No money but another decent finish
Arrived in Vienna around noon and fortunately was able to check into my hotel room early. Nothing special ... small but clean.
At 7pm I played the €30+5 NL Freezeout at the Montesino. They got 141 players and I am happy to see thet they now pay 10% of the field (which they didn't do during the first week after the opening). Unfortunately the structure with 20 min. blinds and 4,500 chips turns into a crapshot half way to the bubble. Tomorrows tournament has 6,000 chips and 25 min. levels (€50+6) wich still is not great but at least better.
I busted out of this tournament in 17th position (one off the bubble) but I really don't mind. Making €60 in a €30+5 tournament (for 15 to 13th place) isn't what I am aiming for. Of course I could have played the last hand different:
With blinds at 2,000/4,000(400) I had 48,000 chips. Which was above average but still way below the comfort-zone. I found AK in early position and was faced with a tough decision. Of course I could unpack the "hammer" again and move all-in. But due to the fact that the average stack at the table was around 35,000 this felt like a huge overbet. So I made it 10,000 again (which had worked out before). In that situation I prefer to see a flop with AK instead flipping a coin. It was folded around to the Big Blind who decided to call. The flop came K-Q-J. He checked, I bet out 15,000 and he called again. With another Q on the flop he went all in for about 25,000. I was almost sure he had the Queen but at this time the pot was way too big to pass here. I figured that I still had outs for the Straight (4) and the Full House (2) if he indeed had the Queen. Unfortunately it was way worse as he had called my pre-flop bet with QJo and had hit a prefect flop and turn.
Did he made a mistake by calling my bet with QJ? Tough to say. He was in the Big Blind so he only had to add 6,000 to the 4,000 already in the pot. Although he must assume that I have a big hand (I mixed up big pushes and 2,5 big blind bets for some time) he still could afford to have a look at the board with that hand. On the other hand with a K-J-x, K-Q-x or a totally unstructured board he would have gotten a hard time and wasted at least one round of blinds. Would there be a difference if I made it 12,000 instead. I doubt it ... if somebody pays 6K in that situation he pays 8K too. Of course if I went all-in there was no way he could have called (except if he was very dumb) and I would have been able to add 7,600 chips to my stack. I tend to say that making an overpush here was the better of two difficult possibilities ... although I still won't count my action here as a complete mistake.
So I went out of the tournament but still didn't feel too bad. I had a shot on becoming a huge stack and making it very deep into the money and I missed this time. But again I was able to make it very deep in a tournament. Looking back there was only one lucky coinflip. Interestingly this coinflip was some kind of a mirror of my last hand. At that time I was the one holding QJ and went-all in with a short-stack just to be called by AK. Flop gave me a Queen and doubled me up. But beside that I never was behind when the money went in.
Of course I know there will be more then enough tournaments in the future were I won't be able to make it very deep. But nevertheless this just added more confidence in the way I play my game.
At 7pm I played the €30+5 NL Freezeout at the Montesino. They got 141 players and I am happy to see thet they now pay 10% of the field (which they didn't do during the first week after the opening). Unfortunately the structure with 20 min. blinds and 4,500 chips turns into a crapshot half way to the bubble. Tomorrows tournament has 6,000 chips and 25 min. levels (€50+6) wich still is not great but at least better.
I busted out of this tournament in 17th position (one off the bubble) but I really don't mind. Making €60 in a €30+5 tournament (for 15 to 13th place) isn't what I am aiming for. Of course I could have played the last hand different:
With blinds at 2,000/4,000(400) I had 48,000 chips. Which was above average but still way below the comfort-zone. I found AK in early position and was faced with a tough decision. Of course I could unpack the "hammer" again and move all-in. But due to the fact that the average stack at the table was around 35,000 this felt like a huge overbet. So I made it 10,000 again (which had worked out before). In that situation I prefer to see a flop with AK instead flipping a coin. It was folded around to the Big Blind who decided to call. The flop came K-Q-J. He checked, I bet out 15,000 and he called again. With another Q on the flop he went all in for about 25,000. I was almost sure he had the Queen but at this time the pot was way too big to pass here. I figured that I still had outs for the Straight (4) and the Full House (2) if he indeed had the Queen. Unfortunately it was way worse as he had called my pre-flop bet with QJo and had hit a prefect flop and turn.
Did he made a mistake by calling my bet with QJ? Tough to say. He was in the Big Blind so he only had to add 6,000 to the 4,000 already in the pot. Although he must assume that I have a big hand (I mixed up big pushes and 2,5 big blind bets for some time) he still could afford to have a look at the board with that hand. On the other hand with a K-J-x, K-Q-x or a totally unstructured board he would have gotten a hard time and wasted at least one round of blinds. Would there be a difference if I made it 12,000 instead. I doubt it ... if somebody pays 6K in that situation he pays 8K too. Of course if I went all-in there was no way he could have called (except if he was very dumb) and I would have been able to add 7,600 chips to my stack. I tend to say that making an overpush here was the better of two difficult possibilities ... although I still won't count my action here as a complete mistake.
So I went out of the tournament but still didn't feel too bad. I had a shot on becoming a huge stack and making it very deep into the money and I missed this time. But again I was able to make it very deep in a tournament. Looking back there was only one lucky coinflip. Interestingly this coinflip was some kind of a mirror of my last hand. At that time I was the one holding QJ and went-all in with a short-stack just to be called by AK. Flop gave me a Queen and doubled me up. But beside that I never was behind when the money went in.
Of course I know there will be more then enough tournaments in the future were I won't be able to make it very deep. But nevertheless this just added more confidence in the way I play my game.
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