Dead Money Poker Satellite Final Table (kind of...) part 2
Last post, I was recounting the Texas Hold’Em Dead Money Final table. A no limit deep stack affair with 8 good to very good poker players. Wish it had been only half that many good players. We lost two of our players from out of town and one of the Rob, was real nice about dealing the poker game.
I was already mindful of two players. Keenan from New York has a lot of online poker tournament experience. He played like an avid reader of two plus two mixing in aggression with c-bets. I could tell he sits down to play online poker tournaments often. He played position well and had that sense of where he was only logging a lot of hands in online poker tournaments can give you. I watched him carefully as I sensed he would spew tells and to a degree he didn't despite the fact he almost exclusively will play online tournament poker. Then halfway through I picked up something on him.
I was really wary of Dave Andersen as I have yet to beat him in any satellite or tournament, Last year, he won the Houma poker satellite when me him and Dinger finished in the top three. I slowplayed pocket aces vs. Dinger to make it heads up and then David ran down my chip lead and ran me over on his way to a seat. In the second go around, the rematch, David, me and a player from Austin were battling for the 5k seat. The player from Austin had amassed a huge chip stack, so at three handed he was lording it over us.
Dave was on the short stack and I had a little more than half of the Austin’s players chips. I decided if he was going to sit on his money (all three of us were in the money as we had a second and third prize) then I would have to knock off David and I would need his chips to win the heads up battle.
I got it vs him twice with bigger aces and both times he hit his kicker to reverse our stacks. Then gruesomely the Austin player basically said he preferred cash and didn’t want the seat he’d be forced to play. Had he said that 10 minutes earlier I probably wouldn’t made have some thin calls (they were right but I would have waited for a better chance). I wouldn’t say the kid threw in the towel but in short order Dave had overtaken him and won the prize. That still smarts. Part of the reason I’ve been involved in this tournament was to win that Main Even seat and it just seems to elude me. So of course, when I win the seat, this year, we don’t have a full table of players.
So this year, with Dave basically owning me in the past, I tried not to lock horns with him unless I had a hand. Seemed like that we both got dealt keepers plenty of times and I couldn’t avoid it. We mixed it up more times than I would have liked. Luckily I was running pretty good. I chose to raise and not slow play anything with Dave so I lucked out that most times I hit because he mostly missed and I would drag the pot without too much interference.
Eventually, I think this wore on Dave. I shoved on the turn (I think… maybe the river) and I think Dave had enough of me pushing him. Course, sometimes hands just work that way, so Dave made a stand with a decent hand but this time I had him. Phew! One of the better players gone, and a mental roadblock less to deal with.
Surveying the table there was trouble behind, but there was also a lot of trouble ahead. Keenan from New York was playing great, Lee Mac’s cousin was building a stack with wise calls, and an innate sense of where he was in the hand, Ray and Lee of course are regulars at Harrahs and neither is a player you want with you at your table. Joe C was playing tight but was picking his spots and I didn’t want to mess with him because if we got into a hand he was going to have the goods.
The rest of the battle was going to be hard fought...
www.gulfcoastpoker.net
I was already mindful of two players. Keenan from New York has a lot of online poker tournament experience. He played like an avid reader of two plus two mixing in aggression with c-bets. I could tell he sits down to play online poker tournaments often. He played position well and had that sense of where he was only logging a lot of hands in online poker tournaments can give you. I watched him carefully as I sensed he would spew tells and to a degree he didn't despite the fact he almost exclusively will play online tournament poker. Then halfway through I picked up something on him.
I was really wary of Dave Andersen as I have yet to beat him in any satellite or tournament, Last year, he won the Houma poker satellite when me him and Dinger finished in the top three. I slowplayed pocket aces vs. Dinger to make it heads up and then David ran down my chip lead and ran me over on his way to a seat. In the second go around, the rematch, David, me and a player from Austin were battling for the 5k seat. The player from Austin had amassed a huge chip stack, so at three handed he was lording it over us.
Dave was on the short stack and I had a little more than half of the Austin’s players chips. I decided if he was going to sit on his money (all three of us were in the money as we had a second and third prize) then I would have to knock off David and I would need his chips to win the heads up battle.
I got it vs him twice with bigger aces and both times he hit his kicker to reverse our stacks. Then gruesomely the Austin player basically said he preferred cash and didn’t want the seat he’d be forced to play. Had he said that 10 minutes earlier I probably wouldn’t made have some thin calls (they were right but I would have waited for a better chance). I wouldn’t say the kid threw in the towel but in short order Dave had overtaken him and won the prize. That still smarts. Part of the reason I’ve been involved in this tournament was to win that Main Even seat and it just seems to elude me. So of course, when I win the seat, this year, we don’t have a full table of players.
So this year, with Dave basically owning me in the past, I tried not to lock horns with him unless I had a hand. Seemed like that we both got dealt keepers plenty of times and I couldn’t avoid it. We mixed it up more times than I would have liked. Luckily I was running pretty good. I chose to raise and not slow play anything with Dave so I lucked out that most times I hit because he mostly missed and I would drag the pot without too much interference.
Eventually, I think this wore on Dave. I shoved on the turn (I think… maybe the river) and I think Dave had enough of me pushing him. Course, sometimes hands just work that way, so Dave made a stand with a decent hand but this time I had him. Phew! One of the better players gone, and a mental roadblock less to deal with.
Surveying the table there was trouble behind, but there was also a lot of trouble ahead. Keenan from New York was playing great, Lee Mac’s cousin was building a stack with wise calls, and an innate sense of where he was in the hand, Ray and Lee of course are regulars at Harrahs and neither is a player you want with you at your table. Joe C was playing tight but was picking his spots and I didn’t want to mess with him because if we got into a hand he was going to have the goods.
The rest of the battle was going to be hard fought...
www.gulfcoastpoker.net
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