My First Deep Stacks Tournament

I played in a deep stacks poker tournament on PokerStars last night. We started with 5000 chips, and the levels only increased every 30 minutes. That is a very slow structure. The buy-in was only $5, which was a mistake. If you're going to have such a long tournament, you should play for more.

Overall, I felt like I played really well. I made very few mistakes. I also had more than my fair share of good hands, and for a long stretch they actually held up.

It didn't start out very well. About 10 hands in, I was the short stack in the whole tournament. I lost 1000 chips in one hand where I had AK, on a flop of A84. The other guy had 88. I think I played the hand correctly, and I did good to only lose 1k. But, still, I was in a hole right off the bat.

The lowest I got was 3240. For a long time, I was well below the average chip count.
I chopped my way back up to my original 5k with small pots. 3 hours into the tournament, I was still stuck at 5k. The biggest stack at my table was around 20k. Then, the tournament leader "moheevi" was moved to my table. He was playing out of control, and he was directly on my left. I was happy to have someone at the table who was playing crazy, but it was hard acting directly before him.

I was down to 4875 when I got Kh9h on the button, blinds 100/200. I raised to 600. Moheevi called (absolutely a given). The flop came 2c7hQh. He checked and I bet 800. He put me all-in. He was playing SO crazy, I felt like I could easily have the best hand, and if not, I had outs. I called. He showed 3c 8c!! He had no pair, no draw. I doubled up to 9950.

I won a few more pots to get up to 11350, but meanwhile moheevi was going crazy, and he was up to 71k. He had more than 3x the second place stack, I think. I got AhKc. BulletsProof raised to 600, and I just flat called because I had mohevi behind me, and I felt like I could use him. The flop came 4cTdKh. I bet out 1200, and he put me all-in nagain. I called in an instant. This time he had KsQh, and I was a huge favorite. I doubled up again to 23600.

Now that I was up near the chip leaders (maybe even second place), having moheevi on my left was a real pain in the ass. He played almost every hand, no matter what I did. And he was constantly raising me no matter what. So, I played pretty tight for awhile. I dropped down as low as 16.2k. By the time moheevi busted out, I was back up to 20k, and without him there, I could start to open my game up more.

The chips leaders at my table (and the tournament) were around 40k, and I was at 19k. I got QcQs in the small blind. There was one limper (BulletsProof) and I raised the 400 blind to 1600. He called. The flop was 5c7d3s. I checked, he bet 2000, I raised to 7600, and he went all-in. He was talking like he had a big hand.. but so did I, and I was committed, so I called. He has 66. My Queens held up, and I was up to 39k. I think that was second or third place, about four hours into it.

A little bit later, I had 6c6s. The flop came 2s2dJc. I put someone all-in and they called with AsTs. That got me up to 60k, and first place.

Shortly after that (4.5 hours in), I got JdJc. I got it all-in pre-flop against BulletsProof. He only had AdTs. I was a big favorite, and the pot was 50k chips. I could take a monster chip lead. Of course, he hit his Ace, and I was down to 35k.

Over the next 15 minutes, I won a series of small pots to get back up to 49k. There were two tables, and I may have been the chip leader again. Then I got on a BIG rush.

I got AsAc and I raised 3x the blind, to 1800. SnoopySuited called. The flop came Ts4dTd. I bet out 3k, he raised to 9k, and I went all-in. He folded, and I was up to 61k.

Three hands later, I picked up AdAs. I raised to 1800 again, and Snoopy called again. This time the flop came 3s9c8d. Snoopy bet 4000. Because of the action in the previous hand, I knew he must suspect me of making moves on him (with the chip lead). So I pushed all-in. He called with Ac9h, drawing REAL thin. I won, and I was up to 99k. Second place was 52k.

I went into full-on steal mode. We were down to about 12 people, I think. Final table (9) got paid, and I was a big chip leader. I was raising all over the place. I chopped my way up to 123k.

Then I picked up QcTc in the cutoff. I raised, as per usual, from 800 to 2400. The BB called . The flop came 7c5c4c, and the BB had pocket fives. BINGO! We got it all-in on the flop, and the board did not pair. I was up to 154k, more than three times as many chips as anyone else.

When the final table started (5.5 hours in), I had 160k. Second place was 83k, third place was 48k. So I was pretty comfortable.

The final table was incredibly boring. The stacks were too big. I fluctuated between 140k and 210k, but I was always out in front. When we finally got down to three people (6.5 hours in), I was at 175k, and the other two were at 135k. We decided to split the money 102, 80, 80, with $15 for the eventual winner.

I went from 169k to 110k in two hands (first to last place). My QT lost to QJ, and then I raised with A4 and had to fold on the flop. The very next hand, I flopped a straight and doubled up to 222k. The other stacks were 166k, and 56k for floyd_1977. Then floyd_1977 got lucky several times in a row, when he was all-in. The one that finally made me just give up, was:

PokerStars Game #3780683573: Tournament #18261681, Hold'em No Limit - Level XIV (1500/3000) - 2006/01/28 - 03:16:50 (ET)
Table '18261681 2' Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: floyd_1977 (59976 in chips)
Seat 7: SliderDev (210106 in chips)
Seat 8: PoollShark (174918 in chips)
floyd_1977: posts the ante 150
SliderDev: posts the ante 150
PoollShark: posts the ante 150
SliderDev: posts small blind 1500
PoollShark: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SliderDev [As Tc]
floyd_1977: raises 56826 to 59826 and is all-in
SliderDev: calls 58326
PoollShark: folds
floyd_1977 said, "crap"
*** FLOP *** [8d 3s 6d]
*** TURN *** [8d 3s 6d] [9s]
*** RIVER *** [8d 3s 6d 9s] [Ks]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SliderDev: shows [As Tc] (high card Ace)
floyd_1977: shows [Ah 9d] (a pair of Nines)
SliderDev said, "unreal"
floyd_1977 collected 123102 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 123102 | Rake 0
Board [8d 3s 6d 9s Ks]
Seat 1: floyd_1977 (button) showed [Ah 9d] and won (123102) with a pair of Nines
Seat 7: SliderDev (small blind) showed [As Tc] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 8: PoollShark (big blind) folded before Flop

That was at 3:15am, 7.25 hours into the tournament. I didn't want to play anymore after that, and I went out at 3:20am. Overall it was a good experience, but playing that long for such little money seems silly. I won't play a deep stack tournament again if the buy-in is that low.