Day 1 at the Orleans tourney

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“Fear leads to anger, Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering” Yoda

I played my day#1 of the Orleans/Coast freeroll yesterday. There were four heats, 2 Monday and two yesterday, and each one played down to 27 players. There were 133 showed up for my heat, and I survived down to 27. So today the remaining 108 players will play. The average chip stack will be around 8,500 and I have about 14,500 so I am in decent shape, but the blinds will be 400/800 with 150 ante so there isn't too much room .

What I’m most pleased about though is that I feel I played well throughout the day yesterday and had a good feel for where my opponents stood in every pot I entered. I hadn’t played a live n/l tourney in quite a while so it was fresh and new to me, but once the rustiness is shed, I think I tend to make better decisions when I hop into a game I haven’t played too much recently.

My first table broke quickly, then my second table was great! Although they said there were only 6 no-shows the entire first two heats, my heat had 23 no shows and for more than an hour there were four no-shows at my table. So we were six handed with some dead blind money, but unfortunately all 4 no-shows were seated in succession and I acted immediately after them. Essentially this meant I was UTG 4 hands in a row, and another player was on the button 4 hands in a row. But the table was very readable, and within twenty minutes I felt in full control. I sat in seat #1. The player to my left telegraphed his preflop actions every time, allowing me to steal easier and fold when he was planning to raise. The next player was aggressive and strong, but I think did not have much live experience. He raised a lot and I took an opportunity to come over the top of him and make a nice resteal. Seat #4 was very passive, and seat #5 was passive preflop and on the flop, but would let go to further aggression. The last guy, seat #6 who was on the button 4 hands in a row, was interesting. He was semi-aggressive but seemed to pick bad spots. He seemed to understand the concept of aggression but not when to apply it, and not when to fold to it. I felt he was someone who could be a good player but lacked some experience right now and I thought I could outplay him.

I made myself a fairly tight image, then went to work with a few steals. I raised on a 96o in the hijack after seat 2 and 4 had telegraphed they were folding. This left seat 3 who would likely respect my early position raise and a BB who would call with a decent holding, put more chips in, then fold later. Seat 3 indeed folded and the BB called and called my CB on a QJ4 flop. He had already discussed his style of play and made it known that if someone bet twice that his top pair weak kicker couldn't be good, so I fired off a second barrel on the 6 of clubs turn after making it seem like I was trying to figure out how much I could milk him for. He flashed me the AJ and I said "good fold" as I took down a nice pot with 9 high. Then with A2 and blinds at 50/100 in the small blind, I completed when the BB telegraphed that he was checking his option (I'd normally fold here except when I feel I have a good handle on the table) and saw a 4-way flop of 227 two spades and a king of spades turn. I held the ace of spades. I had such a good feeling here that the play was to check it twice, and seat #6 (shows aggression at wrong times, doesn't realize to fold to further aggression), indeed fired 300 into a 400 pot on the king and I came over the top for 900 with 3 dueces and the nut flush draw. I was certain he would have bet a flush draw on that flop so he didn’t have a flush. I was hoping he had a hand like KQ with the queen of spades. The other two players in the hand quickly folded but he called the raise after taking some time, then called my 600 bet on the river when a jack came. He had KJ. By the first break I had more than doubled my 2,000 stack to 4,400.

I made a couple steals after the break that didn’t work out and depleted my stack, then was moved to a full table (they got rid of the no-show stacks) and followed a couple limpers into pots that didn’t work out and found myself down to 2,200. With blinds 100/200, I needed to double through, I called on the button after several limpers with KJs, as I wanted to give myself a couple opportunities to hit a flop, but any preflop raise would commit me. I was fully prepared to go to the felt with top pair heads-up, or prepared to bet with a flush/straight draw if checked to me. As it turned out the flop came 34J with two spades, a player with about the same stack went all-in in front of me. I had a good read on him and figured him for a weaker jack or KJ or a draw. I felt that with his stack size he would have raised AJ preflop and wouldn’t be playing any hand that could have made 2-pair there and he would have c/r on a set. I thought he likely held QJ/JT/possibly two spades so I went all-in having him slightly covered. But when the SB (an experienced player) called both of us after checking the flop I didn’t feel so good. When we turned over the cards the bettor had 78s for a spade draw and the SB had 34 for 2 pair. A nice J on the turn meant I needed to dodge just a spade and when I did, my stack was nearly 6,000. These are the breaks needed to win a tournament.

After that I played real well, and only went to a showdown once. At 200/400, the chip leader at the table raised to 1000 preflop when I had TT in the SB. This guy had already said he folded QQ preflop and told us all a story about having a monster stack in his last tourney and losing it all when he could have coasted into the money. He said that he would never make that mistake again…folks, you just shouldn’t go around volunteering this kind of info!! I felt he would lay down anything but AA/KK here to a substantial raise and made it 3500 to go, making it obvious that I was pot-commited. He layed down after giving a frustrated look. He flashed his cards but I didn’t see them, one person said it was JJ another said AQs. Later I made a squeeze play with an 89 from the BB on a 865 board when a woman bet the minimum 300 and there was a caller in between us and I made it 1500. The caller was a good player who used to play all the circuit events before the TV era (I remembered playing with him at Foxwoods 4-5 years ago) and would respect my raise, the woman was someone who wanted to play minimum bets all the time but would fold to significant raises (and now had 2 players to worry about). She folded quickly and he flashed an eight and mucked.

Toward the end of the session, an interesting hand came up. There was only 29 left and 27 made day 2 and the money, we were 7-handed and I raised 77 utg to 1200. The table was tight and I fully expected to take it down without a fight. I was quickly called by a guy who had just doubled through with KK and had a little less than me. Prior to that KK hand he was extremely tight. He had already voiced his concerns over making sure he made the money. The speed of his call here made me think AK right away. I honestly think that he folds, or at least takes time to consider folding AQ there, considers raising AA/KK, and is in agony over QQ, JJ. The speed of his call made me figure AK. Flop was dangerous, 9TQ with two hearts, I bet out 3000 and he called again quickly. I had to consider JJ/AQ/or a set, but with those hands I think he would take some more time to consider his action. Turn was safe, a deuce. If I pull the trigger here it had to be for all his chips and most of mine. I had about 5,000 more and he had 3,000. I figured if I was right about the AK, this guy would take the free card if I checked to him. The other possibility to consider was JJ, but again I felt sure he would take the free card. I knew if an ace, king, or jack came on the river, I could easily release my hand to a bet. It was a tough decision, but I decided to check. I'm still not certain it was correct. He checked behind after considerable thought, and when a four came on the river, I checked and planned to probably call a bet. I still thought he likely had AK, and wasn't sure the possibility of getting him offf JJ warrented the bet. As for calling, I just didn’t see any hand he’d bet for value there. With any one pair he’d be happy checking down without having to risk his last chips, with 2 pair/set he certainly would have protected his hand with a raise on the flop or a bet on the turn. I don’t think he figured his AK was any good and he agonized on the river just as he did on the turn, wanting to pull the trigger but he couldn't bring himself to risk his last chips. I announced “two sevens” and he shook his head and showed the AK.

It was surprising how desperately some of the players wanted to hang on for the $100 payout for making the final 108. There was a guy who came to my last table with around 4,000 chips and folded every single hand dealt to him and survived with 175 chips left (at the 100 ante level!!) When the last guy busted he gave everyone high fives at the table, lol.

So I finished the day with 14,400 chips and the avg stack is around 8,500. Hopefully, I’ll play well and have some luck today. With 108 players there is about $1000 payout per person, but $82,000 of it is for the final 10 players, so the final table is necessary to make any real money. I anticipate fast action early, as low-chippers who were hanging on for the $100 payout will likely be going all in quickly, as the next pay jump is not till 50 players ($250).