Poker Tournament Series #8

Not sure if I have mentioned it before, but I participate in a poker tournament series at my school. I am co-founder of the series and we have been running it all school year. Every other weekend we hold a tournament that pays cash to the winners, awards points for the tournament leader board, and accumulates money for an end-of-the-year prize pool. You can find out more information about the tournament HERE. The tournament has a great structure that allows for a great amount of play.

I started off late in today's match and was blinded down a little bit. The structure is good enough that I didn't lose a lot of chips and I was in perfect condition when I got to the table. The first two hands dealt to me were KK and KK, not too shabby of a start. I then sat quietly for a few levels while other players made some moves, but there was no real action. When the blinds got into the 300/600 level, I found myself with just over 12,000 chips. I limped in MP with J10h after UTG and UTG+1 limped. The SB completed and the BB checked. The flop came J 8 6, rainbow and it was checked to me. I bet out, but the dealer didn't realize I was still in the hand and turned the next card. It was a 9, but we had to fix the situation and after we did, we ran it again after the SB called. The new turn was the same card and the SB lead into me. I was fearful of two pair or maybe some sort of straight that he just picked up, so I just called. The river blanked and he checked to me and I checked behind. Low and behold, he held 57 for a straight. Guess I lost a minimum on that one.

After a few blinds hit my stack and people stealing from me, I couldn't really get anything going and found myself with right around 6500 in chips. I was in the SB for 400 when UTG limped, MP limped, and the button limped. I didn't bother to look at my hand and sensed a lot of weak limps out there so I just moved in to pick up the money in the pot. Everyone folded and I checked my hole cards for a whopping 23o. Fold equity and timing can be a great thing in poker when you need some chips. I had just added 3200 to my stack fairly easily.

This next hand came up and was just a killer for me:

UTG (weak player, passive) limped for 1000
SB (solid, tight player with respect for my play) completed for 1000
I was in the BB with 13,000, holding A7o.

Once again I sensed weakness and raised to pot to 3500 to pick up the blinds. UTG thought and called, rather weakly, SB folded. Flop came K 6 3 with two clubs. I fired another bet of 4500 and UTG called and left himself with 3000 chips or so. I was irritated right now and couldn't manage to fire on the turn when a blank 9 came out and UTG moved all-in. Stating he had QQ, but who really knows. I really had him on a flush draw but couldn't figure out if it was the Axc and he had me beat. I folded and left myself with a short stack. The very next hand it folded to me in the SB and I shoved to steal the blinds against a tight, passive player who went into a long deliberation and then called with A10o. I had 95o, and at least I was live. I didn't get lucky and was out in 8th place out of 12 players. Not really a big deal. I felt I trusted my reads most of the day, but they just didn't work out in the end. I've also been playing so much online poker lately that I wonder if my live skills have suffered from such. I'll be thinking about my play tonight and some tomorrow and getting ready for the next match in two weeks. As of right now, I stand in 5th or 6th on the leader board and need to move up into the top 4 if I want to play for the money at the end of the year.