Mookie final table recap, redux

6th place finish this time, still no ToC seat. More close but no cigar shenanigans. I lost several consecutive confrontations late, and folded a lot later on as I went completely dry on good hands, and was forced to play short-stacked at the final table, as my top-3 stack with 3 tables left slowly dwindled to 7/9. I misplayed my bustout hand in a blind-on-blind battle when I had a clear 3bet shove; instead I got fancy and decided to play JdTd in position to a flop. Unfortunately, villain's Qs4s outflopped me and we got all the money in on the turn on a JQ5K board, and I bricked.

#1 - The river min-raise for value



#2 - Trapping a dangerous opponent without overplaying TPTK



#3 - Getting lucky; also missed a value bet



Then some hands vs. the Doc ...

#4 - Turning the second nuts



#5 - Pot Control; Doc said he had a ten here



#6 - Four-flushing again, but this time I was best the whole way



#7 - Filling up in a 3-way spot



Villain #3 had 85.

#8 - Flopping the nuts in a re-raised pot; I was praying opponent had a big pair they couldn't get away from



Sadly from here on out I was completely card dead and my top-3 stack dwindled and dwindled. I then lost a big race vs. deuces, of all things,

#9 - 22 holds



and then faced this donktastic overshove with no fold equity (same opponent again). JTo held ... villain's perceptiveness of hand ranges was sorely lacking, but I don't expect many players to note how tightly I was playing preflop ...

#10 - J-high is gold preflop



Finally I make a mistake in a blind vs. blind battle and bust out in sixth.

#11 - Why didn't I shove preflop? Raise or fold!

Faith manages

In back-to-back hands of a token frenzy, I am rewarded.

Ho-hum, another day, another ToC seat misfire

Short version: I was massive chipleader for nearly all of the second half of the Mookie. I got a fortunate double-up with AQ vs. KK when the poker gods rewarded me for overplaying AQ preflop; my pairs were holding up vs. slightly lower pairs; and I was dodging trouble and making some big stack calls to bust players left and right. By the time we were down to six players left I had 106K in chips; second place stack was about 60K ... but I managed to implode, busting out in fifth place. Playing to win came back to haunt me.

1) I go to the well one too many times with T8s ("the Mookie") and flop bottom two pair in a re-raised pot (I opened and was re-raised another 4 bbs by the small blind). Jordan leads out having flopped top set, I shove, he insta-calls and I relinquish chip lead when I lose the massive 110K-ish pot which would have had me home and cooled out with more than half the chips in play with five players left. Instead, I swap positions with Jordan, who went on to win the tournament, and fell to second place with approximately 60K. Given my chip lead I think this was a defensible call in position with the implied odds and the stack sizes involved (100K and 50-ishK respectively), but hitting two pair here proved disastrous. I was able to invest less than 10% of my stack preflop to call the re-raise and I hit my hand hard enough to continue. Since I put Jordan's re-raising range there at a pretty "honest" top 5-10% of hands, I figured the implied odds were sufficient to see a flop in position.

2) I stabilize and am narrowly in third place behind cardgrrl, who has aggressively been picking on my big blind when it's folded around to her. So I eventually play back at her with Q8dd. She decides she wants to play acey-deucey out of position against my re-raising range. Oookay. We both check on a 9d7h2c flop. The magical 6d falls on the turn and suddenly I have OESFD with some live cards; she leads out for 10K into a ~35K pot and I instantly shove my last 35K in there and she calls. She shows up with the nightmarish A2dd for a mighty bottom pair and my flush outs are dead. Naturally the flush comes in (also completing my straight) and IGH in 5th place. My 21 outs once turned out to be just a dozen: three queens, three eights, and six non-diamond straight outs. (The sad thing is that if a blank falls on the turn, I think I can get her off bottom pair.)


Sigh.

Will try again next week for that ToC seat I suppose.

NB. Oh, and at least I got to say DQB:

A deepstack tournament situation

From last night's Mookie, your standard enormous coinflip situation for review.

I hate gettting all my chips in the middle preflop this deep (50BBs) with AK, but this was an exception since I figured this opponent was highly likely to be making this move only with medium-to-large pairs and big ace-x hands, but would not shove AA or KK for fear of losing all of his customers. This is a high-variance gamble for me to take, but the reward for winning this flip is of tremendous strategic value. Since I do genuinely have the top of my range here (KK+, AK), this pushes my decision towards calling, but the countervailing factor is tournament survival. I could afford to pass up a marginal situation here and try to maneuver my chips in the middle with a bigger edge.

Context: I had opened the previous hand in EP with AQs and chipped up nicely when I bluffed unimproved in position vs. a big blind defender when the board four-flushed (clubs always get there). So I was happy to see AK the very next hand since I was even more likely to get action.

Long-term I believe calls like this are -EV. With only 240 invested and 4K behind I could easily -- and often would -- have folded and looked for a better spot to chip up.

As an aside, I think the villain here played QQ about as sub-optimally as I can imagine; results notwithstanding. He is basically turning his cards face-up and letting me play with virtually perfect information against him. Last I checked, poker was supposed to be about deception (unless of course you are able to put in the last raise with aces).

I also used PokerStove to see what the numbers said after the fact. I incorporated a couple of assumptions when estimating villain's range of hands: villain didn't shove with AA or KK or small pairs; and that he could make this move with some big aces.

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 48.017% 40.16% 07.85% 41263988 8067397.00
{QQ-77, AJs+, AQo+ }
Hand 1: 51.983% 44.13% 07.85% 45339458 8067397.00
{AcKh }

And here is the actual result:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 40/80 Blinds, 8 Players

CO: 7,665
BTN: 4,425
SB: 2,175
BB: 8,455
UTG: 9,455
Hero (UTG+1): 4,405
MP1: 2,560
MP2: 2,275

Pre-Flop: (120) K A dealt to Hero (UTG+1)
UTG calls 80, Hero raises to 240, MP1 calls 240, MP2 folds, CO raises to 7,665 and is All-In, 4 folds, Hero calls 4,165 and is All-In, MP1 folds

Flop: (9,250) 6 9 J (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Turn: (9,250) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
River: (9,250) 4 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Results: 9,250 Pot

CO showed Q Q (a pair of Queens) and WON 9,250 (+4,845 NET)

Hero showed K A (Ace King high) and LOST (-4,405 NET)

Blogger cash game shenanigans and Mookie flameout

Hard to avoid losing a lot of chips here in the Mookie. I still had 25K left and was in second place after this fiasco. But then at the final table I lost several consecutive races to flame out and bubble. Fortunately, I'd earned some blogger money in the cash game that was running ...



I had to chuckle to myself at this remark in chat before he called my large river bet ...

ScottMc: i might have a soul read here PL

And I should be pleased that he 3-bet the flop with no pair no draw and spiked top pair on the turn to set up the hero call on the end!

And now for a third

And by that, I mean a third Mookie win, which should make Schaubs happy.


I'll put up a more thorough report on Friday afternoon, when I will have the spare time to look over the hand histories for anything interesting. An early highlight, which propelled me to the early chiplead with over 11K in chips, was where I proved to fellow Team Schaubs member LJ that presto was not gold (unless played by professionals):


As played, the hand was pretty nasty. LJ was the big stack at the table, but I had a sizeable stack of my own within 1200 of hers. Still, she defended her blind to my 3BB raise in the CO. Then, we get your standard set-over-set scenario on the flop. She check-raised my half-pot c-bet to 800 chips, and I smooth called with the intention of raising any turn with the possible exception of a king or eight (which would complete a straight; I thought her range was pretty polarized to PPs or just maybe, maybe QTs). On the turn she paused and bet out 1550; I paused and raised to 3200 with only about 1600 behind, signalling my willingness to stack off. She obliged by shipping it in with bottom set and I insta-called praying she didn't have JJ. I can't fault LJ for not folding a set in a bloggament ... but realistically my range has her crushed here. Fortunately, my image helps me get paid off in spots like this -- that and no-one willingly folds a set in a bloggament!

That allowed me to sail along, playing conservatively and protecting my big stack and selectively choosing spots to chip up with minimal risk. I suffered a setback here and there vs. short-stacks that sucked out on me but overall I maintained a top-5 stack as we made it to the final table.

NumbBono and I got involved in some pretty sick pots along the way and I was pretty worried as the final table began: he had been co-chipleader for a long period of time but in a sick run on the final table bubble he doubled up to 40K, which was double my stack (!). I patiently navigated the final table minefield, though, and when we got down to three-handed with the two of us and Smokkee I'd chipped up nicely and seized the chip lead. The three of us traded chips for a good while and I lost two big pots to come back to the pack. Ultimately NB busted out in third, but not before we traded sick beats: he cracked my pocket jacks when I slowplayed myself into oblivion and lost the maximum when he flopped 2pr. But I managed a key double through him when I needed it when I squeezed and he made a nice call with ace-high (which was good) and I flopped a pair.

I got pretty lucky vs. smokkee in our headsup battle. I donked him to take a commanding chip lead, then he won about four consecutive 60/40s, and then I finally won one to close it out. I nut-peddled a few times but he escaped; I let him re-steal light a few times and then caught him but he escaped some more; and then I finally got it in with the worst of it again and won.

Funny Mookie exit

A pretty funny betting sequence .. I open for 180 chips (3x the blinds) with a starting 2K stack. lucko is the chip leader in the big blind with 7K. He jams. I insta-call.

Fittingly, I lose. That's poker for you.

Bridesmaid

Pretty self-explanatory. I overplayed a pair headsup (I turned my hand into a bluff when the board came running aces on the turn and river as I could plausibly represent a lucky full house) vs. a flopped straight headsup and relinquished the chiplead. Then I was short-stacked and missed a freeroll to double up back up to a 3:2 disadvantage; we chopped. Then I got it in preflop with Ax in a 60/40 and villain turned a gutshot to bust me. I can't really fault villain for gambling with Kx with a 5:1 chip advantage, but it's not necessarily the spot I'd choose in his shoes with only 1 bet invested against my shove of 20 bets.

Fun times were had despite the disappointing finish, I think I only saw about 11% of flops all tournament, which is much tighter than I usually play. Of course, I was severely short-stacked in the early stages of the tournament, coming back from 200 chips with a quadruple up to become vaguely relevant, and patiently waited to double up back to a useably-sized stack. From there I kept my tight image and used it to pull off some big bluffs later on when I went card-dead. If I had won just one of five or six 60:40 weighted flips in my favour when we got down to the final five, I most likely would have had an insurmountable chiplead. Oh well. Sometimes you get unlucky.

Mookie final table recap

I don't have time to do a full recap at present. I will just say that I risked being first out on the very first hand of the tournament (last week, as you may recall, I busted out on Hand #3). From here I rode my way to a 5th place cash, cursing as I lost a couple of key hands late and failing to dodge 7 outs with one card to come to vault into a commanding position and a strong chance to win.

Maybe next time Don won't be quite so cute with KK ... sometimes flopped straights do win!

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 15/30 Blinds, 8 Players

SB: 3,000
BB: 3,000
UTG: 3,000
UTG+1: 3,000
MP1: 3,000
Hero (MP2): 3,000
CO: 3,000
BTN: 3,000

Pre-Flop: (45) J Q dealt to Hero (MP2)
3 folds, Hero raises to 75, CO folds, SB calls 60, BB calls 45

Flop: (225) 9 K T (3 Players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets 120, SB raises to 330, BB folds, Hero raises to 990, SB raises to 2,925 and is All-In, Hero calls 1,935 and is All-In

Turn: (6,075) 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (6,075) 4 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 6,075 Pot
SB showed K K (three of a kind, Kings) and LOST (-3,000 NET)
Hero showed J Q (a straight, King high) and WON 6,075 (+3,075 NET)

Brief Mookie recap

I didn't make it to the first break tonight in the Mookie; obviously that is very disappointing. Deciding to make a large 3-bet shove preflop with AQs was somewhat risky .... but I never imagined getting two callers both with AK! A king on the flop and I was praying for backdoor hearts which never came.

However, I did manage one noteworthy achievement:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 20/40 Blinds, 8 Players

BTN: 2,790
SB: 2,980
BB: 770
UTG: 6,160
Hero (UTG+1): 2,880
MP1: 5,930
MP2: 2,625
CO: 2,820

Pre-Flop: (60) 5 5 dealt to Hero (UTG+1)
UTG folds, Hero raises to 115, 5 folds, BB calls 75

Flop: (250) 5 Q T (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets 140, BB calls 140

Turn: (530) 5 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (530) 6 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets 515, BB folds

Results: 530 Pot
Hero showed 5 5 (four of a kind, Fives)

Complete Mookie recap

I do seem to do this too often: build a monster stack, flame out short of a win.

That being said, here's how history repeated itself.

I lose about 10% of my starting stack in the first level. I recover nicely by getting top-pair hands to pay me off when I make a disguised straight and trip deuces in two nice pots, as well as taking down a nice pot with KK. This put me at 5K in chip, which had me comfortably covering everyone at my starting table.

As Hoy has discussed on his blog, we then came to your garden-variety setup hand where he folded 33 after a ton of preflop action that saw me lose a big pot:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 25/50 Blinds, 8 Players

MP1: 1,360
Hero (MP2): 5,005
CO: 2,890
BTN: 2,785
SB: 2,810
BB: 1,850
UTG: 3,625
UTG+1: 3,675

Pre-Flop: (75) K K dealt to Hero (MP2)
3 folds, Hero raises to 150, CO calls 150, 2 folds, BB raises to 400, Hero raises to 1,375, CO folds, BB raises to 1,850 and is All-In, Hero calls 475

Flop: (3,875) J 4 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: (3,875) 4 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (3,875) 3 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 3,875 Pot
Hero showed K K (two pair, Kings and Fours) and LOST (-1,850 NET)
BB showed A A (two pair, Aces and Fours) and WON 3,875 (+2,025 NET)

So that sets me back to a bit more than a starting stack. All my early chipping up was wiped out. Time to get grinding away again.

Before I can do that I badly misplay AQ and spew off a few more chips, just to make it easier on myself. Fortunately for me, I am the beneficiary of a courtesy doubleup from the Gnome, who was trying to focus on the blogger cash game and apparently had had a bit too much to drink ...

Now that I've got my stack back to healthy I mix it up a little with a light 3-bet preflop with middle pocket pair and chip up with an automatic c-bet that meets no resistance. Then I steal another pot with jackace unimproved.

I give some of it back when I manage to lose the minimum with 99 vs. QQ on a scary board:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 60/120 Blinds, 8 Players

MP2: 2,205
Hero (CO): 6,280
BTN: 4,355
SB: 7,907
BB: 9,040
UTG: 4,960
UTG+1: 5,690
MP1: 2,913

Pre-Flop: (120) 9 9 dealt to Hero (CO)
4 folds, Hero raises to 360, BTN raises to 1,200, Hero calls 840

Flop: (2,520) K 8 8 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: (2,520) J (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: (2,520) J (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Results: 2,520 Pot
Hero mucked 9 9 (two pair, Jacks and Nines) and LOST (-1,200 NET)
BTN showed Q Q (two pair, Queens and Jacks) and WON 2,520 (+1,320 NET)

Then I manage to get on the other side of a dominating PP vs. PP (TT vs. 99) situation and hold up. I get KK(#3, insert Astin joke here) and get no action. I bust Alan when his crippled stack (he ran KK into AA just like I did) can't improve vs. my AKs.

And then I catapult to the chiplead when someone floats me and makes a hand at precisely the wrong time:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 80/160 Blinds, 8 Players

Hero (UTG): 9,105
UTG+1: 6,155
MP1: 4,720
MP2: 5,227
CO: 8,600
BTN: 9,760
SB: 7,011
BB: 2,313

Pre-Flop: (240) 9 9 dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to 320, UTG+1 folds, BTN raises to 800, Hero calls 480

Flop: (1,840) 4 4 9 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets 1,120, Hero calls 1,120

Turn: (4,080) A (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: (4,080) 2 (2 Players)
Hero bets 1,960, BTN raises to 7,840 and is All-In, Hero calls 5,225 and is All-In

Results: 18,450 Pot
Hero showed 9 9 (a full house, Nines full of Fours) and WON 18,450 (+9,345 NET)
BTN showed K J (a flush, Ace high) and LOST (-9,105 NET)

All of which led me to the top of the leaderboard:

Right after the break at a new table, I finally bust Mookie for the first time ever in a classic race with a twist:

Yep, the ol' two-outer on the turn to recapture the lead.

Then I get caught making a positional raise with my big stack ... of course, I would have gotten there ... but Bayne and Columbo quite properly priced me out of seeing a showdown.

I grind back up for a while and then manage my only suckout of the tournament, cracking JJ with 88:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 200/400 Blinds, 50 Ante, 6 Players

MP: 4,017
Hero (CO): 23,365
BTN: 10,578
SB: 12,660
BB: 3,980
UTG: 11,025

Pre-Flop: (900) 8 8 dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, MP raises to 3,967 and is All-In, Hero raises to 7,534, 3 folds

Flop: (8,834) K K 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: (8,834) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (8,834) 4 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 8,834 Pot
MP showed J J (two pair, Kings and Jacks) and LOST (-4,017 NET)
Hero showed 8 8 (a full house, Eights full of Kings) and WON 8,834 (+4,817 NET)

Which was obviously a welcome result.

I then make some laydowns, get played back at preflop and have to fold to some 3-bets. I bust a shorty, I double up a shorty, and see-saw at the 20K chip mark for a while. I dip down to 15K and into second place, but then the new chipleader demonstrates what not to do with a big ace:

... which is to make a move when I don't think you have it: he opened, I 3-bet, he flat-called and shoved the flop. All of a sudden, I rocketed up above 30K in chips, which is where I would stay going into the final table. Sadly, once we reached the final table I went completely card dead and watched as LJ seized a comfortable chip lead over me and decided to take K-high to the felt.

And IGHN in 4th place.

Still, it was a very fun tournament and I always enjoy playing with Don and LJ and Mookie and the gang.