The Live Champeenship!

420. 75th-31st "paid" a lovely poker table. So money ($200) started at 30th. 1st = $25K. I'll ruin the suspense: I finished 37th.

The structure was the EXACT SAME as last week, only we started with 6K with one rebuy (which I got straight off). Twenty minute rounds. In other words... after an hour, poker was not the game. I got most of someone's original 6K real quick when I flopped a set of queens against his pocket kings.

I then foundered from that 18K down to 17K by taking cheap flops with good drawing hands or small pairs in position and not even brushing the resultant flop. This wasn't a concern for the fellow in the 2 seat at my table, who flopped 3 sets in the first hour and a half. Oh, and caught running tens for trips.

As I mentioned last week, the blinds after an hour twenty moved from 200/400 to 500/1000. At the end of the 200/400 level, I was fortunate to pick up some monsters. Queens UTG, Cowboys on the big behind 2 limpers, tens behind one limper. Each and every time I got folds to my raises. I did show the queens and the tens to encourage some more folding in the future.

As the blinds went up, though, I struggled to pick up hands. I stole a few times in good spots and got up to about 25K, but dropped to 16.5K after I had 85 on the big and led out/called a very small stack's reraise on 478 flop. Dude limped for about 30% of his chips with 77.

I then proceeded to do nothing but steal for the next hour. First to act in late position with a reasonable hand? All-in. One limper who has folded to raises in the past? All-in. I knew the game, and I was playing it. I was not going to play any post flop poker unless I limped behind limpers or was on the big and got a cheap flop. This game was all about preflop poker, and I was going to play it.

I got moved to my 3rd table, and was just lingering around 25-30K with blinds at 2000-4000, and did my steal from one off the CO with J9o. The button woke up with big slick, but on a 8TJ flop, I just had to dodge QKA, which I successfully did. You need to get lucky. I had to keep stealing, though, which was made difficult by a guy who had tons of chips two on my right coming in for minraises repeatedly.

I finally got a stack at the 5K/10K level when, behind a limper and a raiser, I woke up with aces on the small blind. Since I look at my cards one at a time (I feel it forces me to concentrate on the suits better,) I was intrigued when I saw the first black ace. However, in a live situation, I've yet to get pocket aces in such a situation, so I was fully expecting an offsuit six to follow. Needless to say, I was surprised (and pleased) as all hell to see the other black ace, and put my $42K in. The other player had KT and, after a moment's trepidation on the QT5 flop was quite well calmed down by the 5 on the turn, I was finally over $100K for the first time.

I called a couple of shortstack all ins blind on my BB getting 5-1 on my money, and finding J6o and 23o when I flipped my cards over. I still made four to the straight each time, but couldn't seal the deals. As the guy on my right slowly leaked his chips away, he wasn't coming in for raises as much, and I could steal again. I did so a couple times, and also found cowboys UTG, which I showed when everyone folded (hey, I've got HANDS when I do this, guys!)

Well, all that was for naught when my table broke up. At this point the blinds were 15k/30k with the next level being 25k/50k. Yikes. I thought it was a lottery before! I had 100k left and on about my 2nd hand at my new table had QJ of hearts in the CO and moved in. The SB woke up with aces, and although the flop of 78T (two hearts) gave me a great deal of hope, I couldn't hit the 9 or the flush, and was eliminated.

All in all, I was quite pleased with my play. The tournament was well run, but the blind structure made it a pure lottery. I recognized this early, and was able to last to 37th because I was willing to steal in late position with live cards like J9o, J8o, 57s, etc. There was one other player that I was with that recognized this same thing, and was willing to do the same. He was on my right at my second to last table and said, after one of his all ins "I have to beat you to it."

The fact of the matter is, in a format like this, the winner will be the luckiest player, not the best. I decided to play the right game, didn't fight it, and tried to get lucky. It nearly worked, I had J9 beat AK and nearly had my QJs crack aces. If that had happened, who knows? Clearly, there was much, much more poker to be played, and clearly I couldn't say "Well, I was the best player there" because, let's be honest, even if that was the case, it really didn't count for much in this tournament. However, I knew the situation and that gave me a distinct advantage over many other players.

Experiences like this do nothing but increase my preference for online poker. Live, to get a good structure, you're probably going to have to play a small tournament, becuase there's no way to have a 200 player tournament with a good structure all wrapped up in one day. So it's going to have to be a lottery. And that's fine, so long as you realize that's what it is. But if you want to play actual poker, you'll have to find it somewhere on the net or maybe go to a $10K buyin at the Bellagio. And since I'm trying to work up the bankroll for that, I'll be playing the majority of my poker seated on a computer chair.