Tournament Reporting, Part One
Topic: Poker
David Lloyd asked me to write a tournament report for Gutshot on the #100 Pot Limit comp on Friday. I didn't really want to do it, as I mostly dislike tournament reports and rarely read them. I also played in the comp itself and was in no mood to carry on watching once I got bounced out in the last two tables.
Later I wrote something very long. But it's no longer topical and David doesn't like the negativity of the opening paragraphs, which I feel are essential to the whole thing. He's got far more experience of these things than I, so I'll accept his judgement on it and run it here. Now read on.I?ve never been a fan of tournament reporting. It seems such a limited format. Surely there?s only so much that can be said about a poker game? Doesn?t a simple formula suffice for most readers? Get a snappy title and away you go. A pun on the winner?s name isn?t a bad start, though I don?t suppose anyone will ever surpass ?German conquers Omaha?
(Consult a WW2 history book if you don?t get this one) after Matthias Ronacher won a PLO comp in the 1997 WSOP.
Having had a job writing business reports, I know how easy it is to let a template take over. After a while, the hardest part is finding new ways to say the same thing. Listen out for those football reports on SKY where they do their best to avoid repeating the names of the teams. ?
It was a vital fixture for Leeds at home today ? the Elland Road squad had their work cut out ? Blackwell?s boys were tired after a two-nil deficit at half time, but it was good news for fans of The Whites when they came back to equalise ?zzzz.?
So think how much harder it is when you?re writing about a game where the options are check, bet, fold, call or raise! Anyone who can make that interesting deserves a knighthood in my opinion. Full marks are due to Tikay for entertaining so many people. Meanwhile, I?ve been asked by David Lloyd to write about Friday?s Pot Limit hold?em comp.
I stated my objections and I crossed my fingers as I left the club that night thinking I had made a clean getaway. But that was then and this is now, and I?m feeling guilty that I haven?t taken the burden off his shoulders, even though I would rather that the job wasn?t done at all. So I?ve decided to give ?two for the price of one? today and hopefully he?ll never ask me to write another one of these wretched things again. I will cover my experiences of the #300 freezeout from the Victoria festival and the #100 PL hold?em comp on Friday, though I?ll have to warn you that I totally lost interest in the latter once I was knocked out in the last two tables and didn?t watch a single hand of the final.
Sunday, 3rd April #300 NL hold?em freezeout.When did everyone go freezeout mad? Once upon a time you could trust people to be lying when they said that they wanted to play freezeouts instead of rebuy comps. They would prattle about the unfair edge that the maniacs enjoyed (Jac Arama?s name seemed to come up a lot) and then when finally offered the chance to play one would stay at home. Then a funny thing happened. Luton offered a #100 freezeout on Friday nights and in contrast to the unimpressive turnout when Russell Square did the same thing, people actually turned up in large numbers. Where did it all go right?
I decided to see what the appeal was on Sunday and thus paid up for it three days early just to ensure myself a place. It was almost sold out (146 I believe) and first prize was roughly #16k. I was given a tag for my seat and noticed that ?R10? looked eerily like ?RIO?. Could this be a sign of things to come? Was I to be given a boost this day that would get me into the WSOP? I?ll be all right! Looking around the table, I failed to recognise most of the people. I knew the man on my right and Keith ?the camel? Hawkins, who was three seats to my left, but that was about it. Play started with 3,000 points and blinds of 25/25. The first four intervals were to be 30 minutes long and thereafter it would be a 45 minute clock. While waiting for it to start I noticed that the cards to be used were the ?A+? brand. I?m quite fond of this brand, as they are thicker than some of the ones used elsewhere and they seem to have better quality control on the paintwork. I would love to see them used at Gutshot, but I know that if Roy finds out that the Vic are using them then there is absolutely no chance of this, due to his pathological desire to be different to the er ? er. ?
Edgeware Road crew. So don?t tell him! OK, now on to the action.
On the first hand I called with 45 suited and folded on the turn. I was shocked to see on the showdown that one of the unknowns had called in early position with Q6 in the same suit. In that kind of loose play, I think that paradoxically the small suited connectors go down in value, as the chance of someone beating your flush with suited filth goes up. Nice to get a cheap warning early on! Later I did call with a 56 suited, wary of getting involved on a small flush for too much action and was relieved to make a nut straight on the turn with it. I was a bit surprised that I didn?t get called. On the flop there was a bet and a call. On the turn the original bettor made the same bet as before and the player in between made a raise to three times the bet. I reraised to 15 times the bet fully expecting to get called or raised by the other raiser and was stunned when he passed. The same player managed to go all in on a nine-high flop with T9 about half an hour later, so I can?t think what he laid down against me.
As a general strategy, I decided to observe how Keith played the comp, as he?s played far more of this kind of event than I. In the very early stages, he was getting involved more than I would have done. It looked to me like he was frittering his chips away but then came a hand from the twilight zone. Keith raised preflop and got called by the player on my right. The flop brought A J x with two spades. The man on the right checked and Keith bet. The other man called. The turn was a spade. Keith?s opponent checked and Keith made a big bet. The man on my right instantly called all in, as though defeat were unthinkable. Keith looked utterly crestfallen. So imagine our surprise when the caller showed A2 of clubs!! Keith had AJ and caught an irrelevant J on the river to fill up. It was one of the most extraordinary gifts I have ever seen.
Every tournament switches from a point where it goes from being risky to play hands to being risky not to play hands. When the blinds reach a certain level they become worth nicking. If you haven?t already worked out what that level is in the standard Gutshot weekly comp, then you are either a beginner or should give up now. I was curious what Keith thought the ?blinds-worth-nicking? point was in this comp. To my astonishment, he seemed to get his boots on at the 100/200 level. I was hoping to capitalise on this by raising over the top of him, especially if he got a weak caller but the opportunity didn?t arise.
Now for some specific hands:
I hold AA under the gun and decide to limp. This was provoked by the arrival of Mr X who loves to raise in the blinds and was small blind this hand. I?m not exaggerating when I say that he raises more in the blinds than on the button, which I always find extraordinary. I also had the camel as a likely suspect of course and was thus doubly gutted when neither of them raised. The flop brought J 5 6 rainbow and I decided to check. I was planning to check-raise or possibly check-call here but was annoyed to see that after the camel bet, Mr X check-raised. I folded. Keith called and then folded when X bet the pot on the turn card Q. I think I got away from disaster here. I put X on two pairs and although I can?t be 100 per cent sure he was beating me, I know that I don?t want to go broke on one pair in an unraised pot. I am sure I had Keith beat though.
Later in the comp, after I?d doubled up with AA over KK, I limp in early position for 200 of my 4900 stack with 66. Keith has the button and raises to 900 and a player in the small blind goes all in for 1200. It?s 1,000 to me and I know that Keith can?t reraise because the all-in is an under-raise. I also know that he is not likely to bluff into a dry side-pot, so it?s tempting to play. But I refuse to call for a quarter of my stack with a small pair when there is a decent chance that I am beaten by one of the opponents, so I fold. Yuk! Keith shows A7o and the other bloke shows AJo. Neither hits a pair and I forgo the chance to win a big pot. Still think it was the right play however.
I played tight for a while and lost more chips, not getting the chances I wanted until I made my one clear blunder. In a hand where there was a no small blind, I found KQo. I can never understand people limping in early position in this spot, as they are only getting evens against the random hand and all the other people in the pot, so I stupidly decided to raise to 1,100 of my 3,100. Keith said ?I?ll give you a spin? and called me. Then someone else moved all-in, covering my remaining 2,000. I folded in dismay. What the hell was I doing in this pot?
Now down to a very small stack when the blinds were 200/400, I decided to do something rather odd. I found JT suited under the gun
and called. This seems like a bad play, but I thought I was so low that my equity in the comp was close to zero and the best way back in would be to give myself this shot at winning a decent pot with a multi-way hand. To my surprise all the players behind me folded and I found myself facing the two blinds. On a flop of A 9 4 (no flush draw for me), I decided to bet out after they checked and won easily. I had recovered 800 of the 1,100 I had squandered before, but this wasn?t what I had in mind when I played the hand in the first place!
I let the blinds go through me and on the following few rounds moved all-in with A7s, QTo, ATo and finally KTo. The first three merely got me back my blinds, but the last was done with the intention of picking up more chips. I was called by Paul Testud who had AK for what seemed like the 4th time in about 15 minutes. No help. Me gone. Ho hum. Looking back on it, I should have taken notice of the fact that the 100/200 level was followed by 200/400. Gutshot comps have a 150/300 level in between, which means that you aren?t put to the crunch so early and I?ve grown used to that. I?m not sure I will ever again pay that much for a comp with such a leap after 2 hours of play. I found it unsatisfactory frankly, though I understand the need to make it finish in one day. I went into a cash game and two hours later Hugo Martin told me he had been knocked out 16th. It must have been absolute carnage.
Incidentally, Neil Channing had a disaster. During the break he went down to McDonalds to get some food and rushed back to find that when play resumed, two of the players behind him were missing. Since this made it easier to steal the blinds and he was short-stacked, he moved all in with some rubbish he wouldn?t otherwise have touched and promptly got called and bumped out of the comp. Next time Neil, GO LARGE!
_ DY
at 2:55 PM BST
Updated: Tuesday, 12 April 2005 3:15 PM BST