There were only four tourneys to go and I’m not running that good in my series of ‘deepstack’ tournaments. So from that point of view, I was happy to at least cash in tourney 15 ($2+.2), but my prize had to be much bigger, if it wasn’t for the joking PokerStars dealer. I finished 12th, winning $4.41 .

After all, I played a véry solid tournament. I won my first big pot with A8 suited, which I played reasonably good I think:

I really like these kinda hands so I decide to let my opponents pay some limper’s tax. They do and I hit the flop very well with the nut flushdraw and a gutshot straightdraw. But I don’t bet the flop because you can easily be reraised on such mediocre boards against some original limpers. My free card gives me the nuts and when laguna 856 reraises the 60 bet, I suspect him of also holding a flush and decide to keep slowplaying my hand. Board pairs, but I’m not really scared of this and place a value bet, not too big because he might suspect me of slowplaying JJ: excellent result. Then I missed some flops completely with premiums like TT and AK before the next important hand was played:

I flop a set in a limper’s pot and I bet because at least one player must have picked something up on this board. My only caller leads out on the river (which happens to be a great blocking bet) and I only call here for two reasons. First one is that my opponent can easily have TQ in this hand and I don’t want to make a very big pot against the other big stack of the table. Secundo, if he was as weak as he happened to be, he wouldn’t have called a bigger bet anyway.

In the period that followed I even became chipleader, but I lost a big pot with JJ which brought me at fifth place during the period towards the bubble. It took a VERY long time before the bubbleboy was eliminated and I’d become a shortstack. However, if everything would have gone normal, I would have doubled up in this hand:

Instead, I got eliminated…

My fourteenth tournament ($2+.2) was in fact one big joke. This experience really showed me the aspects of low stakes poker and made clear once more how difficult it is to make profit by playing those tournaments.

It was already during the very first hand of the tournament that I noticed the particular ‘low stakes phenomenon’: there are a lot of loonatics in this tourneys (maybe just searching for some cheap tournament to steam at after a bad beat in a bigger tournament) who just push during the first hands. That makes my knock-out hand a little ironic, as some of my opponents really had a quality hand and it was just time for a little ‘jokerstars’. Watch:

Now WHAT THE F*CK IS HAPPENING HERE? OK, of course this AA vs KK vs QQ thing is a big joke already in the first place. And the fact that the Queens take this pot down is an extra joke. But above all, how bad do those morons play those hands?? Pocket fives minraises an early position raise and calls for whole his stack when it’s reraised two times, pocket Kings just call a reraise preflop and Pocket Queens (which makes a good play when just calling the 200 raise) thinks he’s not against Aces or Kings when three players go all-in preflop… I get so tired of these jokes, when my series are over I will definitely not play those $2 tourneys anymore.

After the ‘big’ deepstack game I returned to the 90 players sng with a $2+.2 buy-in. I did pretty good, but wasn’t able to reach the money, finishing in 18th place.

However, I’m not thát disappointed because I enjoyed playing this tournament. The key hands I selected for you exactly show the interesting aspects of playing deep stack. With the first hand I took down a nice pot in an early phase:

I limp and even call a raise because the blinds are still low and I know exactly what I’m looking for with such a hand. I get a free card which gives me a very good draw. When my opponent makes a very weak bet I raise of course, maybe I can already take the pot right here. Of course when he reraises, my read completely changes: he slowplayed a big hand (hitting my straight might not be good enough anymore). On the river I know my flush is good and make a value bet. A few hands later:

A typical deepstack play: two people want to limp cheaply in late position so I raise. On the flop it’s not difficult to win the pot: whether you hit your hand or the flop comes high cards which you can represent. Then followed a period with a lot of eliminations and I was constantly just below the bubble. I eliminated a guy who went all-in with 33 holding AK myself but then I was eliminated myself with a little bad beat:

This is were deepstack poker backfires: the button is really deepstack and decides to see a flop with Q9 suited. He also knows where he’s looking for and finds it on the flop…

I just had a pretty short, but nevertheless very exciting tournament. I played the $8+.8 deepstack sit ‘n go with 90 players but it didn’t really last as long as I prepared for.

So I sat down behind my screen with a bag of chips and a couple of drinks. The tournament started and I was on fire right from the beginning. I got some big hands like AK and AQ and was able to win some rather small pots with them. Then I got an even better hand, pocket cowboys:

So everything worked out perfect, with an opponent having JJ and the flop being covered with all low cards. Especially in a deepstack tournament like this, a double-up is enormous. But then I lost a big pot with those same Kings:

Now at first, I was very mad and screamed things about cold deck to myself but in fact I should have figured he can almost only have QQ or JJ in that spot, flatcalling a reraise preflop. I lost another big pot a few moments later, basically because of tilting a little after this pot (bad plan). Then I got eliminated in the following hand:

I’m quiete convinced that the player on the cut-off is making a move in late position but my stack has become too small to reraise without being committed on the flop, so I shove all-in. I indeed happen to be a  huge favorite but the King flops… So I finish in 76th place after an exciting start of the tournament.

That pretty much describes the story of my fifth tournament. I didn’t get a lot of bad beats or cold decks, I wasn’t able to make a lot of good plays, it just wasn’t destined to be this time: 53th.

It all started reasonably well: I took a couple of small pots with QT suited (paired a Queen) and AA, but most of the time I just didn’t hit any flop. Then I lose half my stack on the following hand:

Now this is what’s called losing because your opponent plays bad, or just doesn’t have a clue at all. I mean, I don’t put him on an Ace because he would probably have raised preflop in that case. When he calls on the turn I’m almost a 100% sure (why wouldn’t he raise with a double flushdraw out there? or just because he has the best hand??) and am only afraid of a better 9. At the end he shows me the AT…monkey.

In what follows I become a short stack because I try to bluff a lot of loose cannons: bad plan. Anyway I make a comeback with this hand:

So that flop sucks, but the turn makes up for it. However, I lose some ammo again and finally I make my last move with KQ:

I am a huge favorite this time, but the flop is killing me again. This time no help on turn and river…