in Poker

Break-out night
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A few months ago, I decided to start playing tourneys with smaller fields and low buy-ins to lower my variance. One of the best options out there are the PokerStars $4 + .40 180-person SNGs. They’re good because they’re cheap, limited to 180 people and they run all the time. I decided to start playing two at a time to keep from getting bored.

Well, it wasn’t long before I took 3rd place in one. Then I got stupid and took some shots at bigger tournaments and re-depleted my bankroll (I’m apparently not a very fast learner). So, last week as my bankroll neared “rock bottom”, I started buckling down and playing the small tourneys and multi-tabling SNGs again. I played 10 or 15 1-table SNGs, then I played a 1500-person, $10 tournament and cashed. Then I took a couple days off. Then last night, I played two $4.40 180-person SNGs on Stars.

About 45 minutes into the tournaments, I was doing really well. I’d gotten up to around 9K chips in one and about 4300 chips in the other (we started with 1500 chips). I was making moves, winning big pots, getting out of the way when I didn’t have the best of it, and generally playing great poker. I sent my friend the following e-mail:

“I don’t know if you’re around, but if you are and you’re bored, you may want to tune in. I’m in a serious zone right now…”

I could just tell it was going to be my night. A little more than four hours later, both tournaments had ended and my results were as follows:

You finished in 2nd place and $144 has been credited to your PokerStars account:

351 hands played and saw flop:
– 23 times out of 66 while in small blind (34%)
– 20 times out of 63 while in big blind (31%)
– 44 times out of 222 in other positions (19%)
– a total of 87 times out of 351 (24%)
Pots won at showdown – 16 out of 30 (53%)
Pots won without showdown – 79

You finished in 2nd place and $144 has been credited to your PokerStars account:

288 hands played and saw flop:
– 15 times out of 49 while in small blind (30%)
– 19 times out of 49 while in big blind (38%)
– 25 times out of 190 in other positions (13%)
– a total of 59 times out of 288 (20%)
Pots won at showdown – 15 out of 19 (78%)
Pots won without showdown – 48

No, that’s not a whole lot of money, but it is a huge ROI and that’s all I was really concerned about. I turned $8.80 into over $280 in four hours. More importantly, I played very, very good poker. I think the most important part of the tournament was when we were on the bubble. When there were about 45 people left (18 spots paid), I noticed that people were tightening up. I decided it was time to start raising and continuing to build my chip stack. Sure enough, when we made the money, I was chip leader in one tournament and 2nd in chips in the other.

In general, I was card dead at both final tables. On one table, I never had a pair and I had AK one time. On the other, I had a few big hands, but most of them were outdrawn (QQ lost to AJ, JJ lost to AJ, AK lost to K9, etc.). In spite of my crummy cards, I played good poker and made it down to heads-up in both tournaments. I played well heads-up (I felt I had a pretty good edge in both matches), but the blinds were so high that we were basically just gambling to see who won. In one match, my opponent started with a 2-to-1 chip lead and I managed to close the gap a bit although I never had any cards. I ended up busting with two over-cards and a gutshot straight draw when I semi-bluff check-raised all-in and ran into his top-pair, top-kicker (it was an 8-high board). After the tournament ended, I re-read the hand history to see if I could’ve done anything differently. The eventual winner had KK three times at the final table (that he showed) and AK a few times also (again, that he showed). He was simply catching cards and I really don’t think there was much I could have done better. In the other match, we were both very short-stacked and we got all the chips in with my AJ vs. his 77. I made trip Jacks, but he made Sevens full.

I think this was a break-out night for me. For more than four hours, I felt like I was completely in control of both tournaments. I was playing my cards well, but I was playing my opponents better. I was able to make good reads and had the courage to follow through with them in several key situations. I was raising without fear on the bubble, but also exercising good judgment when someone played back at me (which didn’t happen often). I made very good mathematical decisions and pulled the trigger on some difficult but timely bluffs.

I think a big contributor to my ability to control the tournaments was my new strategy of making 2.5 BB my standard opening raise. Ultimately, I was able to open more pots than usual, control the pot-size better and, most importantly, manipulate my opponents with minimal risk. The 2.5 BB raise seemed most effective on the bubble, where people aren’t as concerned with bet-size as they are with surviving.

I have a live $55 tournament tonight and I’m feeling very confident that I’ll do well. I’m playing to win, and I’m confident I can.

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