Day 1

After a long night's rest, I feel somewhat better but still sick. I remember back to the early 90s when Michael Jordan was sick with flu-like symptoms and turned in a 42 point performance in the NBA Playoffs against the Utah Jazz. Could the same happen to me? I'm no MJ but clearly no one was going to see emotion from me today. I was white as snow and walked to the tournament area in a zombie-like state. I barely make it to the table before the tournament and 1st hand begin. I look at my table and see two players my age and the rest were alot older. Hmmm, could be an interesting table. Aggressive vs Tight, which was I going to be today?

First hand is dealt and I'm dealt Q,10 suited diamonds in the small blind. There are two callers and the big blind raises to 700 with the blinds at 25,50. Now it's my turn to decide. Why so big, did he have J,J? After all, this was one of the younger players at the table and he was capable of having anything. I lay it down and look at my remaining stack of 1475. It is way too early to gamble with such a marginal hand. There are three players to the flop on this hand. The flop is A, 9, Q all hearts. Big blind checks, mid position bets 400, button position calls and big blind folds. My thought going into the flop was that the button position had either the magic ace/rag, or medium pair. You only start with 1500 in chips to begin and I did not want to risk losing a big portion of my stack trying to call. In this type of aggressive blind-structure tournament, you need to stick your chips into a pot aggressively and to try and outright win pots with little opposition and this was not the hand.

The turn is a 3 and both players check. is someone waiting for their flush vs a made flush? Both players were now left with only 400 in chips and pot committed. The river is a 6. Both players check and the button tuns over J,10 offsuit and mid position player turns over a pair of 7s and neither player had a strong hand. Unbelievable really surprised that the button did not bet over the top after the flop with an open ended straight draw. More surprising is that the button position did not go bust and get eliminated on this hand either.

I manage to pick up 1 pot during level 1 and am at 1425 in chips. This tournament's blind structure are way too aggressive with antes kicking in at level 2. Blinds 50/100 with 25 ante. This means that every orbit/lap around the table will cost you 400 in chips. This tournament is definitely a "fast" tournament. A fast tournament is a tournament in which you start with less than 40xs the big blind in chips and has nothing to do with how long the levels last. It is unheard of for the antes to start in level 2. Most tournament start the antes in level 4 or later to give all players a little room to play. I will dissect these two types of tournaments in a future blog.

Level 2 ends and two players have been eliminated from our table, my stack is at 1025. You guessed it, I pretty much folded the entire level except for my big blind and I lost that hand. My buddy Kozmo shows up during the middle of the level and has watched my every hand. Much to his dismay, I am pretty emotionless and routine in my wearing out the felt by folding hand after hand. Thus far, one aggressive and tight player had been eliminated

Level 3 begins with the blinds at 75/150 and 50 antes. It's time to make a few a moves in this level or risk getting blinded-out. Now it will cost 725 every 10 hands if you were to fold every hand. The first 4 hands in this level I was dealt complete garbage (2,9; 3,8; J,5; 10,7) and faced a raise each time. Now my chip stack is down to 650. I'm dealt pocket 7s in middle position and I decide to pump up the action and raise to 400. I know that in any standard book, it will tell you to shove all-in but I wanted action and to get some of the other players chips into this pot and to win with this okay hand. I get one caller and the two blinds fold; what a gift. The flop is A, 8, 2 and I push all-in with my remaining 250 out of turn and he folds. Whew, honest mistake of acting out of turn and he folded pocket 8s. Don't try that move at home because it does not always pan out in your favor. I finish Level 3 with 1575 in chips and the avg stack is around 1900.

Level 4 blinds are 100/200 with 50 antes. Now the cost is 800 every 10 hands. I manage to gain 550 in chips during the last level but will need to pick up at least 3,500 more to make it to day 2. These escalating blinds and antes are making each hand you enter a huge coin-flip. I'm dealt Ace, rag, three consecutive hands and each time there was an all-in before me. I had to fold each time, and it was the right move because each time the raiser had a mid pair and was eliminated by a player holding a face card and catching it on the river. The next four hands, I raise all-in pre-flop with various hands and am able to take down the pot without any calls. This increases my stack to around 2500 and I have accumulated almost all of the tables 25 denomination chips. My stack looks menacing with alot of small 25 chips, I need to get alot of the 100 denomination chips. I walk over to Ray and ask him, what he thinks. He asks me "Am I getting slapped with the deck? or making moves?" I replay "making moves" and I was. Level 4 ends and my stack is at 2325. An increase of over 750 from Level 3.

Level 5 blinds are 150/300 and 75 antes. Now the cost is 1200 every 10 hands. Need I say, that alot of people will be getting eliminated in this level at all tables in this tournament. The average stack is 2600 and I am barely able to keep up pace with the avg stack. I manage to lose 2 all-in hands to 2 different short stack players with J,J and Q,Q and this decimates my stack to 1150. To make matters worse, each of these two players lost their (my) chips to the chip stack at the table. The chip stack had well over 7,000 in chips and had eliminated 3 players thus far in the level. Now the table was down to 5 players and each player had their eye on the clock to see how far away from Day 2 we were. I'm dealt K,9 suited in the big blind and manage to lose the pot to pocket Qs. I fold my small blind and am dealt a suited A,K (big slick) and raise all-in 925. The big blind insta-calls. Shit, he has pocket Aces. Before the flop is even dealt, I'm getting up ready to hit the exit. Kozmo looks at me and realizes this could be the end of the road. The flop is K, Q,J, one time let the 10 hit and I could double up and make it to Day 2. The turn is a blank and the freaking river is a blank. My tournament is over and the bad thing is that my first reaction was to fold pre-flop but there was no action in front of me.
What would you have done?

Come back for the next entry, same place, different strategy?
Chewey