Played the shootout this morning. I’ve been looking forward to this one for awhile as I thought it would involve a lot of shorthanded play but it actually ended up playing a lot more like a turbo sit n go that takes like 5 hours.
Anyways I started the day in a rush, waking up late, having to make the taxi wait for me a bit and when I finally got to my table I was yawning a lot on not as fully focused as I usually am at live pokers. I also made a couple of misclicks where I accidentally minraised one hand and accidentally raised to 6x the big blind one hand. I’m not making any excuses for not winning or anything, I’m just saying I most certainly was not playing my A game and probably should have taken the day off as I usually sleep like 9-10 hours at night and was running on maybe 7 last night.
At first I thought my table draw was terrible as the oldest person there was 27 I believe he said. But when people started showing down hands I realized there was definitely good value here. I’d say two of the guys were straight dead money, two eurolags were easy money, maybe one bad internet player and three good tight aggro internet players besides myself.
We started with 4500 chips with 1 hour levels of 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 150/300/25, 200/400/50. The most donkish hand I saw all day was a limped pot with blinds at 100/200 where eurolag limps utg, 2nd eurolag limps btn, dead money man completes sb (I’m talking a guy who would limp fold with 1200 chips at 100/200), and good internet player bb checks his option. Flop is A64 with two clubs. Dead money man leads out pot for 800, good internet player flats, eurolag1 folds and eurolag2 makes it 1800 to go. Sb dead money man insta3bet jams for 5.1k total, good internet player calls off his stack which is about the same, and eurolag2 tanks for awhile until dead money man calls a clock on him. Finally he calls with A5o. lol. Sb money man tables 64o and internet player tables a set of 4s. So ya, there’s value in these events if you are half decent fyi.
On to my hands, first two levels I got AKo once and squeezed, everyone folded, QQ once, 3bet, got called, then took it down with a cbet. Played A9s to a raise in the first level and mucked to a cbet, and played QJs which I flatted in position when good internet player opened to 250 in the CO at 50/100 blinds. Eurolag2 also called out of the big blind. Flop was J83 two spades, eurolag2 checks, internet player bets 400 into the 800 pot, I call, and eurolag2 makes it 900 to go. Internet player mucks and I tank fold. After seeing his A5o hand later, this may have been my chance for free chips but I was very worried about KJ or something and I really had no idea what turn cards to continue on so I mucked.
I made it down to 4 handed with about 4k in chips when I shipped the btn with K9o at 150/300/25 and got called by internet pro in the sb with A6o. I turned a king and doubled up. I think his call is a bit dubious since K9o is the very bottom of my range here and I still have more than 12 big blinds, but he was right in this instance so what am I to say. Same internet pro later eliminated Eurolag1 when he bet/called KJo vs eurolag1’s resteal with K9o and held.
So I made it to 3 handed with two other internet pros when I find myself in the sb at 150/300/25 with red nines. Btn opens to 800, I 3 bet to 2150 and BB cold 4 bets to 4500 or so. I tank folded here, it looked like he was eyeing my chipstack the whole time figuring out how much to bet not if he should bet here. It may have been a mistake when I already have 1/4 of my stack in but I’m just praying for AK here and am going to see overpairs a ton. Tried to do some quick math on shoving at the table and thought I needed about 40% equity and thought I only had about 30% or so, so I just gave it up.
So blinds went up to 200/400/50 and I was going all in a decent amount on steals and resteals when my bustout hand came. I believe I started the hand with about 6k in chips. Btn folded, sb looks at his cards, asks how much I have, I move my hands so he can see, he says “about 7-8kish?” I don’t respond, and after a little deliberation goes all in. I look down at Kc7c, thought he was weak enough here and pretty much snap called. It may be a slight mistake, and this is where I start blaming fatigue, but he showed up with A4o and I was kinda shocked to be behind. I think the key factor in the hand is that he thought I had more chips than I had and still jammed. Anyways I just pokerstoved it and I was 44% to win so it may be a call regardless here with my stack and the blinds overlay (calling about 5.6k into a pot of what will be 12.1kish). I am no sng expert, but this spot is kinda whatever, maybe it’s a fold, maybe its not, either way I think its very close. Flop is A85 rainbow and on a 5 turn I’m drawing dead. I say nh, take a cab back home and insta-pass out for a couple hours. Probably won’t play the 1.5k tomorrow as I’m kinda burnt out on live poker for a day or two, I’ll let you know when I play another event. Pz.