So I played the events yesterday and today. Yesterday’s was another $1500 10max event. You start with 4500 chips. I ended up chipping up a bit early when I opened J9o from the CO, and BB flatted like tourney donks love to. Flop is K22 rainbow and I cbet. Turn is a Queen and I fire again hoping he’ll fold his pocket 8s or whatever. He calls again, at this point I think he has a king. On the river, I’m lucky enough to river my staight when a Ten hits and fire out 3/4 pot bet since a lot of kings have two pair at this point but he mucks. Maybe I should have bet smaller here, I don’t think I’ve been paid off three streets in a live tourney yet up to this point but he probably just had like K8 or some trash and wasn’t paying off anyways.
I stole a couple more blinds and what not and chipped up to about 8k when I raised to 500 with KK at 100/200 blinds and a shorty shipped his 2k stack in with 97s. He turns a flush and I’m back down to 6k.
I get moved tables and open Ac7s to 500 from the CO at 100/200/25. Sb flats and we see a Kc6c9s flop. I cbet 700 and he calls. Turn is a 2c giving me the nut flush draw and he donks 500, I ship the rest of my stack in and he folds. A couple hands later I open JJ from MP and get 3 bet by the guy I won the A7 hand against two to my left. I flat and we see a 852 rainbow flop. I checkraise all in on the flop which he calls with TT and I’m up to 12k and looking nice at this point.
I bleed away a few chips calling preflop and folding to cbets when my stack is about 10.5k and I open QQ utg to 500. The older man to my direct left 3 bets me to 1475. Honestly this may be a fold right here as the only thing I really beat is AK, but whatever its live pokers and I sit there for hours waiting for QQ so I call. We see a 235 rainbow flop which I checkraise all in and he calls with AKo. Turn pairs the board with another 2, but the river is an offsuit King and I’m crippled down to 3k in chips.
I get moved tables again and blinds go up to 150/300/25. I go all in a couple of times when its folded to me and manage to stay afloat around 3k when my bustout hand arrives. Utg limps, utg+1 limps, sb completes, I look down at KTs and ship my stack in from the big blind. Utg folds, utg+1 tanks for a bit and calls, sb tanks for a bit and reships for 6k more or so. Utg+1 tanks for a couple of minutes and finally folds so I find myself headsup against AJo for a chance to more than triple up about 2 minutes befor the dinner break but unfortunately the board comes out all low cards and I’m sent to the rail. If I would have won either my KK or QQ hands I would have been in really great shape to make a nice run but lady luck was not on my side that day.
Onto Event #30, the $2500 9max PLO. I was kinda debating playing this event as its a bit expensive for me and I’ve never played live PLO before, but I figured this was a great time to start and I’d regret it for a year if I didn’t. It ended up being a relatively small field only like 400 entrants, with quite a few big names, Sammy Farha was one table over, as was David Singer, David Willaims and John Juanda were walking around the area so I’m sure they were in, and Eli Elezra got moved to my table two to my right after about 2 hours into the tourney.
Unfortunately the structure was absolutely terrible in my opinion. You started with 2500 chips with two rebuy/addon chips for another 2500 which you could use at any time. 7500 chips is the same I started the $2500 6max event but people need to realize that plo plays much bigger than nlh and the fact is they should start you with at least double the amount of chips in this tourney. After 2 hours I had bled away half my chips missing every single flop and turn completely. I literally won two pots the entire tournament, one of which was in level one where I took it down headsup with a cbet, the one time I actually flopped something. For example at 50/100, utg opens to 250 I flat on the button with JJ99ss and sb squeezes for 1050 total, utg folds, I call, flop is KK2 rainbow, he bets I fold and say goodbye to 1/7 of my stack in the 2nd level. If I hadn’t immediately added on like most people didn’t it would have been 40% of my stack.
Anyways, I was down to about 3k in chips at 75/150 when CO opens to 400, sb flats, and I overcall with KK37ss to hearts in the BB. Flop is JT4 two hearts, sb checks, I check(maybe a mistake), CO checks. Turn is another 4, sb double checks his hand again and leads for 900 or so and I stick in my last 2600. He says nh and mucks.
Very next hand I’m up to a little less than 5k in chips when I complete 5 way or something from the sb with JT96ss to jack high hearts. Flop is QT3 rainbow with one heart. I check, BB leads for 500, CO calls and I overcall. I considered folding as I only have 4 outs to the nuts but then I thought what am I completing the sb for if I’m folding this flop (this is how mistakes compound themselves btw). Anyways, turn is about as good as I can hope for with the 7h give me an open ended straight flushdraw and midpair, I check, BB checks, CO bets 2250 and I just jam my last 3.5k or so in. I could call and lead all rivers that improve me, but I didn’t want to be stuck there with 5 big blinds and it’s possible I could be making a huge mistake folding the best hand if I check fold a blank river and he bluffs me off the best hand with AKJx or whatever. Anyways he flips over QT8x with the T8 of hearts with quite a few blockers to my draw and river is another 7 pairing the board and sending me to the rail about 2.5 hours into the tournament. I propokertools.com ‘ed it and I’m about 33% in this spot so it’s like a breakeven play here.
Not exactly thrilled with my play or anything, but there’s no room to maneuver at all in this tournament it’s just a complete joke that I’m down to 10 big blinds 2 hours into a two thousand five hundred dollar tournament after being card dead for 70 hands. All luck imo. Not sure if I’ll play any more events, I’m still up like $2k or so in the 6 tournies I’ve played by cashing once, dunno if I want to delve back into the negative. I’ll have to wait a couple days and see if I get the itch to play them again.