Stock Traders Charity Tournament Review

The NL Texas Hold’em Tournament was a blast! Very enjoyable to play in a tournament, my first after starting to learn how to play few weeks ago. I made it to the final table! And went out with another all-in player 7&8 position on the bubble. First 6 were paid. Since I had less chips than the other all-in player I placed 8th even though we busted out the same time. All the same. The person I busted out wrote a nice blog after the tournament that's a fun read.  and here's a picture of the final table with 8 players.  I'm the gecko in check.  Thank you downtowntrader for leading the efforts to put this together for a great cause.  And thanks to stocktwits for providing a great community for traders.

The table I was seated at was filled with good players. It was nice to sit back and play a TAG game while learning about the other players and their general style.
Looking back at my game, there were two key hands that cost me the game. We learn from our mistakes so I will go over the two hands and the happenings at the time. I will also cover a nice winner that added to my stack in the middle of the game. I'm sure there is much to improve on in these hands. I will need to confer with Master Bug to see how these hands should have been played from an expert's point of view. Till then, this is my own review of the hands.

I just got moved to a brand new table in the tournament, so I didn't have any feel for the players. With pocket kings I was aggressive on this play as the flop was lame and likely UTG wasn't hit from his action. It was hard to figure out BB's
hand as he could be defending the blind and I haven't seen him play before to try to figure out his style. two reasons that should have been enough to make me fold his all in bet. I'm not sure what a true TAG would have done. Anyways, chip lead no more and I was moved to the final table with not many chips. There I had the chance to shove and doubled my stack to over 6K chips, but still had to play short-stack style.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em Tournament, 150/300 Blinds 25 Ante (8 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com







MP1 (t4490)
Hero (MP2) (t12125)
CO (t1965)
Button (t10985)
SB (t3300)
BB (t8705)
UTG (t5055)
UTG+1 (t5384)

Hero's M: 18.65

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with K, K

UTG calls t300, 2 folds, Hero bets t750, 3 folds, BB calls t450, UTG calls t450

Flop: (t2600) 7, 3, J (3 players)

BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets t900, BB raises to t7930 (All-In), 1 fold, Hero calls t7030

Turn: (t18460) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t18460) 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t18460

Main pot: t18460 between Hero and BB, won by BB



Results:

BB had A, A (one pair, Aces).

Hero had K, K (one pair, Kings).

Outcome: BB won t18460



The bust out scene could have been avoided all together. I really didn't have to do anything here, but so I did when I got one of the few best hands I've gotten all tournament. This whole thing was a rookie mistake in my opinion, as I shouldn't shove when another person has done that already no matter what hand I have. My M was getting pretty low, one more round around the table and I'm out and I thought
this is it. 1) I should have folded to let the others play their hand head to head. 2) I should have went for a better placement in the tournament as I had the chance to live another round of hands and didn't have to play this hand against another all in player. Anyhow, AQ suited wasn't a bad hand to go all in on being short stacked.. just not in this situation. This is painful to watch and I'm still
kicking myself for going on.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em Tournament, 400/800 Blinds 100 Ante (8 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com







Button (t35498)
Hero (SB) (t3235)
BB (t14389)
UTG (t6215)
UTG+1 (t43211)
MP1 (t6398)
MP2 (t11714)
CO (t23340)

Hero's M: 1.62

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q, A

UTG bets t6115 (All-In), UTG+1 calls t6115, 4 folds, Hero calls t2735 (All-In), 1 fold

Flop: (t16965) J, 6, K (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t16965) 8 (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t16965) 9 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t16965

Main pot: t11005 between Hero, UTG and UTG+1, won by UTG+1

Side pot 1: t5960 between UTG and UTG+1, won by UTG+1

Results:

Hero had Q, A (high card, Ace).

UTG had 2, 2 (one pair, twos).

UTG+1 had 8, 8 (three of a kind, eights).

Outcome: UTG+1 won t16965



This is a good hand where I had JK (known as the rookie hand as it looks strong, but is easily dominated) and the opponents didn't give me a reason to fold the betting (timing and amount) so I stuck around for an open ended straight draw, which I got on the river, A high.  Once I had the nuts I wasn't concerned with any action and the goal then was to make the most out of the hand.  It worked when the opponent went all in. The worst at this point would have been sharing the pot.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em Tournament, 40/80 Blinds (8 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com





Hero (SB) (t2955)
BB (t2170)
UTG (t3820)
UTG+1 (t5230)
MP1 (t6140)
MP2 (t4020)
CO (t4835)

Button (t2060)

Hero's M: 24.62

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, J

1 fold, UTG+1 calls t80, 1 fold, MP2 calls t80, 2 folds, Hero calls t40, BB checks

Flop: (t320) 10, 7, Q (4 players)

Hero checks, BB checks, UTG+1 checks, MP2 bets t80, Hero calls t80, 1 fold, UTG+1 calls t80

Turn: (t560) 2 (3 players)

Hero checks, UTG+1 checks, MP2 bets t80, Hero calls t80, UTG+1 raises to t160, MP2 calls t80, Hero calls t80

River: (t1040) A (3 players)

Hero checks, UTG+1 bets t1040, 1 fold, Hero raises to t2080, UTG+1 raises to t4910 (All-In), Hero calls t555 (All-In)

Total pot: t6310

Main pot: t6310 between Hero and UTG+1, won by Hero

Results:

Hero had K, J (straight, Ace high).

UTG+1 had Q, 6 (one pair, Queens).

Outcome: Hero won t6310


So that's that. It was a learning experience if anything and the villain that took me out placed second int he tournament. He was a LAG player. The winner, a clear TAG was under the radar the whole tournament and stayed strong till the very end.


stocknuts