FTOPS #4 Shorthanded No-Limit Holdem -- A Suckout Story
16th Nov 2006, 16:43 GMT
Filed under: Bloggers, Tournaments, Online Games, No Limit Texas Hold'em Yeah well the FTOPS started off not with the bang I was hoping for, but more like a whimper. I played great in FTOPS Event #4 last night, the 6-max shorthanded no-limit holdem tournament, even overcoming a terrible suckout for about 60% of my stack in the earlygoing to last well into the second hour. With only about one third of the original 1596-player field left in the event, I sat with about 80% of the average stack after having climbed back from the dregs of the earlier suckout, and then I looked down to see It. The One. The hand that we all hope against hope to get, at least once or twice in a big spot in a poker tournament. American Airlines. Bullets. Rockets. That's right....pocket Aces. I had slowplayed the one other big starting hand I had received in the tournament about an hour earlier, and still did not get paid off with it, so I knew I had to make something of the Aces here and get myself back at or above average to make the run to the cash (the top 170 spots or so paid in this event). I put in a standard 3x preflop raise from the cutoff with my Aces, finding just one caller in the big blind after purposefully trying to look like I was just attempting a blind steal, and knowing full well that my opponent had not missed that aspect of my play. When the flop came out QJ6 rainbow and action was to me, I figured I wanted to play directly upon that idea that I had placed subtly in my opponent's head, that I likely had nothing and was just going for a pot steal here. And acting first, I had just the chance to do that. With 1710 chips in the pot and me basically positive I was well ahead here, I made an impossibly weak-looking bet of 720 chips, the exact same bet I had made preflop, knowing that my opponent would now have to put me on a stone bluff, a draw, or something like that. Without hesitation, he pushed in his 12,000+ chip stack (far more than I had in my own) as a raise, and I had accomplished just what I wanted with the hand. I was about to double up in a very key spot with pocket Aces, not by slowplaying them per se -- remember, I raised it up 3x preflop and also bet out on the flop here -- but by smart-playing them, creating deception and then using that deception directly against my opponent in the hand. I called the allin raise, I flip my Aces, and my opponent flips over....Q9s. Just top pair Queens, with a 9 kicker, against a guy who had raised preflop and then bet on the flop as well. It's a horrible, horrible play by my opponent. But I don't blame him for the move, I take most of the credit for it myself. The fact that he made top pair on this flop was just the straw that broke the camel's back. With the way I played this hand, my opponent and his big stack were probably moving at this flop regardless of what cards he held, and certainly with any piece of the board, maybe with Ace high, etc. So when he actually flopped top pair, his fate was sealed, and we got it all in on the flop, with me more than a 4-to-1 favorite to double up in this key spot in the run for the over $300k prize pool. Until the river card came out, that is. After the Jack paired the turn, I went from a 4-to-1 favorite up to a 19-to-1 favorite to win the hand. He had two Queens left in the deck, and he had to hit one of them or the hand was mine. Two cards in a deck with 47 cards left in it. Two measly cards. A less than 5% chance of winning. And yet there it was, his Queen, and IGH long before my time in FTOPS Event #4. As I said, I played it great, but I guess it just wasn't to be last night. I will still be in the FTOPS HORSE event starting tonight at 9pm ET, as well as pot-limit holdem on Thursday night and razz on Friday. But this one still stings, and it's gonna sting for a little while to come. On a happier note -- not to sound like a broken record with these guys -- but congratulations are in order again to Smokkee and cracknaces, both of whom managed to cash in their second FTOPS tournaments through just the first 4 events of the Series. Chad ended up in the 140s for a few hundy, and Smokkee managed to wade through over 1500 players to extend his incredible hot streak by ending in 69th place overall in the event, netting several hundies in the process for his efforts. These two guys are like machines lately, and they both have a number of quality writeups on their blogs of recent tournament successes, so go check these clowns out and give them the props they clearly deserve. Don't forget about the Mookie tournament tonight at 10pm ET on full tilt. The password as always is "vegas1", and for several weeks now the Mook has easily been the largest gathering of bloggers and non-bloggers alike of its kind every week. And it will also be your next chance to see how I will get sucked out on tonight. Otherwise, feel free to stop by my table in FTOPS Event #5 this evening. But you better get there quick -- I'm thinking 9:30pm ET at the latest or else you risk missing the nightly suckout fest. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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