Saturday saturday saturday. my my my. for some reason I thought lets smash some tournaments today becasue you can never get enough of some donks making retarded shoves into you.

Ive played a few decent live comps this month with buyins from £250-500. To coin some of my favorites from the live arena this month 'well I was thinking youre at it, you always are how was I supposed to know you had kings'. This gem comes after Iv reraised the table rock from 1200 to 4k @2/400 to be met by a shove of 31k total from a monkey (in terms of play, brains and physical attributes; well maybe more of a gorilla for the latter) becasue id called his massive overbet (2.5k squeeze from SB on 150/300)previously with Q5 to take him off his 'hand' postflop (hand in cloud cookoo land for the overbet being a low pp or A8-AJ). This pot was actually hilarious b/c he goes mental when ppl call him with garbage. We were so deep I figured as im IP ill outflop or out play him.
Q5dd flop 467dd GIN! (I think i might have shouted that i definately would have in cash game). Im expecting a c bet but it doesnt come so I figure he wants to chR. turn pairs the 7he bets 1k I min raise he makes it 6k more. I flat to a) hit my draw or my q or my 5 or b) miss and bluff when he checks. I river a 5 and check my showdown value behind. 'Iv missed (A9). Iv hit the 5. What you stupid little shit, why do you have a 5? I got Q 5 lee.' (who the fuck are you to question what cards I play) I obviously dont say this last bit as he would put me in the bottom of the marina.
Anyway Iv put him on mega tilt and I suppose I want him to shove 31k in on2/400 with AQ HOWEVER I now firmly believe that I will be folding KK preflop to a shove of this nature when there is such a good structure and so much play left. Whilst I am 70% to win a 60k pot with 24 remaing and the ft av is only 50k the monkey does not deserve a 30% shot when I can take 30 small pots off him provided he lasts that long.

Next has to be another comp 80runners ft gets paid sb vs bb on with 13 left jq tanks I look at one ace and say theres no shame in folding. look at a second ace and he declares those magical words of 'Im all in' preceded by 2 jacks and a queen on the flop. Inspite of how wonderful it is to grind to a good position, be the best player left standing with chips and have them forcefully removed from my deadly kung fu like grip.

I STILL LOVE TOURNAMENTS!!!!!!!!

When you win one and youve played well and not been all in and behind. I think its the best feeling in poker. That and making peoples heads spin with hero calls/lay downs. Tournaments also make poker more of a 'sport' or competition and I think they are they best incentive for getting new players into playing poker.
Think how you started playing poker. Did you learn by jumping into cash games? (I imagine so as they teach us the most, becasue you always remember what youve learned if youve lost money). Or did you play little freezeouts amoungst friends? Id imagine most did not play cash games straight away, im sure the idea of only losing a fixed amount and finishing when there is a victor is a key reason why people begin to play and would be put off by the thought of a game with no tangeable end. So we need tournaments inorder to keep fresh money coming into the poker economy.

On a side note think about how good the action is on cash tables at live festivals when ppl have sat around tight for hours and want to let some steam off or are on tilt from a beat. How quality would it be if poker sites start promos where ppl who play in festivals like ftops/wcoop get entry to another tournament if they play 100 hands on a cash table. They would get the rake to cover the entry for the comp and some more money would enter the community.... (obviously a very crude

Anyway after having what was a 4k downswing over the last 2weeks(ish a bit less than that I think; time not money ) I thought Id see if i could muster up a couple of nice resutls over the weekend.

The first thing I see ECOOP #6 1k PLO 6max 10k stack. beauty. I played it in the summer and bubbled. But it was great value as it was quite soft and there was a 67k overlay or something ridicilous. This time I play 50R w/ 3min blinds I pot commited at 150 b/c there was 10 seat and 27 left so I end up rebuying for 1BB a few times until im lucky enough to get a stack. good spend of 550. I bust before break when I have bottom two and the NFD v topset. for 2/3 my stack then run OESFD and TP into NFD. I summary I played like a fish and deserved to bust. but i nearly clicked that 1k rebuy button b/c there were 1 decent plyr and 4 customers on that table and theyd seen me play like a maniac. As I was checking out the prizepool v gtd it timed out. Probably a bad thing considering what happens later.

I play about 4 deepstack comps on ipoker and a few of the big gtd on stars. I make the money in the 109 and ft the 25. excellent to ft the comp with the smallest prize.
kathson took 40k off me with AJ vs 1010 when we were both leaders on the bubble. for some reason he/she wouldnt leave me alone and thought i was a fish. s/he always made massive overbets with overpairs so when i min raise 1010 LP and i get repopped i call and check a J high flop. and face a pot bet rather than an overshove. This was against the norm and i interpet it as 99/88/77 and shove. Then someone berates me for not shoving. I am conviced that my 4bet shove is being snapped off pre so there is no change in the outcome. kathson then says that s/hes not folding AJ to me preflop! LOLLOLLOL. I dont really like shoving underpairs to the board. As it only matters what I hold If I get called It is far better to just jam to random overs if you sense weakness as youll be 30% IF called by TP as opposed to 10% so I could have waited for a better spot. Then again in the particular instance i was pretty certain i was 90% favorite an probably inducing a fold. Now shortstacked i shove 75suited after waiting 2rounds to be the opener. kathson has aq i flop FD and GS on A high flop and turn flush. then this knocks me out
No Limit Holdem Tournament
iPoker
7 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG Airliebird11 (87,376)
UTG+1 penny11 (30,094)
MP Hero (21,483)
CO AceAnantha (36,181)
BTN kathson (99,003)
SB 7man (10,728)
BB PlayinNak3d (35,731)

Blinds: 600/1,200 Ante 120

Pre-Flop: (2,640, 7 players) Hero is MP A J
2 folds, Hero raises to 2,850, 1 fold, kathson calls 2,850, 2 folds

Flop: A 3 10 (8,340, 2 players)
Hero checks, kathson bets 8,340, Hero goes all-in 18,513, kathson calls 10,173

Turn: 10 (45,365, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: Q (45,365, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 45,365
kathson shows
10 K

kathson wins 45,365 (net +23,883)

Hero lost 21,483
1st place is $4k
this would put me just above average. which is ironic as the standard of players left in was just below average considering its one of the bigger nightly comps on ipoker its pretty soft with a good smooth structure if u dont bleed chips or get coolered. Probably gonna play this along side my evening grinding from now on even though after this down swing im not rolled to be playing it, a final table appearance every week should pay for it, hopefully with a nice bit of profit aswell. Only 130ish runners so its not a big ask to go deep in it as most ppl cant fold in the early levels and bust quickly.
I cash 300 for 3rd in the 25. first was 800. I played terribly 3handed. should have risked a flat call with JJ in 3way pot to hopefully assume control of comp, then i defend with 67 and push BDFD on turn after CR the flop. he did think forever before calling but that little consolation when my chips are being shipped to him.
As these were winding down i make 2 buyins HU. then for some reason instead of going to bed I look at the 5/10 tables to see if theres any whales about.
HAARRRRPPPPOOOOONNNN! I bag one and im up 600 off him before a play 66 badly and drop to even. the I get QQ vs AA on one table to make me stuck ~600. I grind back to about ~100 down and think about sitting out b/c hes not really spewing or chasing overpriced draws. End up having 2 flips

$5/$10 No Limit Holdem
iPoker
2 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
SB funnyhow ($1,000)
BB Hero ($1,249)

Pre-Flop: ($15, 2 players) Hero is BB 4 7
funnyhow raises to $30, Hero raises to $90, funnyhow calls $60

Flop: 7 4 6 ($180, 2 players)
Hero bets $180, funnyhow raises to $720, Hero goes all-in $1,159, funnyhow calls $190

Turn: 3 ($2,249, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: 5 ($2,249, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $2,249
funnyhow shows
A 5


Hero collects $1,248.50 (net -$0.50)
funnyhow collects $999.50 (net -$0.50)

and 1010 va AJ AIPF before donking another 1k to him when he flopped a flush and I tried to rep the 4th spade on the river.
In conclusion. nightmare, dont know what inspired me to go upto 5/10. couldnt get a game on 1/2 and didnt want to play 2/4. excellent use of gameselection patients and discipline there. I may as well have had the 1 rebuy in the ecoop and have a shot at shipping the 50k.