Tournament Roundup

Mainly composed of more disappointment, really, as expected ! Perhaps I am saving my best results for Vegas.

Last Sunday I played the Pokerstars Sunday Million - direct buy in for $215. Having broken my duck in the event a few weeks ago I feel more comfortable with it. It was going well as I almost trebled up with pocket 3s from the Big Blind. Flop was near-perfect 763 with 2 diamonds. I was facing an UTG raiser and a mid-position caller.

If one (more likely the mid position player) has flopped a higher set, then c'est la vie. I started the ball rolling with a bet on the flop, raised by the initial raiser and called by the other player.

With the diamonds posing some threat, but also allowing me to represent a draw, I pushed all-in at this point (it was only approximately a pot-sized bet by then anyway). The UTG player folded now, but the other called with pocket 9s.

So, in good shape with more than double the average chips, when I picked up Aces and managed to get it all in pre-flop heads-up with one player. He showed Kings, as expected, and I was looking forward to a top-20 position. Sadly, a King flopped on an all-club board. The turn was a club as well giving me some hope of a chop. No club or Ace, unfortunately.

Still, I could have no regrets about that one.

On the following Tuesday I played my first ever PLO tournament at the club in Clerkenwell. I managed to get all my chips in on the flop with the nuts and a draw to a higher straight. Another player came along with the same made hand but no redraw. A third player committed with middle set. As it happened he only had 5 outs on the turn and 8 on the river, but he picked up the case Ten to scoop.

It was a double-chance event so I received a fresh consignment of 3,000 tourney chips only to lose them all flush-over-flush a few flops later. This was against the same player who was hoovering up chips. I should have let that hand go, really, but I thought he may have been playing a rush rather than peddling the nuts.

Last night, the Sunday Million was not running - instead they had a mega-qualifier for the Main Event. I decided to give that a miss. Instead I played the Hundred Grand - went out when UTG player limped then called a big raise against my Aces. On the QT7 rainbow board, he open-pushed and I insta-called. He had Q9-suited (??!!) and picked up runner-runner diamonds to felt me.

Meanwhile in the $10 rebuy I made good progress and made the money easily but once again failed to really go on to make the big returns which are at the final table.

It is noticeable how weak the field are in these large-field MTTs. I am thinking particularly of pokerstars and gutshot since this is where I play, but I daresay it is equally valid elsewhere. It is annoying when your Aces are cracked by 2 undercards as in the Hundred Grand, but of course on another night they hold and you can get a long way in the event by playing solid values in a straightforward fashion.

Tonight, I plan to play the £50 bounty tourney at the club - whilst simultaneously playing the forum league game online (laptop to the rescue). I'm leading the league for the 3rd month out of 5 and even though I can't qualify for a second seat in the final, I want to extend my strong record just for the sake of it really !