Went to the Oceans Pokerclub near Passau to take part in two of the "Oceans Masters" events. Two tournaments that couldn't have been more different.
Both were called "Deepstacks" but to be honest they were decent structured (PF > 10) but not what I would call "Deepstack". But beside the fact that there was a huge jump from Level 3 (100/200) to Level 4 (200/400 + 25 ante) this was a playable structure with 10,000 startchips and 30 min. levels. The second tournament even offered 15,000 chips.
During the first tournament that had 50 players I never really made it above my starting stack until we were down to two tables. No big win, no big losses ... I just wasn't able to come ahead. The most remarkable hand was a Queen-high straight flush that got me at least some chips. My third if I recall it correctly.
With 18 players left at the 800/1,600(200) level I was close to death with just 9,000 chips being in the big blind. I was absolute card dead since a long time and now got KJo in the BB. Then the button made me a real present: He raised it to 5,000, the SB folded and I decided to go all-in. I expected him to have a hand but with only 7,400 left I didn't had much choice and hoped for a coinflip. Of course he called and to my delight showed 72o! Double-Up!
This was a weired move. He wanted to steal but it was bad timing. He only had a stack of 18K himself and he should have seen that I am very low in chips (=desperate). If I decide to play my hand he is commited to call for half of his chips. A well, I don't have to understand everything.
From there I could only pick up some blinds and antes but even with 18,000 and now 1,000/2,000(200) blinds there wasn't much room to move. I found 55 in early position. As our table was now short-handed with 6 players this was a decent hand and I went all-in. Unfortunately a big stack found JJ and I was out on 12th with 7 spots paid.
It was a nice tournament and I enjoyed meeting some people I knew for a long time but never met in person so far. Therefore I was in good mood for next days tournament.
But this went into desaster as I only lasted about 20 minutes. Again we had 50 players and early on I lost a decent pot while having the donkey end of a straight with 9 to K. As the board was T,J,Q,K I had to give my opponent the possibilty for an Ace and folded to his river bet. He showed QQ for trips. That was a tough one. I think I made the right decision (by conserving chips) but this hand still flew through my head when I got AK a little later.
I raised and got two callers. Flop comes 2-6-A. TPTK with a low board, cool! Not cool because I absolutely overplayed may hand and ran into a set of sixes. Bad play on my part. My first priority is to conserve chips in the early stages due to my style of play. After my opponent showed resitence to my bets I should have been carefully. I saw a lot of very bad play that weekend but this was the first hand this guy played as he arrived late. Of course in that tournament there were a lot of people that would reraise me holding AQ, AJ or even worse. But when in doubt ...!
So the only one I can blame here for being out in 49th of 50 is myself.
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Superbowl XLIII is just 2 days 20 hours and 16 minutes away! I put down two small bets on the Cardinals betting the spread +7 and winning +180. If the Cardinals lose by more than 7 I will lose money of course. If they lose below 7 I will almost break even and if they win the superbowl I almost double my money.
Why do I think the Cardinals will win? Well, usually the right side at the conference championships and the superbowl is the better defense (which would be Pittsburgh). But the Cardinals showed that they can deal with good defenses. They remind me somewhat of the Patriots and Tom Brady in the 2002 Patriots vs. Rams game. The Patriots had been the absolute underdog (I think they got a +14 spread in 2002) but proofed everybody wrong.
Guess who was the Quarterback of the losing Rams team? Kurt Warner! History repeating? Kurt Warner winning the Superbowl now ... being the underdog with the Cardinals? Doesn't this sound like the perfect fairy tale story?
