In the Money: 29th of 1095 Entrants

I just finished playing in a Pokerstars MTT, a $10+1, 10 minute level freezout. 1095 entrants and I placed 29th. Here I’ve described my basic theory on playing the tournament and a break down of the hands that make and a break a good MTT run.

My first table was really weak and slightly crazy. I ended up playing almost 30% of my hands for the first 45min, and since the levels were every 10 minutes I knew I’d have to get maximum value out of my hands. I still decided to play very tight aggressive and try to be as fearless as possible and it definately got me as far as I did. One of my fundamental ‘rules’ for this tournament was going to be: If I am the first one to enter a pot (not including being in the blinds), I would raise it up. There are several reasons for this strategy:

1) Varies my play. It was hard for my opponents to put me on a hand when I made a raise preflop because they had seen my do it with 8♣7♣ and J♥J♦.
2) I can win the pot right then and there and not have to worry about a flop. Many people like to think “Wait, don’t I want a lot of callers with AKs?” My answer is no, but getting one or two isn’t bad, but you want them to pay for it. Not to mention the hands that will call a raise are much more likely to be dominated and pay you off big.
3) I can win the pot after the flop with a good continuation bet. You only pair the flop 33% of the time, and that could be low, middle, or top pair. Lets say most players only call with top pair or mid pair higher kicker, they’ll only called 26% of the time and maybe draw for more cards with a flush draw or overcards 15%, so more than half the time they will fold after the flop. I won’t do the math here, but a contiuation bet after the flop regardless of if you hit (Oh, and don’t forget you hit the flop 33% of the time as well) is the right play. More on this later.
4) Keeps your tight aggressive image. You can’t afford to start raising and then checking the flops, or limping too often preflop. I did do these moves every once in awhile to mix it up a bit, but I kept my tight-aggresive image alive.

At the first table I hit some larger hands (A♥Q♥ and the like) and was quickly up to 3k, then this hand came up: Blinds were 25-50 and I look at 8♣7♣ in 5th position and decide to raise to 175. I get one caller. The flop comes 8♦8&spades6♥ and I think and bet 1/2 the pot, around 200 chips. He calls. A 6♦ on the turn gives me a full house and I bet half the pot again, near 450 chips. He thinks and calls. I think he has overs. A J♣ falls on the river and I bet again, 450 chips and he raises instantly. I think and reraise all in and he calls for all his chips and shows A♥J&spades. Since he was too timid to reraise me preflop I got to see a flop and got paid off huge on his unlucky river. I was up to 6k and doing just great.

My chip stack continues to grow to around 12k and I get A♥K♥ in the cutoff and UTG raises all-in for 9k with blinds at 400-800. I say ‘Ace Queen’, call, and he shows A♦Q&spades. I escape a bad beat and I’m up to 21k. I stay in the top 50 all the way until we’re down to 48 people. My chip count is hovering near 38k when this hand comes up: A♥K♥ in the big blinds with 1500-3000 blinds. Folds to the button who makes it 12,000 to go. I think and push for 38,000 and he calls quickly with A♦9♦ The flop is all low cards and I’m up to 72,000+ and sitting in 6th place.

The field thins down to about 35 players when I’m K♥K&spades in 3rd position. I make a standard raise of 9,500 (still 1500-3000 blinds) and the guy to my right reraises all-in for 39,000 total. Beautiful. I call and he flips over A♥J♥. The flop falls 2♣A&spades8♣ with no help on the turn or river and I’m back down to 32,000, hurt but not out.

I make an all-in call with 7♣6♣ from the BB because UTG was all in for less than the blinds and and middle position raiser was all in for 8200, blinds were 2000-4000. UTG shows A&spades6&spades and MP raiser has Q♦J♦. The flop comes 6♥8&spades8♦ and I’m slated to at least win the side pot worth 10k but the river shows a Q&spades and I lost, down to 22k. Few hands go by and I’m dealt A♣9♣ on the button and reraise the cutoff all in. The SB, BB, and the initial raiser call… oops. Turns out I’m only losing to the BB who woke up with A&spadesK&spades and I was knocked out 29th place.

I played the game very aggressively. Several time I would raise preflop with a hand like K♦J♣ and the flop would come A♥5&spades10&spades, totalling misisng me, and I would almost check, then rethink and force myself to bet something near 2/3rd the pot and at least 80% of the time the other person would fold and I’d take down a decent sized pot. I learned it is very important to remain aggressive and not show weakness, especially after a raise preflop. There were times I slowed down. One hand I had A&spades10♣ in the BB and checked with a cutoff limper and the SB and the flop came A♥K&spades5♦ and we all checked. A 6&spades fell on the turn and I bet out half the pot, 400 chips. The limper raised to 800 and put him all in for the rest of his chips, about 1600 more chips and he showed A♣8&spades and busted.

Sorry for the long post, but thats the story and I’m sticking to it. I’m still waiting for my first big cash at a MTT final table, but sometimes Kings don’t hold up. I would have been in first place by 20,000 chips had I won that hand. Aww dang.

P.s. I looked up the odds for my KK vs AJs and it turns out I was only a 66.67% favorite.

Good game.

164 hands played and saw flop:
- 6 times out of 19 while in small blind (31%)
- 9 times out of 18 while in big blind (50%)
- 20 times out of 127 in other positions (15%)
- a total of 35 times out of 164 (21%)

Pots won at showdown - 13 out of 18 (72%)
Pots won without showdown - 16

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