Getting The Cake

I was satisfied with my play in the Sunday tournaments. On pokerstars I concentrated only on the low buy-in events and cashed in one, although only at the bottom end of the money scale.

Meanwhile, I decided at the last moment to play the $100K guarantee on gutshot - that's a $162 buyin which somewhat conflicts with my recent policy of playing the ~ $10-20 level events.

However, there has been much discussion lately on the gutshot forum about the very low standard of play, so I thought I'd give it a spin especially as I had enjoyed a couple of much better days at the cash PLO online (gutshot).

I cashed in the event and I also cashed in a $10+bounties that was running there at the same time. I was happy with as some evidence that I am becoming more disciplined in tournaments.

Last night (Monday), there was a satellite to the London Poker Masters running. This was pretty much like a forum game, so I elected to play. I certainly intend to play the main event (March 7th/8th) so if I can win my seat then so much the better.

It didn't seem to be my night when - in the first 2 rounds - I flopped a set of only to get it on on the flop against a played with T3o who rivered a straight and also got it all in with KQ vs TJ, flopped top pair and then lost to runner-runner straight !

To be fair, it was an $8 rebuy and in the first case the flop was 245, so the T3 had an open-ender plus an overcard. In the second case, I was only a 2-1 favourite pre-flop. Still, it didn't look good !

Likewise when I decided to have a crack at the nightly $20k guarantee ($30 rebuy) it seemed that it was destined to just be a money-sink. However, with a couple of double ups (finally) just before the start of the freezeout, I was in the running.

Back in the satellite, there turned out to be 4 tickets to the monthly final - I bagged one of those with a couple of well-timed "booms" - the turning point was probably when I raised with K5 and was called by AQ. I hit 2 pair on the flop and bet small, hoping to get check-raised. Mike Khan shoved on the turn which put a third high spade on board. I decided he most likely had a pair and a flush draw, and so it was. Unlucky for him as I would have to fold most hands here.

In the rebuy event, we moved towards the bubble at 40th place and I was starting to get lowish in chips when a key turning point saw me pick up Aces. A rather poor player in early position limped (600/1200 with 100 ante) and as I contemplated how to play the hand, a short stack moved all in for about 3,000. I opted for a raise to 7,000 which was called by the limper.

The flop was Q88 with 2 diamonds. The limp/caller opened for 3,600 and I shoved for about 9,000 more which we called with AQ. The all in player had JJ. Suddenly, I am top10 in chips and almost guaranteed to at least make the money.

It turned out to be better than that as I stuck to my game plan and made it to the final table. My approach was to open a lot of pots with a wide range of holdings, but fold to aggression. Meanwhile, when I had a big hand, I made the same kind of opening bet (a little over 2BB) and was ready to seize on the re-raise.

As the game wore on, my main tactic shifted to the re-raise all in pre flop: with decent holding like 77, 99, AQ etc. I knew most of the remaining players were good players, so I knew they would not be able to call me with all but the very best hands.

When I won a race with KT vs 88 in the last 5 (got caught slightly pushing with KT from the cutoff) and then had AA and snapped off a resteal from JT, I was in a near-tie for the chip lead.

Perhaps I could have made some adjustments at this stage but as it was I got involved in some pots with the chip leader and lost ground without getting to showdown.

3-handed, I now had a shove-or-fold stack and was fairly quickly caught out when shoving Q5 into TT - another ten on the flop pretty much ended it !

Still, 3rd/240 for $2,320 was a good result - my personal best in this tournament.

It brings me into positive territory in 3 of my 4 categories - I am tracking live & online cash & mtts separately and my goal is to be breakeven+ in all of them.

The problem child is of course online cash ! Having said that, I have gone a long way to repairing the damage caused by a couple of big tilt-sessions so as things stand at the moment, I remain in positive territory for the year. Fingers crossed.