A tourney cash
A while back I as getting some mental game coaching from Blake Eastman we were discussing my bankroll situation.
I’m not a full time pro. I max at about 10–15 hours per week. Blake was concerned that I don’t put in enough volume to achieve escape velocity with regards to the stakes I play and can beat.
“If you had a 60k roll, would it be possible for you to lose?”
“Hell no”
“That’s the issue. You need to play some tournaments. You kind of have to give yourself an opportunity to bink your way to the stakes you want to play because you can’t get enough live hours in per year. Set aside a portion of your roll for tourney buy ins and just lean into the variance. Play your cash game-especially early, and just get some basic info on shorter stack play.”
“Should I sell action?”
“No! You need 100% of yourself. Also don’t play tourneys that don’t have life changing money up top. The hourly is just too low otherwise”
Since that conversation, I’ve entered into a couple of tourneys.
My baseline approach is to only go after min 250k guarantees, and to max late reg in order to to improve both my hourly and my approach to the variance.
In both of my first two attempts I’ve played exactly one hand.
I’d walk in, plunk down my $800 buy in, get dealt 99 with 30bb, rip it, get called by AK, and head home.
I know I can do better though, and this time I’m in for $300 in a 250k guarantee two day tourney that has 8 day 1 flights. Lets go.
My constant PLO play has really done a good job of sharpening my holdem game, both because it forces a ton of discipline and also because its just so much easier to break down spots when I’m only looking at 2 cards and not 4.
For the most part I was just biding my time on day 1 — standing back and watching the shrapnel fly as half of my table was just rocketing their stacks into the middle in an attempt to double through and get deep.
I had bled down a little when I made what I think was a pretty bad blunder:
My strat in this tourney was to only use the minraise sizing and I open 66 from early position with about 20 bb in my stack. A very volatile player who has been ripping his stack in repeatedly over the last hour shoves over the top. I make the call, but I think both the raise and the call could be pretty bad in retrospect.
Villain here had ATo, and the board came down 6T5A9 while he looked at his phone and never glanced up.
A bit later I find a spot with about 30 bb where I raise AQs, and face two all ins.
I make the call and miraculously my villains each turn over dominated hands, and I go ahead river the nut flush just to make sure of it.
Now I’m rolling and I have some chips to maneuver with.
There’s a lady in seat 9 to my left who has been playing very tight postflop, and I get into a spot with her.
I open KQs, she calls in position.
Flop A57 twotone, none of my suit.
I check, she bets 1/3, I shove for 2x pot, knowing that the top of her range is usually a pretty weak Ace, if that much.
She goes in the tank.
Tournament tanks are different from cash game tanks. They take longer. The stakes feel higher.
She’s shuffling her chips. Counting out a call. She doesn’t put it out there though. She’s staring at me. I’m on the stand here, and it doesn’t seem like its going to end anytime soon.
I try to be patient. She’s observing my tiniest movements. She clearly has an Ace and is not sure if she should risk her tournament life here.
Finally, I grab my water and take a sip. This is the best way I know to buy a fold, and the moment I do it she kind of sighs and slides her cards into the muck.
Got em! I drag the pot and kinda don’t look in her direction.
Another spot arises:
I have Td7s and check the BB vs two limps.
Flop comes down 9c7c3c
I check, and it checks around. Now I know that the in position players likely don’t have a flush.
Turn Qs
I check, and it checks around again. Now also very unlikely anyone has 2 pair +
River pairs the 9.
I check, the BB minbets, button calls, and I raise big.
BB looks like he saw a ghost and snap mucks. At the same time button goes “oh SHIT!” and just about jumps out of his chair. Guess he didn’t expect that.
He rifles his cards into the muck and stand up, muttering.
Fireworks continue to ensue, and I mostly just stay out of the way as various faces come and go with stacks getting blasted around on the regular.
Near the end of day 1 and I’m at about average stack. It’s 12:30 am and I am SPENT. I head home and go directly to sleep.
At 5:30 am my body wakes me up because I always wake up at 5:30. Uuugh.
I fight for a nap and get back to sleep a bit eventually, but pretty soon I’m just up and out the door. Restart is at noon so I have 3 hours to kill.
I try to relax my mind. No use studying now. Need to set myself up to get into a state of flow.
I kick up a comedy special on Netflix. It works out ok. I make a healthy breakfast and do my best to just set myself up for success.
I return to a colored up starting stack and a table with only 3 players at it. Everyone looks about as deep as I am, something like 60–80bb.
The table fills RIGHT as dealers shuffle up and deal and I realize that I’m facing some very different competition on this day.
3 players are clearly pros, and two more are at least regs and certainly not the punting fish that I was hanging around with yesterday. That crew seems to all be at the table to my left.
A pivotal hand comes early on with stacks about 36bb:
I open QhJd from the small blind. Big blind calls.
Flop is AcTs8d
I check, BB minbets, I raise to 4x his bet size, he calls.
The turn is the 6c, bringing a backdoor club draw.
I check, villain checks back.
River is the Jc, completing the backdoor flush as well as the KQ broadway combo, and also hands like AJ, JJ, JT.
I decide to bluff here, targeting an ace. The problem was that I chose too small of a size, only pushing a half pot bet out there, and leaving myself with 10bb as insurance.
Villain then goes into one of those long tournament tanks where I’m put on the stand again. Minutes pass by, and he’s observing my behavior, counting his chips, looking in agony at his cards, and just waiting for me to give something away.
I grab my water and take a sip. He isn’t watching. He’s deep in his own thoughts.
Eventually he makes the call with ATo. He damn near folded two pair there. I’m positive he would have if I would have just shoved the river.
Now I’m crippled and there’s not much left to do but pick my spots and shove it in there.
Some other players with deeper stacks than me end up jamming and busting. Somehow I’m laddering up the payouts.
I get KTo and shove 7bb. BB reshoves 88, I flop a King and double through.
The blinds increase and pass and I’m still just biding my time.
I get Q9o in the cutoff and shove again, this time with 7bb. BB calls again, tabling KQ.
Flop has a Q. Turn does too. I bust. I collect my win and go home.
There’s a sadness that sets in after a long tournament run.
During the break between day 1 and day 2 you fantasize about shipping the whole thing. You start thinking about tax implications and how much will go into the bankroll and what you’re going to splurge on.
You imagine texting your friends and telling them to tune into the live stream. You picture the headsup strat at the end of the final table. You picture the photo at the end.
And suddenly the whole thing is just over and your mind is still racing while others go on to compete for the prize that you were so close to grasping.
I went to go play some cash after that bustout and it was a horrible decision.
I was just primed and ready to punt off my little $700 win and got very lucky not to. As soon as I realized how badly I was tilting I racked up and got the hell out of there.
That sadness sat with me for a few days before it dissipated completely. It was unexpected that time, but I’ll be better prepared next time.
There’s always a next time.
