A Morning's Poker

Hi all, just finished a morning MTT, one i was expecting to do nothing in, but instead produced a third out of 151 runners, the tournament was a $3.30 6max tournament, and i was rewarded with $60 for my efforts, a tournament i expected to win when i sat at the final table, but a result i would have accepted 322 hands ago! The point i am trying to make with posting these hands, is by saying that this is all you need to build a huge stack in these events, there is not in my opinion a huge need to be calling raises with queen ten type hands early on to try and win a big pot, at this level of buy in and ESPECIALLY at a 6 handed game, people cannot resist donking in their chips, i know some people like to play differently and boss the table, but i think you can be a snake in the grass early on, and simply pick your spots, and then become the table captain when you are building upto and AT the final table, hope you enjoy!

Here i will discuss some of the key pots and events that got me to the final table. Early on in these tournaments i employ a strategy of simple survival mode, 151 runners, and 18 make a pay cheque, even if i win my first 20 hands on the bounce i am going to be nowhere near a guaranteed cash, and besides i am playing for 1st place, not just to make a base rate return on my $3.30 for scraping into 18th. i think it is completely essential that you are just as comfortable coming one off the money in a tournament as you are coming in last place.
My first real pot of the tournament saw me increase my stack from around 3000 to 5800, i had already limped into a lot of hands and picked up my fair share of small pots, roughly doubling my 1500 starting stack. At the 20/40 level i raised on the button to 120 with king queen, the small blind saw a flop with me, the flop came down Q 2 10 with two spades, my opponent checked and i bet a sneaky 200, happy to take the flop there or mak him pay to hit another spade. My opponent just called and the turn was the ten of clubs. Not a card i was really pulling for, but it was better than a spade or an ace. My opponent howeve, was quite keen on this card, and shoved his remaining 2400 chips into the 680 pot, this sort of play should not surprise you at these low buy ins, as it is frequent and a good opportunity to pick up a lot of chips. Confident he did not have a third ten, i tried 2 find myself a reason not to call, and after asessing that if he had ace queen it was just unlucky, i sprayed the rest of my chips into the pot, he tabled 8h 8s, for 2 outs, neither of which came, and i scooped the 5400 pot.
I then went a distance of around 25 hands without winning a pot! An obscene dry patch in a 6 handed poker game, but with the blinds at their highest 40/80 at this point i saw no reason for needing the regular 120 increase in my stack and instead chose to lurk waiting for another kind donk to gift me a stack. Of course, sooner or later, someone obliged. After 4 callers, i decided to raise the action with my pair of 9's, just to try and clear out any junk like a5 or even a hand like kj, i found one caller, and had position on the opponent. the flop came 2 5 4, rainbow, a good flop for a pair of 9's, as with the ace queen theory in the previous pot i mentioned,if anyone had the godly 3 6, or ace 3, i was just going to put it to bad luck and pay them off. instead, my opponent decided to bet the pot, a juicy 810, a bet that screamed out "my ace king isn't good here, please put me to a decision to my chips", me being the kind player that i am duoly obliged, and stuck around 4200 on top of my call, a bet that had him easily covered, to my horror, the opponen IMMEDIATELY called, at this point i am fearing a set of 4's and not looking forward at all to trying to find a 9 on the turn or river, however, once i had calmed myself, i saw he had tabled 8s 8h (a hand that had been profitable to me in the prior hand!) again, he did not improve, and i rose above the 10k mark with the blinds still only at 40/80, which pushed me into a top 5 chip stack with around 60 players left. This hand did not surprise me, and is a bit of a cold flop when these 2 hands face off, i don't think i would have done a lot differently in his position, aside from maybe re-raising before the flop, in a 6 handed game a pair of 8's is a strong hand, especially after my squeeze like bet, it would probably have won him the pot then and there. On the flop a bet of 500 may have been more suitable, a feeler, which i would still have raised, but at least then he has a chance to muck his hand, instead of the decision he was instead faced with, of calling his last 2200 into a 1600 pot.

After this point i again sat pretty dormant until there were around 24 players left, at this stage the blinds were 120/240 with an ante of 25, at this stage i was beginning to pick up my fair share of stolen pots, here the pot is 510 dollars before any cards are even dealt, an average bet 720 is giving you a v healthy return on your money if you can pick it up before the flop. Here however, i did not need the help of odds to take down the pot, around the bubble i was given a very generous 4 handed table, myself with 25k roughly, and then an 8k stack, a 5k stack and a 12k stack, after the 12k stack, it was me on the button ready to bully the two blinds regardless of my hand, maybe even put them both all in, to my pleasure i was dealt the ace of clubs and the ace of hearts. After making it 800 from the button, i knew i was pricing them both out of a lot of plays, and leaving them to a decision for an all in pot, i was praying one would shove, and the small blind quickly did so, the big blind however put the icing on the cake and re-shoved for his entire stack, i quickly called and was facing 7h 7s and kd ks, no-ones hands improved and i scooped the pot of roughly 28k, and was ready to face the final table.

After a lot of chipping and chopping in the last two tables, i eventually reached the final table with only 26k, the blinds were at 300/600 with an ante of 50, making the pot again a healthy 1200 before any action. i started 5th in chips of the 6, with the short stack to my right, only the second hand, he limped in first position, and i made a large bet in second position with AhQh, he was the only caller and we saw a flop fall 2 3 k, he checked to me as i expected, and now had the decision, he had around 7k back, and there was 10k in the middle, i only had one move, and that was to gamble that he had missed, or was terrified and would fold a hand like 9's, although i expected he would've shoved a hand like that on the flop, the only hand i could make sense of, was king queen, king jack or king ten, i put him all in, and after thinking for a while he called with the in-evitable king queen, his hand help up and he doubled his stack, leaving me very short. I do not regre my play this hand, as i feel i could of made a lot of hands fold, and if i do get called by a pair such as 8's i am around a 30% dog to improve, his play made no sense to me pre-flop or on the flop, and i think i was just rather unlucky.

I did manage two low key double ups, and found myself 5 handed, when i played the biggest pot thus far, after re-raising a pot with ace king, the raiser shoved in his stack, after mulling over my options i decided i was perfectly happy taking a coin flip situation, and if i was lucky he might just have gone crazy with ace jack, as it was, he tabled a pair of kings. unfortunate, but again unlucky for these two hands to match up in a 5 handed poker game. The flop led out 6 7 ace, giving him no backdoor flush or straight draw, i giggled to myself, and did not see a king on the turn or river, down to 4 players, and the chip lead! Two hands later, i raised the play to 6000 before the flop, with around 60k in my stack, and the table short stack put in his final 8k all in, i called the extra 2000 and tabled my meagre As6h and hid my head in shame, he tabled QhQd, the flop however, was on my side again and read A A 4, again no queen came on the turn or river and i was the chip leader 3 handed.

At this stage, i seemed to find myself up against the two most passive players at the table, at one stage going on a run of winning 11, yes ELEVEN hands on the bounce, without even seeing the flop, the two playes seemed happy to wait for aces, or wait until they were heads up at the others expense.
Eventually i finally had the short stack where i wanted him, after deciding to try something different i limped in out of position with king jack, my opponent had limped on the button, the flop read 10 j 4, about as good as it could get for my hand, after exercising a read on some of his previous plays, i checked my option and hoped he would put his remaining 20k into the already 11k pot, thankfully he did, and i called so quickly i almost broke my finger on the mouse button, he tabled 10 9, a hand stronger than i thought he would have, and found himself still roughly 25% to survive, the turn was a 2 giving him no outs but the 10 and the 9, the river showed a 9, and after my hard work i was back to three nearly level stacks. Ironically this was the same player who second hand of the final table had found his miracle flop against my ace queen.

Two hands later, the tighter of the two players made a hefty raise (who had me slightly covered at this point), and i called from the big blind with queen 9 of diamonds. the flop came q 8 q, rainbow, and i prayed that he did indeed have a hand such as a large pair, as again i would have a good chance to get heads up. i checked to him, and he bet the pot of around 18k, i doubled his bet, and almost immediately he shoved his stack in, a chance for me to put my stack on the line for the first time of the tournament! i convinced myself that he had one of three hands, aces, kings or ace queen, only one beat me, the other two i had virtually dead. i called, and he tabled ace queen, making me the one with very few outs, i now had 3 8's, 3 9's and after the 7 on the turn 3 7's, meaning i wasn't as bad a dog as i could've been, but after the blank 5 on the river, i had to say my goodbyes and walk away with $60 return from my $3. I was quite happy, my sixth final table of the past 3 months, but in reality another very very good chance to take down the tournament. it was a great shame my hands didn't hold up for me, but i had got lucky with the ace king hand earlier on the final table, and so was fairly happy i hadn't just crashed out in 5th!

Feel free to give your comments on the hands above, where i went wrong for example, or any of your thoughts on strategy for these types of tournaments :)

Fred