Day Three started very brightly. In the first three hands, I get AA, ATs and JJ. Then next hand, I fold 88 under the gun due to my activity. Up to 60K, happy days! Back in the game on a very nice table...please keep me here. "Hi guys, you are on the move". /sigh
Moved to a new table, I see nobody over the age of 35, which is never a good sign these days, and some seriously big stacks as well. I do my standard sit-nitty for a while and reassess my new surroundings and table mates. After a while I twice pick up KK. I get check-raised on a low flop, but unfortunatley he doesn't call my shove after a little think. I then get only the blinds with the second KK. Up to 100K again - now we're talking.
Next I pick up AK on the big blind. I'm thinking "here we go, maybe this is my day". The cutoff raises, I 3-bet, he flats and we see a flop of 9 T X (two hearts). I lead out for 15,000 and he calls. An eight of hearts appears on the turn, filling every draw. I check-fold the river, and I'm back down to 75K again.
We're then 7-handed at the table and I get Q9 hearts UTG. Being very inactive in early position tends to get me respect when I do raise, so I raise it and the big blind calls. Flop A 8 5 (all clubs), not a bad flop to c-bet so I do and he check-calls. Turn is a king, he check-calls again. The river brings a jack, he check-calls me again. In hindsight I think the bet on the turn is OK sometimes, but the river bet is a no-no. I should have given up, although I find his play with AJ questionable to an UTG raisor on a very dangerous board. Down to 35K and struggling...
That little piece of luck
I then get QJ in the cutoff and ship in my last 26K. The small blind tanks and folds, but the big blind snap calls with KK...oh dear. Although if I am truly honest I wasn't that worried. As odd as it sounds, I thought I was going to win this one. Sure enough the board ran out 7 8 9 5 T. Weeeeee, /cheer. I only had two outs for the win and three for the split as he picked up a flushdraw on the turn. I swiftly picked up another pot one hand later, and I'm back up to 70K.
From then on I really got very little going. I had KK again and got a fold to my 3-bet. As you can see I really didn't get as much action as I could have from my massive hands. Kings four times, aces once and very little repayment from them. It all adds up to a big stack of chips you COULD have won.
We are now at 1,000/2,000/300 and I raise with A3 hearts, and the fairly good player in the small blind repops me quite big. I smell some weakness and snap jam all-in. He tanks for an eternity with AJ and calls. I miss and that is that. In hindsight I didn't really have the stack to 4-bet all-in, and could have folded and found a better spot. But I thought he was weak and could get him to fold most of his 3-betting range there...
It's a shame I couldn't have gone deeper, cashed or gone even deeper. Maybe next time eh. Thanks to everyone for their messages of support. Shame I couldn't ship you degens who put money on me some serious cash!
Karl 'discomonkey' Fenton plays as a pro at PKR.com. Read more of disco's blog here.