Schenefeld Deepstack Tourney Day 1

If you're ever travelling by car and need a map, I would not recommend using map24. They think it's fun to leave out important street names and mix up right turns with left turns. What should have been a 2 1/2 hour trip quickly turned into a 4 1/2 hour trip just getting to our hotel.

We made it to the casino around 19:00 and because check-in for the tournament did not begin for an half hour, Sutti played some roulette and slots, surprisingly winning pretty decent money at both. Shortly before the tournament began, Shadow arrived in the casino as well. It was really nice to finally get to know him, after all, he helps us out in the forums quite a bit. I also met a player who frequently plays the $109 and $215 SNGs with me at Celebpoker, who goes by the screen name MVincennes. Also a very nice guy, he has been tearing up those SNGs for the past few months (right when I began choking...coincidence?).

67 players showed up, and with a €700 buy-in, that created a €46,500 prize pool. I went over a saw my seating assignment: Table 6, Seat 4. OK, I thought. Until I saw who I was surrounded by. To my immediate right was an incredibly talented player who many know as Miamivice. To my immediate left was a player who has even made a name for himself across Europe, Andreas Krause. So here I was, sandwiched between two of the best players in the tournament. It was at least a little pleasant to see that we had a few "live ones" at the other end of the table. My goal was to simply hit 10k by the time Day 1 ended.

Each player began with 7,000 chips and blinds of 20/20. Each blind level lasted 45 minutes. My strategy was just to play tight, try to see some cheap flops when an oppportunity presented itself, and then go from there. Well, considering I was totally card dead, playing tight was pretty damn easy. During the first 3 hours of play, my best hand so far had been 22. My stack had stayed around 7k the whole time, as I kept myself afloat with two SB specials (75o and A9o). Finally I was dealt QQ in my BB. It was folded to the button, who min raised to 240. Miami folded and I reraised it to 800, which I realize now may have been a bit too strong. He folded pretty fast. That's the problem of a tight table image. However, in order to build myself a loose table image, I would have bled off a lot of chips, because my junk hands were not connecting any flops, and many hands were getting called down by marginal holdings.

Our table was broken up at the 100sb/200bb/20a level. I took my 6k+ over to Table 2, Seat 1. I didn't recognize a single face at the table, but I noticed that many of them seemed like local rounders. There were only 30 minutes left to play before Day 1 was to end. The first I played was 99, where a guy they called Bedros raised it to 500 in MP. I called in MP with my black nines, one player called behind me, and then the BB went all in for 3.8k. It was a very nice squeeze play by him, as we all folded. I think I should have perhaps raised my 99 preflop and try to take control of the hand. The next hand I played was the exact same hand, 99, again both black nines (Hellmuth's hand). The hand was folded to the button (Bedros), who raised it to 600. To me it looked like a clear steal, so I took my 5500 and shoved them all in. The BB folded, as did Pedros. It might have been a light overbet by me, but I was relatively sure my 99 was good. The played ended for the night and I have 6,180 chips left at the 140/280/40 blind level. I am first to post the BB on Day 2. I didn't exactly hit my goal for the day, and if I'm not careful, I may be in survival mode before I know it.

Meanwhile, it was 1:30am and a seat at a 10/20 LHE cash game opened up. Have I mentioned that limit is not my game? Sutti was also playing the table, and from what I had observed, it was one of the worst tables I have ever seen. You think you've seen it all, you think you've seen the worst players, and then you are totally proven wrong when you see this table. These guys were literally terrible. UTG raises were called by UTG+1 with J4o (ask Sutti about that one), UTG limps are made with 84o, T6o, J5s, Q2o, and plenty of other hands. It was very common to see 8 players taking a flop (that would be all players at the table except Sutti and myself). It was totally sick. I bought in with €350 and started off slow. After about an hour, I was yet to win a single pot. I was dealt AJs and raised it up in MP, which got 5 callers. Flopped nothing and eventually lost to A5o UTG. The very next hand I was dealt JJ. I raised it again and got 6 callers. The flop came 922, I continued to bet, 3 callers. Turn came K, but I wasn't too worried about someone hitting it. Either way, I was not going to slow down. I bet again, 2 callers. River came 7. I bet, 1 call. He showed me KQo for a higher two pair.

Those two hands were the only premiums I was dealt at that table. It's pretty sick when you need to classify AJs as a premium. My stack was beginning to look pretty low, so I reloaded €500 to be fully equipped when the time was right. Unfortunately, that time never came. I quit the game shortly before 4am, down €325. I did not win one pot at that table, not a single pot, not even in my SB or BB. It's easy to lose money when you don't win a pot. It's so frustrating to have such a nice table and not be able to capitalize on it. If I bust out of the tournament on Day 2, I may give the cash game another go.