Below is the tournament report I posted up on the Gutshot forum to all of my backers after I played the £1,000 + £100 PLO event at EPT London. As a quick summary, the standard was surprisingly bad and if it wasn't for being utterly card dead and on a table where making moves was virtually impossible I could have had a real shot at shipping the title and the £19,000 that came with it, unfortunately this time it wasn't to be. Anyway, here's the report, enjoy!
£1,000 + £100 PLO Freezeout: Post Tournament Report
The Build-up...
So here is the requested Cliff style report on the tournament. I woke up nice and early at 8am and set straight out to The Vic to buy in to the event, this was the largest buy-in I've played before and I was eager to get registered and prepare myself for the day. The rest of my Saturday went as normal, I taught the private karate lesson I do every week, I watched some football, I shit, shower and shave. Beautiful.
I arrive at the Hilton Metropole at 6:15pm ready for the 7pm start. I thought I might feel about overwhelmed when I arrived but I didn't at all. Scanning the room for familiar faces (specifically Gabriel) I saw Marcel playing the £1,500 NLHE, Lisa Edwards from the club and a few other friendly faces. I decided not to approach them as I wanted to leave them to it.
At first I was a bit uneasy, not because I was worried about the tournament, but just because I felt a bit at a loss! There were about six tournaments going scattered all over the room with no signs indicating what table was what or where my event would be. I decided to just hang tight and wait for the inevitable annoucement that my event was about to begin and take it from there.
Cliff arrived at about 6:35 and I had a chat to him while he tucked in to a tasty looking salmon and rocket sarnie. It was good to chat to someone else who was quite new to this type of event, I also bumped in to Jerome Bradpiece who had played the NLH/PLO ROE tournament. It was no good, apparently they had antes in the PLO rounds which seemed bizaare. They also played the same blind levels twice for each game (i.e. 25/50, 50/100 NL then 25/50, 50/100 PLO) which also seemed a bit odd to me.
Hey Ho! Let's Go...
I take my seat at my table and the first thing I notice is that the tables are unusually large to the point where the dealers can't even reach the chips when you make a bet. The other surprising thing was the standards of the dealers was really appauling. We had five dealers while I was playing, only two knew how to calculate the pot themselves which was annoying that the table had to keep correcting them. But on top of that several could barely deal itself, they were slow, kept flipping cards up as they pitched them, shuffles took forever, it was really shoddy.
I have two familiar faces at my starting table, a guy named Steve who was also at my table during the £300 PLO Double Chance at the Vic around a month ago. He seems like a pretty standard old school type player, decent, limps a lot pre-flop, but definitely capable of moves too. The second player I reckonise was a guy named Zarion (I think) he final tables the PLO event at the club along with me. He is also fairly decent, I feel quite easy to outplay post-flop because he can be a bit too tight, however he was on my left and I know he is decent enough so I will try to avoid him. I'm also very aware that he probably does not think that I am a very good player because there was a spot in the PLO at the club where I called his river raise when he had quads and I had a King-high flush. I thought he was bluffing, he had the absolutes, nevermind.
With a 10K starting stack and a 50 minute clock, I have already decided that I will try to keep it a bit tighter to begin with at least until I get used to my table a bit.
My table is fairly active from the get-go, a few players I notice seem unable to let go of marginal hands like two pair even under heavy betting on straightening boards. Slowly I begin to realise that the standard at my table is not great, I have one player to my left (Zarion) who I know can play, the person to my immediate right who I do not recognise also seem decent, but overall I'm happy.
Then the dynamic takes a massive change, mid deal a guy comes over to take his seat, he's late, the dealer tells him his hand is dead because he needs to verify everything and the deal as already started. The guy argues saying why should his hand be dead, here is my ID, etc, etc. This dealer is clearly massively inexperienced and one of the worst dealers I've ever had, gives in and lets the guy play his hand.
UTG pots, UTG+1 calls, our maniac repots, the button calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 gets out of the way. The flop is A-9-6, UTG pots, maniac repots, button passes, UTG calls. Turn is K. UTG pots it again, basically putting himself all-in, maniac snaps him off and it's UTG's A-6-x-x vs the maniac's J-J-T-3, river is the predictable Q as he gets it in with a gutshot and hits. Now don't get me wrong, I think getting it in with A-6 there is horrible, but a gutshot!!
I another example he calls a guy all-in on the flop with Q-Q-6-7 on an A-K-4 board, it was a 20K pot at 50/100. It's A-K-x-x he's up against, of course he gets there with a 5 on the turn and a 3 on the river. Baller.
This guy starts bossing the table, he plays appaulingly, but he's potting most hands preflop and its tricky to play against him. I keep waking up with hands I have to call his raises with, I find Q-J-9-8 or 7-6-5-4 those type of hands, or pairs with good back hands. This are the kind of hands that I also like to three-bet sometimes, but I can't with this guy because he calls 100% of the time and 80% of the time will pot any flop. So I decide the best thing to do is keep the pots small and and hope I hit and which point I know I will get paid.
Except I miss every flop! All my hands are legit but I just can't seem to hit a board.
My stack dwindles down to 6.5K calling raises or raising myself and it going nowhere, we're approaching the end of the second level (50/100) and my stack is getting a bit small for my liking. Fortunately, before the break I pick up a couple of pots to take me more or less up to my original starting stack.
The first hand there are one limper there a raise to 450, I call in position with A-K-Q-J with clubs. One of the blinds call and the maniac surprisingly passes.
The flop comes A-T-6 with Ace of clubs, it's checked round to me and I decide to check as well. Under normal circumstances I might have a bet here, to build the pot when I do hit and so I've got the initiative to take it away on later streets when I don't. However with this table bluffing isn't really an option on the flop so my bet wouldn't achieve a great deal.
The turn is the King of clubs also known as GIN! It goes check, then pot, I'm definitely raising, but I've got the nuts with the nut flush draw. The guy who potted it who is new to the table I already have pegged as a huge calling station, earlier he had cold called a three-bet with J-J-J-A no suits. Terrible. There were a few other examples, but I won't go in to them, I elect to just pot it knowing he will at least call.
The blind gets out of the way, and my customer obliges and calls.
River is an off-suit four, a massive brick. It's checked to me, I bet around half the pot, but he passes, my guess is he had a flush draw that missed. That was a nice sized pot to pick up.
A few hands later I pick up another smaller pot, its folded to me and I pot it with 9-9-J-Q with one suit (JQ spades), Zarion calls on my immediate left and the loose-passive station from the previous hand also calls.
The flop comes Q-6-4, check to me, I play it safe and check also, and Z checks too. Turn is 9, check, I bet around 3/4 of the pot, Z dwells on the raise before passing and the station passes too. Those two hands take me back up to 9.2K with the break in less than two minutes. After the hand, Zarion asks me truthfully would I call if he shoved, I told him I would and that I had a set. To be honest I probs would have said the same thing if I had three napkins and an empty condom packet, but I was honest, at least this time.
Goodbye Mr Z...
A couple of hands before the break and Zarion, one of the better players at the table and the player to my immediate left busts in horrible circumstances. He's in the BB, it goes pot UTG, call, call, button calls, fold to Z who now repots, UTG and two calls get out of the way, button now repots it. Zarion has a think, I think he definitely has AAxx but they are probs weak Aces and he is deciding whether to pass, I think he's put too much of his short-ish stack in to fold so he makes the call all-in.
He turns over A-A-Q-7 with one suit (hearts), his opponent is crushed with Q-Q-9-A one suit, dominated hearts. But a Q on the flop seals it and Zarion is out the door. I gotta say, I wasn't at all disappointed, the one outer was sickening but it was nice not to have a decent player in position on me.
My Exit Hand...
Shortly after I'm back from the break and things are going the same as before. We've had a few new players joining our table who seem just as bad as the previous, I've noticed a few times that there have been raises, three-bets which always get called, but twice so far the four-bet has managed to get through. Also our loose-passive station from earlier in the tournament has been slowly getting through his massive stack, he keeps calling light big bets but folding to the shoves, it's a huge leak and a few of them seem to have a similar problem.
It seems to me they don't understand PLO properly and obviously think any four cards are good and can hit the flop. These are the kind of people that call three-bets with 8-3 off in hold'em saying "any hand can be a winner on the flop" but fold to shoves because they know their flith is behind. It's a dream if you're picking up big hands, but I am pretty card dead at the moment and not finding any spots.
Eventually when my stack has dropped to around 7.6K I decide that it is time to start sticking up for myself, I can't keep waiting for hands at this table. I know I will get paid if I do wait, but I'm so card dead and my stack is just dwindling away, so I find this spot to get it in.
I'm on the button with Q-T-9-8 double suited, clubs and hearts, the original maniac from before has raised it to 400 blind with the blinds at 75/150, lucky QQ man flats, passive station flats, I flat call, SB now makes it 1,800, BB passes, maniac calls, luckyman calls, station calls and its on me.
I decide I can't call 1,800 out of my stack as much as I would like to getting great odds with a hand that plays excellently multi-way, it's just way too much of my stack. So it's either a fold or a shove. Given that I've seen people pass to this pushes already in similar situations and that by now if someone had a monster they would have shown it by raising it up to the original 1,800 and knowing the awful preflop hand selections of my opponents, I decide I want to try and win the 7,000+ chips that are in the middle now.
I look at my stack which seems to be around 8K in total, I think that should just be enough to pick up the pot since my opponents have roughly the following stack sizes: SB: 16K, maniac: 14K, luckyman: 9K and station: 20K. I figure given those stack sizes anyone with a genuine hand would have definitely got it in by now, also my stack at around 8K should be a large enough portion of post of the players to make them pass. The person I'm most worried about is probs the SB, but he has four people behind him so I don't think he's calling.
I shove and my stack is counted out as 7,925.
Now things go a bit mental, SB shoves, maniac calls, luckyman calls and station calls!!
We all turn our hands face up and I am amazed to see the junk I've been called with.
My Hand: Q-T-9-8 with reds and greens
SB: K-K-7-2 with no suits
Maniac: 9-5-4-2 with hearts (I have him dominated)
Luckyman: A-T-5-2 with diamonds
Station: A-3-3-6 with spades
I'm in disbelief over the junk I've been called with but at the same time happy knowing that I am favourite against these hands.
http://twodimes.net/h/?z=7600600
pokenum -o qc tc 9h 8h - kd kc 7h 2s - 9d 5h 4c 2h - ah td 5d 2d - as 3s 3c 6d
Omaha Hi: 201376 enumerated boards
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Qc Tc 9h 8h 74916 37.20 125794 62.47 666 0.33 0.374
2s Kc Kd 7h 37163 18.45 164213 81.55 0 0.00 0.185
4c 9d 5h 2h 12547 6.23 184915 91.83 3914 1.94 0.072
Td 5d 2d Ah 21590 10.72 175206 87.00 4580 2.27 0.119
As 3s 3c 6d 50580 25.12 150770 74.87 26 0.01 0.251
The flop comes J-J-7
http://twodimes.net/h/?z=7600608
pokenum -o qc tc 9h 8h - kd kc 7h 2s - 9d 5h 4c 2h - ah td 5d 2d - as 3s 3c 6d -- jh js 7d
Omaha Hi: 406 enumerated boards containing Js Jc 7d
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Qc Tc 9h 8h 128 31.53 278 68.47 0 0.00 0.315
2s Kc Kd 7h 165 40.64 241 59.36 0 0.00 0.406
4c 9d 5h 2h 3 0.74 403 99.26 0 0.00 0.007
Td 5d 2d Ah 27 6.65 379 93.35 0 0.00 0.067
As 3s 3c 6d 83 20.44 323 79.56 0 0.00 0.204
The turn is a 5.
http://twodimes.net/h/?z=7600613
pokenum -o qc tc 9h 8h - kd kc 7h 2s - 9d 5h 4c 2h - ah td 5d 2d - as 3s 3c 6d -- jh js 7d 5c
Omaha Hi: 28 enumerated boards containing Js 5c 7d Jh
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Qc Tc 9h 8h 10 35.71 18 64.29 0 0.00 0.357
2s Kc Kd 7h 10 35.71 18 64.29 0 0.00 0.357
4c 9d 5h 2h 0 0.00 28 100.00 0 0.00 0.000
Td 5d 2d Ah 3 10.71 25 89.29 0 0.00 0.107
As 3s 3c 6d 5 17.86 23 82.14 0 0.00 0.179
River is obviously another Jay.
Kings ship the lot, the station has turned his 20K stack into a 4K stack because he can't pass 3-3-A-6 and three more players including me hit the rail. I leave the tournament unable to believe how sick that hand was and how I was the only person to get it in with a genuine hand. I am not happy at all, I have a rant on the phone to my girlfriend, text my backers before heading to the club in disbelief.
Overall I would rate my play as 9.9 out of 10 because this is a Cliff style report and to rate myself anything less than a 9 would just be silly.
In all seriousness, I was happy with the way I played, I had a terrible players at my table but the way the dynamics were it was difficult to find spots. I thought I found a good spot to gamble and try to pick up some chips, but I was wrong. Maybe I needed a bigger stack to do what I did, but to be honest given the hands they called with I don't think it would have mattered. Maybe I should pass to the 1,800 (or even call it) but I decided to take a stand and try to get chips. Had I won that hand I definitely think I would have been in a great position to make a top three finish.
Unfortunately it wasn't to be this time.
Finally, thanks to everyone that has backed me, sorry I couldn't ship it this time.
Marcus
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