Petrillo: Yesterday I played a live tournament at the Associação de Carteado entre Amigos (Florianópolis) and I played very well! It was supposed to be an MTT, but as there were only 11 people, it was a single table (that's why it's in this section).
I played well and came third. It wasn't a great result, as there were only 11 players, but they were all much more experienced than me.
The structure is very loose: buy-in of R$10.00 with 1,500 chips, unlimited re-buy up to the 4th level at R$10.00 and add-on at R$10.00 of 3,000 chips, blinds starting at 10/20 and going up every 20 min.
Being very loose, the right strategy is to be very tight. Before the break I played very few hands. The most important was a QcJc in the middle of the table which, with the JT3 flop, gave me the top pair. I bet 100 into a pot of 200 and one called, turn J and I bet another 100 and the guy called. River x and I bet another 100 for the guy to call and he calls showing T3. Too bad he looked like shit on the turn, otherwise I would have bet more on the river and taken his chips...
Then I played a KcJc in the cut off, but it didn't hit anything on an AJx flop with a lot of action and I folded.
I reached the break with around 1,100 chips and made the rebuy and add-on, leaving me with 5,600 chips, blinds at 100/200, giving an acceptable M=5600/300=18.7.
(so as not to bore you and make it too long, I'll split it into more than one post ;))
Petrillo: Unlike before the break, I received some interesting hands in the decisive phase of the tournament.
The first was an AA in the middle of the table, where I opened the pot and went in clean, knowing that someone would always raise on me, as I had already folded to a pre-flop raise. The blind was at 200 and a guy in the cut-off put in 650 chips and the BB completed. So, wanting to isolate myself, I put in 2k chips, leaving myself 3.2k behind. The guy I raised thinks about it and says "no way", making it clear that he had KK and was afraid of AA, but he goes all in with something like 2,500 chips. The BB folds and I call. Nothing helps the unlucky KK and I'm down to around 11k chips with an average of 7k chips.
A few hands later, blinded at 150/300, the only girl at the table, very tight and a bit weak, opens the pot with 1.2k chips, leaving me with something like 1,550 behind. I look at my cards and see AKo in the middle of the table. My reading was that she had AJs or less and I gave her 3,000 to isolate. Everyone runs and she goes all in, calling my bet, showing AQo. Unfortunately the first card is a Q and I lose 2,750 chips, leaving me with around 7,000 chips.
The next hand was a beautiful QcQh. The chip leader, on my right and lucky enough at the table to have marginal hands and hit, went all in. I give him 1,500 and fold to him, who completes. Flop AsXcYc. He makes the table like he's got game and I make the table too. The turn is another one of clubs and I wonder if I should bet, as it was a flush draw with Qc. But I thought, "And if he has Ac my draw is dead". He calls again and I call. There's an 8s and he's all in and I fold. Then he told me he had Kc3c. Nice fold.
With these two losses, I'm left with 5.5k chips.
Petrillo: The blinds were getting very expensive and people were killing each other. As I was short stacked, I held on, stole some blinds with A7+ pushes and stayed in the tournament.
When we were down to just four players, and the prize pool was for the top three, there was a super short-stacked guy who pushed in 1.5k chips with blinds of 500/1k 1k. The chip leader called, I called with T9o and the big guy completed. Here I made a big mistake that later turned out to be good for me. A 9 appeared on the turn and I bet 1k. The others didn't call and the short showed QQ, taking the pot, which would be won by the BB who had made two pairs on the river. That would have burst the bubble! But the QQ guy then folded and pushed with 5k and I called with AsQs and the guy showed Ac7c. Nothing helped his partner, who fell into the tournament ball and I was down to 12k.
Petrillo: The hand that compromised my tournament was 32nd in the BB. Blinds at 750/1,500 and I had about 10k chips. The SB completes and I call. Flop K35 rainbow and the SB chip leader calls. I bet 3k chips and he thinks for a while and calls. Turn 4 and I'm down to two straight. I think I made a mistake here, because SB called and I should have gone all in. I asked for a table to see if my straight matched (and to make a safer profit), but there was an 8 on the river and the SB went all in and I folded. He had 58o and made two pair. He said that if I had bet on the turn he would have folded...
With something like 6k left, I soon had to push and I chose a Js9c from the dealer for a push of 4.5k, paid by the chip leader on my right who had AJo. Two spade cards appeared on the flop, giving me the chance of a flush runner runner, but the Ac on the turn put the final straw and I was left in an honourable third place.
Prize: R$ 40,00
Cost: R$ 30,00
Balance: R$ 10.00
It was great to take part! I got more experience, because I hadn't played live for a while.
It's hitting the crossbar. I'll do it soon! 🙂
Marcelo: The hand that compromised my tournament was 32nd in the BB. Blinds at 750/1,500 and I had about 10k chips. The SB completes and I call. Flop K35 rainbow and the SB chip leader calls. I bet 3k chips and he thinks for a while and calls. Turn 4 and I'm down to two in the straight. Here I think I made a mistake, because SB called and I should have gone all in. I asked for a table to see if my straight matched (and to make a safer profit), but there was an 8 on the river and SB went all in and I folded.
You tried to steal the pot on the flop and it didn't work out, which is fine. I would have guessed a weak K from your opponent. On the turn came the four and you were left with an open call for a straight. In other words, you had 8 outs for a straight and 5 outs for a three of a kind or two pair. That gives you a chance of only 25% or so to improve your game, and even then you could lose to a higher straight or two better pairs. I don't think you made a big deal of checking, unless you had a good read on your opponent.
Petrillo: Cool Marcelo, thanks for the comment.
I really see now that the situation was on the borderline between check or push. The point is that I had the image on the table of ultra tight, so the fact that he only paid would indicate something like Kx or two pair...
Very difficult decision on the turn, but the fact is that on the river it was easy with his all in. 😉
Luckily, he always went all in when it was big, and since he was on my right, I saved a lot of chips! 😉
TamielD: right
reilisam: difficult reading, but it proves once again that aggression is almost always the best way to play.
Congratulations on the result!
Original author: Petrillo.
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