Week 1 of the FTOPS on Full Tilt Poker

Ok so my schedule went pretty much to plan which was good, I was restricted to playing 14.00ET tourneys unless I wanted to finish at lunch time the next day. I guess I was thankful that I had signed up to most of the events I wanted to play before my losing session on Thursday night.
But that didn't matter too much cos i played like shit in most of them.

Event #2 Thursday August 7th 14:00 ET	Martin Kläser	$240 + $16 PL Omaha/8 Knockout	$200,000	1,138

Strange because I used to really enjoy this game and now i pretty much hate it....
well maybe thats not completely true: the fact that 60% of the poker I play is PLO and 0% is O8 may have something to do with it. I think I definitely prefer FL O8 than PLO8.
What happened here?
played reasonably tight then got it in from blinds with 34hKhx on A 5h 9h board.
was against 235x and i couldn't hit....o well.

If that wasn't bad enough i then proceeded to lose 14,000$ at PLO which was stupid because I was so so knackered. 5-10, then 10-20 and then 25-50 got my last 6k$.....o well.

Event #4 Friday August 8th 14:00 ET	Dag Mikkelsen	$300 + $22 NL Hold 'em 1 rebuy and 1 add-on	$600,000

Spent full amount in this (900$) and actually found myself playing really well. I went deep in it and was average stack until the following hand occurred. I had busted deep in 100r on stars in a 60k pot (av. 20k) with AK v AQ who made 4 to the flush with his Q....ouch. Then 30 mins later this happened:

Full Tilt Poker Game #7565059110: FTOPS Event #4 (1r+1a) (54557558), Table 62 - 300/600 Ante 75 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:09:25 ET - 2008/08/08
Seat 1: The_Dean221 (5,620)
Seat 2: mx4ever (8,400)
Seat 3: johnnykran (10,914)
Seat 4: hikkespett (22,184)
Seat 5: aZeg (15,519)
Seat 6: tedsfishfry (12,880)
Seat 7: busto_soon (31,283)
Seat 8: Ijin (10,672)
Seat 9: thereal_bandito (13,580)
The_Dean221 antes 75
mx4ever antes 75
johnnykran antes 75
hikkespett antes 75
aZeg antes 75
tedsfishfry antes 75
busto_soon antes 75
Ijin antes 75
thereal_bandito antes 75
Ijin posts the small blind of 300
thereal_bandito posts the big blind of 600
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to thereal_bandito [9d 9s]
The_Dean221 folds
mx4ever folds
johnnykran folds
hikkespett folds
TheDestruction (Observer): HELLO ALL,CAN ANYONE PLEASE SEND ME SOME MONEY??
aZeg raises to 1,500
tedsfishfry folds
busto_soon folds
Ijin calls 1,200
thereal_bandito raises to 13,505, and is all in
aZeg has 15 seconds left to act
aZeg has requested TIME
aZeg raises to 15,444, and is all in
Ijin folds
aZeg shows [6h 6s]
thereal_bandito shows [9d 9s]
Uncalled bet of 1,939 returned to aZeg
*** FLOP *** [2s 6d Jc]
*** TURN *** [2s 6d Jc] [3c]
*** RIVER *** [2s 6d Jc 3c] [8c]
aZeg shows three of a kind, Sixes
thereal_bandito shows a pair of Nines
aZeg wins the pot (29,185) with three of a kind, Sixes


So that kind of sucked. My squeeze was right and Rich seems to think the maths was right for him to calling with 66 there against my range (if i am squeezing optimally) . I guess i did focus on this one and just the beat got in the way.

I went and lost 8k$ at PLO on stars. Thank fully i won some of it back that night playing on. And on Saturday morning i managed to turn it back into 4k$ prof so that felt nice.

Event #6 Saturday August 9th 14:00 ET	Robert Williamson III	$500 + $35 PL Omaha 6-Max	$300,000

PLO 6-MAX? Probably my strongest game. Well i managed to bust out before the first break. 5k starting stacks were generous but I didn't adjust to tourney play. I got real excited when i realized it was just like my cash game.....only problem is you can't reload!
I went up quickly to 8k playing hands in pos, no big hands, just a few bluffs, pick ups in pos. etc.
I remember i drew in one pot when i was drawing to the nut flush...limped pot i'm on button 4 handed with blinds. I have Kc6c4x and the boards J Ac 7 8c and i get CR for the pot. It isn't till i've called that I realize that theres a made straight out there and then a 5 rivers and I tilt call with like worst straight out there.
I bust out when the same guy 3 bets, i get it in on flop drawing to a split.....well played bassy.

Saturday wasn't all a miss tho!

Whats that you made your first "decent" Final table on Stars/FT in over 6 months? Surely not.

Yes, Yes I did. I played the 300$ 6-Max 90,000$.

I think these 6-MAX structures suit me cos i like to play a lot of hands and theres more flop play involved for some reason, probably because your defending against wider ranges of hands so it is safer to take flops drawing live. Or maybe because this one was very well structured.....i'm not sure, maybe someone can tell me.

Anyway i started well. I then flatted 90 with KK in pos v (1k shortstack) and we got it in on Q J 8 flop where he has the 9T off suit so that brought me back down to average.
he then out played in a few SB v Button hands before like the Hero I am I came straight back at him with a Hammer. This being a CR allin on a 5JJ board with KQ. He had KJ and it came T and then 9. ONE TIME BABY! I decided I had to win it after that.

I won't bore you with hands, it went on for 6 hours. I thought I played my best poker in a long time. I made a few hands which was probably a key factor in it, but i also made some good ballsy play. My best hand was when I shoved with KQ on a bb (lagtard) after he had donked on T high flop. We were both dead even on chips, around average and I felt like after that I was going to go all the way.
My main obstacle came to my immediate left. He called a lot of my raise in pos. and probably had the better of me. He took pots of me when I had air and folded when I had hit so he was tricky. Apparently he was a losing played in MTT's but that didn't hurt my respect for him as I too was a losing player on FT and stars in MTT's....he must play a lot of cash. Anyway I got the little fucker when I 4-bet him with 44 on the bubble to final table. He had AK i flopped a set, i ran well with coin flips, woo.

Final Table I had 400k and was chipleader. With an M of about 40 I had good play. Others were on 100-280k.
I called out of SB with 79dd V UTG raiser who's name I will get.
Flop 4h 8c Th. I check called.
Turn 6c. Now I guess I could have donked here with the nuts but I wanted to feign a flush draw and for him to make a big 2nd barrel with his range, especially air. He does and I think CR looks V. strong and elect to just call again.

River is Jh which is going to kill my action but I bet 98k and he calls with AA. This leaves him with under 100k. I think he can only beat a bluff on the river so this was probably a steam-call. It is hard to laydown AA always. Maybe he thought I have a flush or air because anything else I would have to be weary of the flush myself hence my river bet is too big. But i know that I have the nuts because it is unlikely he would barrel against the chipleader on turn with Flush Draw and risk getting bet off it.
I double him up with AK v QQ and then I take out 250k stack with AQ in pos v BB on KKJxT board when it has gone CkCk/Bet-Call/Ck-BET-Shove-call and he shows KQ.

Anyway 3 handed I held 700k in chips to like 500k and 400k. I get card dead and get chopped down a little by this same guy on my left whose name escapes me but he is a top online pro. he starts ripping us both apart. ME-who is card dead and recognizing my M of 40+ trying to stay patient. And THEYID who seems to be holding out for 2nd which is 23$k compared to 17$k and 35$k.
I get 3-bet a bit, I call once or twice and lose pots. Then my hand come. KK on button, with blinds at 5-10k i make it 24k. Good player 3-bets to 86K, i decide to call and cripple/bust this guy here.
Flop 8 9 A.....pretty ugly. I grab the bin and am sick in it.
He bets 126k and I look at my stack which is around 400k now with an M of 19. I can only beat a bluff which is very much in his range but so is a lot of aces. Its a very tough spot because he probably figures I can't have hands that don't contain Aces a high proportion of the time. If I shoves and am right he will fold so I guess I take down 300k to add to my 400k but don't ever really stack him here unless he has a draw or maybe QQ and cant fold. The maths is probably weighing towards a fold, the feel? well he's pretty tough and his bet is hard to read as a result. I fold and bust with 55 CR allin b v b against his 77. Good game, pretty gutted but will take it I guess.

Roy Winston

$240 + $16 NL Hold 'em 6-Max Knockout

$500,000

Thought I'd entered it FFS but instead mistakenly entered the:

Event #10 Sunday August 10th 18:00 ET	Erik Seidel	$300 + $22 NL Hold 'em	$1,500,000

Which was never going to get finished. Although I had 10 7 on 689 flop v AA and it came 8 A! lol!

Event #9 Sunday August 10th 16:00 ET	Kenny Tran	$500 + $35 NL Hold 'em Heads Up	$500,000

Bad tourney selection with over 1300 runners in that I would be up all night and had already played 6 tourneys that day.
ONE BYE. ONE WIN.
Then I crushed my 3rd round opponent till I limped 77 on button (had started limping weak once I had 2-1 lead this time I was strong. He raised 266, i made it 666. He called. Flop Q T x.
He checked with one pot size bet left and I felt it was either Bet and hope he hasn't hit or check and let him bluff pot ....(he was that type). So i put him in and he had AQ so the hand probably played the only way I may have not stacked off...yet i still did. After that he held the match and i busted soon after. In those structures going from near the win to being near the felt is very demoralizing....I'd had a very hard week...including 5 days of work and I think busting may have been the best thing.

So overall how do I think I played?

I'd probably be happy that my MTT game has finally caught up with the US sites.
Having played on WillHill all those years the transformation was hard and the players are the best in the world.
I'd say quitting work would be a good idea if I didn't work for my Dad.
Soon I will need to either make a decision to play less or to play full-time.
Now is probably not the time as i have gone from being a winning player to an income winning player. I have managed to BANK £11,000 this month comapred to July where I must have won then lost around £20,000 in 5 spates of ONLINE MADNESS (PLO).
I just need more focus in MTTs, more consistency in quality of play and more never DIE attitude towards them.

Lets hope I do better in FTOPS this week!