Halo7′s Poker Blog on Bluffworld.com

Well, I really wanted to play in the Full Tilt $1,000 WSOP qualifier to the Main Event tonight, but didn’t want to pony up the $1K. So I was trying to satellite in via their $160 STTs. The structure of these was 1st gets the seat and 2nd gets $290 and 3rd gets nothing. Well of course, I end up 3 handed after a long battle and actually have the chip lead for a while. The short stack starts pushing all the time and it is pretty obvious he is doing any 2 cards. Then this hand happens:

Blinds are 150/300

Button (6,730)
SB (1,670)
Hero (5,100)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [6c Kc]
Button Folds
SB raises to 1,670, and is all in
Hero calls 1,370
SB shows [3d Td]

*** FLOP *** [4h 7d Kd]
*** TURN *** [4h 7d Kd] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [4h 7d Kd Jd] [9s]
SB shows a flush, King high
Hero shows a pair of Kings
SB wins the pot (3,340) with a flush, King high

So much for guaranteeing myself second place $$. It went downhill after that, with me clawing back to the chip lead and then pushing 2 times right into pocket kings. What are the odds of running into kings 2x 3 handed in the course of maybe 20 hands? They can’t be that good. hehe. So I ended up going out on the bubble, which was very frustrating since S N G’s are my bread and butter and I really wanted to play in the qualifer.

After that crappy result, I only had about $110 left which wasn’t enough to play another $160 qualifier so off I go to the 1-2 no limit tables. I posted this hand over in the community, but figured I would see about comments here as well. I had only been at the table a short while so I didn’t have any reads. I will take comments on all streets, but really am not sure about the river call. It felt like spewing chips a little.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $2 BB (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

UTG ($71.90)

UTG+1 ($144)

MP1 ($99.75)

MP2 ($73)

MP3 ($200)

CO ($238)

Button ($269.20)

Hero ($187.25)

BB ($17)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Th, Ts.

2 folds, MP1 raises to $7, 3 folds, Hero calls $6, 1 fold.

Flop: ($16) 5d, Js, Jh (3 players)

Hero checks, MP1 checks.

Turn: ($16) 6c (3 players)

SB bets $12, MP1 calls $12.

River: ($40) 4s (3 players)

Hero checks, MP1 bets $20, Hero calls $20.

MP1 shows Jd Qd

Final Pot: $80

I didn’t end up getting to $160 soon enough so didn’t get to play in the WSOP qualifer. I have a friend visiting this weekend so won’t be able to play in most of the last chance qualifiers so it looks like I will have to win my seat out in Vegas if I want to play this year.

Well, I played in 3 different WSOP qualifiers today. First was the Bodog $1 rebuy with 1 ME seat guaranteed. I made it a few hours but went out of that one right before the PokerStars 150 seat guaranteed started. This was the tourney I won my seat in last year so I was hopeful. It has a great structure with 30 minute levels so you have to adjust your game a bit to make sure you don’t play too fast. There is no reason to overplay a marginal hand early. Well that is exactly what I proceeded to do. I was on the button with T2000 with JJ. It folds around to me so I raise it to 150 and the SB reraises to 450. Well normally I drop jacks like a hot pan for a reraise, but since it looked pretty obvious that I could be on a steal, I rationalized that the SB could have many different hands AK-AT, any pocket pair. So I call and see the flop. When the flop comes 7 high rainbow and the SB bets 700, I raise all in. He flips over AA and IGHN.

I also won a single table satellite into the Full Tilt $535 100 seat guaranteed. This one also had a good structure, although not quite as good as PokerStars. I lasted a bit longer in this one but still donked my way out of the tourney. I had T3000 and 88 in the BB and it folded all the way around to the SB who raised it to 250. I reraise him to 750. He called and we saw a flop of T53. He checks and I bet about 1000. He calls which I don’t like. Another T comes on the turn which I think is a good card for me. If he also has a pair, then maybe he could put me on the T and lay it down. So I end up pushing the rest of my chips in and he instacalls with 33. So I got pretty unlucky on the flop, but there wasn’t too much of a reason for me to get all my chips in that early in the tourney in a marginal spot like that. You really have to be patient in these slow structure satellites. So now I am back to the drawing board. I will have to poke around and see what other tourneys are left, but I am thinking either the Bodog $270 that they have, or the Full Tilt $320 or $1K, or the good ole PS $160 double shootouts.