NLH 6-Handed Round 7-8

We enter Round 7 with 434 players left (we started with 1378). The top 126 get paid. We're playing 200 400 with 50 antes, which means 900 in the pot before cards are dealt. People will be betting over 1000 from the onset. In that light, my chip stack won't last more than a couple bad hands before we're back in push position, even if all I do is see the flop on those bad hands.

Seat 3 raises to 1000 and the SB calls. We're in the BB with AQ. We like the hand, but we'll be out of position post flop. Also, we're sandwiched between the two guys who have been pushing all in over and over. We'd rather put the chips in now. We raise to 4500 and they both fold. That's just fine.

Seat 3 raises to 1000 and gets calls from 4 and 5. Big pot! It's 600 to us to call and there's 3900 in the pot, so we call with total crap, 84. Flop comes QQ5. Everyone checks. Turn comes 7d putting 3d on board (we have the 4) and giving us a gut shot straight draw. Seat 4 bets 2600 and seat 5 folds. We have to fold. We can't call that hoping for a non diamond 6. Seat 3 calls so we get to see the river. It's an 8, which may have made our hand the winner. We will never know because Seat 4 bet 5500 on the River and 3 folded.

Our table breaks and we move to yellow 108. We are again sandwiched between the smaller stacks of 10-15000. Oiy!

We're also starting in the BB. First hand, seat 6 raises to 1100 and the SB calls. We have AQs. Same analysis as the last table. We raise 4000 more and they fold. I hate to say good-bye to a premium hand, but I'll take the 2500 income and call it a happy trade.

We're practically 7 hours in and I just can't help noticing the lack of pocket pairs. We've yet to get 45679J or K pairs. We got Qs twice, but that means we've only had 7 pocket pairs in 7 hours. That's oddly low (and we've not hit a set on the ones we did have).

We move into Round 8 playing 50 500 with 50 antes. We have about 23000 in chips, so we're making some progress, but we're still very shallow.

Table breaks again. We're at Black 20 with 21000 in chips and less than 300 players. I recognize one scary bald guy with reflective mirror glasses at the table. There are 2 players with stacks like mine and 3 with larger stack. I find this constant table changing annoying.

We raise to 1600 in seat 4 with AT. The blinds call and the flop comes 48K with 2 clubs. Scary bald guy with glasses checks in the SB but BB bets 3000. We fold. We take out our sunglasses. If we play against scary bald guy, we'll wear them. It's too weird to not know if he's looking in our big donkey browns.

Everyone folds to the SB who makes it 1300. We're in the BB with AJ. We're probably way ahead, so we want to raise, but we have some fear of a re-raise. If he's not trying to buy the pot and re-raises (he has us covered), will we push or call? Not knowing makes it hard to raise. AJ is just not strong enough to push with, so we'd probably fold. That supports just calling. But if we call and the flop comes without an A or J, and he bets, what will we do? Hmmm, we take a shot. We raise another 2600 and he folds. Perfect.

We're in seat 4 and raise to 1600 with 99. Seats 5 and 6 fold, but mirror glasses raises to 4000. Oiy, tough decision. We call and the flop comes AA4. He checks and I check. Turn comes 5. He checks and we bet 4000. He really doesn't seem to have an A, but he calls; and the river comes 5. He bets 5000. Very strange. The pot is huge; do we fold for 5000? No, we call. He takes it with KK. Not bueno. That really hurt.

We are in push position with 9000 in chips in the BB. Seat 4 raises to 1300 and seat 6 calls. We call (for 800) with 58d. Not a good hand, but we still have enough in chips to make it worthwhile if we hit something. Flop comes 348. We have top pair. Strange flop. We would have pushed with a 67 or 2 diamonds, but do we push here or try to extract value? We push unfortunately he insta calls turning over 33. He flopped a set!

We are out. Although we outlasted over 1000 opponents, we didn't make it into the money by about 100 people. Oiy!
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

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