On to Poker Now! - Irish Poker Festival 2009 by Ladbrokes

The day started with a huge field of 752 players. I was really ready to play and I so much looked forward to playing. I started on a really good table with a lot of limpers and a couple of calling stations. It was mostly Irish players and only one other Nordic player, a Swede with nick “Polarbear” on Ladbrokes. I was not going to bluff much at this table. That was for sure! But I was going to see quite a few flops since I felt my post flop game was better than average on this table.

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I played well from the start, and I got a lot of good cards as well. I wish poker always was as easy as this. I got a lot of medium and low pocket pairs. Normally they are quite hard to play, but I played them quite carefully and risked little.
On level 2 (25/50) I got a pair of 3’s. I limped in as the second player and the big blind, a female player that was the most aggressive player at the table, raised to 350. Normally I would have folded at this point since 300 more is way too much to hit a two outer. But I knew that I could get paid very well if I hit, so I ended up calling. The flop was the very beautiful A-K-3. She bet 550, which I only flat called planning to raise on the turn. The turn was a ten. Not a bad card, but it could be a bit dangerous. She now bet another 550. I raised to 1550 and she called. On the river, an eight, she checked. I bet out 2800. She took some time but ended up calling in the end. When I showed here my hand she only showed an ace. A very nice pot for me and a very good start as well.

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I lost a few pots after this one. Among them a hand with pocket jacks against 2-3 off suit! On a 10-6-4 board I was called only for a five to come giving the opponent a straight. I also had to fold 9’s on a low flop once. This time the opponent showed pocket queens, so it was a good fold.
On level 4 (50/100) I was on the cut off with an absent big blind. I raised to 300 with 8-5 offsuit and got called from the button and the small blind. The flop was K-8-4. It was check to me and I bet out 600. The button folded and the Swede in the small blind raised to 1200. At this point I felt weakness from him. I put him on K-J or maybe K-10. I thought I could take the pot by reraising here, but why reraise now if I can wait a bit and take down a bigger pot? So I called with plans of stealing the pot on any turn card. The turn was a queen. The Swede bet out 1500. I followed my plan and raised to 4100. He folded quite fast. Well played, Andreas!
Soon after this hand it was dinner break. I had 38.550 in chips and was really happy about that. I had dinner with fellow Norwegian Tobias Holmeide and tournament specialist James Browning from UK. We talked about a lot on things, including the very bad tax system in Norway for poker players. Both Tobias and James had come back from a rough start to now be well above average. Just as expected from these two players that really are among the better players down here.
Very soon after the dinner break my table was broken. I didn’t like this, of course, but that is a part of playing tournament poker. My new table was a harder one. And I got no cards at all. It took one full hour before I won my first pot! And another 40 minutes before I won the next. I was bleeding!
I ended up bluffing away 12k in one bad played pot, and nothing seemed to go my way. Poker was not as fun anymore.
I had about 20k left in my stack when it was 15 minutes left of the day. The blind was 200/400 with 25 in running ante. The cut off, a new guy at the table, raised to 1000. I had 9-8 of spades and wanted to win the pot. He could very easily just try to steal the pot. So I raised to 2800. He called. The flop was K-K-Q, with to spades. He checked. I would bet out here nine out of ten times, but I suddenly felt some strength from the other guy. I don’t know why, but I ended up checking behind. The next card was the seven of spades. Nice one! He checked again and I bet out 5000. He raised to 15000 and I moved all-in. He showed aces with the ace of spades. I asked if he did call my all-in before I showed my cards. He didn’t realize that the 15000 bet was not enough to put me all-in. He of course called. The river card was a king. His full house crushed my flush and I was out of the tournament.

Damn it, I hate to bust on the last level!

Author: Ladbrokes Poker Pro - Andreas Hoivold, Saturday 3 Oct 2009