PCA Day 2
Well, here is was, the $8000 main event. It had a great structure with 75 minute blinds and $20,000 in starting chips. They played through 6 levels on the first day with the last level being 400-800 so I was confident I could make it through the first day unless I got pretty unlucky.
My first table was number 50 which meant it would be the first one to be broken. The table was very very tight to start out with and hardly anyone was making a move. While this is typical in the big deep stacked tourneys, it still surprised me given the online nature of the participants. All of the maniacs who were in the satellites with me must have been at the other tables. I played my usual TAG game and picked up a few hands here and there, taking my stack to 23,000 or so. I was then moved to another table that was a bit more lively than my first, and luckily I picked up a few more hands to take me to 25,000 or so. This table broke about 2 hours later and I got moved to table 2, which would be my final table. I wasn’t happy to see Mimi Tran sitting in the one seat as I started stacking my chips, but I didn’t recognize any others.
Things continued pretty well at this table. I was picking up a bunch of hands, but wasn’t making too much from them since I hardly ever slow play anything. In retrospect, maybe I should have slow played my big hands a bit more. Example: I raise preflop with Aces and get one late position caller. Flop comes A 2 3 with 2 hearts. I check raise after he bets the flop and he folds. Maybe I should smooth call to make my move on the turn? I had one interesting hand against Mimi. I was in the big blind with pocket 8’s. There are 2 limpers for 200 each and then Mimi raises to 1000. I call since I am pretty sure one of the others will call as well. They both end up calling and the flop comes TT3 rainbow. I like this flop and thought about check raising. However since Mimi had position on me and would probably call my check raise with overcards, I played it a bit more passively. I checked and it checked arount to Mimi who bet 2000. I called and the other 2 folded. The turn comes another T which is a great card for me. However, it is possible that Mimi has JJ-AA and I decide to bet into her to see where she is. I bet 3,500 and she makes her trademark scowl and mucks.
A short while later, a player busts out of my table and who do they bring to replace him, but Kathy Liebert. So somehow I managed to get 2 of the pros at my table. Ugh. Well I was happy to see he go out in a coin flip about an hour later. I got to a high of 30,000 or so and then had to lay down a couple of steals when the guy beside me reraised preflop. I had about 24,000 when what I consider to be a pivotal hand played out. I had KK in early position and it folds around to me. The blinds were at 200-400 so I raise it to 1200. The guy to my left calls and us 2 see the flop of T82 rainbow. I bet 2000 and he flat calls. The 9d comes on the turn, putting a 2 flush out there. I bet 5,000 and he moves all in for 10,000 more. I go into the tank at this point. If I call and lose, I will be crippled with 6,000 chips or so with the blinds going up in about 20 minutes. If I fold, I have 16,000 and am still somewhat comfortable. The player in question had played a pretty solid game for most of the day and replaying the hand, I simply couldn’t put him on any hand that I could beat. If a player is willing to get all their chips in relatively early in a big tournament like this, they can typically beat one pair. So I think and think and eventually muck my kings face up. The only hands I can put him on are 88 and TT, and possibly TJs. He said he had 88, but you never know.
After this hand, things went downhill quickly as the blinds went up to 300-600. I more or less blinded off at this point since the bigger stacks were raising liberally removing my opportunities to steal. I was down to around 10,000 chips with about 15 minutes left in the level when I find 88 on the button. It folds around to the player who is two off the button and has been raising somewhat frequently. I think there is a very good chance he is on a steal here so I decide a reraise will work around 75% of the time. So I reraise all in and he calls pretty quickly with AKo. An Ace on the flop sends me to the rail during level 5 of the first day. In retrospect, I should probably have flat called and raised a favorable flop rather than pushing preflop, but considering the likelihood of him folding preflop, I don’t hate my play of the hand either. This is my 3rd big buy in event and I haven’t made it to day 2 on any of them yet. I believe it is just a matter of time, but I still might need to work on my short stack play, especially when I have 10-15 big blinds since that is when I seem to exit most often.
After this, I decided to drink away my sorrows to some $10 Pina Colada’s while I reviewed my play and my friends tried to make me feel better. More updates soon.
