Constant Disappointment

That's what tournaments are about.


Everyone has been telling me what good tournaments the GUKPT events are, and I can now confirm that I agree. I must spoil the end of the story by saying that I didn't make it to day 2, but the process of not getting there was fun.

I met up with Nik Persaud and a few other degenerates for coffee before the 2pm start. "Are you nervous?", Nik asked. I honestly answered "No", but I was concerned about putting in a good performance. I certainly did not want to be donking my way out of the event.

One thing the fans of GUKPT say is that the fields are soft. Well, on my starting table I had Lucy Rokach, John Kabbaj and Ben Grundy as well as at least 3 other experienced players that I recognised. That doesn't count as soft, surely ?

Very long structure in this event - 10,000 chips and a one hour clock - so steady as she goes in the early stages. I picked up a few small pots to be on 11,675 at the end of Level 1 - only 4 players out at this juncture. Then in level 2, the following key hand came up:

Blind 50/100 and I'm on the button with 3d6h. Three players limp, and I make it 450 to play. They all call (the blinds fold). 1,950 in the pot. Flop K-6-3 rainbow. Jackpot ! Checked around to me and I bet 1,300. One fold, then one of the pre-flop callers limit-raised me 1,500 more. Huh ???

I must surely be winning - it seems a stretch for him to have the case pair of 3s or of 6s, and surely he would have made further action pre-flop with KK. Likewise K3, K6 or 63 seem very unlikely to have called the pre-flop raise. AK seems unlikely as well. KQ maybe ?

Assuming he has one pair of some kind, my hand is winning but can be counterfeited. My hand is pretty disguised, but in any event I decide there is enough in the pot to take it down. My opponent had a similar stack to me, and after taking a moment to consider that this could be my whole tournament, I moved in.

Ah, the serenity of being all-in with no further decisions. The dwell was considerable, and I opted for the staring-into-nothingness approach to giving nothing away. As soon as my opponent hesitates I know I am winning. So if he folds, I'm happy, and if he calls, I'm ahead. If he outdraws me, c'est la vie. Eventually he folds, and claims to have had QQ (???).

Up to 16k - a pretty good stack at this stage. From that time on, I continued to try to play pretty tight, with an emphasis on position. A couple of times I let my guard down. I made a bad call with bottom 2pair for 1,500 chips on the river, and another time was re-raised all-in when I bet pre-flop out of position with KJ and made a continuation bet. This saw me down to 12,000 at the end of level 4.

Well, not quite the end. 2 players had already left, thinking we were on the break, but there were actually 7 seconds on the clock when the dealer started the shuffle. So, one more hand.

Countless times, I have done massive damage to my stack just before or just after a break, so I'm thinking I'm just binning medium-strength hands. However, I look down at pocket Queens. OK, I have to play.

I'm in the cut-off and, as I start to consider what to do, the UTG player (a short stack with 2,250 chips) moves all-in. Call or isolate ? If I don't just call, do I raise or shove ?

I decide calling is too risky and I also think I can MAYBE fold the QQ if the big stacks behind me over-push. I make it 5,000 and the others fold. 89-suited for the all-in player. Although he picked up a gutshot by the turn, the Queens are good and I advance to 15,250.

I still struggle to acquire more chips, and I have to lay down AQ to an all-in re-raise. Back to 12k again. However, I make a new high in chips with AK-suited on the big-blind. MP (short stack) player raised to 1,800, called by the button (huge stack). I push. Again, huge dwell until eventually the raiser makes the call with AQ-suited. No change on the board and I'm at 18,600.

Blinds are now 200/400 with a 25 ante so they're starting to bite. This is where it all started to go pear-shaped. In retrospect, I think I failed to properly account for the 3 S's of Poker - Situation, Stacks and Survival.

This kind of level (or the rough equivalent) has been my limit in multi-day tournaments so far - a couple of hours before the end of day 1 when the blinds and antes really kick in. I have just about average chips now but an M of only 10 - 15).

I can certainly survive a reasonable amount of time by folding a lot, but on the other hand I need to keep somewhat active to stay ahead of the blinds and antes.

4 hands in the space of 20 mins saw my demise. In the first spot, I have 18,000 chips and 7's on the button. A loose player in mid-position, made a small raise to 1,000 (200/400-25) which I did not rate as a big hand. Maybe I could call, or even fold, but I think it is too passive and I raise to 2,700 hoping to take it down or see a flop in position.

Now the big blind, who has 30k+ and has not played a hand that I have seen, makes it 8,700.

Foded back to me. Now, I opted to read this bet-raise-reraise as very strong. I think I really can't just call for > 1/3 of my stack and if I felt that if I push then the BB has 2.5:1 to call. So I decide I must fold and and slip back to 15,000.

Maybe I should have pushed. In hindsight, I wonder if the BB can be making a squeeze here. He knows that I know that the MP player is probably not strong, so my raising hand can easily be too weak to call the re-raise. Maybe he sees it that way, and if so my all-in reraise will see him able to fold to my apparent monster?

He claims to have had Aces, but as we know poker players lie all the time.

Shortly afterwards (into Level 7 now) I find pocket nines. UTG player limps, I raise, and now the limper re-raises. In the bin they go. He also claims to have had Aces. Marvellous.

OK. Just a few minutes pass until I find 99 again in UTG+2. A new player in UTG+1 makes it 2,200 (300/600-50).

Maybe I should just pass. The position is not great. However my decision at the time is to play. Again, I do not think I can just call (starting the hand with 13,000 chips). I try to work out what is the right amount to raise to make sure I'm putting a proper decision to the original raiser but still leaving enough behind in case I need to fold. I raise to 6,200.

Back to the raise who moves all in and has me covered.

This is where I think I now make a really bad decision. I really don't want to call off all my chips when presumably the best case is I am slightly ahead of AK/AQ and quite likely facing an over-pair given the UTG+1 raise and the re-raise. I think that 6,800 chips still gives me some chance if I fold.

I fold, and the player shows AK. If I knew he had AK then at this point it's an easy, easy call - I have to all 6,800 into 20,600. It's only now working it out that I see that I should have insta-called. Partly because he needs to have the over-pair far too often to make it a bad call but also because I failed to appreciate that AK (and possibly even some weaker hands) are definitely in his range because HE has realised he needs to get going and take some risks.

It's actually a really terrible fold now I analyse it. I perhaps should have open-folded anyway, and I perhaps should have shoved (the reason I did not do that was in case someone behind me has a monster - but this perhaps is the wrong thing to worry about). But once I make this raise, I must call the re-raise.

Imagine I make the call and win, then I have 27,400 chips and back above average. Even if I call and lose then I made a good call. I need to be a little lucky if I call because it is very unlikely he has an underpair, but I'm going to need to be lucky with 6,800 chips left.


The only good thing is that I realise now just how bad it was to fold here, so perhaps I will avoid this mistake next time.

I managed to advance to 8,650 chips but my last hand came less than 10 minutes later. A loose player in early position raised, called by the button who had many, many chips. I have AK on the big blind. 5,000 in the pot. Easy shove. The button called with TT and I failed to hit.

The moment just after the river when you realise it's over after 8 hours is a very low point.

In time, I hope I will feel able to play again ....