Bennymacca's State Finals Adventure

[bennymacca]

Yesterday at the state finals was probably the funnest time i have ever had playing poker - i was out when there was about 90 left in flight 1, but the most chips i ever had in front of me was 5600, and there was at least 10 times when i had my chips in the middle, or called another person who went all in before me. nearly every time i was in front i lost, and i delivered quite a few suckouts as well.

first, i get drawn on the feature table, as well as Aaron Kleemann, which was pretty awesome - although last week if you asked me what would be the worst way to get knocked out in states, i would have said aaron beating me on a 2 outer on the river, and well i was almost right LOL.

These are some of the hands i can remember, but i am sure there were more than this.

1.
very early on, first blind level i think, i get , flat call.
flop comes X55

checked around to me, i bet 200, aaron calls - interesting i say, i put him on 2 overs at this stage.

turn comes a 9, i now have top pair, i bet another 250, aaron flat calls again. i think the fact that i have played poker with aaron a hell of a lot came in handy here, because my read instantly said aaron had Ace-5 and was slow playing trips, the way he flat called again.

he checks the river, i check and sure enough, he turns over A5, and i take an early hit.

2. don't get a hand for quite a while its now the 50/100 level, i get . i am in the SB, and there are 3 or 4 limpers before me. i make it 400 to go, get 1 caller.

flop comes all hearts, dammit not good (although i have the 10h), so i check, and other player checks.

turn

i bet 400 hoping to take the pot, but the other player instantly raises to 800.

dammit dammit dammit. i go into the tank, and probably put him on a Q, but i cant be sure. i also have the , so in the end i call.

river misses, so i check, and the other player instantly goes all in, and i lay my cards down face up.

he folds and after he says he had the , but i suppose i will never know.

3. so now i am really against the wall, and i have less than 1000. well the next blind level completely misses me, and i get raised in my blinds, so i am down to 500 in chips.

blinds are 150/300, i pick up , so i go all in. there are 2 callers.

flop comes X, so i am looking pretty sweet. the other 2 players check, and i think i am good to stay in here.

turn

first person leads out for 400 into the dry side pot, other dude insta-allin for about 3K, i am like WTF is going on here??????

well the other dude folds, and the all in guy turns over for 2 pair, and i need a lot of help.

but yes, the river was , and the table erupts, and i stay in the tourney.

4. i got up to about 1800 with that pot, but that quickly looks small again when i get min raised on the BB of 200, when i have .
there are 3 callers, so i chuck in the extra 200 required, but reluctantly.

flop comes X. check all round.

turn comes , still checks all round.

river . 3rd spade on the board

i semi-bluff all in with my pair of 6s, first guy folds, but the guy that min raised goes into the tank, and after a while he reluctanly folds. not sure what he had, but i am thinking it was mid pockets and he was probably ahead. anyway, i more than double up after that hand, am i am 3300 at the first break.

5. well another blind level went by, and the antes are cutting deep, and i have to make a move soon. i pick up from middle position and shove all in for about 2600, and get 1 caller who was a little shorter than me. she turns over KQ (if i remember rightly)

well the Q comes out on the board, but there are 2 clubs, so i am jumping out of me seat wishing for a club, and sure enough, there it is on the river, and i double up.

now i have 5600, the most i have had for the entire tournament, and i am thinking, finally i might be able to play some more hands here.

6. well it wasn't long, and i was looking down at KK - sweet, here is my chance to get a stack. before i finish looking at my cards, Aaron (who was doing well, but took a couple of massive hits to go down to 1100, blinds 300/600), is all in from UTG.

it gets to me in mid pos, and i raise to 3K, and everyone else folds. i turn over , and aaron sighs and turns over flop is all rags, and i am looking good. but sure enough, there is the on the turn, and i am back up against it again, and its not looking like my day at all.

7. well i get blinded down some more, and decide that the button was the all-in button and pick up the antes and blinds i lost, and i manage to stay at about 4K.

8. in the BB this time, SB goes all in for about 2/3 my stack, gives me about 1200 left, i call with

cutoff -1 turns over .

sure enough, there is the 9 on the flop, and i am really up against it now

9. i tell dakota that he really really needs to help me this time. well next hand in the SB, thankyou dakota, i get dealt . person before me raises, i insta-call all in, and another dude calls for all his chips as well.

i start calling for them both to have AQ, and one of the dudes does, the other girl turns over 44.

dakota deals the flop showing only the window card, and then the turn and the river. the turn and river were diamonds, meaning i needed a diamond to stay in the tourney.

sure enough, was part of the flop, and i hang on by the skin of my teeth again!!! but still extremely short stacked.

10. next hand, when i am on the button, i get , and i am all in again for the third hand in a row.

cutoff, who called initially, is the only one to think about calling, and he is short stacked and says this is a bad move but i gotta do it, and he calls with

well once again i am looking good to get up to about 5K, but the winow card was a 9 again!!! OMFG, i cannot take a trick!!. i throw my sunnies down, and just start laughing at the day i have had, but hold on, when dakota spread the flop out, there is a 10!!! once again the table erupts, and i just cant believe this tournament, it is just such a rollercoaster ride.

11. so i win that hand, and i am back up to around 5K again, and i finally have some fold equity again.

12. well i pretty much fold for the next 2 or so blind levels, with plenty of insane action in the same vein as i have discribed above going on.

my blinds get raised when i have junk, so i am back down to about 2500, and its button all in time again.

this time i have , which is as good as im likely to get, and the dead money was more than my stack was worth, so i am all in.

this time, i am not so lucky, as the BB calls me down with .

well this time i had a really bad feeling, so even when the was the window card, i still didn't feel confident. and sure enough, when the flop was spread out, there was the , and that was home time for me.

so i ended up playing until there was 38 minutes left until the recombine, i think the blinds were 800/1600/100 at this stage.

so even though i wasn't as successful as i had hoped for, i still had awesome fun...

thanks to everyone that organised the tourney, annabelle and other TDs

well done to everyone that cashed, especially the winner and runner up. (and a special mention to B&G's own Justin Daniels, on his awesome performance to finish 6th, top effort)

cheers dudes

[muzzington]

bb;dr

[bennymacca]

bb;dr

can i be silly and ask what that means? default raise?

[Des]

tl;dr = too long, didnt read

bb;dr would be i guess: bad beats, didnt read

[bennymacca]

lol that makes sense

its long, but there are some pretty sick hands in there, well worth a read

[stevo]

its long, but there are some pretty sick hands in there, well worth a read

If you don't say so yourself

Nah, there were some good hands there, sounded like you had a bit of a rollercoaster on the feature table, and good to see that the feature table lived up to it's name

[AceLosesKing]

Seriously, best table ever. I had awesome fun.

[bennymacca]

those were only my hands that i could remember on there as well - this was happening to all players on the table, not just me.

within the first 10 hands we had our first out when the Q of spades on the river paired the board - gave one person the nut flush, but that got taken down by a full house 9s full of queens.

that sort of continued the trend for the rest of the day

well done to aaron (and the guy sitting to your right aaron, can't remember his name) for actually surviving that table!!

[AceLosesKing]

well done to aaron (and the guy sitting to your right aaron, can't remember his name) for actually surviving that table!!

He got 7th! Dan Joyce was his name. Played well.

[bennymacca]

yeah he played really well, aggressive, but knew when to bet