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A not too brief review of my 1st MTT win
Very well done Aski.
It is such a good feeling to win your first tournament when you normally only play the low limit cash or sit 'n go's.
The new structure of blinds in the big tournament make the game so much better and now the blinds are not so big when you are heads up that you do get a chance to play proper poker instead of shove or fold poker.
It is such a good feeling to win your first tournament when you normally only play the low limit cash or sit 'n go's.
The new structure of blinds in the big tournament make the game so much better and now the blinds are not so big when you are heads up that you do get a chance to play proper poker instead of shove or fold poker.
Comments
Been on here a few months mainly playing low level SNG's and low limit cash (very badly), never tried the MTT tournies as I considered myself not to have the patience to play for 2/3 hours, nor was I keen on the fast blind structures.
Having read on here and heard on the tv about the changes in blind structures for tournies, I decided yesterday to give an MTT a go.
As the old knight said in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, to the German guy " you have chosen poorly" I entered a £2 bounty hunter, something like 70 runners and well I have to say that even tho I got to the last 33, I struggled to adjust my style of play to the tourny and didnt even come close to taking a bounty.
Having woken up early this morning I saw a £40 g/tee tourny was due to start and decided to have a go for the £1 entry fee, and what a refreshing change that was, with the 10 minute blind structure. Nothing much happened in the first few levels played a couple of hands and managed to maintain an average stac, then got aces which gave me a double up, to put me about 15th with 30+ runners left. Maintained a slow but steady momentum then got lucky when having pockets kings. Having my initial UTG raised called by the BB who was the short stack but still healthy in comparison to the blind, an ace came on the flop, I raised , BB went all in, and despite having a feeling I was behind, I had the odds to call, and BB turned over A7 suited. Then I got lucky and hit a king on the turn, which boosted me to 3rd place in the tourny with about twice the average stack.
At this stage about 18 players left spread over 3 tables, and theres 5 players with over 13k in chips, chip leader on approx 20k, the rest of the field with average stacks and below. Of course I have to have 2 of the larger chip stacks on my table, so the game got strange for a while, with there being 3 large stacks and 3 short stacks and fortunes for the 3 of us rose and fall over these hands, with my chips climbing to 25k and then reducing to 14k with me folding my AQ to an all in bet on the river to one of the other large stacks. Blew about 8k in chips on that hand, in raises that got called, and ended up not knowing where I was, hence the fold.
Built back up to around 20k taking a lot of small pots, lost another 5k when my A7 suited raise was reraised by a short stack going all in with king something and he hit his king. Got my stack up to 25k again no major hands, just won a lot of small pots, and then it was final table time.
Nothing much happened, played steady for a bi then won a 23k pot when I hit a set of 4's on a river after my opponent had hit a king on a rainbow flop of 5 6 K. He then hit 2 pair on the river and well all the chips went in. Down to final 3 chip leader on 70k, me in 2nd on 47k and short stack on 13k. One major pot between myself and the large stack, went in my favour , then the short stack doubled up against the large stack, and at this stage we're fairly even in chips with blinds at 500/1000.
Major collision between my two opponents when pocket jacks came up against KQ, with the jacks making a set on the river, leaving the one time chip leader crippled, and next hand he was out when the other player hit trip 4's so it was heads up.
Now I don't consider myself a good heads up player, despite having tried to pass on advice in another thread on the forum, however with blinds at 600/1200 and me despite being the short stack, had around 45k in chips, so there was plenty of play left in the game or so I thought. I would like to say that I played it skillfully and I was probably more aggressive than I am in SNG heads up ( guess the adrenline was flowing), but I have to say I felt my opponent was even more passive than I consider myself to be heads up. We played 24 hands and I never raised it up more than 3 times the BB. Out of the first 23 hands I won 16 with the pot size averaging 6k and me winning about 2k per hand.
Of the 7 hands I lost, I averaged a loss in chips of about 2.5k per hand, the pot size averaged about 30k, mainly due to my opponent coming over the top of my 3.6k pre flop raises with an all in move of 50k + on 4 occasions.
I have to admit I found this play bizarre, mainly as my opponent folded a lot to my pre flop raises, and when she called, folded to my post flop raises.We only saw the turn once in those first 23 hands, and of the 7 hands my opponent won, 6 of those were pre flop, 4 of which were all ins,2 small raises from the button with the 7th won following a bet on the flop after I limped for variety. I have to presume that my opponent would have had some decent hands and yet I couldnt tell which they were and I guess in a way out of the whole tourny heads up was the biggest disapointment as given the stack sizes in relation to the blinds, I was looking forward to gaining some much needed experience.
This is by no means meants to be a critiscm of my opponent, it is more of a critiscm towards the previosu structure of Sky tournies, where on a full final table it was common for the chip leader to have less than 10 big blinds, so it was shove fest before heads up and if players have been use to that type of structure only, they have yet to adjust to the new structure. It happened a lot during the whole tourny where players were shoving with 30 or 40 BB just to win the blinds, and thus I would be very interested in views from those players who have been learnt to play the game via Sky's quick strcture tourny, how they view the changes that have been made recently.
For those of you that have made it to here, then I thank you for taking the time to read the post, apologies for the length, but for a small time small bankroll player I'm just excited to have won and wanted to share my experience and views.
Opps I wrote so much I forgot to say how the tourny ended. Well I continued to make a variety of plays in the small blind, mostly raising 2 and 3 times the BB, waiting for me to hit a hand whereby I could make the same move, and hope my opponent would go all in. Eventually I got aces, and didnt even have to do anything sophisticated as my opponent went all in on the SB with K 6 os and my aces held up, so I increased my bankroll by 19.50 which for me is a not too insignificant amount
Well done!
First of all, congrats on your MTT win. First of many no doubt. No need to apologise, it was a good read. I like the way you kept out of trouble early on in the tourney.
Try a deepstack or two (5000 chips 12 min blinds) as they will give you plenty of play and the Orfordable deepstack is on this evening at 7pm for £3.
Cheers
Ross
The new blind structure at least allows you that bit of leeway whether you are a tight or loose player.
Both loose and tight players have the time to alter their styles, which should hopefully allow more play both pre and post flop.
As for anyone who won the older style tournies, I have the greatest admiration for them. Yes maybe a bit more luck is required, but there is a lot more pressure on every hand you play as its a lot harder to get your money in first when everyone is starting to shove.
I had the luxury to fold a hand on the river that cost me a third of my stack, and still feel comfortable, me and the guy who got me off the hand would have probably had all our chips in pre flop in the quicker paced tournies
Ross, Labrat and ZX, many thanks too.
With regards the the deep stack tournies I have looked at them previously but always chickened out, mainly due to the fact that I'm wary that I struggle with concentration and my style of play doesnt suit someone who isnt very patient, plus the fact that whenever I get a little bit of a bankroll behind me from playing 30p and 60p DYM's I then go and donk the winnings playing cash as I dont have the patience for that either, I'm way too aggressive
Labrat - Maybe I'm Hale 72 in disguise
Congratulations on your first win, I remember my first win in 2003 and I'm expecting my second anytime soon.