Lvl 1: 25/50 12k starting stack

I’m pleased to see James Dempsey on my left at my table as he should stir up some action, less pleased to see Ian Frazer on my right as he three bets me well, and delighted to see Dave Shallow join the table as while a very good player he tends to spaz pretty badly in these things and I won’t be folding to his 3bets like I did in brighton.

Other than that my plan is to be more cautious than normal, find the soft chips instead of risking my stack on marginal bluffs or calling it off against ranges that are far tighter than they should be.

Dempsey opens for 150, I 3bet to 425 with QcTx Frazer thinks about raising and eventually calls with JJ.  Dempsey Calls. Flop Kc9c5c.  They check and I bet 675. They both call.  Turn 3c.  We check around.  River brick.  Dempsey bets 2200 I call and Frazer claims to fold the 3rd nut club.  He shows a K and mucks.

Active old guy opens next hand to 150, I should prob flat here but I make it 425 and puke in my mouth a little when he 4b to 1650, I make the call and he leads 3500 on a 752 flop with two diamonds.  I don’t have the Qd and fold after a few moments thought.

Table breaks shortly after. Boooo. 

Quiet 2nd level and have 13725 at break.

3rd Lvl: 75/150

Mp Limps,  He’s been limping a lot and wide during last hour including a 63s utg.  I make it 550 with T9o guy to my imm left coldcalls.  Flop Q72.  I cbet 1125 and they both call.  Turn Jack completing the rainbow.  MP limps I check and coldcaller bets 2250.  MP folds.  I sigh heavily as I’m wont to do in these situations then cram 12k.  He tanks for 3 minutes and folds.

Start dinner with 18375 chips.

Lvl 5: 150/300

I open to 750 with ATdd knowing the very active chinese kid in bb will want to play.  Normally I’m quiet this level to build respect for the antes but ATdd has plenty of value.  He calls and flop comes down Jd8d5x.  He checks and I bet 1025, as expected he checkraises to 3500 and I quickly cram.  He calls after a moments thought and shows J8 for top two.  Qd turn and brick river.  Standard.  I tell him this as he bitches about me being like Jamie Gold (??!)  which prompts someone at table to open the card calculator app on their iphone and work out that I’m a 60-40 dog vs his exact hand so “his call must be good”.

200/400 25 ante

I start to open to 925 frequently this level.  I open with A9dd guy from T9 hand flats as he has most times since he tripled up with a set.  SS btn flats and blinds call.  5 way. Flop Jc9×8d. We all check it to button who ships 7500 into the 4900 pot.  blinds fold and I think a while before calling.  I snap call without the guy behind me obv.  Even live.  Guy behind me thinks for a minute before folding AQ face up.  He thought about making a move in but figured I’d have to call.

Pusher shows KcTc.  5d turn. Kd river. He celebrates before I point out that the diamonds win.

53k at break.

300/600 50. 

Chinese limps co sb completes and I check in bb QTo.  Flop A86 we check , chinese bets 1600 and I make it 4600.  He folds.

I’m opening in bursts then folding for a while.

400/800 50

This is where tiredness starts to catch me.  Mp limps.  He limps a ton and folds to raises, the button as been attacking his limps relentlessly.  But doesn’t raise this time.  I think he folds but actually calls, SB completes. Dealer spazzes and rakes in the chips as I’m checking my cards planning to raise any two.  I see KK and make it 2300 more, all call ecept sb.  I’m a little thrown that btn is still in the hand. 

Flop AKJ.  I should bet 7-8k here and set up an a 18k turn bet followed by a natural river shove.  Instead I bet 4k thinking the pot is only 6-7k instead of 10k.  Btn is only caller and I realise too late my error. 

Turn 7s putting a fd out.  I bet 12k he quickly calls.  River 5x.  While A shove for 37k is less than the pot it just won’t be called live against an older player unless he’s had QT all along.  I go for max value with 25025 and immediately hate myself.  12k again looking to extract thin value or induce a spazz shove is obviously the way to go.  He asks me how much I have left sees its only 12k or so and folds. 

Break started just after this hand and I had 89k.  i found out later this was the chip lead by 10k.  However this hand bothered me for the whole last hour.  Usual problem for me, tiredness+a mistake = my head wrecked.  At some pt I’ll probably need counselling so that I can learn to allow myself to make mistakes and to be less than perfect.  The same forces growing up that shaped me into a weapon with drive and determination to be brilliant have left me with an achilles heel. One mistake can derail me completely.

Final level.  500/1000 ante 75.

Level starts okay, I’m opening to 2200 frequently and taking down enough pots pre to make an immediate profit.

I have 95k and open to 2200 on btn with Q9dd. Chris Bjorin folds small blind and a kid calls in bb.  Flop QJ7d. He checks and I intend to check behind, but looking at his stack he seems to have about 12k left so hey bet/get it in is  fine.  I bet 3300 and he checkraises to 7300.  At this pt I see he has another 13k behind the 7 as I’d somehow missed a couple purple and a whole stack of green.  With great irritation at myself I fold.  I’m fairly sure I’m behind but this is not good poker.

Later.  Utg limps.  Earlier on I had raise/folded AK to an utg LRRAI for 22bb.  I didn’t remember this guy limping in ep before.  I get cute and limp AKhh behind.  There’s a reasonable chance of a raise and I can fold if utg LRR and ship if he calls or folds.  6 way limped pot

Flop AsKx5s.  Checks to me.  I bet 3k as the kid from the Q9 hand is in the pot and there’s no way he’s folding anything reasonable to me.  I can get 2 streets of value out of a K and probably all 3 out of an ace.  kid calls.  UTG checkraise to 9k with about 20k behind.  God. Damn.  It.  I fold after about 30 seconds thought and the kid folds too.  I asked him later what he had and he said QJ cos it was a limped pot and he figured no-one had anything.  I told him I folded a monster, AK and his reaction seemed off, more subdued than I would expect if he had bluffed out top two.  So there’s a fair chance he did have me beat, but still…. looking at this hand I can’t believe I folded top two in a donkament.  I was def tired tho, miscounting pots and stacks, thinking slowly, and had already decided there was def value in just getting to day 2 with what would be a decent stack when I could come back fresh and alert having regained my equilibrium and focus.

If I could replay the AK hand right now I’d make it 4k pre and stack off on the flop without hesitation – if he has me beat its a cooler.  But on the other hand thats the attitude that has seen me struggle to move from online NL tourneys to Live NL tourneys.  I made some big folds today but it kept me around to get into profitable situations with almsot no risk. 

I have no idea if I should be happy going into day 2 with a decent stack or annoyed that I don’t have the chip lead I could have had so easily.