I did not get a very good night's sleep. Such was my regret at not progressing further in the £500 main event at the ESOP last night.
105 runners (100, plus alternates who were allowed in during the first 90 minutes - only 5 people knocked out in that timeframe). A lot of very good players - the likes of Nik Persaud and Richard Gryko, Jen Mason and many others. Bad players very thin on the ground.
10,000 chips and 45 minute levels with antes from level 4. This is a quality structure, no question.
I played a very solid game in the early running and kept just a little ahead of the average - no major incidents. Cards were pretty good to me - KK in the very first hand of the event in fact !
Also picked up QQ twice (once getting all in pre-flop against a short-stack who had 7s - held up). KK again, flopping a set (winning no further chips, mind you).
Of course I mixed in a few position raises when the blinds and antes started to move up.
When we reached about half-way in the field (I think there were 56 left in fact, so the average stack was 18,750. Blinds 300/600 with a 50 ante) I had 26,000 so was perfectly happy and looking forward to a strong showing.
Then, disaster ! I pick up AsAh in mid-position. It is folded to me and I make a table-standard raise to 1,700 (1,500 - 1,800 has been the norm).
The button (Michael Greco) and the big blind called. So the pot is 5,900. The flop is T-3-3 rainbow.
Obviously if someone has a three then I am in trouble, but this seems unlikely. So the only hand I have to fear is pocket Tens.
The BB checks, and I decide to bet 3,500. The button folds, and now the BB makes a mini-raise to 7,500.
I paused to think. Although, on reflection, perhaps not for long enough. At the time, my thinking was that the chances of him having a three, or exactly TT are slim. So, more likely he is raising with AT say, or a smaller overpair than mine or perhaps is just raising my apparent continuation bet with some other holding.
I figure that if I call, there will be >20k in the pot with me having about 16.5k left. At the time, I felt that I did not want to be in the situation of calling off the rest on the turn and river, and that I was becoming committed.
I thought the chances he had TT exactly were slim and an all-in at this point by me would not even be a full pot-sized re-raise so I pushed.
He immediately called, so I knew exactly what I was up against and indeed he turned up TT leaving me with just two outs, which never came.
All of a sudden, I'm out (he had me covered by a small amount)! It's clear I am going to lose a chunk of chips in this hand but it is not clear to me in hindsight that I need to go broke.
Of course, when this hand started I'm thinking I have a chance to really move up in the chips (if I had somehow won after being all-in I would have been at least 3rd in chips, maybe the leader).
You obviously run into situations in tournaments where it is destined to end badly, but I have a feeling this was avoidable. I think it is a hand I need to look back at and try to learn some lessons from.
I think I will remain gutted for some time .... I probably won't play another significant tournament before LV.
4 comments:
I don't think you gave away the strength of your hand so putting him on 1010 would be quite a narrowing of the distribution of possible hands. He could have any overpair, or A10, although he might have re-raised you with KK or QQ before the flop.
I don't know what you could have done to save yourself. I still haven't learned when to fold the aces.
The question is: bad luck or bad play? I think it is a bit more of bad luck.
The best time to fold Aces is when they are losing !
It's a cooler imho.
Maybe a better play is to call to let him continue to bluff if indeed that's what he's doing, but I think if you fold AA here when are you ever going to go with a hand? Only with the nuts?
Just bad luck - let's hope it's out of the way now pre-Vegas!
Equally, though, you have to be able to fold AA don't you ?
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