I'm not entirely sure, I believe I busted in 4th at my table. What a day. First, at the table of 10 there was 1 bracelet and over 5 million in life time tournament winnings. Joe Beevers, Alan Smurfit accounting for the majority of it, Anh Van Nguyen, a friend of mine, myself and two others guys making up the small remainder. The only guy who had exactly $0 in tournament winnings will play the villain for the rest of my stories. First off, French french, not Canadian French, wearing sunglasses and a leather coat, not thin leather, like right off the cow's back. Anyways. We started a little less than 100 bb's deep with 45k starting stacks. Again, have to win it outright to get to the final table. So, the first few laps I played nearly every other hand. I won a big pot vs. the only real fish at the table when I floated a big squeeze he put on before the flop, he gave up afterwards though so I was up to like 57k. Anyways, third or so lap, I open QQ in the cutoff, the french villain, or the Neo, as I'm going to call him, 3bets the big blind. I decide to keep in as wide a range of hands as possible and flat his three bet in position. 832rainbow flop. He bets, I call. Turn 4d bring back door diamonds. He checks. I decided to bet the turn because if he had turned 99-JJ into a bluff and three bet with them, he's going to call now and check the river. If he has AK i don't like give 10 outs here, if he has AA or KK I don't think a marginal player check/shoves the turn with them because he's still behind any flopped set and AA, which I would have played all the same way.
Anyways, he of course check/ships the turn, I call off (I'm never bet/folding the turn). He shows KK, i lose a huge pot in level one, back to like 9k. Anyways, if the structure was different I would have never bet/called off the turn, I would have checked behind but since it was winner take all, and I thought I still have the best hand here a lot of the time, I bet/called it off. So, anyways, I double up with TT vs A2 in the blinds vs. the fish, I claw and bite and steal back to like 30k. Then vs. my friend I pick up AA vs. his utg+2 open and all of a sudden, 4 hours in I'm back to 50k. Phew.
So the blinds start to kick up, I've been playing very aggressively, but I've only three bet total garbage (94o, 23ss) or QQ+. Polarizing my range vs. good regular opponents is exploitable but it's optimal in tournaments and against non-regular opponents. Anyways, this really tight kid opens utg, I 3bet AA mid table, he flats, Good flop, he checks, I bet small, he ships KK, I hold, I'm up to almost 100k and the table chip leader. Great, cooler in my favour, I'll take the luck.
So the table is now 7 handed or so. The french NEO has opened up a little bit but has played rather poorly, bluffing in bad spots, c-betting out of position on boards that are likely to hit his opponent's flatting ranges, etc. I also noticed he three bets a lot with a wide balanced range. This, I think is exploitable. If I know someone is 3-betting wide, and we're deep (both 82k effective playing 400-800), I'm going to have an opportunity to POUND him. And here it comes.
I open 67ss in the cutoff on NEO's big blind. He decided to 3bet to 6400. I 4-bet him to 18400. He calls. First off, what does he need to have in this spot to flat a 4-bet out of position (oop). AA is unlikely because he's a fish and they 5bet. KK is the same hand and would play the same. Maybe QQ but usually it's going in as well, JJ and TT might flat but I'm not sure how much of a fish he is.
So anyways, QT4 flop. He checks, I bet 25k into like 40k. He thinks forever, 2 minutes and calls. Now, at this point I thought okay top of his range here is AQ/JJ, he could have as little as a pocket pair under the tens here that he's just hanging on to, I don't know.... I thought he was a better/tighter player at the time than what I know now. Turn is a Q. Bad card but good for me to improve my hand appearance. He checks. If I have a bluff I'd likely jam the turn because I want him to fold. AQ here is the only hand (and TT i guess) that he's snap calling off here with, anything else he has to think. BUT, if I had KK or AA or quad QQQQ or TT's full or JJ, i'd definitely check this turn back because my hand has value (I'd likely check the flop with JJ though). Anyways, I check back the turn like I'd do with the top of my range, planning on folding if he bets big on the river, ship over a small blocking bet on the river and ship if he checks. He checks, I ship the blank river, he goes in the tank forever. 4 minutes or more. Then as his hand as been picked up and put back down about 4 times he says "well, I guess you have to win this table, i call". He shows me JT for middle pair on the flop.
Here I am thinking I'm trying to take this guy off a top 5 hand like JJ or 99, here he called a 4-bet for 20% of his stack preflop out of position with JT. I rarely go off and tell a man he's a fish at the table but I was verbal with the guy and shocked at his play. Where do they find guys like this nowadays? Just so you know how bad a call this is, especially vs. the only guy who has you covered in this winner take all mtt and out of position, if I have AA-KK-QQ-JJ-AK or AKss, he's equity versus that range is exactly 25%. Just happens that I bluff off almost 80k vs. the biggest dribbler in the room.
I have enough left to steal and fight for the next two levels but I eventually put the squeeze on in a limped 12k pot preflop for my last 30 with 22 and get called by 66 and I'm out.
So cash number two, a silly small amount, and in a very frustrating manner. I'm not sure how much I love or hate this play. Being results oriented, I may have given away a final table shot but I really liked my decision throughout this hand. Checking the turn is an advanced play and would have worked better than jamming the turn vs. a deep thinking player. The only thought looking back is vs. a fish, jam the turn may have been best. Opportunity lost, experience gained perhaps. Didn't really need to fire so much with so many chips on a great table that was going to give it up eventually, just felt (and still feel) that this 4bet in this dynamic, he's folding all but the top 3% of hands (AK,AA,KK,QQ) almost always, unless of course, it's the french NEO.
Day off tomorrow to lick my wounds. Min-cash monster I am.
Poker is the ultimate game of pain. You are either giving it or getting it, and sometimes it is only 30 seconds between the two of them (David Grey).
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