Playing Against Donkeys!!

The life of a poker player ME!!! Dhruv Doshi

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Another Final Table at Star City!!

Tuesday night! My brand new car gets hit!!! What a joke, it is only 25 hours old! What are the odds!! This just emphassisisisisisi how unlucky i am!!! OK despite the crash i still decide to go Star City with Guv, I like playing poker live when i'm pissed off because i forget about everything and just see the people the chips and the cards. However this is not the case for online poker!!!

We arrive a bit late and Jambon (STA member check links on the side) buys us in. It was a £10 rebuy with no instant top up, so it was actually a £10 rebuy unlike the £10 rebuys i played over the summer so this was quite a small stake rebuy for me, which was good, meant i could play a little looser and there was still a nice £1200 top prize to play for. For some reason there is a stupid £1500 guarantee on the tounry! With 94 runner its going to be hard not to meet the guarantee but something unusual about Star City's poker tournaments which not many people know about is that it is rake FREE! Every other place either charges 10% entry fee or take 10% out of the prize pool to make money! There is nothing wrong with that after all people who run poker tournaments need to make money themselves otherwise they would not hold them and i would have no where to go when someone smacks into the back of my car!! Also they have a free buffet during the break of every comp, so im starting to like this place a little bit more, the only draw back is that it starts at 930pm! Bit latE!!

Rebuy Period i play quite rocky until my AAs gets cracked by two people. I limped with AAs someone raised and i re raised, GUV and someone else called, flop T T 3 2hearts and we all go in, Guv with nut flush draw and other guy had me drawing to one out with KT in the hole! Oh well REBUY!!!! Again im not going to talk to much about the rebuy period as its not real poker and i see no point in analysis this part of a poker tournament. Although i will mention this hand! I saw there was 20 minutes to end of rebuy and i had 1200 chips, 1000 starting and i was only in for £40 i thought hmmmmmm If this was a £20 rebuy £40 is the minimum! SO lets gamble, next hand i raise to 600 blind! (yes thats right! Tight conservative Dhruv is doing something funny!) i get two callers including Guv who by the way has a 30% share in me again! He has made £470 off me in 2 weeks via deals so far! Flop is 3 random cards. Guv checks and i go all in with my last 600 (still BLind!) Other guy folds and Guv says is my Ace high good, i said i do not know! which is the truth (bit if Jamie Gold there) I then said no matter what happens you will see my hand! which is true again because i wanted to see my cards!! He eventually calls with A5 high!!!! I tell him good call i have not looked! I then say as i look at my cards i have one 7! i have two 7s! ( i sound like an espen commentator!) I have pocket 7s and they hold for a nice pot! I end the rebuy with about 7.2k after the top up which is very health stack and in for £50 which is nice as 10th place was £70, i hate spending more than the 1st place payout, it does not make sense to me otherwise, so if i come 10th i actuall break even after giving Guv his 30% but hopefully he might place!

Now its down to small pot poker with me, like i have mentioned before the players are not good, they do not like to fold so when i bluff i make small bets if they have a piece i get away cheap and if they do not they fold, for example if the pot is 1600 and the blinds 200/400 a 7oo to 800 bet will easily take the pot away. i think if you bluff you want to bet the minimum amout which is large enough to take the pot away, this way if they are trapping or fishing it will cost you very little and as the pot stays small you can bluff the river for cheap if you feel they have missed a draw and if you are wrong its still cheap. Playing this style i took a lot of uncontested pots in the next 3 levels after the break, which is the only time to play poker, after that its all in or fold!

I get moved table which is annoying as i had such a good read of players but just before i move Guv gets all his chips bar 500 (blinds 200/400), MP limps, Guv on the short stack thinks for a while and calls, im in the SB i call with A9 and the BB raises, btw he has not played a hand for 4 orbits so that is about 36 hands! MP folds, and Guv starts to think i immediate put Guv on 88s, Guv is short and i think its worth a 50/50 here with some dead money in the pot and a chance to double up, he pushes allin, i fold and the BB cant get his chips in quick enough, i say '88s' Guv flips 88s and the other guys shows AAs! Not luck for Guv and he down to basically a chip and a chair! But hey still in!!!

New table and there is Mr Loud mouth! Also talking trash but he is such a rock! Its a good tactic as people feel he is in a lot of pots but he is not, he justs talks so much that people feel he is in every pot. Jambon was on this table as well, he looked very frustrated but he had like 10xBB which i feel is plently but its not his style, he likes to get a stack or go busto! He has an awesome tournament record but i do not like the stlye of play in this kind of tournament but then again he has won $25,000 in two tournaments online! A few hands in i'm the only BB and Jambon moves in UTG and i think for a while with 66s, i was hovering the 7-8k mark since the break and knew it was a 50/50 and decided to go for it.But was about half my stack, he flips AT and i win a race but unfortunately knock Jambon out!

Not much happens til final 2 tables, oh Guv went out before Jambon, and Guv saw my stack and thought he getting another pay day off me! I'm average stack with two tables to go which means all in or fold poker. I pick up a few uncontested pots moving in with AJ AT KQ and Q2 (late position) to stay alive, sometimes i feel i need a caller just so i could double up but you never want a caller unless you got AAs or KKs!! Especially at this stage. UTG moves in and Mr loudmouth on no chips calls and i move in with QQs. Up against 88 and KT, I did not mind a K coming because the side pot was bigger, im about a 55% favourite to take the whole pot, the flop comes 3 diamonds and i'm the only one with a diamond! it looks good aa a 88% favourite until the black K comes on the turn, i still have a 25% shot but i miss, mr loud mouth stays in but the other guy is out i end up, up in the pot but would like to have knocked the other guy out! A few hands later mr loud mouth moves in on the button in my SB, i have him covered by 2 to 1 and i see KdTd, i know this is the best hand! He moves in on the button with any two, his 83 last time took out AJ but given i have the best hand do i still call and gamble! i decide to and he flips over J2!! He hits a J and i double him up again!

We get to final and just before i pushed with JK for someone to call with 77s, i get lucky and hit a J and double up. On final i have 20k in chips with 33k being average. I told Guv if i can double up early i can win this! In MP a young kid moves in and i see AQ after a quick thought of the hands he has raised with pre flop i feel AQ is good, he calls as only a little bit more and he flips over AQ!! CHopp CHOP!
I then fold most my hands and just move in blind from the SB the BB literally looks at his cards when given and shakes his head implying he has flith and he cannot beileve he has been dealt bad cards again! This is not a joke he would shake his heads and say to himself i cannot beleive it! So he was asking me to move in like that! About 8 handed i pick up QQs and A7 raises up and i go in on top and he calls, he had to, as he commited himself, my QQs hold and now i feel i can win this. Sb vs BB i raise with 99s and he shoves i call, he flips AT and i win another coin flip! It was quite funny on the flop, it came 9! A! A! and he cheered thinking he had won!!!

We get down to 5 handed and i'm just below average. This is when i like to open up my game, i do not like getting involved in final tables at the start. Mr loud mouth is somehow still in he tripled up with J6 vs 95 vs J9 when a 6 hit and he could not miss all night but to be fair he never called off his chips he was always pushing. Due to his table talk he got this guy on tilt and the guy pushed with J7 and i looked down and saw KKs! ( i know in this report it sounds like im a card rack with the hands i got but it was over the space of 8 hours! ) My KKs hold and we are down to four, i feel the payout is very to heavy and even though i was the chips leader with 90k vs 70k vs 75k vs 65k i asked for a change in payout, we agreed to take £500 each and £160 extra for 2nd and £300 for 1st, giving £60 to waitress.

I end up getting it all in with 44s vs AJ, board came K 7 3 K and the river was a 7!!! Hate losing like that! The guy actually got up and i said mate you win! He jumps up and down and i'm down to 2xBB, more than i need! lol! I then triple up buit then move in blind UTG to only have the BB call with AK!! My T3 was no good and i got out with £500 of which Guv got £150!!! You owe me some Nandos!!!!!

Played a few online tournaments and no success!!! Getting in good spots but always doing something silly and again i cannt seem to win on cash! need to find some more online tournaments!!! Definately looking to play some £100/£200 freeze outs soon!!

1 Comments:

At 6:07 PM, Blogger Porno said...

Have finally sorted out my login details and is reason why I haven't posted before. Just wanted to say keep up the post Doshi it's a really good read and good motivator for any Poker player!

Don't worry about the deal-breaker with Guv as you know he's a lucky boy and am sure when he places your 30% in him will be sweeet!!!

 

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