Big Game Blunders

I am still mad at myself. It took me about an hour to fall asleep trying to figure out what was going through my head when I made that donkerific call heads-up in MiamiDon's Big Game last night.

Let's start with some background. I have been trying to get Ironman status on Full Tilt Poker this month. This is something I have not tried in the past, basically because I can't put enough time into chasing the required points. But for some reason I have abandoned my other challenges and decided to try this. I've been playing limit hold'em $1/$2 and doing quite well when I stupidly decided to switch to $2/$4 and went on a seriously bad streak. I wish I had time to go over my Poker Tracker DB to see how many flushes win on Flush Tilt Poker, but I can guesstimate that it is a lot. More than normal distribution for sure.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I found myself on the brink of elimination. I went back down to $1/$2 and tried to recollect myself. I actually started making up some ground but then decided to play the FTOPS #3 $75 satellite and the nightly $25K (both in which I played soooo poorly and busted out). At least I outlasted two time bracelet winner E-Fro. Whatever.

Coming into Sunday I had a total of $100 left in my account. I wanted to play in the Don's Big Game but was not sure I wanted to put all my money into one game. I decided to see how my limit luck was running and opened up two tables of $1/$2 with $50 on each. Very quickly I was down in the dumps. Just brutal beats. BB vs SB - QQ vs KK, both making sets on the flop, etc. On one table I was down to $4 and the other down to about $30, so it was not looking very promising for the Big Game. I then decided to hunker down and tighten up and see what I can salvage. This is how the session looked:



I actually went from $4 to $58 on one table and to about break-even on the other. Just in time for the game. I saw there were about 17 people signed up and top 3 paid out and decided to try my luck against a small field of tough players. There is no other way to get better than to test your skills against the best. We ended up with a field of 19 with some of my heroes in the field (hoyazo, lucko, SNG Machine, etc.) - some of these guys have HUGE cashes in the recent past.

I played so tight it hurt. The whole table was super tight and there was not a lot of action, even with the double stacks. I managed to lose some chips to mad aggression from CC and his new partner Katitude. I was leaking chips and needed to make a stand. I got 99 in the cut-off and TripJax had raised 2.5xBB in front of me. I decided to put in a serious raise to 360. Trip re-raised me to 540 and at this point I figured I was behind, but called because of the implied odds and since I already had about 1/4 of my stack in the pot. The flop was Q88 and after about a split second TripJax went all in for his remaining 1540. I had about 5 chips more and thought about it for a few moments. If he has an 8 or a Q he does not shove. If he has an overpair he does not shove. So I'm thinking he has none of the following hands: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, AQ, KQ, QJ, A8. My best guess was that he had AK and try to muscle me out, so I called and indeed he had AK and my 99 held up to take it down and knock out the first player from the tournament.

The table broke up and we got seated in two tables. This was another tough table and CC was just murdering me (and the others) with his all-in or fold technique (not sure this qualifies as a technique, but since it worked I guess I will call it that). He got himself in trouble and was pretty shortstacked when he pushed with KQ vs AK and got his Q on the flop.

I was able to chip up with some positional aggression and took the chip lead. From this point I was never below the top 4 in chips. Don and CC tangled in a big hand where CC made a set of Qs on the river and Don had a flush with 54 suited. I stayed out of the way most of the time until I got in a battle of the blinds with Don that turned into this:



I made it to the final table 3rd in chips behind Don and lucko. Hoyazo and CC where close behind, so I figured this is going to be a very aggressive table. I had lucko to my right and hoy to my left and I was going to take my time and not make any stupid mistakes. When we were down to 4 in the second break we brokered a deal where 4th gets his buy-in back (50%, 30%, 20 from the top 3). This made everyone happy, especially me since I was the short stack. I displayed some bravado and said it didn't matter since I am taking the whole thing down anyway. Soon after that hoyazo was eliminated by CC when the got it all-in pre-flop with K9 vs AK. I was surprised that hoyazo made that move but happy to be in the money. Don was getting upset about the all-in pre-flop action that was going on and wanted to play some real poker. I agreed with Don about the push-monkey plays, but I had to hit back at CC at some point. I soon had my chance.

The first hand we battled was my 10s vs his 6s which I won. The second hand was even better. I went in with AQs vs his KQo (I remembered he likes this hand but I had the Q covered this time) and doubled up. We were all pretty close in chips and decided to chop so that we each got $400 and played for the extra $111. Then I got my chance to knock CC out. I got 22 in the SB with the blinds at 500/1000/125 and raised to 3500 and CC called. I flopped a boat with 2s full of Ks and checked the flop. He checked behind me and I was really hoping he got a piece of it and was trying to trap me. The turn was a Jd putting two diamonds on the board and I checked again. My only fear was that CC was playing what others said is his favorite hand KJ and I was toast, but I figure he would have re-raised me pre-flop with that hand. He made a small bet of about a 1/5 of the pot and I called. The river was a harmless 4 and I went ahead and bet 6K into the 10K pot hoping for a call. Instead he pushed and I insta-called. He showed KT and I since I had him covered I got to knock him out and take a 2-1 chip lead heads up with Don.



This is where the blunders started. I started out solid and was able to chip up and take an almost 3-1 lead but I'm not sure what was going on in my head when I made one of the dumbest plays in my short poker career. The blinds were still 500/1000 and holding 72s I got raised to 3000 and decided to put in a big re-raise to 9000. Don thought for a second and pushed for a total of 20K. I was getting 3-1 to call and 2-1 to win and take it down and I decided to call. MISTAKE!!! I should not have even been in the hand to begin with. Next hand I managed to double up when Don went after a diamond draw and I had made a middle pair on the flop. I was back in the lead.

The next mistake was when Don called on the button and I had AhKs. I raised and he called. The flop was 97Q with two spades and I bet about 2/3 of the pot and Don re-raised me double my bet. This is where I should have given up on the hand, but once again for no apparent reason I called. I should have noticed that Don was pretty much pot committed at that point so that should have been an easy fold right there. The turn was a 3 and Don went all-in, I called and he showed a beautifully played pair of Aces. I was crushed and other than one lucky double up that was it. The final hand I raised with A5o and got re-raised. I called and saw his Jacks and that was that:





So, to sum it up - 2 big mistakes cost me the top spot. Don played very well and I especially liked that slowplay with the Aces. I ended up taking 2nd for a second time in a row playing in the Big Game (which is now a monthly event). The first time I played I took second to lucko. Out of 257 hands I never once got AA, KK or JJ. I did manage to get two QQ and a few AK and AQ hands but did not make any money on them. I won the most chips with T9o which I got two times when we were down to three players. One was a big bluff against CC and the other was Don's missed flush draw heads-up.

I had a blast and I want to thank MiamiDon again for setting this game up. I know I have a lot to learn but I feel that playing with these guys I get to see a lot of moves and plays I probably won't see in the massive donkfests on PS and FTP.