Caught At It In My Biggest Direct Buy In To Date

Yesterday the drunk cash session was eye opening. To compare the $2/$5NL cash table to 0.25/0.5$ online would be an insult to online 0.25/0.5$ players, it really was that bad. Of course that means not much room for bluffs etc and i probably ran ok in the end going $400 down before evenutally finishing $100 down but did get rivered 5 pots b4 i left for a pot which would have put me about $300 up.

Anyway at about 9pm i was tempted away by all the pokerpro players drinking again. Glad i did cos again it was a great crack, in the end i think it was 3am when we all left and i crashed soon after.

Woke up at 9am today (Thursday) but after a very large breakfast my plan to play the 12:15pm game failed as i just had too bad a headache and was still tired. After a couple more hours kip i hit the gym/steam room/swimming pool. Met a few of the others there and ended up stayin there for a few hours in the end. I finally left at 6pm and rushed to change immediately and head to the casino cos i hadnt ruled out the 6:15pm $1150 supersatellite. Arriving in the casino at 6:20pm i couldnt decide whether to play or not. 5 mins later i threw the money in and made up 1 of the capacity 120 players that entering meaning 12 seats up for grabs (or $10,500 cash in my case).

I took a couple of minutes to find my table but funny enough when i sat down i got dealt AA first hand !!! Actually took 2000 chips (25/50 level) and increased my stack by half without any danger so effectively a 6000 starting stack :)

I got moved soon after and sat tight trying to figure the new table. I soon was happy enough with it and was looking to make moves where possible if usual. This time though i went for a tight image so when i did move the aggressive guy to my right would have to respect it. When i was finally going over the top with any 2 in the bb (10,4 it was) the sb got to it first and the button folded quicker than he had all day.

My stack went from 5-6k range for ages never really improving significantly until finally i got my first key hand and 1 of few times in the tournament i was allin called and covered. Playing 5000ish after 2 limpers at 200 i made it 1400 to go with 88. Just the 2nd limper called after a dwell and i knew i was going to commit to most flops with only about the same as the pot left. Flop came 10,6,2 and i moved in after he checked, he made the hero call with 77 and failed to improve, i now had circa 10,000 chips.

I then had what was very key hand and was also a very strange one the way it played. I pick up kings in the sb and it folds to the aggressive guy in the cutoff who has me covered. Blinds have just gone up to 600 and he makes it 1800 to go. Likely to go over the top but wanting to trap as i know his range is weak the button then flips up A7off when mucking. I then flat call knowing the chances of an ace flopping are much less and of course if one does come its likely the raiser wont have one either. Now the bb playing about 5500-6000 goes into the tank (He folds not happy, its turns out he had AQ which is funny when u see how this pot pans out below).

Flop comes AQ4 and i had checked in the dark to look weak, he continue bets only 1800 or so and i move allin. He mucks very fast and then after finding out the bb had AQ i can see that i would have probably lost a massive pot with a nasty beat if the hand played as normal !!!

I lost a chunk soon after and was back to 9000 after playin an interesting pot with Marc Goodwin (Mansion Pro) which he either made a good play on me or he had me drawing dead when he min raised my turn bet. Fortunately our table broke soon after as i didnt like the fact he had been moved 2 to my left with a big stack even before that pot.

On the new table i told myself i was supposed to sit tight but a well stacked guy raised the cutoff to 1800 and i was playing about 8500-9000 at this time after i had only been there 6 hands. I used my "new table image" to go over the top with 97std and he eventually folded showing an ace and saying "ah u havent been here long :)"

The blinds were catching fast now and at 500/1000 i raised to 3500 playing about 11500 with 10s. Got a flat caller to my left and the flop came AK2 (2 clubs) . I bet 4000 as i figured this may look stronger to the basic player to my left. He tanked for ages then folded , dunno what he had.

I then made a pot odds call getting 2-1 with 89off on the next blind level when it was only 2.5xbb to call in the bb. I got lucky against A9 but i still could have played shove poker and sustained if i hadnt hit. That was where i peaked at circa 20k but the blind jumps became faster and with 24 players left i finally but being caught by a backwards dummy.

Blinds had gone 25/50 50/100 100/200 150/300 200/400 300/600 500/1000 700/1400 1000/2000 and if i had survived they were 1500/3000 next level. The previous hand the same guy had raised from a early mid position to 7000 and i folded in the bb to be shown queens. Next hand im in the sb with 15,000 and the same guy limps. I decide to move allin with any 2 cards if no more action to me. I look down at 74off and look at bbs chips to try to ignore the limper as though it doesnt matter to me what he is playing. I then move in but the limper has AQ and is only happy to gamble gettin them in backwards into the pot when we are only 12 places from then money and its 75% of his chips, im still prob 33% ish to win but the flop comes QQJ and its goodnight.

I dont regret the move but it was a bit gutting getting so far only to eventually be called at it. I had so often built my chips without being called or being caught lets say but cos of the blinds i was very happy with the bust really. That pot wouldnt have guaranteed my seat still with the blinds as they were but i guess i would have been favourite for one from there if my luck held and i had picked the right spots without a stitch up.

Its just gone midnight now and im gnna crash now, dnno what plans for tommorrow (Friday) are yet but its another hot hot day so i will be limited to not going out much neway.