I selected two hands from this tournament which were in some way very interesting ánd important for finishing in the money. Both hands have something to do with the ‘Hellmuth hand’, pocket 9′s. The first one was played during the early blinds levels, where I had the nigns myself:

I don’t raise here preflop, simply because I give some credit to an early position standard raise. But when people make the same bet ON the flop, they loose all their credibility in my opinion, so I raise this guy after which he folds. Another player calls, but I make the second nuts on the turn. This guy calls another bet, is almost all-in but checks again on the river^^. Now I know he missed his flush with a good clubdraw, but I’m able to extract another 90(!) chips from his 165 (!) stack, while the pot is already 2 275 chips (!!!). Perfect value bet?^^

We travel in time and pick it up again when blinds are already 250/500. I’m not really deep anymore regarding the blind levels, but we’re seven handed and I make a little raise with AT suited.

No action on flop and turn, although I should have made a bet right there to pick it up, I know. But on the river this player with the baby straight (99!) pays me off another 2k chips, which I could use very well in this stage of the tournament! I end up in fourth place, had a very pleasant evening playing a deep tourney ánd made a nice cash-out!

* The continuation bet is a well known phenomenon in poker. However there are different kinds of them, especially when they are weak there’s a big difference. For example: a weak continuation bet after a big preflop raise most of the times indicates strength (they know the flop is harmless and they try to give you a price to call). A weak continuation after a standard preflop raise mostly indicates weakness (they missed the flop but try however to keep pot control).

* If you’re deep stack in the final phase of a tournament, it’s advised to play very tight aggressive. Just try to win some small pots preflop because of your image. Besides: every player plays more careful in this phase of the tournament.

About the double chance event on Sunday: that wasn’t a success. There was barely room for some advanced plays and it turned into a turbo because the game was slowed down a lot in this full ring game. No pleasant experience at all and an early knock-out, not even reaching top 200. But  I was already looking forward to the final event, the second real deep stack tournament of the league. This was a great tournament, because it was also a six-seater.

Everything went perfect for me this night, just like during the PLO event. My first goal was to defend my third place on the leaderboard by running as deep as possible. This wasn’t very easy, because three players who were just behind me also made a deep run. But they were eliminated one by one in the ultimate final phase and suddenly I noticed the number two of the leaderboard also being knocked out. I had to finish 8th or better to catch up with him, so when I was 11/11 I switched gears and gambled for more chips, resulting in a 6th place in the end, another final table. First place was never within reach, as the leader played another outstanding tournament, finishing in 5th place. No doubt he deserved the win.

I selected two hands from this tournament, first of course my knock-out hand, my last hand of the league:

Ante=1200
Seat 1: liosi – 176,921
Seat 2: lordflasheart13 – 53,081
Seat 3: LaudVetinari – 314,944 (BUTTON)
Seat 4: douglas1066 – 354,486 (SMALL BLIND, 6000)
Seat 5: albosan – 155,338 (BIG BLIND, 12000)
Seat 6: KiwiBugs – 295,230

Dealing to lordflasheart13
KiwiBugs folds – liosi folds
lordflasheart13 raises to 51,881 (all-in)
LaudVetinari folds
douglas1066 calls 51,881
albosan folds
Pot sizes: 122,962

douglas1066 shows
Dealing Flop
Dealing Turn
Dealing River
lordflasheart13 has High Card: Ace
douglas1066 has One Pair: 6s
douglas1066 wins 122,962 with: One Pair: 6s

Obviously, this hand plays itself in this case. Note however that ‘albosan’ (topping the leaderboard), also sitting on the final table like I told you, was also at my table during the first couple of hours of the tournament. I really saw some awesome plays from this guy, being very focused while playing for the big win. I think this is perfectly showed in the other hand I saved, when  I collided with albosan for the first time. This was after SEVEN minutes of play and the hand really gave  me the creeps, although I had Aces:

Seat 1: 3DJohnny – 4,990
Seat 2: mucker007 – 4,940 (BUTTON)
Seat 3: ProfULLRICH – 5,070 (SMALL BLIND 10)
Seat 4: lordflasheart13 – 4,970 (BIG BLIND 20)
Seat 5: mjhellraizer – 5,000
Seat 6: albosan – 5,030

Dealing to lordflasheart13
mjhellraizer folds
albosan raises to 100
3DJohnny folds – mucker007 folds – ProfULLRICH folds
lordflasheart13 raises to 385
albosan raises to 740
lordflasheart13 calls 740
Pot sizes: 1,490

Dealing Flop
lordflasheart13 checks
albosan bets 745
lordflasheart13 calls 745
Pot sizes: 2,980
Dealing Turn
lordflasheart13 checks
albosan bets 1,490
lordflasheart13 raises to 3,485 (all-in)
albosan folds
lordflasheart13 wins 5,960

He reraises me preflop and I decide to ‘slowplay’ my Aces, if he has Kings, I want him to think I have QQ, JJ or TT. But the King flops and that scares the hell out of me: playing a deepstack, only 7 minutes in the tourney and Kings is one of the hands  I definitely put him on. Of course it’s possible he wanted to make a statement with any kind of hand OR he had QQ or JJ himself, but I decide to just call and see if he slows down on the turn. Turn is an ACE and now I want him to have Kings. He commits 60% of his stack and I go all-in. He takes all his time and just because he’s such a great player I really think he could have folded KK here (he played directly against me for the overall win). Anyway, albosan has 2k left after the hand but he immedately recovered and by making some superb calls he was among the chipleaders again some hours later. Congratulations to albosan and the rest of the top ten (see below), till next year for a new Super League!

So first things first: event 7 (Deep and Steep) was a big disappointment. I misunderstood the concept, as I thought this was going to be a super deepstack one. But the word ‘steep’ was pointing to the ‘turbo’ blind levels^^. Some kind of strange formula, I don’t think I’m gonna be a big fan of it. In the end I went out by shoving with 68 (after mostly being blinded away) and  ran into Aces. But then: Thursday.

I missed the first PLO event because of a concert and I almost missed the second one also. Five minutes before the tournament started I realized  had to play, I went for my laptop and 8 seconds before the tourney started I at last succeeded to register. Four hours later, I won the thing. Of course, I was lucky, as every tournament winner is. Although I  was NEVER behind on a showdown during the WHOLE tournament; I just needed the luck to not be unlucky, the luck for my premium hands to hold up.

I certainly couldn’t complain about the hands I was dealt: most of the times it was rags I could easily fold and the other ones were premiums I doubled up with each time. As you can see at my chip evolution, I was short stacked till the end, even during my first 30 minutes on the final table, where I constantly was in last place till there were only 6 players left:

The only reason I was at the final table (besides patience, obv) was because I got AAxx three times on very decisive moments. Here’s the first time:

Seat 1: kevsherri – 750
Seat 2: Galwaysontilt22 – 2,735 (BUTTON)
Seat 4: ChrisWrok – 48,793 (SMALL BLIND 800)
Seat 5: Purplerose82 – 3,160 (BIG BLIND 1600)
Seat 7: miragedrum – 12,672
Seat 8: lordflasheart13 – 5,082
Seat 9: TangentTed – 8,580
Seat 10: sonofgimli – 34,974

Dealing to lordflasheart13
miragedrum folds
lordflasheart13 raises to 4,800
TangentTed folds – sonofgimli folds
kevsherri calls 750 (all-in)
Galwaysontilt22 folds
ChrisWrok raises to 8,000
Purplerose82 folds
lordflasheart13 calls 5,082 (all-in)
Returning 2,918 to ChrisWrok uncalled
Pot sizes: 3,000
Pot sizes: 9,514
kevsherri shows
ChrisWrok shows

Dealing Flop
Dealing Turn
Dealing River
ChrisWrok has One Pair: Kings
lordflasheart13 has Three of a Kind: Aces
lordflasheart13 wins 9,514 from side pot #1 with: Three of a Kind: Aces
lordflasheart13 wins 3,000 with: Three of a Kind: Aces

According to my personal PLO advisor Adam Breit, this is the perfect PLO hand so I was never scared of being sucked out here. The second time I got AAxx was when I had 1,5 BB left and I was on the BB with 11(!) players left. I  doubled and went to the final table, where I was about to be elmininated in 7th place when I got AAxx on the big blind . From then on I began to eliminate players myself till only Hellboy101 was left, the one I predicted to be the last man standing and one of the two players ahead of me on the current leaderboard. Here’s our final hand:

Seat 2: Hellboy101 – 291,640 (BIG BLIND, 20,000)
Seat 8: lordflasheart13 – 509,360 (BUTTON, SMALL BLIND 10,000)

Dealing to lordflasheart13
lordflasheart13 raises to 60,000
Hellboy101 calls 60,000
Pot sizes: 120,000

Dealing Flop
Hellboy101 checks
lordflasheart13 bets 120,000
Hellboy101 raises to 231,640 (all-in)
lordflasheart13 calls 231,640
Pot sizes: 583,280
Hellboy101 shows

Dealing Turn
Dealing River
Hellboy101 has Two Pairs: Jacks, 4s
lordflasheart13 has Flush, Queen high
lordflasheart13 wins 583,280 with: Flush, Queen high

Of course the excitement was great after this grand win, especially because of PKR’s graphics See what I can do on Sunday: Double Chance!

Things started off very tensed, as my internet connection died one minute before the tournament started. So whoever he is and whereever he is, I want to thank this stranger with his wireless internet connection who made it possible for me to join the tournament after all. The tournament structure had antes from the start, and the blind levels were also very short, making this some sort of a turbo tournament. That’s why I was lucky to catch KK after half an hour so I could double up and have some breathing space. Suddenly I was in 20th place, with only 100 players remaining.

Then came a really  frustrating period during I was COMPLETELY carddead. My progression in the virtual ranking was the following: 20/100, 25/75, 40/50 and 36/40. I simply couldn’t catch a hand or a stealing opportunity. For the second time I was kind of desperate, but SUDDENLY I doubled up three times in about 20 minutes, the ultimate thrill of playing a tournament. My A7 held up against QJ, as did my AJ against J7. My third jackpot hand was the following:

Ante=225
Seat 1: black2s – 9,805
Seat 2: alex311222 – 20,531
Seat 3: charliechandler – 20,232
Seat 4: playdeepstack – 15,006
Seat 5: DPS74 – 18,258
Seat 6: DonPablo69 – 24,525
Seat 7: hazeraze – 1,520 (BUTTON)
Seat 8: DeSmeerpijp – 24,049 (SMALL BLIND 600)
Seat 9: kimandy666 – 27,581 (BIG BLIND 1200)
Seat 10: tadej902 – 98,079

Dealing to playdeepstack
tadej902 folds – black2s folds – alex311222 folds
charliechandler raises to 4,227
playdeepstack raises to 14,781 (all-in)
DPS74 raises to 18,033 (all-in)
DonPablo69 folds – hazeraze folds – DeSmeerpijp folds – kimandy666 folds – charliechandler folds
Returning 3,252 to DPS74 uncalled
Pot sizes: 37,839

DPS74 shows
Dealing Flop
Dealing Turn
Dealing River
DPS74 has Two Pairs: Aces, Tens
playdeepstack has Three of a Kind: Aces
playdeepstack wins 37,839 with: Three of a Kind: Aces

Always nice to flop an ace immediately, but it seems PKR always wants to give me some tensed moments by adding the gutshot on the turn. Luckily the straight wasn’t made. This time. Cause after this hand I was 9th of the 20 players remaining. However, I lost some chips due to some suck-outs (88 vs 33) and nasty flops (AKx after a preflop raise with 99). I became very short stacked again and made my last move, just like in Event 5, with 65. Just like last time,  I ran into AK. Just like last time, I had a very good chance to  survive after the first four cards… :

Ante=500
Seat 1: emtugi – 89,100
Seat 2: alex311222 – 69,493
Seat 3: GuusGeluk69 – 17,390
Seat 4: playdeepstack – 7,059
Seat 6: DonPablo69 – 49,331 (BUTTON)
Seat 7: teebee31 – 35,266 (SMALL BLIND 1000)
Seat 8: DeSmeerpijp – 17,224 (BIG BLIND 2000)
Seat 9: kimandy666 – 47,360

Dealing to playdeepstack
kimandy666 folds – emtugi folds – alex311222 folds – GuusGeluk69 folds
playdeepstack raises to 6,559 (all-in)
DonPablo69 folds – teebee31 folds
DeSmeerpijp calls 6,559
Pot sizes: 18,118

DeSmeerpijp shows
Dealing Flop
Dealing Turn
Dealing River
playdeepstack has Three of a Kind: 5s
DeSmeerpijp has Straight, Ace high
DeSmeerpijp wins 18,118 with: Straight, Ace high

So I finish in 17th place after hoping for more, a small disappointment. But tonight I’ll go for nothing less than FIRST place in the Deep & Steep Event, the one I’ve been looking forward to from the start. I’ll keep you posted!

I had a very difficult start in this tournament, as I had a lot of draws but was not able to catch them in the end. Luckily I was able to bluff on some missed draws to keep some chips to play with. It took some time to get a first chips injection for my stack in this six handed tourney:

Seat 1: TheProd1 – 10,732
Seat 2: playdeepstack – 2,555
Seat 3: tubs66 – 6,699
Seat 4: gilboaction – 1,831 (BUTTON)
Seat 5: smurfin67 – 7,788 (SMALL BLIND 125)
Seat 6: InverseGirl – 3,903 (BIG BLIND 250)

Dealing to playdeepstack
TheProd1 folds
playdeepstack raises to 2,555 (all-in)
tubs66 folds
gilboaction calls 1,831 (all-in)
smurfin67 folds – InverseGirl folds
Returning 724 to playdeepstack uncalled
Pot sizes: 4,037

gilboaction shows
Dealing Flop
Dealing Turn
Dealing River
playdeepstack has Three of a Kind: 8s
playdeepstack wins 4,037 with: Three of a Kind: 8s

It’s a big relief of course to immediately flop a set, but the second spade on the turn gave me the creeps again, reminding me of my elimination in the fourth tournament when I flopped Aces up. I stayed alive for a while but never got a real opportunity to gather some more chips. I made my last move on the following hand:

Ante=100
Seat 1: sambuca619 – 5,949
Seat 2: playdeepstack – 6,422 (BUTTON)
Seat 3: chrismartin1 – 11,291 (SMALL BLIND 400)
Seat 4: ProfULLRICH – 13,063 (BIG BLIND 800)
Seat 5: staceylou69 – 5,232
Seat 6: phineasgage – 11,342

Dealing to playdeepstack
staceylou69 folds – phineasgage folds – sambuca619 folds
playdeepstack raises to 2,000
chrismartin1 folds
ProfULLRICH calls 2,000
Pot sizes: 5,000

Dealing Flop
ProfULLRICH checks
playdeepstack bets 4,322 (all-in)
ProfULLRICH calls 4,322
Pot sizes: 13,644
ProfULLRICH shows
Dealing Turn
Dealing River
playdeepstack has One Pair: 4s
ProfULLRICH has Two Pairs: Aces, 4s
ProfULLRICH wins 13,644 with: Two Pairs: Aces, 4s

My plan was to let this deepstack make a loose call preflop and to get him to fold after an all-in on any flop. I flop a flushdraw so I’m very alive if he has hit something. I even catch an OESD on the turn to go with my flushdraw, but I don’t catch anything once again. I realize shoving preflop wouldn’t have made a difference after seeing his cards. I’ll try again on Sunday!!

Blinds went up every five minutes yesterday, making this fourth event a turbo rollercoaster. I did not have enough luck to survive long here; I shoved with TJ when I had like 6 big blinds left and ran into AA and AK. Sunday however, the starting stack was 5000 chips with 12 minute blind levels. I ended up in 32nd place there and collected my first points. With two deep stack events to go in the remaining six tournaments, I’m going for that win.

I was almost never above chip average in this tourney, but suddenly I won two nice pots in a row. First my AT all-in was called by 89 and held up, next came this hand:

Ante=25
Seat 1: candypariset – 5,010
Seat 2: playdeepstack – 3,591
Seat 3: VgMdW – 3,995
Seat 4: smurfin67 – 4,905 (BUTTON)
Seat 5: mclash80 – 8,857 (SMALL BLIND 150)
Seat 6: frazzattack – 11,842 (BIG BLIND 300)
Seat 7: cordeiroo – 12,095
Seat 8: TomDuke – 7,899
Seat 9: caillte – 5,547
Seat 10: klungelsmurf67 – 5,080

Dealing to playdeepstack
cordeiroo folds
TomDuke raises to 750
caillte folds – klungelsmurf67 folds – candypariset folds
playdeepstack calls 750
VgMdW folds – smurfin67 folds – mclash80 folds – frazzattack folds
Pot sizes: 2,200

Dealing Flop
TomDuke bets 1,467
playdeepstack raises to 2,816 (all-in)
TomDuke calls 2,816
Pot sizes: 7,832

TomDuke shows
Dealing Turn
Dealing River
playdeepstack has Three of a Kind: 9s
playdeepstack wins 7,832 with: Three of a Kind: 9s

Then some ups and downs followed, with my own aces being cracked and doubling up subsequently with a preflop KJ shove against AQ. With some 70 players left, I had a nice opportunity to jump into a top 10 position, but my  Queens were cracked in a coinflip against AK. Then it was time to leave after this terrible knock-out:

Ante=400
Seat 1: mikiFW – 137,932
Seat 2: CraigWild – 45,504
Seat 3: playdeepstack – 27,022
Seat 5: weemik – 76,787
Seat 6: dilee77 – 17,592 (BUTTON)
Seat 7: Vegasbaby24 – 35,164 (SMALL BLIND 2000)
Seat 8: varike – 28,946 (BIG BLIND 4000)
Seat 10: noswarameans – 26,516

Dealing to playdeepstack
noswarameans folds – mikiFW folds – CraigWild folds
playdeepstack raises to 26,622 (all-in)
weemik folds – dilee77 folds – Vegasbaby24 folds
varike calls 26,622
Pot sizes: 58,444

varike shows
Dealing Flop
Dealing Turn
Dealing River
playdeepstack has Two Pairs: Aces, 9s
varike has Flush, Ace high
varike wins 58,444 with: Flush, Ace high

At first, I’m happy once again that somebody calls me AGAIN with the worst hand, I mean your whole stack with such a terrible Ace? The three on the flop scared the hell out of me, but luckily a nine came also. But the running diamonds, come on…

We’ll see what thursday brings, playing a six seater then!

During the months of September and October, they have a special tournament series each year: the MTT Super League. The concept is the following: you pay a single buy-in of $11 to participate in a series of 10 tournaments. Players can’t win a money prize in each separate tournament, but score a certain amount of points based on their finishing position. In the end, payouts will be done according to the positions on the overall leaderboard. You don’t necessarily need to participate in every tounament, as only your top five finishes will count. The tournaments consist of various variants of NLHE (regular, deep stack, speed, six handed,…) and two PLO events.

Last Tuesday I played the first event, a regular NLHE event, and I’ll report every tournament I played right here. However, there’s also one big disadvantage about PKR, and that’s it’s hand history format. It’s not possible to convert them properly into a hand replayer, so I’ll do my best to make them comprehensible by improvisation.

My first tourney was not a big success, as I was eliminated early by some kind of a cold deck. Check this:

Seat 1: piedran – 3,060
Seat 2: BigSlick92 – 3,040
Seat 3: bolty310 – 2,626
Seat 4: macthesac – 1,250
Seat 5: playdeepstack – 2,885
Seat 6: amra7 – 4,654             BUTTON
Seat 7: tadej902 – 3,665        SMALL BLIND 50
Seat 8: BadKojaK – 3,167   BIG BLIND 100
Seat 9: Woggie8688 – 3,123
Seat 10: MARKHAZ – 2,530

Dealing  to playdeepstack
Woggie8688 folds – MARKHAZ folds
piedran calls 100
BigSlick92 folds – bolty310 folds – macthesac folds
playdeepstack raises to 325
amra7 folds – tadej902 folds
BadKojaK raises to 700
piedran folds
playdeepstack calls 700
Pot sizes: 1,550

Dealing Flop
BadKojaK checks – playdeepstack bets 550 – BadKojaK calls 550

Pot sizes: 2,650
Dealing Turn
BadKojaK checks – playdeepstack bets 1,635 (all-in) – BadKojaK says good luck. – BadKojaK calls 1,635

Pot sizes: 5,920
BadKojaK shows

Dealing River
Pot sizes: 5,920
playdeepstack has Three of a Kind: Kings
BadKojaK has Full House, Aces over Kings
BadKojaK wins 5,920 with: Full House, Aces over Kings

Well, I could have sensed he could have had AA with the suspicious minraise preflop, but what I’m gonna do, really? I flop a set with top kicker and even add the nut flush draw in case he has the case king with a heart on the side. I can’t lay this down, certainly not in a tournament, certainly not on PKR. I missed the PLO event on Thursday because I went to a great Brian Wilson concert, but I’ll be back on sunday for the DEEPSTACK event! I hope I can really make a top finish here. Cheers.

* Very important if you want to make a deep run in a tournament, is the way you play during the early blinds levels. Try to avoid big pots in this period: your read on your opponents will be the least, as you just sit down with them. Don’t push a lot of your valuable chips in the middle against an opponent you barely know and when you can’t really put him on a hand. Like Phil Hellmuth always says: there are better spots.

* The last tip is for those moments that can be deciding in a tournament. Suppose you raised it up preflop and one or more players called. If you make a continuation bet and somebody makes an extraordinary raise, there’s a good chance your opponent doesn’t like the odds you’re giving him and he decided to shove it all-in on a draw, hoping that you’ll just fold. So don’t always assume that you’re already beat in these situations.

Let’s get to the story of the final tournament. Of course my confidence was sky high, as I finished 4th and 9th in my previous two tournaments. So I was convinced I could make another deep run in this one and in that way make my series profitable. But the start was a bit disappointing: I didn’t flop a lot in the early minutes with a couple of raising and calling starting hands. So I drained some chips, but I made up for it with a nice pot with A9 (flopped top pair with the 9) which gave me some chips again.

But then it all went wrong on one hand which couldn’t be played otherwise. Have a look:

What can I do? I get all my money in as a 73% favorite but the guy catches two Aces… Pity it has to end like that, but overall I’m satisfied with my result in my series of deepstack tournaments. I learned some extra things which I will keep posting here. For now, I’m going to play some deepstack cashgames on Pokerstars, see how that works out. Cheers!