Saturday, September 8, 2007

Is a 30BB push good poker??

In one of the worst displays of poker I have ever seen by most of a final table, I navigated the mine field to get 2nd in the 60K Guarantee $100 NLH on Full Tilt tonight. I got to the final table in 5th place with about 160K, and proceeded to watch huge allin after huge allin. The two chip leaders were routinely going allin for 400K+ on the 6K/12K level. This was even with the other one still to act. They proceeded to get the entire table on tilt it seemed. Pretty soon three or four other guys started open pushing for 200K to 300K. I just sat back looking to pick these idiots off. I was down to 127K when the button open pushed for 220K. I called with AT (almost an instacall on this table), and he showed Q6. I moved to 270K with the win. People kept pushing like crazy while I just threw out my little 2.5x bets. I hung between 200K and 400K and soon just 3 of us were left (me and the original two chipleaders - somehow everytime they got called they had TT or JJ or AK). They both had double me (340K to 700K and 770K). The blinds were 10K/20K, and they continued to open push for 35-40 BBs. I took a stand with A6 after another huge push, and he showed K7. I doubled again. Same guy then min raised from the SB. I called from the BB with Q9. Flop came QT6, and he pushes for 330K into a 90K pot. I instacall. He shows AJ - cya. I took a 1.05mil to 750K lead into heads up play. I'm not sure if I played well or not. Like I said the guy was a nut. Any time he lost a semidecent pot, he would bet huge the next hand (I never woke up with anything). Postflop he loved to bet huge (I never hit a hand). I kept trying to trap him. I knew it would only take one. We played 66 hands, and I never hit anything when a flop was seen. I picked up a few big pairs, and got no action. Towards the end he just kept betting big preflop, and I was literally getting 8 high type hands. On the last hand (12K/24K blinds), he open pushes with me having 550K. I have 44 and decide to play it. This may be questionable, but with him my equity is probably almost 60%. He shows 95 offsuit. He hit a nine on the flop and it was over.

I thought I played the final table really well. I picked my spots amid the missiles being fired every other hand. I picked up just under $9200 for the finish. I had one other deep run with a 13th place finish in FT's $100 NLH w/ RBs. I was only in for $209 and got $732 back. I am now up to more than 760 points. That would put me in 12th place currently, but once they update the stats I will probably be a few spots lower. I can't complain so far. My monthly goal is going about as well as I would have hoped for. It is still a long way to go though.

A Slice of Pi - Life Is Good

Chris Viox