2005 Canterbury Fall Classic
$300+30 No limit Hold 'Em - Adam Stemple

Tournament Report:
Entrants: 351

I spent the two days before the tournament rereading Harrington on Hold 'em, for my money, the best tournament books out there.  Got a good night's sleep and got to the card club in plenty of time to sign up and spend some time chatting with an old friend, Dick, a Vegas pro in for the event.

We started with $1000 in chips and blinds at 10-15. I'd like to start with more chips, but the good news is that the rounds are 40 minutes long and the blinds only go up to 10-25 instead of 15-30 the next round.  I figured I'd have plenty of time to wait for a hand.  My plan was to stay very tight in the opening rounds, then open it up once I'd developed my image and steal some pots.

The cards and one player ruined that plan. First off, I hit a mini run of cards—AQs, TT, JJ—all in late position.  I raised on every one of them, caught a Queen to the first hand and overpairs to the other two, and dragged a couple pots on the flop.  Having never shown down a hand, and raising three hands in rapid succession, I knew my image was anything but tight.  I was going to have to play tight, because someone was going to come gunning for me now that I was appearing to give so much action.

During this time, I was observing the other players closely.  In the opening rounds of most tournaments, there are a lot of dead money players giving away bunches of chips.  You want to get your share.  The blinds were still 10-15 when I spotted my first pigeon. 

Hand 1:

The standard raise at this point was $50.  From the cutoff seat, the pigeon raised $100.  The button and the blinds folded to the nearly 7x the BB raise and he showed off AA.  A few hands later, I limped in middle position with A8s.  I had a decent stack from my little run of cards, and there hadn't been a lot of raising; I thought I could sneak in and look at a flop.  I was wrong.  Pigeon raised behind me.  But he only raised to $50.  From the little I saw of his play, when it got folded back around to me, I decided he couldn't have much, and called.  I could have raised, but I'd rather try to use superior post flop play even though I was out of position, then chance losing a lot of chips to someone I was sure I outclassed with over-aggressive preflop play.  The flop came 732 with one spade.  Ick.  I had two overcards (one barely an overcard) a backdoor nut flush draw, and an uber-crappy backdoor straight draw.  I checked in anticipation of folding to a bet.

The bet came.  $50 again.  The pot was laying me 3.75 to 1, and now I was SURE this guy didn't have much.  A sophisticated player would make that small raise preflop and small bet on the flop to get action.  This guy was just betting the strength of his hand—which wasn't very strong.  Again, I didn't want to raise, because I also knew for certain that I didn't have much, and I didn't want to risk too many chips on the basis of the one hand the pigeon showed down.  I called, hoping to catch a card.

9 of spades on the turn.  Good news on the flush draw, but one of my overcards just died, as did my straight draw.  9 outs to the nuts, and 3 outs to a probable winner.  I check again.  Pigeon bets.  $50 again. Big pot odds overlay for my flush draw.  I call.

River is a blank.  I check.  I was happy with how I'd played the hand, but I didn't see how I could call even a $50 bet with just Ace high.  But the pigeon checks behind me, and I show A8 for no pair and win the pot. 

Needless to say, he didn't last long in the tournament.

Hand 2:

My chips fluctuated between 1700 and 1300 for some time.  I stole some blinds, and got some chips blinded off.  I reestablished my tight image by surrendering some small blinds, and stole some money from people.  I played a pair of deuces on the button with 3 limpers in front and caught a set on a rainbow flop of K82.  It got checked around to me.  With that many players in, I had to bet even this most undangerous flop.  I made a little probe bet, only about ¼ of the pot and picked up one caller.  Blanks on the turn and river, and I made some more small bets that got called.  Nice little pot.

Hand 3 (Beat #1):

Semi-weak player to my immediate right went all-in for his last 700 in chips.  Blinds are 50-100 at this point.  I have 1500 in chips.  I look down at the AK of clubs and quickly raise all-in to isolate.  All fold and he shows AJ offsuit.  I have him dominated, but a jack flops and I am down to $800.  The blinds hit me shortly thereafter, and I am suddenly on the button with $500.  I'd played mistake-free poker for 2 ½ hours and my tournament life was now on the line.

Hand 4 (Race!):

I am on the button with 22.  UTG calls as does the player to his right.  It is folded around to me.  I have to think.  No one currently at the table seemed to be playing tricky, and both the players who limped, had limped before, and thrown their hands away when raised.  I only have enough chips for one more round of play, and this looks like a chance to increase my stack by 70% without seeing a flop.  I push all-in confidently.  UTG folds quickly.

Disaster!  The last player quickly calls.  Bad news, but not as bad as it could be.  He shows AKs.  Of all the overcard combinations I could be against, this is the worst.  But it's still better than an overpair.  I'm nearly even money.

No ace or king hits the board and I more than double up.

Hand 5:

 With the blinds at 100-200 and me with @1200 in chips I don't have time to wait around.  The blinds pass me and I search for hands to steal with.  UTG I push all in with AT offsuit, possibly the most dangerous play of the tourney.  But most people had been playing real tight, and those that were calling all ins had been showing down small pairs and KQ, KJs—hands I don't mind being called with.  The blinds stayed at 100-200 but a $25 ante was added.  I don't make a raise less than all-in for the next hour.   I get a read on a tricky, aggressive, experienced player two to my right.  He is tipping the strength of his hands when he blind steals.  As it is my BB he is going after, I use this knowledge to aggressively come over the top of him with AQ, AJ, and KQ, knowing he will lay it down.  I steal myself up to 6k in chips in this manner, and finally my big chance comes up.

Aces.

I am in early middle with the Ac Ad.  Tricky aggro player from above makes it 1800 to go from one UTG.  Blinds are 300-600 and there is a $75 ante.  Should be a premium hand from one UTG but from the bet size, and the fact that he is the chip leader and a bit of a bully, I know it is a good hand, but not great.  He has about 20k in chips, and I have enough in my stack to hurt him.  If I come over the top, I am certain he will lay it down.  A few years ago, this is exactly what I would have done.  But I have learned to try to make the most of my opportunities even if they sometimes knock me out.  I had a big hand, and someone moving at the pot.  We were thirty from the money, and I needed to accumulate chips.  I couldn't protect my stack—I needed to risk it to double up.

I smooth called.

I had a few hopes.  My first was that someone would try to squeeze us out from behind, but it was folded all the way around and we saw the flop heads up.  My second, was that with what I knew about this player, I could outplay him on the flop, and either double up, or get out if I was beaten.

The flop came 932, 2 spades.  Aggro bet out $1800.  This was a terrible play by him.  It told me with near certainty that I was ahead.  It also left him odds too big to get away from the hand if I raised all in.  I went into the tank for a minute and thought about the hand.  I didn't think there was any way he had 99, 33, or 22.  He would have checked with a set and tried to let me catch up.  No, I figured the flop had missed him completely and now he was trying to buy it cheap, hoping it had missed me, too.  So, how do I get him to call.  I counted down the pot, and realized that when I reraised all in, he would know he was beat.  But he would also see that the pot odds dictated a call.

I raised all in.  He thought about for a while, and called with AJ off suit, hoping the ace was live.  He had the Ace of spades and the turn brought a spade, giving me a moment's scare.  But the river was a blank and I double up to about 13.5k.

Hand 6 (Race #2):

Last hand before the break, only a few hands after the previous one.  I pick up AQ off two UTG.  Blinds are 300-600 with the $75 ante, and even with 13k, I  need to accumulate chips.  We are 30 people from the money, and most everyone is trying to stay out of trouble.  Aggro player is maybe the one exception, but I got the feeling he wasn't going to tangle with me for a while.  Most of the players with big stacks behind me were rocks, and I could safely throw away my hand if they came over the top.  So, I made it 2k to go.  I probably had the best hand pre-flop, and I had a reputation and a stack that demanded respect.

An unimaginative player--but not precisely a rock--raised all-in behind me.  I thought about this hand for a long, long time.  My first instinct was to let it go.  If I folded, I still had 11k, and could probably sail into the money fairly easily.  But I had promised myself to make no important decisions quickly in this tourney, so I counted down the pot, and had the dealer count down how much I owed if I called.

$3475 more for me to call.  Pot was over 9k.  So with the pot laying me nearly 3-1.  I was certainly being offered attractive odds to call.  Now, what was my opponent's possible range of hands?  The only one I was truly afraid of was Aces.  I was in deep doo-doo against Aces.  But as I held one of the Aces, it was unlikely.  Kings were a problem, but I had an over card and was 30% to win that.  Under 2 ½ to 1 dog.  Overlay.  Queens again unlikely, again an overlay.  Small possibility he had AJ or AT, and I was a big favorite over those.  His most likely hand was a pair between eights and Jacks.  All of which I was only a tiny underdog to.  I had to call.

I called and he showed a pair of nines.  No card over an 8 came on the board by the end, and the dealer shoved him the pot.

I was sanguine.  I had thought critically about the hand, and had made the right call.  If he'd flipped his hand face up before I acted, it would have been a trivially easy call.  By Sklansky's Theory of Poker, I had done very well.  Sadly, I was down to just over 7k, only a grand over where I was before I doubled up with my aces.  I was going to have to keep fighting to make it into the money.

Hand 7 (Beat #2):

Blinds 500-1k with a $100 ante.  My 7k is looking extremely weak.  But I steal a few times, and get a few lucky free rides on my BB to build my stack to $20,000.  I sail into the money and prepare to try to get to the next money level.  We are at three tables of 9, and are guaranteed $492.  At two tables the payout jumps to $992.  I figure I have enough money to get to that level without needing to get involved, so I settle back and observe my opponents promising myself only to play the absolute rocks.  We get down to 19 players and are playing hand for hand.  One more person out and we jump to $992.

I pick up KK.  Yeeha.  Now I can not only get to the next level, I can position myself for the win.  Middle position player I have no reasonable read on makes a standard raise.  I give him the Hollywood hem and haw, then reluctantly go all-in over the top.   I have him covered, and he has to call off all his chips—12000 more—to continue.

He calls.  And shows 77.  He screams in disgust and I smile inwardly. What a terrible play!  He had enough chips to survive plenty long to get to the next level.  He suspected I was weak, but he had to figure me for at least Ace/something.  He was looking to race in a position where he should have been conserving chips.  There are times to race—this wasn't one of them.  I was a huge favorite.

Of course, a 7 came on the turn, and I was down to five thousand in chips.  Owie.

Hand 8 (Beat #3):

With 5000 in chips and the blinds about to go to 1k-2k I was in a world of hurt.  I wasn't just low man at my table, I scanned the other tables to find I was low man in the tournament.  And the same guy who beat me was playing so slow, the blinds were going to go up before they reached me.  I was in deep trouble and needed a hand to make a move with and fast.

I saaw nothing better than 92 offsuit.  I reluctantly folded.  I was bound to get called, and I needed at least something better than a random hand to go all-in with.  UTG I saw another 62 offsuit and decided I'd rather go all-in with a random hand on the BB with no fold equity, than try to ram this baby home.  Reluctantly I fold.   With my BB and ante actually in the pot I get some good news:  Player 19 just went out!  I just made an extra $500.  I got some even better news seconds later:  when we went to two tables we redrew for seats.  I pulled my blind back and moved to seat 5 at another table, buying myself three more hands to look at before I was all in. 

I still never saw a hand and had 2000 in on the big blind when the following hand occurred.  2 UTG raised to 6000.  Same player who beat my AQ with his 99 moves over the top.  Folds around to me and I see 55.  I know I am way way behind, but I happily call all in.  I am getting more than 5 to 1 on my case 3,000 and I actually have a little hand to do it with.  If I'm real lucky, I think, they'll both have AK and I'll actually be a favorite in the hand.

No such luck.  Original raiser calls with AT, and the all-in player shows JJ.  I'm in big trouble till a 5 comes on the flop.  All of a sudden I'm back from the dead with $18,000.

Sometimes, you have to put the beat on the other guy.

Hand 9:

Two tables left.  Neither full.  I have a chatty tight player to my left and we are talking about the play of the few fish left.  I steal raise in late position with KJ of diamonds, and the BB calls.  Chatty player tells me, “He's a loose cannon.  He could have anything.”  Armed with this free information, I see a flop.

It's all diamonds.  While my guts do the “I just flopped a flush!” happy-dance, I keep my exterior stoic and try to figure out how to get all my chips in play, and get called.  The loose cannon checks to me.  Now, against a thinking player, I would probably make a bet here.  Hopefully, then their thought process would go, “He wouldn't bet if he had the flush already.  He's probably got a draw or he's bluffing.”  They might try to bully me out of the pot, or protect their hand (if they had one) by raising me.  But against the so-called loose cannon, I felt a check was better.  And sure enough, when the 3 of hearts came on the turn, he bet all in with top pair and no flush draw.  I quickly called and doubled up.

Now I had 40k and sailed easily to the final table.

Interlude:

One of the many things I did well in this tournament was steal blinds.  I set this up by surrendering my SB several times to thinking players on the BB.  And I showed the random garbage I was tossing.  They remembered this later when I made a move at their blinds and surrendered them thinking I actually had a hand.  Often I did not.

Final Table:

The final table was interesting.  I arrived with roughly 40,000 in chips—just about average.  There was one guy with about 100k and a few short stacks.  Most people were about the same.  Most of the players seemed easy to read.  There was one rather loud individual, who was also quite tricky and aggressive.  I stole a few blinds, and then he called me, moving all in immediately in front of me when the flop came 972, all red.  He had already pegged me as a good player, and knew that the flop probably hadn't helped me, and negated my positional advantage by moving at the pot first.  And I didn't think it was an accident.  I tightened up and hoped someone took him out for me so I could safely poach the rest of the softer table.

The most interesting thing about the final table was that people started talking deals when we were 8 handed.  In fact, everyone but me wanted to make an even split of the money.  Since I felt I was really the class of the field, and I had a good stack (around 60k by that point), I certainly didn't want to deal.  I was in good position to make a run at the top spot, and wanted to take my shot.  So that I didn't have to listen to them bitching at me to accept a deal the entire time we played, I just said, “My backer doesn't let me make any deals.”

This was a lie, but it stopped the discussion.

I pretty much sat at 60k, stealing once a round and letting the others beat the crap out of each other.  Eventually, it came down to 3 handed.  I was ready to talk deal at that point (I was the small stack now ;) ) but the chip leader was in real good shape and was having none of it.  I stayed tight—tighter than was really right for 3 handed play, but the two bigger stacks looked like they wouldn't mind going to war with each other, so I was willing to wait and see if I could pick up a hand, or one of them would make a mistake and get themselves hurt.  But by the time my stack dwindled to 45k and the blinds were 2k-4k with a 1k ante, I knew I had to make a move soon.  Problem was, my blinds were constantly under attack—I needed to call all-in to play, and I kept picking up 62 offsuit on the button.  On my big blind, I decided I needed to move all in with anything on the SB if folded to, or on the button if I got no hand there.  However, the button moved all in and I picked up 99 and called.  He showed a pair of deuces and I doubled up.

Shortly after that and he doubled up off the chip leader.  Now we were ready to talk deal.  Chip leader had 155,000, I had 115,000, and short stack had 85,000.  We agreed for third to get 17k, 2nd 20k, and first whatever was left—turned out to be 21,150.  I was second in chip position and had just guaranteed myself better than 2nd place money.  Everyone seemed pleased with the deal and we continued play.  I stole an assload of blinds from the chip leader and when the short stack went out, my opponent and I were practically even money.  He had 7,000 more than me.

Heads Up:

My opponent was very aggressive.  I called on the button.  He raised big.  I raised, he reraised all in.  Pretty soon I was short stacked.  I moved all in a few times and didn't get called, and we were back to even.  Blinds were 6k-12k with a 1k ante.  I called it a 7-13 game.  Eventually my opponent made the big mistake.

He had me outchipped by a little.  He called on the button, and I checked behind with a 93 offsuit.  Flop came KQ9.  I bet, he raised, and I decided that if any of that flop had helped him, he would have raised preflop, and moved all in.  He called immediately and I figured my tournament was over.  It had been a good run, but I was going to lose on a 93 offsuit.  Embarrasing.

But, no.  My opponent shows T8 offsuit for an inside straight draw.

“Why the Hell did you call that bet?” I cried.

“I really don't know,” he said.  “Brain fart.”

He didn't catch either a ten or a jack and I had him severely outchipped.  Not long after, I picked up QQ and smooth called the blind and called his all-in preflop raise.  The ladies held up and I had won.

Talking to my heads up opponent while we waiting to get paid, he said he'd made his move with the T8 because he was so exhausted after 11 hours of poker that he wasn't really thinking anymore.  I stayed sharp, eating well, drinking water and stretching at regular intervals, and at the end came out victorious.

Continuation:

After this win I went on to cash in the $1000 main event, getting knocked out after getting my money in as a 93% favorite.  They were the only two events I played that year.  Of the three events I played in '06, I took 4th in the $300 limit event, and failed to money in the other two.  In one my kings got beat by a genius with AQ  who called off half his stack 6 players from the money; in the other I played like a brain-damaged jellyfish and took a well-deserved early exit.  I'm looking forward to the '07 Classic to see if I can continue my very good cash rate.