Rebuy frenzy

Thursday January 17th Circus Manchester £20PL rebuy, 61 runners.

I went into this tournament hoping that it would be the start of one of those runs that you get.
I haven't cashed for a few tournaments other than a 10th place a few weeks ago so I am hoping this will turn soon, with all the big tournaments I'll be playing on the cruise.

Anyway, I decided on going to Manchester rather than Leos for a number of reasons even though it is further away from me.

1. Manchester has only 1000 starting chips with blinds starting at 50/100. So whilst this is a very small starting stack it means that a lot of people have a lot of rebuys and so there is more money in the pot (the average last night was 5.5 rebuys). Because I am patient enough to wait for the right hands or situations I generally find that I don't usually have many rebuys - in fact I've had none the last 2 visits.

2. Even though some better players go to Manchester compared to Liverpool, there are a couple of players who are loose aggressive but have a very good tell on them that lets me know when they are bluffing - One of them is a well known player who used to play on the original series of Late Night Poker believe it or not!

3. The circus tournaments are part of the Genting Stanley poker league that is giving seats to the national tournament in March that I am planning on playing in.

4. On the down side, the cash game is much tougher but I was not planning on staying after the tournament last night so that was not a factor.

Anyway, I got through the rebuy period having played not much more than 15 hands.

I managed to get up to 5000 chips quite early but lost 3500 of them when I limped with Ad6d in middle position. Now this probably goes against the advice that a lot of people would give regarding playing at a 10 handed table but I find that during the rebuy period I can play this hand and because there are normally many callers, the flush/ flush draw can win a lot of chips. I can also lay it down if an ace hits given enough resistance but hitting a big hand with it will often be very profitable. (I know the fact that I lost 3500 with this contradicts what I just said!)

Anyway, the flop was King high with 2 diamonds and when the button bet I check raised all in and he called with a pair of aces. No diamond hit and I was back down to 1600 chips.

I soon doubled up though when the blinds were 100/200 with AK against JJ and then a bit later I limped into a pot with KQ in early position and called a raise to 700 all in from the button along with 5 others. The flop was 9T3 and there was a small all in bet of 900 that was called by the two in front of me giving me huge odds with my gutshot and 2 over cards although there were 2 clubs on the board. The turn was checked by me and the other player with chips left. The river brought the Jc giving me the straight but a possible flush.

At this point I had a pretty good idea that the other guy would have bet the turn with a flush draw after I had checked. So I bet the straight for value and he called with 2 pair. It turned out that the button also had KQ giving me the side pot of 5000 and half the main pot of about 3000 each.

The rebuys finished with me on 14100 and the average stack at 7000.

I then had a 23 in the big blind against 3 limpers on a flop of 723 so I bet 1200 into the pot of 1600 and was raised the pot (4000). Pretty certain that he didn’t have 77 I reraised all in and he folded his last 5000 chips.

I then got involved in a pot when the blinds were 400/800 and there was a limp UTG and from UTG+1 I raised the pot to 3600, this was called by Nick Slade (a LAG pro) in the big blind and also by the limper.

Now Nick had about 4500 behind him and the pot was 11200 so I'm expecting Nick to do a stop and go here.

If he had a pair I'm sure he's reraising so it's probably some suited connector or quite possible even rags in this situation.

Anyway, the flop was 742, right in his ball park! Then to make matters worse he thinks about betting then checks after briefly looking at me. UTG checked and so this makes me think that he has indeed hit the flop and is waiting for me to bet so I checked behind.

The turn was a King and he checks in disgust and UTG bets 3500 all in which I call with AK and Nick folds.

Anyway, UTG has KQ and sure enough his Q hits the river!

It turns out that Nick hadn't hit the flop but he told me that he knew he should have bet the flop.

I had already decided that if Nick bet the flop I was probably calling if the UTG folded unless he looked super strong. Whether that is the right call to make in that situation long term I am not certain and would appreciate comments but I think it is right most of the time.

As it turns out, if I had made a continuation bet I would have won the pot but that's the way it goes.

So I was down to 10000 with the blinds going up to 600/1200.

A while later I raised to 4200 after it was folded to me in the cut off with JQ and was obliged to call the button's 5100 all in with AK which cost me half my stack.

After a few hands I now have 4100 once the blinds have gone through me and the blinds are up to 800/1600.

Having not had a chance to get my chips in first we get to the point where there is a raise from middle position to 5000 and a call from the short stack to my right and I have AT.

However. the player to my right tells a friend that she has "Dave's hand" which tells me it is not likely to be a big pair or big ace, so I reckon she either has a small pair or a worse hand than me.

So My thinking here is that I'm guaranteed a call when I eventually go all in so I'm going to need to win a showdown.

Here I know that at worst I'm 50:50 with the short stack to my right and I'm getting the chance to win 13000 so I decided that I was willing to take the gamble.

It turns out that the raiser has AJ, short stack had 77.

Anyway a 7 came on the flop but I did have a gutshot straight draw on the river but missed and I was out.

I felt that was the best chance to get a fair stack of chips and put myself back into contention.

BTW this was when there were 20 players left and the average stack was 15000, although most of the chips were on the other table.

Does anyone else call in that situation? I would be interested to hear.

Anyway, a few more days of teaching the Mrs and then off we go.

Until next time…