Dusk Till Dawn Grand Prix VI Day 1a..
Never, in the course of poker conflict, was so much won with so little.
Never give in, never give in; never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except when your read tells you that you are almost certainly drawing dead and your opponent isn"t about to fold.
I rewrote the records for my longest period of being card and spot dead yesterday. In seven and a half hours I had no pair greater than nines, only had AK once (late on) and generally had nothing better than AQ (mostly AQoff) and a table made up of people who just loved to see flops.
Raising AQ/AJ/A10/KQ led, inevitably to a nine high flop which equally inevitably either paired on the turn or completed every straight or flush draw possible.
It was an interesting experience on Table 32, where I remained, in seat 5 all day. The guy in seat 4 sat with me throughout and the rest of the table came and went and brought lesser and greater amounts of amusement. Take the guy who started in Seat One.
Easily seduced he saw every pair of hole cards as "the one". This was the hand that was going to build his stack. Whatever the cost he wanted to see the Flop.
Every flop brought further possibilities and it seemed he was prepared to pay again to just see that turn card.
Ohh, sweet lord, that turn card looks so good and all he needs now, to fulfil his dream of domination is to see the river card. "What"s that? I have to call another bet? Oh yes please"
But then, like the guy on Chicks"r"us.com he"d discover it was all false promises. The hot 23yr old contortionist with morals looser than her joints who lives in YOUR postcode turned out to be a 53yr old 23st trucker with hygiene issues from Cleethorpes called Frank, and the Jack of Hearts/seven of diamonds/three of clubs he was praying for wouldn"t arrive and another dream was shattered.
In this company - where raises were frequently excessive and calls were loose I opted to sit and watch a lot. Eventually I found a few spots where my button raise could be confidently c-bet and elicit a fold or two. I managed to catch top pair second nut flush draw on one flop and get a little value when the flush card came. Made a hero call vs the guy in seat two who wanted so much to be table captain but just couldn"t manage it. I think my call inspired the young lad in seat six to hero call the same guy later with 44 on a board with five overcards... he was right too.
A few significant hands all from late on,
level 13 I think. I raise AK and am in position to the one caller
Flop J 10 8, he checks, I bet, he calls.
Turn 10, he checks, I check behind
a rivered Q gives me broadway on a paired three diamonds board, he checks
I bet
he raises...
I have the
and think that reduces the likelihood of him check raising a flush, I can"t see him playing J10/Q10/108 this way and opt to call. He turns over Q9 for the flopped straight...
I 3-bet Seat9 with
because her physical tells said that her raise wasn"t with a big hand. She flats and a 688 flop has only one diamond, she looks more relaxed now so I check. Her bet on the turn looks very confident and I hollywood for maybe 20 seconds and fold. She shows 66 for the flopped boat.
Last level of the day, 1000/2000/300 and I"m down to 18300.
Serial raiser in Seat One min raises to 4000, folds to me and I have 44 - easy shove. Youngster in the seat next to me also shoves for slightly less and original raiser finds a fold.
44 vs AK - we"re off to the races and I hold :-)
Shortly after the new occupant of seat nine limps utg, folded to seat 4 who makes it 6,000 and I squeeze a glimpse of AQ.
44000 chips slide over the line and it folds to seat nine who has 100k+ at this stage. He tanks and calls and my longterm neighbour folds
and it"s AQ vs 88 - we"re off to the races again.
Ace on the flop and Q on the river and I have over average chips for the first time all day. Seat 4 apparently folded AK there...
Ten minutes later it"s the end of the day. 88 players have survived. I bagged up 89000 exactly which, given the day, given the run of cards, I am pretty happy with.
Big Martin had his run of cards early and was on 50-60k at the first break. Eventually he lost two or three flips in a row and exited in level 10 or 11. He loved the experience and is keen to return. I"ve often said it, but DTD does spoil you for playing poker elsewhere.
Sadly, Lucy3103"s also tournament went badly - she called a preflop raise with AJ and flopped top two pair vs a stubborn preflop raiser who got it all in in the first orbit with KK and rivered a king...
Brutal!
