Gargoyle Tournament Series, Season 9, Game 8

As detailed in my last post, I went into this game with a goal of playing less passively. I largely succeeded there, but not without a few hurdles.

Early on I won a few and lost a few hands. However, I went on a nice tear where I was winning more than I was losing. Worked my stack up to around 12,000 (starting at 9,000).

A good example:

Limp/call with A/10. The flop has an Ace. I check/call, check/check and then lead out on a blank river for about pot hoping to look like a bluff. It works and I get a call.

It was nice as I know I had the table off-balance with my greater than usual aggression. I was able to take down orphaned pots and also win when I’d totally missed the flop. Conversely, I was getting calls when I actually connected too.

And then, disaster.

I raise with 9/10s from late and get 1 caller, Pockets. The flop is 10 high. He checks, I bet and he raises. The history of the evening is that he was down and I was up. I’d won a few good pots off of him, but nothing out of the ordinary. However, at this point I didn’t put him on a monster, but something like A/10 or K/10. I figured I could push him around so I went all-in and totally expected a fold. Nope. Insta-call. He turns over 10/10 for the flopped set of 10’s. Gross right? Especially considering I have the other 10. It doesn’t eliminate me, but I’m down to around 2,000 and crippled.

At this point there are 30 players left and we consolidate down to 3 tables. I go into survival mode and actually do pretty well by getting at least 3 double-ups. Nothing that got me back to where I was, but I think I ha 5,000 at one point. Shortly after we consolidate down to 2 tables I shove with 5/5 for around 3,000 (500/1,000/200) and am called by a large stack who has Q/J. He spikes one of his cards on the flop and it’s good night in 19th place. Not bad for survival mode!

The lesson here seems to be that’s it’s ok to be aggressive, but just to be careful. That’s not exactly what I was expecting as I didn’t really want to be too careful. I guess I need to be just careful enough.