Sunday's Live Tourney

Sunday it was the second time me and Selfshine headed to a live tournament organized by T&I Poker. The same tourney we headed to earlier where I ended 7th.

We went inside after Selfshine paid our buyins thanks to saturday's winnings. First thing that became obvious is how popular poker has become in Holland lately. It was about 30 degrees Celcius outside and still 92 people had showed up for the tournament (for you Americans who wonder how many degrees Fahrenheit that is, it's hot). But atleast there was a good working airco.

Offcourse many of the conversations by the players inside were about the subject most poker players don't want to hear about, yet talk about anyways: bad beats. Then again, since most poker players, myself included, know more bad beat stories then comedians know good jokes, I mentioned a few aswell.

On the other hand, some subtlety is needed here aswell. When someone tells you that they lost a flopped quad 8's to a runner-runner straight flush, it's probably very rude to mention to them that it happened to you aswell after flopping quad 9's. It would show no respect.

Or when they flopped quad K's and lost to quad A's? Been there, done that...but it's rude to mention.

Then again, I still haven't played poker long enough to have lost a straight flush to a royal flush. Seen it happen, but still looking forward for it to happen to me. And if it happens on the bubble of a tournament, which means just outside of the price money, I got a bad beat story that will be hard to match. Since the law of probability makes it very unlikely that it won't happen to me if I just play enough hands, I can only hope that it won't be during the World Series of Poker in X years.

The tourney didn't go well for me, and that is only thanks to my own play. First I didn't mind paying quite a bit for my good draws, I also tried to steal many pots when just having middle pair or overcards. With the blinds going up at a nice slow pace, there's no need to be in a hurry at all.

So about two hours after the tourney started I had a stack of about 5000 chips left (I believe we started out with 10k chips) and I limped in with what I thought was 56 suited. On the flop I was against two players, the chip leader with over 20k chips, and someone else. I missed the flop other then a low pair, backdoor straight and flush draw. I bet about 1k chips hoping to take the pot right there, ready to give it up if I didn't.

Chipleader just called, other person folded, and the turn gave me an outside straight draw. I bet again since I was sure that the chipleader atleast had a weak ace, and if I hit I would double up here since my chipstack would not threaten him anymore.

After the turn showed up an 8, which also completed a possible flush of which I were sure that the chipleader wouldn't have it, I bet out again, and the chipleader put me all-in as expected. I called and he turned over a 23. A smaller straight then I thought I had. So I turned over my hand just to see a 4 and a 5 lying infront of me. I had two pair instead of the nut straight I thought I had.

Atleast I didn't go out because of a bad beat, but because of my own stupidity. Next time someone puts me all-in and I think I hold the nuts, I may actually bother to double-check my cards.

All the weight of giving this post a happy ending was resting on the shoulders of Selfshine, who was still in the tourney, and doing well. After the dinner break the cash game had changed into a sit-and-go tourney, which I'm not that familiar with, so I went over to watch him play.

He generally had a very large stack in front of him, only had the nasty habit of losing about half his stack everytime I went to get a drink.

He played great, but there was a time where he suffered some losses and became a relatively small stack at the table where his luck held up. The board came A23, someone bet, a shortstack called, and he went all-in. Both people called, the first one to bet turning over 22 for a set, and the shortstack 56 for a gutshot straight draw. With only 4 outs left, it seemed it was all over, but the river showed a 3 giving Selfshine the bigger fullhouse.

After that his stack only kept growing fast, and he used it well to intimidate the players with less chips (which were all other players at his table after a while).

He reached the final table, and as opposed to last time I were there, the blinds weren't that high yet, so there was plenty of time left to play serious poker. He was slightly in lead with chips compared to the other big stacks, but chose to get involved with many of the smaller stacks succesfully, leading to him getting a huge chiplead over the rest of the table.

After the other players lost their stack, it became a heads-up between him and another player who had a slight chip disadvantage. The other player suggested if Selfshine wanted to make a deal, meaning splitting 50/50. But after getting this far, being the chipleader, and the second prize still being being 950 euros, he only had to think a nano-second before making the logical choice and declining the offer. I would have done the same in this situation.

The other player was very good at playing heads-up. He won most the pots where none of them had good cards, but there was a hand where it almost went wrong for him. He made his standard raise from the small blind, got reraised, and then went all-in. He got called by Selfshine's AK while holding 86s, only to win by a hitting a straight or something.

The final hand was an all-in preflop from both where Selfshine held AQ against AK. Only because this would probably be the deciding hand, the dealer was kind enough to put a queen on the flop but completing a straight for AK aswell.

The final hand


This actually was a profitable day for me aswell. Since me and Selfshine decided we'd partly split the profits from these tourneys (I gave him 100 euros when I won 245 last time) I received 300 euros (which is about 377 dollars).

Results: + $377
Bankroll: $920