First Sunday of the year

January 2nd was the first big poker day of the year. The fields were big and the players were weak as usual but it was hard to get much going. While running well below expected I finished 3/21 in the money and in the cases where I did cash, I didn't come in with a big enough stack to do much.

I played about 6 shootouts to the 750k and got to the final two in 5 of them in the first round but lost in the "big blinds and jam" heads-up sections. I think I might have been out played in 1 of them but got in pretty normal preflop allins with the best and worst hands the other times. That part was frustrating.

In the one tournament that I did have a decent stack late, the 12pm $26, I was in a hand with the really good pro "P0KERPR0". I have played with him a bunch of times before and find that his mid-stage game is really strong. If he puts in a preflop raise, a lot of the time he is never going to fold it. To some it may seem like an exploitable tactic, however, considering the stakes and the players he is playing against in these low-buyins, I have found that it works well for him and that the other players really need to pick up a hand. There is one hand I remember from a while back where I button raised 2.5x with KQo late in a tourney and he three bet shoved from the bb for about the fourth or fifth time and I just didn't think he could have something everytime. I called for about 30bbs and he showed AJo. I outflopped him and he was out. Those seemed to be the type of good situational plays that he had made - maybe a lot of it was luck for him, that I had a decent hand and he finally hand a hand for showdown but it felt like he put himself in a lot of spots to make his opponents make mistakes.

In this hand we were down to the final 197/2063 and i was at about 18bbs. The H/J min raised and P0KERPR0 called from the C/O. I have a pretty easy call with KQc in the bb.

The action went as follows and I am left with a decision. I think most of the time PP (P0KERPR0) would 3bet pf with AQ, KK, AA and he might not raise a min lead with QQ on this flop. At this point I am left with him on a bluff, 66, 77, KQ. His raise size is such that it appears that he wants to raise enough to get away from it (or appear as though he can) but I think my hand is probably too strong to fold at this point. Considering the min cbet, my hand is definately under-repped but I think this is one of the spots where it is too strong to fold.
I shove, HJ folds and PP calls and shows KK. In retrospect and considering the stacks behind him, I really should have included AA or KK in his range as raises with most hands in pos and most often when he is just flatting preflop, he will be doingv it with a big hand at this stage.


I made a very small cash there and finished the day -$225.80