Sporting Index Invitational

42 runners assembled at Loose Cannon for the Sporting Index invitational, which had an odd format. We were split into teams of 6, and 40% of the prize pool went to the winning team, with the rest paid to the top 5 individual finishers. In addition, the initial tables would play down till they were four handed, before the event moved into phase two.

I completely dominated my table from the start, and soared up to chip leadership before imploding spectacularly in bizarre circumstances.

The event was a £100 buy in, with unlimited £50 rebuys and a £50 add-on. A MISERLY 2k in chips was the starting stack. Very poor Loose Cannon/Sporting Index or whoever was in charge of that decision. Woeful.

I quickly move up to 3k with continuation bets on dry flops and then the fun starts.

Key Hand1
UTG makes it 200, I call on the button with K♦J♦. Big blind makes it 500 which means he has Aces, but I decide I am getting too big a price to fold and it is a rebuy after all.

The flop makes me nearly fall out of my chair:

QdTc5d

My foe bets his Aces for 1k, but I am now ahead of him with my up and down + flush draw so I bung it in and get rewarded with a diamond on the turn to crack him. Up to 5k.

Key Hand2
Multi limpage for 50 and I make it 300 in the cutoff with TT. I get two callers.

Flop is 9, T, 6 rainbow.

I bet 600 and it’s called in one spot.

Turn is a blank 2. I have been so aggressive so far I decide to check to make it look like I missed with big picture cards, and was just continuation betting. Opponent smells my “weakness” and shoves all in. Ding! He is drawing dead with a 9. Up to 8k.

I spend the rest of the first hour raising limpers in position and taking down pots on the flop irrespective of whether I hit or not. After I take my £50 add on I have 13k to play with after the break, so a very promising start.

After the break antes kick in, which is my cue to open up even more. We are soon down to 6 handed, and I am pretty much now raising every unraised pot, and winning most pots pre-flop. The other guys seem happy to wait around for a hand. This strategy is extremely effective and I am soon up to 18k at the 400/800/a100 level. This stack is even after I call all ins twice from the big blind in the dark, as the shover only had 3 big blinds or less. Unfortunately I don’t suck out on the shovers in either case.

Blinds then go up to 600/1200/a100 and I take down another pot pre-flop when disaster strikes.

Key Hand 3

I make it 5k in the cutoff with K♥2♥. However, the button doesn’t see my raise and says “raise” before making it 3k. This obviously completely nails me. The ruling (correctly) is that he now needs to min-raise me, which puts him all in for 9k total. I’m pretty much obligated to call the 4k extra into a pot of 16k. He has AT offsuit, so he might have shoved on me anyway, given my raising frequency. I hit a King, but an Ace sends me down to 8k in chips.

People simply aren’t raising enough hands for the extortionate blinds and ante levels relative to the chip stacks, so I decide to continue my crusade.

Unfortunately:

Key Hand 4
I shove in the cut off and the Big Blind, who almost covers me, makes an awful call for his whole stack with JQ. I mean what can he beat here?

Answer - he can beat my hand = J2 :(

I lose this and end up down to about 3 antes, which I bung in with Ace rag next up and Jody eliminates me with some random junk from the big blind.

I think I played this tournament in the optimal possible way. To put the crazy structure in context, Jody finished phase 1 with 13k in chips (our table stopped as I was the last man out till they went 4 handed). They then had to wait till all tables were 4 handed before recommencing, and during this time the blinds went from 600/1200/100a to 1500/3000/300a (!). Jody arrived back to see he only had 4 big blinds. Madness.

The cash game went well again - I made a little over £200 before tips, but I should have won a LOT more. I was up £500 at one point before donking off to a calling station who wouldn’t put down middle pair to a three barrel bluff. Perhaps he just soul read me :( Still, three winning sessions in a row now, so I won’t grumble.

Skrypec cleaned up, and the game broke with myself and him the only players still standing.