anomaly16

It was a rather odd but fun torunament at the casino yesterday (OfficePoker £30+3 freezeout). A couple of pretty wierd situations came up that just wouldn't or couldn't happen online - I like live play due to this and the added dimension of being able to see your villains.

As usual we started pretty deep (7k chips with 25/50 blinds). I was put in seat 10 of table 1 so took up the dealing. The table was slightly better than the usual average with some younger more aggressive players. The first 4 levels up to the break were fairly uneventful.. my AA got no action and I finished without much change to my stack.

I was going to give up dealing at the break so I could watch the football scores come in (crucial top of the table QOS-Dundee game which actually finished 0-0 keeping Queens at the top :)). However the tv screens had one of the international games on rather than the usual Sky scores so I carried on dealing.

I was starting to get pretty short with the blinds at 400/800/50. An EP player limped and with QJo, a passive player on the BB I took the chance to limp in and see a flop as one final opportunity before resorting to an all-in move. A new large stack to the table also limped on the button, SB folded and BB checked making the pot pretty large.

I dealt the flop of 8c Jc 2d giving me top pair. The EP limper checked and I decided to put in a large bet hoping to take it down there. I was concerned by the button player calling and I quickly dealt the turn of 7c completely forgetting that the EP player was yet to act. It was a completely innocent mistake as I was wrapped up in working out what the button was calling with, and having been dealing for 3.5 hrs working out pots with antes I guess I was a little fatigued. The EP player obviously spoke up and was probably a little more upset than they should have been suggesting a flush draw. I had to pre-deal the river face down and then reshuffle the 7c back into the remaining deck and the EP player called making the pot huge and dwarfing my remaining stack.

I re-dealt the turn of 3h. The EP player checked with a lot of frustration and I shoved my remaining chips in resulting in 2 folds giving me a stack of above average chips with around 30 players left from the starting 52. The EP player then showed their cards and the 7c actually would have given them a straight flush as they held 9cTc. They were understandably quite upset but fortunately realised it wasn't something I'd done on purpose. I quickly retired from dealing at this point!

We were soon down to 2 tables but I was pretty card dead and with lots of action I never found any spots to make a move. As we hit the final table bubble I was getting pretty short-stacked again with blinds of 2000/1000/200. A large-stacked player made a raise from EP and I looked down at T9o. With blinds and antes the pot was pretty large and as I was probably the shortest stack it seemed like time to make a stand and to try and get a reasonable stack for the final table and hoped at least my cards would be live.

I must have still been pretty tired because I shoved in my chips and exposed my hand thinking it was time, but 1 player as well as the original raiser were still to act! I quickly grabbed my cards again. The player who hadn't acted yet was out-stacked by the PFR so folded AQo despite having seen my hand. I was expecting an instacall from the PFR as I didn't many chips more than his raise but he looked strangely perplexed and muttered something about 9s. I kept quiet and the other players fortunately didn't speak up so he mucked his 77 thinking he was dominated giving me back my tournament life. He was pretty devastated to realise what happened after but still had a decent stack. We dealt out the board and he would have won the hand. It was definitely starting to look like I was fated to go further! I've seen this situation at the tables before and I'm not sure exactly what the rules are... I should probably find out for future reference. I wonder if the player to act has the right to ask for the cards to be re-exposed or to be able to confirm/discuss what was shown with other players at the table?

A few hands later the same PFR opens from EP and I look down to see AA. I've been reading and thinking about tells recently and tried to conceal my strength without looking too obvious and shoved leaving him a call for around 1/3 - 1/2 of his chips. He took quite some time while I tried to look just a little nervous before he finally called. With A7d I had him dominated and my AA held to give me around 42k chips and one of the leading stacks.

A couple of hands later 2 players were eliminated taking me to a final table of 9 players with a decent stack for a change (3rd= or so?).

Final table action was fast and furious.. the chip leader taking out several players while I comfortably afford to fold the trash I was being dealt and we were soon down to 5. 3 of us were quite short by now (~35k with blinds 2000/4000/400) comapred to the two chip leaders. I was dealt QTd in EP and shoved allin getting an instacall from the player to my left with AKo who I slightly out-stacked. I hit both a straight and flush on the river and we were down to 4.

One of the chip leaders took out the other shorty and we were down to 3 - myself, the OP league winner from last year and this year's runaway winner. I had to make a move and shoved over a raise with K7o but the chip leader had JJ and held to see me go out 3rd for £220 and 8 league points.

All in all a fun, profitable day and its not often you get payed off for making mistakes :) A welcome payout too now that I'm full-time. I'll post about how things are going with that in a few days.

With 3 tournaments left (2*NL Holdem and 1*PLO) this puts me 6 points clear of Jas for our prop bet for the first buyin of 2010 and 3rd= in the league. I think I probably have an edge on him in the PLO event having finished 3rd last year, but for now I'm happy to be ahead and the pressure to be on him to gain points. (remember Jas! - pressure ;))

It was a profitable month, but not as good as I'll need. However, I didn't play that many hands and my game in the latter half of the month was a bit ropey while making and facing the decision of quitting my job and depending on poker for the future.

The coaching I recieved at the beginning of the month was great and has helped give me a new confidence and perspective as well as some practical adjustments to make.

I'll post again mid-month as to how full-time poker is treating me as its too soon to comment yet.