One Hundy K Wit Overlay
Monday, January 15, 2007
On the heels of a certain poker blogger winning the Mansion 100k Guarantee on Saturday night, I was primed to make my run for the same nice payday. When I signed up last night with 3 hours before start time, there were only 97 entrants. I had a good feeling the overlay would be juicy, much like its been since they started these things. As it were, by the tourney start time, I was happy to see only 517 entrants leaving $48,300 for Mansion to pony up. Sweet Lincoln's Mullet that is some serious overlay. Of the 517 entrants, 54 would be paid, though the sweet spot was obviously not until the final table.
My starting table was very timid, save for one guy who was raising his fair share. I didn't plan to make any magical moves in the beginning unless it just made sense. Turns out nothing made much sense early. I wasn't getting any hands to play and when I got a hand I would normally want to get in with if in the right position, there would be a huge raise in front. I hovered around my starting stack for most of the first hour.
As the blinds were increasing, my stack was decreasing and I finally found myself down to 900 in chips, after a high of around 4000. In the BB, and down to 900 in chips, I had 7 4 offsuit and figured I was going to push if it was limped to me. A big stack raised and I had no fold equity so I decided to let it go. I'm glad I did. On the next hand, in the small blind, I wake up with QQ and double up through the BB.
From there I went on a mini heater and found myself at around 18k in chips 2 hours into the tourney. We were down to a little over 100+ players and the blinds were getting huge. This was the time for me to build my chips up for a nice run at the final table. Players with small or medium stacks were pushing with air, and big stacks were taking chances right and left. I had built a table image of someone who was unafraid to defend my blinds or get my chips in the middle if I felt I was ahead. In particular, the two players to my right seemed to be getting fed up with my aggression when they were trying to limp into my blinds. I knew if I could get a decent hand and overbet all-in, I would get a call from one of them with a weaker hand.
This is where my tournament came down to one hand. I still had about 18k in chips and raised it up with JJ. One of the players I mentioned above raised me about 2.5 X my original raise. I absolutely knew I was ahead and I figured him for 77 - TT. I pushed hoping to take the pot there or put myself in prime position to double up (he had a decent stack, but less than me). He called my all-in, had AKo, and rivered an Ace to take the hand. If my JJ held up there, I would have been 2nd in chips overall for the tournament and ready to make my run. As it were, my stack was decimated and I went out not long after in 85th place, 31 places from ITM.
I was not interested in letting my stack dwindle and creeping into the money with a tiny stack. The first money spots were only $250, and as I mentioned above, the real cash didn't start until the final table. I did exactly what I wanted to do in this tourney and just didn't win the key hand up to that point. I'm happy with my game and think I'll be playing this one a few more times before they either drop it because of the overlay, or it builds up enough steam to make it just a run of the mill 100k tourney with no overlay.
Well, if you've made it this far, thanks for reading a post about a tourney I did not cash in. It was nothing to write home about, but since it was one of the largest online buy-in, largest guarantee tournaments I've played, I thought I should chronicle it here.
Oh, I almost forgot. About an hour before the blogger Big Game, I managed to win a $75 tourney token, so I joined in the fun. I way overplayed AK way too early in the tourney and ended up finishing 19 out of 19. I pwn! I truly believe my head was not in that game and it showed. At least I was able to focus on the Mansion tourney at that point. Well, that's it for me today.
Until next time, may the felt be with you.
posted by TripJax @ 11:48 AM,
3 Comments:
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At 3:22 PM,
slb159 said...
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At least you didn't bubble shoving in your chips to the big stack at the table when there's a bunch of shortie's around. That's my pantented move.
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At 4:51 PM,
ilico said...
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Sometimes I find myself just hovering around the average for most tourney's and then get a large pay off when the push for the final table starts. Mind you my last two efforts in the $8K on Full Tilt have both resulted in 20th placings. You are playing well and the final tables will start to come in.
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At 6:13 AM,
Chad C said...
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Have to win races and be willing to take them. Keep playing and one day all the moons will allign :) I lost that thing tonight QQ vs A7 all in like 15 minutes into the tournament!!
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