Friday 22nd February was the date of BigSlickEvents 2008 Team Event, a €210 event (or €840 per team) which was set to run for two days. You may not have heard me singing BigSlicks praises before, but they run great events. The Team Event was no exception. It boasted a 15k starting stack and 45 min blinds and attracted 31 teams (124 runners). After 14 hours of intense play, my team settled for 2nd place in the team rankings and each took home a share €4000!
I wasn’t really hitting much on Day 1 and wasn’t really in any make or break pots. My button raises were continuously being called and I missed most of the flops. I made a horrible err on one of my button raises where I looked down at Ace-rag of clubs and flopped a flush draw. I checked it down playing the flush draw and didn’t bother looking at my cards. I missed my draw on the river, a 4 of hearts making it two 4s on the board and mucked when I was shown top pair by the BB only to realise afterwards that my Ace-rag was actually Ace-4 :(.
Shortly afterwards I got Jacks in Mid Position and raised it 4 times the BB and was called by the button. I checked the Ace high flop and so did the button, I had a stab at the turn but was quickly called again. With no flush or straight draws on the board I surmised that I was behind and check folded the river to be shown AK. I certainly didn’t put him on that strong a hand and was more inclined to put him on a raggy ace!
I clashed preflop with the player to my right on several occassions. He raised whenever it was folded to him so when he raised to 400 with blinds at 50/100, I made it 1250 with A9. He looked at me and soon folded. Soon after I got AK and made the same play after he raised to 400. This time he called but folded after he checked it to me on a QJ9 board when I bet 2500.
Later on in the night I got AJ of heart on the button. My raise of 3 times the BB was just enough to lure the SB into the hand. I was very happy to see a flop of QKT to flop broadway! There were two diamonds on the board so after the SB checked, I made a pot sized bet that was called after much deliberation. The turn was a blank and once again I made a pot sized bet after it was checked to me. This time the SB didn’t call and I took down a relatively nice pot.
After the 40 minute dinner break, I was absolutely card dead. I was moved table twice which made it hard to establish an image. I stole the blinds a few times from late position on semi-bluffs. I raised from the cut off with pocket fours and was min-reraised by the Button who had been quiet all night. An AQJ flop was difficult to take a stab at, so I just check folded it. I took time to walk around and see how the rest of my team mates were doing. Paddy was up and down, yo-yo’ing from 30k to 20k on an almost hand-by-hand basis! Ollie was flying on 40k and John was just down with 14k having played tight all night. My dealer for the last two levels was extremely slow and we played 18 hands in 90 minutes which was a bit of a joke! I suppose one way of looking at it was that he was keeping me out of trouble!
Play stopped at 2:30am and our chips were bagged and tagged. I was on 12,375, which was well below the average stack of 21k. John still had 14k while Ollie had managed to get it up to over 60k to be third in chips for the day! Paddy’s rollercoaster ride left him with 23k, slightly above average!
Play resumed the next day at 2:30pm. I was seated at a table with position on chip leader Nicky Power. My first big pot of the day was from defending my BB. My BB had been raised by the same player every single orbit since I had been moved to the table the previous night. I hadn’t played back at him once so when he raised it to 2000 with blinds at 300/600 (25ante), I re-raised to 7000 with 2h3h, leaving 12k behind. I knew he was raising very light and given how I hadn’t played back once since he started attacking me, I thought he would fold. Strangely he only called after asking for a countdown of my chips. The flop was very favourable to me coming 2T4. I pushed all-in for my remaining chips knowing and he soon folded, much to my relief. I decided to show my hand which the table seemed to be shocked at with several “I thought you were tight” comments being made. Now that I had the average stack again, I planned on tightening up and showing that hand would help me get action on my big hands.
The very next orbit when on the BB, I looked down at QQ. The same villain raised once again and I once again reraised. He then moved allin and I happily called to see me dominating his 99. I had him covered slightly. This was the biggest pot I had been involved in all tournament. Needless to say a 9 reared its ugly head on the flop and there was no help for me on the turn or river. Having worked so hard to build my stack back up I was gutted to be left with around 6,000!
The very next hand I looked down at 66 and moved all in. This was met by a reraise allin by the player sitting to the left of me. Obviously I knew things weren’t looking very good and when everyone else folded I asked him had he a pair. “I do” he said, “but only a small one” as he turned over 88. A flop of 7d-4s-Js offered little help. The turn, the 3s gave me a gutshot and a flush draw and the Ks on the river completed the suck out! Of course this suck out would have to be the only one of my hands that live updater’s BlondePoker mentioned on their website! I was back up to 15k and was back in the sense that I could now (just barely) afford to be selective in choosing which hands to play and who to play them against.
With the blinds at 600/1200, I looked down at TT. Action was to Nicky Power who raised it to 3300. I moved all in and it was folded around to Nicky who deliberated for sometime before calling with A9 saying that I have 77 or 88 there often enough for him to have enough equity to call. I was looking in good shape and a ten on a rainbow flop put me in even better shape. The turn offered no help to Nicky and I doubled up once again!
My exit hand was a few orbits later, on the last hand of the 600/1200 level. I’m dealt QQ UTG and put in a hefty raise of 5400 (I looked at the blind timer to gauge my raise and it had already moved to the next level). I’m called by the button (the same person that I had lost to with queens earlier) and by Nicky Power on the BB. The flop is Jh3c7h. I bet out 14k and the button goes all in. I think for a short while. Maybe if there wasn’t a flush draw on the board I could have found a way to get out of it. I call for the last of my chips and he shows 33 for a flopped set! I get no help from the turn or river and bow out in 41st place, gaining my team 5 points. Looking back, it was a bad call by him. With me playing a stack of 40k, my preflop raise gave him insufficient implied odds to mine for a set. This was the first hand I played UTG since I arrived at the table the previous night. If he thought position was a reason to call he was wrong as well, because my range is very tight in early position to combat the difficulties of playing out of position. The only possible way I could have escaped from it was if I had limped UTG and pushed over the top of his inevitable raise. He would have been forced to fold then!
That’s pretty much all I have to say about my involvement in the event, read on learn about the key hands that led us to second place in the Team Event.
Continue reading ‘BigSlickEvents Team Event 2008 - Trip Report’
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