with these type of tournaments. There was 1 big pot though early on. I 3bet some French guys button open with 2 black Aces. He called. The flop was J95, 2 hearts on boards. I cbet, he called. Turn was 6 of hearts. I ended up check/folding. I honestly have no idea what was the best play. I think there was around 1.5 times the pot in his stack on the turn. I think I either just b/c or c/f. The problem is I am clueless to his range. Does he bet the Turn with Jx, Jx with a heart? Does he slowplay a set, can he have KK, QQ which he slowplayed from pre-flop? I just didn't know and ended up taking the "safe option" as I was still left with my starting stack on a fairly good table.
I suspect getting it in is better though. This was further backed up when I busted him. He limps in sb after 1 middle position limper. I raise, he limp/raises, I shove with AKs and he snap calls with 98s. GG sir.
The rest of the day I just gradually build my stack up by stealing and generally getting good value of my good hands postflop. I really felt like I had a huge edge post-flop on vast majority of the field and the rare times it got beyond a cbet on the flop I really felt in control and always knew where I stood and could get them to do what I wanted to do. I finished Day 1 with 54,400 chips. That was 37bb and I was in the top half of the field so in a good situation.
Day 2 started off fantastically. "Mad" Marty Wilson got moved to the table 20 minutes in and he doubled me through when he min raised utg, called my button 3 bet with A5 offsuit. He check/called a 742 rainbow flop and donk betted the turn which handily enough was an Ace. I went all in and he took about 2 minutes to call despite getting somewhere around 6-1 on his money, I had AK. It's pretty hard to misplay a hand any worse then he did there. After that I was chip leader with around 150,000. The blinds were 800/1500 so I was in a great spot with around 36 left but I spent the next few hours on the same stack size; never deviating more then 30,000 each way.
A crucial part of the tournament arrived for me as the bubble arrived. 14 people were going to be paid. A deal was proposed where we take 500 of the top and give 250 to 15th and 16th. The problem with this was 16th has just been knocked out. To my amazement everyone seemed happy with the deal; I on the other hand vetoed it as there was no way I was agreeing to pay someone already knocked out. This rather pissed off 2 of the people at my table who started mouthing of to me saying "I need to be thought some manners" or later on saying rather sarcastically "He thinks he is going to win this" The irony of that comment is not lost on me. This led to a much nastier atmosphere at the table and a general feeling that everyone was against me.
Around 20 minutes later the 2 hands that would go a long way to my success occurred. Blinds were 4000/8000 I was on the big blind, Utg who had raised my bb a few times went all in for 56,000. It got called by someone on the button. I had around 160,000 chips. I had A9 of spades. I felt I was ahead of the range of the utg raiser and the button was the type of guy who could fold a medium pair type hand, even something as high as JJ no matter how terrible that would be. Giving the dead money in the middle I felt I didn't need much folding equity to make it work so shoved. He snap called with Aces, utg had T9s. So it was hard to be any more dominated then I was seeing as both of them had each 1 of my cards. Still, not a problem as the flop featured 2 spades and a collective groan around the table as the third spade hit the turn. Everyone started going mental at me saying how terrible it was and so on.
A few minutes after that I had 350,000 chips. I raise otb with 85s. I am raising any 2 as guys in the blinds were particularly tight and thought I was nuts and I didn't think they adjusted well to it at all by not 3 betting me enough and just folding too much. The guy in the bb calls. He was 1 of the people who lets say let his feelings known to me about my vetoing of the deal and how aggressively he thought I was playing. The flop is 877 rainbow. I cbet and he raises all in for most of my stack. My biggest fear was an slowplayed overpair like Aces, Kings trying to trap the aggro young guy. On the other hand there is pretty much nothing else he can have other then that that I lose to. I ended up calling and he had 66 and I held.
I think if I cbet that board that I have to call an all in cause it's really hard to get value out of anything so the only way I can get value is to induce a raise with overcards or whatever. I think checking behind and just pot controlling is also a valid way of playing it and arguably is better considering I felt he was on the tight side. The fact that I felt he could be somewhat after me swayed me towards how I did play it but I am still unsure.
That hand meant the final table was formed and I was the big chip leader with 650,000 chips. Aidan was in 2nd with around 500,000. I felt really good about things and thought unless I got majorly coolered I was definitely getting into the top 3. The final table started off well. I was picking up chips and generally in control.
After around 90 minutes I have around 850,000 chips and momentum is totally with me but that totally got turned around in 2 hands. Blinds are 8000/15,000 with an ante of 1,000. Guy to my right pushes all in on the button for around 240,000. I pick up 77 in the sb. I felt he was a bit tired and tilty and wouldn’t have gone all in with an big pair so I called. He had ATo and hit on the Turn. The very next hand I raise with 33, Ciaran goes all in for about 170,000. He had 3 bet me a good few times so I called. He had 77 and held up. This was a huge turning point as not only had I lost the chip lead and was back in the main pack but Ciaran now had chips to play with and had direct position on me. He then preceded to 3 bet me liberally and made my life really tough. I had to tighten up and also regain my composure.
I played really tight for an hour and another big moment for me occurred. Ciaran got knocked out in fifth. This opened up things right up as it meant I could steal more especially on the button as the blinds were very tight. The guy who I doubled through when he had AT got knocked out in fourth. An hour or so later I got it all in with ATs vs. 77 and hit on the river. This meant Aidan and I were exactly even in chips. We immediately agreed on the deal to split the money after leaving money to the dealers. I definitely think I would have been favourite to win a heads up battle but the blinds were about to go up and it was a little too crapshooty for my liking and I was getting tired so happy with the split.
In terms of my overall play I am most happy with my patience and how I kept my head after I took those 2 big hits at the final table. It can be very easy to compare your situation to what you once had and try to over-extend to reach it and end up blowing your chips. On the downside I still think I wasn’t aggressive enough at times. This would likely amuse some on my opponents who thought I was insane but there was opportunities when I could have raised it up more and didn’t as I kept thinking people have to play back against me. I still give too much credit to people and assume they do what they should do to adjust to me, live players very much don’t do that. My other issue is not thinking through every variable clearly. I think this is a function of online poker and iPoker in particular as you have so little time you almost rely on instinct. I need to use the time advantages live play has to take in more of the information and make better decisions.
Anyway this has turned out to be much longer then I anticipated it to be. It was a great weekend and end of the year for me. It is just what I needed!
