more thorough report on Million Gtd

I'd rather write up this one than the stars for a couple reasons: one, it's more interesting; and two, the thoughts contained within are stimulating.


The tournament structure was phenomenal. 2500 starting chips, 20 minute rounds (except for the 50/100 round, which bizarrely went about 45 minutes. I liked that level, though.

Anyway, the tournament started nicely enough. There were two players across from me who I quickly marked as donators. One of them doubled the other up within the first level, and a new donator took that seat. It worked out pretty well. I got up to 2850 or so rather early, as KJs flopped a flush and got action (from one of the donators) and a big blind special J2o flopped trip deuces. The rest of the first hour was spent seeing flops with suited connectors, suited one gaps and small pairs to no avail. At the end of the hour, I put a move on one of the donators, which was unsuccessful, and I ended the hour at about 1850 in chips.

The second hour was much better. I was put down to 1445 when I made probably the boldest play of the tournament for me. I raised a limper (I think the blinds were 25/50) with T2s from late position, i was just trying to get some chips) and the BB was the only caller. On the AQ2 flop, the BB led out for slightly over the pot - something COMPLETELY out of character for this player. I thought it over and decided that this was likely to be an attempt to push me off the pot with a weak hand - and pushed. He folded, and I was suddenly back up over 2000. I don't really remember how I built my stack from there, honestly. I know I got up to 8k, though. In the midst of this, I lost with KJ to QJ on the KT8 board, K7 to JT on the K9x board, while flopping a flush and holding off a set.

I dropped back from 8k though when trying to bet a player off JJ (I figured him for that exact hand) with 33 on a 99T flop. I knew what he had, I just couldn't get him to fold it. Again, I forget quite how I did it, but I know over the course of an hour or so I got to 25k. I then got real lucky.

I raised in late position with AQo. The play was folded to the big blind, who raised. This player had called my raises on the big blind quite a bit in the time we'd been at the table together, and I believe I ultimately had won all but one of those battles. I figured his raise meant one of two things: 1) I'm sick of this or 2) I've got a reasonably stronger hand than those past times. Knowing that I had held serve over this player and knowing that his hand range has to have widened considerably, I pushed. It was for all of his stack (and for all but like 5k of mine), but I certainly felt it extremely likely I'd get a fold from all but the top 3 pairs, and maybe JJ or AK. Well, he thought long and hard, and ultimately called with AK. I rivered a queen. Finally, after all the beats I've taken lately, I issued one on the river. I know from there I bluffed off a chunk with Q6 on the river in a blind v blind matchup.. the board read A33J7, the small blind had A7. I got most of it back with 77 v. 66.

Really, that's all the big hands I remember from the first six hours. The bubble arrived about six hours in, and I took advantage of it along with neverwin, who was seated at my table. Both of us chipped up significantly during this time. I finally moved over 100k in chips when my 22 busted a short stack's AA on the river, but lost a bunch of it back to BDoyle's AA with my JJ. I then hit another AQ vs an AK, but this one was straight off the flop. This put me back over 100k. I slowly built it up from there to around 150k with steals, resteals and a big pot won by kings. I got to nearly 200k when 33 stacked AT on the T53 flop. At this point I was 3rd in the tournament with around 90 left. And at this point I went cold.

I was able to slowly get my stack up to around 225k. BDoyle had won several nice pots (one big one with nothing more than KJ on a J high board) and had moved up to around 270k. I slid down to around 170k when I called a raise on the button with 8Ts, then raised the continuation bet on the K53 flop. The player thought for a while and moved in, giving me no choice but to fold. I played tight from there, moving down to 150k, moving back up to 175k or so, when the hand that busted me came.

I raised in MP with AT of diamonds, and BDoyle called on the button as he had done from time to time. Each time he called on the button, he had taken the pot, as I'd not only avoided hitting the flop, I'd run like hell from it. The flop came KTx, with two clubs and one diamond. I checked to him, and he bet 25k (I forget what the blinds were, they were either 3k/6k or 4k/8k). I pushed the rest of my 150-160k in, and he instacalled with KK. The turn came a jack, giving me four outs on the river, but no miracle hit, and I was out.

I've gone over and over this hand. I was going cold, and was against a player who had had the best of me. So I was right into the middle of my two biggest weaknesses. I struggle to fold marginal hands when I'm cold, and I hate feeling as though I'm being taken advantage of.

I find when I do best in tournaments with reasonably deep structures I don't get overly aggro with marginal hands. For instance, when I won the rd 3 to get my seat to the Borgata, I played exceptionally patient when cold. When I don't play patiently enough, I do things like pushing in bad spots.

I've gone over and over this. I don't think pushing the AT in that spot was actively bad by any means. He needed a hand as good as AA, KK, TT, xx (where x = the other card on the flop), Axc (where x= whatever card was a diamond on the flop. I don't remember which it was), AK, KT, and maybe KQ or KJ (Like I said, he did win a very big pot with KJ on a J high flop). Of the range of hands he calls with and the range of hands he bets (roughly every hand he calls with), I have that demolished. Furthermore, I mentioned that I doubled him up when he had AA just inside the bubble. He reraised that hand. Granting, he could play hands differently, with how often he'd called me, I felt it very unlikely that he had AA, KK or AK. That reduced the number of hands that he could call me with significantly.

Having said that, a better play would have been the check raise to 75-85k. If I get action on that, I know I'm really beat, and I lay down the AT if he reraises or just calls. I'd be down to around 75k, give or take, but 75k > 0. It was a hard lesson to learn, but I think I've taken this one well.

I was asked if it was a matter of fatigue that I pushed. It may have been, slightly. I played somewhere around 550 hands. That's more hands than I'll see in the 8 levels I'll play at the Borgata. However, I don't think the fatigue factor was significant - I think I simply chose the wrong line.

Oh well. It was a fun tournament with a great blind structure. I got very lucky in one key spot, and I got punished severely when I chose the clearly incorrect line. I think I have learned a great lesson from the tournament, and I believe I'll be able to use this knowledge to my advantage at the Borgata.