Irish Open Main Event Day 1 - Pocket Rockets, Slowrolls and Scalps

Day 1 of the Main Event was a great success. I finished the day with 60k in chips, in 5th position for day 1B and in 12th spot overall. I found the standard of play pretty mediocre - some good players, some loose players, but generally most players were pretty straightforward to read. Hand summaries below:

In the early 2 levels, I built myself up to 13k with standard plays - seeing cheap flops with my mediocre holdings, and winning pots when I hit or picking up pots if no-one seemed to want to bet at it. Blinds are now 75-150.

Hand1

I hold JQoff in the big blind. Guy in mid position puts it up to 400. He’s probably one of the stronger players at the table and I flat call.

Flop 2, 3, 10 all spades.

Since this guy is a good player I decide that this is a good spot for a bluff. He bets 500 and I flat call.

Turn 6 diamonds

I check call his 700 bet. Now the key to this bluff is that I may have a spade in my hand (I can’t remember) but if I check my hand then it gives away the fact that I am spade hunting. I want him to think that I KNOW that I called his raise with Ace rag of spades.

River J hearts

I fire 2000. He thinks for an age and passes, muttering to himself as he walks away from the table for a break. Up to nearly 15k

Hand2

I raise to 500 in early position with pocket 10s. Guy from the hand above calls and we see the flop:

2, 8, K.

I bet 700 which is called.

Turn J

The board is all hearts so I bet 700 again to try and represent, but I am check raised and have to give up the hand. Back down to about 14k.

Hand3

There is a guy raising every 3 hands to about 400, so I decide to put him off going after my blind. Sure enough he raises as standard to 400 and I re-raise to 1100 with 4♠8♦. He instafolds and I show my hand, and he stays away from my blind for the rest of our session at the table.

Hand4

I’ve lost a few chips raising with marginal hands and getting re-popped, or seeing flops with suited connectors and missing (it’s generally a good thing to see flops with suited connectors in deep stacked tournaments, due to the implied odds of hitting the monster). Anyhow, I’m down to 11k when this hand happens:

I raise to 600 in mid position with JJ. Big blind calls.

Flop K, A, 2 (tremendous)

BB bets only 400 so I call.

Turn is the lovely third Jack.

BB bets 700 this time and I check raise him to 2500. He passes.

Table breaks.

I am taken to my new table with 13k in chips and it is much tougher, with Tony Phillips, Bruno Fitoussi and a german guy who I recognised but couldn’t name. Incredibly I would bust all three of them before the day was out.

Hand5
German star raises UTG to 700 (blinds 200/400). I call in BB with A♠9♠.

Flop A, A, 2 (no spades)

Check, Check

Turn J

I bet 800, German calls.

River 3

I bet 800, German calls and mucks.

Hand6
Tony Phillips is short stacked and raises to 900 with only 2k behind. I find AK in the BB and make it 3k and he pretty much has to call with AJ.

He pairs his Jack on the turn but I make broadway on the river to bust the on-form youngster.

Hand7
I find AA on the button and raise Bruno Fitoussi’s BB to 800. This is the best place to have Aces because no-one believes your raise. He reraises to 2400. I make it 6k to go (I have him covered) and try to look nervous. I scratch my head, shift in my seat and gulp several times. He re-shoves for 14k in total and I beat his JJ, having to dodge a diamond on the river. I am up to 30k.

I now use my bigger stack to take down a few blinds and antes and am up to about 34k

Hand8
Guy to my right makes it 900 to go and I call with 55.

Flop 10, 5, 4

He bets 1600 and I make it 4k to go. He passes A10. Good fold - probably should have got more out of this hand.

Hand9
I raise German guy’s small blind on the button to 1k with 8♣8♦. He makes it 3k to go, leaving only 3k more behind. He has been frustrated so I think his range is pretty big here so I put him in and he calls with pockets 4s and doesn’t hit his 2 outs. Up to 40k now.

Hand10
I find AA under the gun and make it 2k to play (blinds now 300/600 with running antes). Loose Irish player makes a huge overbet by pushing for 18k. I think the guy on my right is still in the hand. He is hunched over his cards with ipod and shades on, shuffling his chips furiously. I sit figuring if I actually want him to call, because I am not sure I want to be against 2 players. The clock is eventually called on him, and it runs down to 15 seconds. I decide to check what is going on to be safe, and realise the guy has no cards at all and the clock has in fact been called on me! In 15 seconds my hand would be dead so I call and thus deliver the worst slowroll in poker history :( The Aces hold up and apologise profusely to the young irish guy who in fact had QQ. He takes it well, given that for a full 3 minutes must have thought I either had JJ or at worst AK.
This hand had a fair bit of coverage on the various blogs and forums under the title “comedy slowroll”.

I finish the day on 60k, 12th in the overall chips count from both days, and in a great position to go deep in this tournament.