2005 Canterbury Fall Classic
Main Event $1000+60 No limit Hold 'Em - Adam Stemple

Tournament Report:
Entrants: 361
Starting Chips: $2000

I wasn't quite as on for this event as I was for the $300 event. I hit some hands early that I played sub-par and failed to extract as much as I could have. But still I made the money, and was 93% to double up on my final hand.

Blinds 10-15

Hand 1:

99 in late position. I make it $50 to go and the BB calls. Flop comes QJ3. We both check. Turn is a 6 and he bets the desultory amount of $25. I call. River is a blank and we both check. He turns over K4 offsuit and my nines win. I ask him, “Didn't you see my picture on the wall? And you call me down with K4 off?”

Hand 2: Slight Misplay

JJ in early position. I raise 5xBB to $75 and get raised to $200 behind me. I think about it and call. I have no useful read on my opponent, but he seems solid. Flop comes Jack high with two spades. Top set! I check with the intention of raising, but my opponent checks. A queen hits the turn and I immediately over bet the pot, $500, hoping it looks like a bluff. I also hope he doesn't have QQ in his hand, but I was certain he would have bet the flop with the overpair. He folds.

Now, what was the mistake with this hand? I think my mistake was in acting too quickly. I maybe should have bet a little less, tried to price him in. But with the Q bringing a draw to the AK, I needed to bet something. But I had just spent the previous day, talking about how proud I was of taking my time and thinking through my decisions in the live game. For two reasons: it helped my critical thinking to go through the hand step by step, and it also gave my opponents more time to make bad decisions. If it looked like a difficult decision, perhaps I would have gotten a reraise.

Anyway, I won the hand and moved on.

Hand 3: Bigger Misplay

KK in early middle. I make a standard raise of $50 and get reraised to $150 behind. This time I go into the tank and think. My opponent and I were fairly deep in chips at this point. He obviously has a strong hand, but I also have him marked as a strong player. I don't think he'll call if I move in. And I want action. I raise an additional $500 and he reluctantly calls. Flop comes KJ4 all three suits. Great flop for my hand.

Too good for me to bet. But after all that preflop action, I figure he will mark me as trapping and check behind if I check. So I bet $400 about 1/3 of the pot and he shows me QQ and folds.

Now the flaw in my thinking was that he would see the trap and check behind me. I don't mind him checking behind me. There are only a few hands he can have—none of which that can catch up easily with a free card. With a solid player and that preflop action, he either has AA,QQ, JJ, or AK. Most likely only AA or QQ. The aces have only 2 outs, and furthermore would most likely bet if I checked. The JJ's only 1 out. AK and QQ are drawing dead to runner runner. I need to check. With him holding Queens, I can afford to give him a free draw to one of two queens that may cause him to lose his entire stack.

Hand 4:

I don't get any more cards for what seems like hours. I work my way up to 3600 by the first break and after the second break, I have 3400. I was down to 2500 or so on the last hand before the break, but came over the top of a late position raiser on my BB with A8off. I had seen him lay down hands he stole with, and this seemed like a good time to take a stand. He asked me, “Did you wake up with a hand?” and then mucked it. At the dinner break, I have been blinded down to 2400. I stole some blinds to stay alive, but I had a 25k stack directly to my left, and it was manned by a tricky and aggressive player. My only move was all in, and he wouldn't need much of a hand to call me with his stack. I picked my spots carefully and stayed barely alive. After the break I was going to start by posting a quarter of my stack on the $600 blind, as well as a $50 ante. I called Fox to talk strategy though there wasn't much to say. “Gotta win a hand or two.”

My BB was raised and I had 42off. I didn't make a stand with it. I decided I had just barely enough fold equity with 3x the BB to pick a different hand. 2 hands later I got a pair of tens and doubled up against KQ. 4000 in chips and my M was still a pitiful 3 or so. I once again post my blind shortstacked and pick up an A4 offsuit. The same hand Fox went out of the tourney on. A player who was far too active for me to have much respect for raises the minimum. If I move in I make it an additional 2100 for him to call. I figure it for just the amount of fold equity I need, and move all in. He could be moving with just a couple of face cards and I could be favored. The more he thinks about it, the more I like my hand, and when he finally calls and I show my hand, he says, “You got me.” His hand? A3 offsuit. Stealing early with Arag off. Win or lose this hand, I didn't think he'd be around long. Mind you, I was all in on A4off, but I was desperate.

The flop came KQT rainbow and I expected a split, but a 4 spiked on the turn, and I doubled up again. Now I had 8500 in chips. Still short stacked compared to the blinds, but I was breathing again.

Hands 5 and 6: Lay off my blinds!

Blinds are 500-1k and I have 14k in chips courtesy of some aggressive stealing. A new player is moved to my table and immediately makes a standard raise of 3x BB. I have no useful read on his play, having seen no hands, but he's a younger guy, a little jittery, plays with his chips skillfully. I figure him for a knowledgeable yet very aggressive player. It's folded to me and I have AKs. I pull out the hammer and jack it all in. 11k more, my son.

He folds. The very next hand he's back, raising again, minimum this time. I'm on the SB with AQ off. I don't want to raise it all in—I don't want to lose my tight image, for one. I've been stealing pretty good. Also, AQ is a much worse hand than AK. I call the raise, and small stack on the BB calls as well.

Flop is 443. 2 hearts. Missed me completely. I check and the BB goes all in for 1200 more. Pot odds are great for Aggro Boy, but I am still live behind him, and he has already felt “The Hammer.” He folds, and with the pot laying me almost 6-1, I have a trivially easy call with what I assume is 6 outs to the small stack's pocket pair. Small stack shows 66 and a catch a Queen on the turn. Big pot taken. I have gone from $2400 to $27,000 in about ten minutes.

Hand 7: The 93% Solution

I sail into the money without issue. I had to throw away a pair of JJ's to a player who was all-in in front of me. I was fairly certain I had him beat, but the risk/reward wasn't there. I was going to get into the money with an OK chip stack. Doubling up probably assures me of getting to the last 2 tables compared to the last 4, but losing the pot guarantees I have no shot at the 108k first prize. I didn't mind coming in a little short stacked, I'd been playing short stacked all day, and I won the tournament on Monday while almost never having a comfortable stack compared to the blinds. I was more interested in fold equity at that time than I was in doubling up.

So I get to the final table and don't see any hands. I get blinded down to 13k and finally pick up AA. EP crazy Greek guy raises 3x the blinds. I think about it. I need action now. I need to double up. But finally I realize that if I move in here, he is going to have the pot odds he needs to call anyway. So, I come over the top and he calls with A9off. He was hoping his ace was live. I was 93% to win the hand and double up—also giving the second big beat in a row to the most aggressive player at the table—but he caught a straight at the turn and I was out in 32nd. I was proud of myself for rapping on the table and saying, “Good hand.” Then I shook hands all around while people commiserated with my bad beat. “That's poker,” I said. And I meant it. If you can't be happy about getting your money in as a 93% favorite late in a major tournament, then you got no place playing the game.

I suppose the 20k I'd won on Monday made the beat easier to take, as well.