It’s about time I posted my report on the five $1000 freerolls that Virgin Poker ran to celebrate their re-launch last weekend. Those five nights reminded me just how baffling and frustrating and exhilarating tournament poker can be. In a way, I was kind of glad when the five nights were over so I could go back to what I was doing, which was working hard to improve my limit game, but this was an enjoyable little diversion for a few days. It’ll be interesting to see if Virgin can hang on to a lot of the players who came to these tournaments. I saw a lot of different names from one night to the next, and probably about 99% of them were British too. The number of players involved each night varied from 230 to 295, which isn’t too shabby. I was impressed by the fact that each player started with 2000 chips rather than 1500 (or the 800 you get at some places), so I may stick around and play a few more cheap tournaments there.
Things started really well for me in the first freeroll on Thursday. For the first time ever, I got myself into the late stages of a tournament and into a position where I actually felt that I had as good a chance as anyone to win it. It was very rewarding to see evidence of the work I’ve put into learning to play no-limit tournaments paying off. I comfortably managed to survive that tricky first hour which often trips me up; where the lunatics who call all-in bets with bottom pair get weeded out. I managed to stay just ahead of the average stack by mixing up my play and picking my victims carefully. As the bubble approached I began to steal as much as I could if I could get in first – often asking the medium stacks whether or not they wanted to play for all their chips, particularly the ones who were shopping themselves by chatting about how tense things were getting – the prize money for 11th to 20th place was just $10 for heaven’s sake! I got myself as high as 7th place with 31 players remaining. I was pleased that I didn’t need to come from behind in a hand at any point, but I didn’t have anybody get lucky against me either. Only once did I get involved in a race (with my TT against KQs), otherwise I was always ahead when the cards were on their backs. After two and a half hours of play, I eventually finished 20th out of a field of 242, finishing just in the money after some cold cards and bad position ended my night. As I said, this was the best I had ever done in a field of this size and I felt like I’d proved something to myself. It’s fantastic to see your own good play rewarded with solid results (and cash too, even if it’s only $10) so I was really enthusiastic about the next four nights.
In fact, I gave the Friday freeroll a miss, but I was back on Saturday only to go out after getting appalling cards dealt to me for fifty minutes. There wasn’t a lot I could’ve done about this one. There were too many people willing to call with anything for me to try making any moves. Monday was much the same, although I stayed afloat a little bit longer with some very selective aggression against a half-decent table. Eventually I had to push with an ace and lost a race.
But it was Sunday night’s exit that provided the biggest lesson. I’m conscious of not going into too much detail with hand histories, so I’ll try to just stick to the facts with this one. Anyway, I re-raised with 99 from middle position after the player on my right raised to double the big blind. Everyone else folded. The original raiser called. The flop came a beautiful 953 rainbow and I had a great chance to double through and get myself over that “first sixty minutes” hurdle once again. My opponent bet the minimum 150 into an 1100 pot. I called. The turn brought a 3 to give me a full house. Again there was a minimum bet of 150 into what was now a 1400 pot. Once again, I called, sensing a chance to take all her chips. The river brought a K. This time the bet was 450 into a 1700 pot, leaving her just 400 more. Convinced I had this won against an A9, or a K5, I went all-in for my last 1100, knowing that my opponent was pot-committed, only to be called and shown pocket Ks to lose to a bigger full house. Nooooo!
Okay, so it was a two-outer, but I think a big bet from me on fourth street could’ve ended the hand right there – the pot was big enough at that point to justify doing that and the weak bets coming from my opponent meant that I was unlikely to make significantly more than was already in the pot. Of course, the other possible holding from a weak opponent was a big pair and it’s not out of the question that I would’ve had a big bet called on fourth street with two pair (Ks and 3s) against my full house either, which arguably would’ve been a mistake at that point. Essentially, I got caught trying to extract the maximum from a very strong hand. I took a chance and lost, so no complaints. Next time I’m in a similar situation, I’ll be paying less attention to the “ching ching” noises in my head and thinking instead about how much more I can win from the hand and whether I need to end things quickly and decisively with a big bet.
So that was it – the freerolls were over. What started off very promisingly ended as a bit of a disappointment. Still, I was up $10. Now where did I leave my copy of “Small Stakes Hold’em”??
Instead, you can read Wil’s roundup of the tournament on the Card Squad website here: