Limit Hold ‘em Tourney.. Not so bad.. And a Question of the Day
Last night I played in the AIPS III Event #1 Limit Hold ‘Em Tournament. There were 155 players.. including a few of my fellow bloggers. It’s always nice to play against players who you know. I went out in 35th. Payout was top 27. I probably could have inched into the payout but the blinds made me decide next good hand I got I was going for it…. Overall, I played better than I had expected. Here are a few things I noticed about my play and some hands that I thought were interesting.. and I few things I’d improve on for my next LHE tournament.
Well, I was visiting a friend who had just returned home from the hospital after brain surgery (she’s doing well)… so I had a 30min drive back home.. despite my speeding.. I was 10mins late for the start of the tournament. This was no big deal though.. I jumped into it only down a few blinds. I had read Howard Lederer’s tips & this review posted by Short-Stacked Shamus prior to the tournament.. I played tight-aggressive keeping in mind position and hand values. This worked out for me. I had a few lucky flops early on so that was nice to keep my stack healthy. One thing that is good about limit is that I don’t bluff off all my chips once I start building a stack… oh, how I love to do that… it’s like I can watch myself do it sometimes in my NLHE tournaments but I can’t do anything about it because I’m possessed by my horrible poker playing version of myself.
The blinds did seem to go up fast.. probably because the LHE tournaments drag a bit since the action isn’t so crazy as NL. On the small blind when all other players folded to me I had decided to limp with Ah-Jh. The BB checked. The flop brought J-8-7 (rainbow). I bet and the BB calls. The turn brings a 9. I bet and the BB raises. I call. (A light bulb should have gone off here. What does he have? He could have anything. I didn’t raise. It’s limit. He’s representing a hand. 2 pair atleast? 6-10? 10-Q?) Then the river brings an A. I have now made my 2 pair. I bet. He raises. I call. The BB shows 6-10. Good example of my lack of LHE experience. Shortly after I was all in with 10-10 and flopped trips and tripled up putting me in a better spot than I had been before.
On the hand that I went out on, I could have waited another round. I was on the button with K-Q. Everyone folds to me and I raise. I was hoping to just steal the blinds but it didn’t work out. The SB calls and the BB folds. The flop was A-J-4. The SB bets and I call. The turn brings a 7 (maybe?it was a blank either way.). The SB checks and I check. The river is a K. The SB bets and I go all-in for not much more. He calls and shows pocket 4’s. He trapped me but it didn’t matter I had committed myself to this hand by raising pre-flop. I could have just folded pre-flop and tried to hang on til the money but decided to make a move instead.
Lesson here.. work on LHE tournament strategy. I enjoyed playing.. Also, play more CHIMPS & AIPS tournaments.. it’s nice playing with fellow bloggers & podcasters..
Happy Friday Everyone.
Question of the Day…
What and where are you playing this weekend?
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Comments
CHIMPS is weekly (i think) also, part of the ANTE UP tournaments. Same password.
Razz should be fun.. I’ve tried out some razz freerolls and ended up cashing..
Here’s the info on CHIMPS:
http://chimpspokerseries.com/default.aspx
Nice showing, Poker Kat . . . you outlasted me by a bit. I think once it got down to 45 or so, at least 2/3 of us (perhaps more) had already edged into that gotta-commit-to-a-hand territory.
Yea, CHIMPS is weekly, kind of the “minor league” version of AIPS, I believe. Haven’t played in one yet (weekday nights ain’t usually so great for me), but I may try to.
In addition there is pokersluts on Sundays http://pokersluts.org/default.aspx many of the same players play all 3.
Sorry, I;m late responding to this, but why didn’t you raise pre-flop. AJs is not such a good holding that you want to slowplay it preflop. As soon as he raised on the turn, depending on reads (patterns, does he bluff a lot?) I would’ve folded.
Hey PokerKat,
Saw you playing and building up a nice stack. I played against longclaw for most of the tourney. Started off bad and then flopped a set of ducks and that built me back up. Flopped a str8 on one hand but couldn’t slow play because it was clubs and I didn’t have one. Built my stack to over 3k but one hand crippled me. I flopped top pair with KQ and guy made a flush on turn and I was pot committed to call his all in because he was a shorter stack. A lot of fun and I’ll be back for future tourney’s. I can’t wait for the razz event. BTW, what is the CHIMPS series?