25 June 2008

Train Keeps Rolling

Well, the cold decks and late tourney suckouts keep on going. In time, this will have to end. I will have to break through eventually. I can't keep getting late in tourneys, then lose to somebody with a very marginal hand. Tonight was business as usual. I played a satelite to get into the $750,000 Guarantee. The top 12 got tourney entries, then 13-15 got paid cash. We were down to 16 people, on the bubble. I hadn't seen a single hand worth playing in a long time. I'm not talking about waiting for aces or kings. I mean not having anything at all to play. I didn't see any kind of suited connectors, big ace, big king, two face cards, nothing. Just to illustrate, I was getting short and pushed with QJ off from under the gun. It was by far the best hand I had seen in a long time and got called in two spots. One guy had 910 suited and the other had pocket 4's. I hit a jack and tripled up. I was feeling good and had a few chips to play with, well a little over 10X's the blind. A few hands later, I get AJ suited and am sitting on the button. Nobody comes in the pot, so I raise. The small blind calls, and the flop comes A-6-5. Sweet, top pair, good kicker. He checks it to me, so I fire a little over half the pot and he then proceeds to shove in. I know he might be making a play here, knowing that we are on the bubble, and nobody wants to go broke on the bubble. He could have a draw, weaker ace, but I know that I'm pretty much committed to this pot. So I call, and he shows AQ. Just my luck. Sure enough, I go out on the bubble, AGAIN.

So later, I decide to play the $17,000 Guarantee. I had a few good hands, but for the most part, I had to bluff and three bet my way to some chips. I had QQ UTG and raise. I get called in two spots, one of which was in the big blind. The flop comes K-6-4. I fire a continuation bet, and get called in both spots. I knew the guy behind me didn't have a king, he probably would have re-raised. However, the guy in the blind had to have one. How could he overcall without a king? So I pretty much shut down there. I knew that in the lower limits, there are a ton of calling stations and players that will overplay hands. So they end up checking it down after a turn bet from late position. Sure enough, the late player had 77, and the blind had K9 off. WOW. The rest of the way pretty much went the same. I had QQ hold up against two all ins, one with 99 and the other with A5. But it wasn't meant to be. The button shoved for 20X's the blind, and I'm sitting with about 12 X's the blind. I have A10 off and thought about it for a second. The button was probably shoving one of couple kinds of hands. 1) Two big face cards, like KQ, KJ, QJ 2) Just about any ace, if he had a good ace like AK, AQ, or AJ he wouldn't shove for that amount. or 3) small pair, like 44-99. Again, if he had a good pair like JJ or QQ he wouldn't shove for that much, he would want some kind of action. So I put him on group 1 and decided to call. Sure enough, he shows KQ. I survived the flop and the turn, but then the king hit the river and I was gone.

I just really sucks to get deep in a lot of tourneys and not cash and not hit a big score. The above picture shows how my finishes have gone this month. If you notice, I have made it deep in just about every tourney I have played. I had to get lucky a couple of times to survive, but that's part of poker. However, once I have gotten deep, one of two things have happened. 1) I go card dead and end up getting overcoated when I finally pick up a hand. I have tried to play off my image and raise and re-raise to try and steal, but it just hasn't worked out. 2) I take some kind of sick beat or have somebody shove and I make the obvious call, then have my hand get beat. Just about everytime I have had my tourney on the line, I have been a substantial favorite. A few of the times, I was either a 3:2 or 2:1 favorite. But most of the other times, I was a very clear favorite. So I'll just have to play through it and hopefully things will turn around soon.

I hope it doesn't last too much longer, this is getting sick.

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