Wow, our little online league has grown now to over 20 players, and 19 of them showed up for this season's inaugural tournament. I knew it was going to be a tough road, with so many decent players and even more difficult to read unknowns.
The new guys, most of which I played last week in a silly practice tournament, seem to favor the classic play chip/micro-stakes internet style. Min-raise a lot, raise with nothing out of position, stick around with middle pair (even when pushed all in). Donks the lot of them pretty much.
So I dove right in, and I must say, I'm pretty proud of my performance. I managed to be card dead all night (save for one or two instances) and still position bet and and pick my spots wisely to keep ahead of the blinds.
On one particular hand I looked down at QQ, and instead of making the mistake of giving anyone the right price to stick around for the flop - I pushed all in. Everyone folded, save for wytrabbit, who tanked for the length of his countdown before finally laying it down. He told me later they were pocket 10's! If only one of the new guys had woke up with a pocket pair in that situation! I would have doubled up for sure.
Other than that pair, the only other one I got I probably overvalued. With only five players remaining, I found myself precariously perched near the bubble (four places would be paid). I got 66. The table had lately been extremely tight, which was helpful to me - I was able to steal just enough to keep ahead of the blinds. Though scarily enough, I had to use all of my diminishing stack to get people out.
With pocket 6's I knew I likely had the best hand at the moment, it was time to make people pay to stick around. I also knew that if I got any raises it was likely to be a bigger pair or two over-cards. I was prepared to go against the latter to race for the money.
The player to my right, a new guy who had been pretty darn tight, popped it slightly. Uh-oh, not a min-raise? He must have aces. Still, my little 6 6 looked like a monster to me. I pushed all in. To my horror, the next player to my left called! I put him on AK or similar.
Of course, since it was only a few hundred more, the original raiser came along for the ride. The flop came three blanks, they checked it down. Yay. The turn was a queen. The player to my left (timmytimmy, one of our old regulars and a pretty good player) fired a bet. Yuk. His J Q would hold up to be the winning hand, as the first raiser called him down all the way with an un-paired A 10. Donk, donk, donk.
And so I was gone. Bubble boy. But as I said, I'm overall very happy with my decisions. And I recognize that with such a large field and super fast blinds, luck is going to be a bigger factor this time around. I'm hoping I have time tonight to replay the tourney on my computer, before we go for T2. I have the sense that the new players are going to be fairly easy to crush, especially if they keep calling for the wrong price and don't protect their hands with the correct sized bets.
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