Satellite Win Recap

Ok, I have a minute to blog, short work day today, yay. So, as I wrote in the last post, I played a super satellite for a main event seat in the Fall Poker series going on at Gold Strike Tunica and won one of the two seats. :)

First off, I wasn't even planning to play that day. It was Day 1A of the $100k guarantee, a $350 re-entry. My husband was playing and he thought I was, too, but I changed my mind at the last minute and decided I'd just stay home and enjoy my day off from work. Well, I could tell he was disappointed, he wanted me to go because he thinks I'm his good luck charm..awww. Anyway, I just didn't want to play event 1, so I told him that I'd go and just play a satellite or something. He was happy and off we went.

I decided on the main event satellite and it was small at 16 players, but 2 seats were guaranteed. I liked my table. It started 5 handed with all recreational players, no hoodie wearing grinders, pros or semi pros to worry about. One 40 something guy was wearing a black WSOP '13 jacket and sunglasses, but I read him as a habitual bluffer. He was. I eventually busted him when he bluff shoved with J-4 offsuit. I only had QJ, but I knew I was ahead, so I went with it and I held.

There was only 1 thorn in my side, an aggressive guy who sat down right before registration closed. He apparently knew he was overly aggressive, because he would win a pot and then go talk a walk..sometimes missing almost an entire level. I see that from time to time, guys afraid they're going to spew chips in dumb spots, so they leave the table often. He was one of those. Fine with me, I liked it when he was gone. Everyone else was much easier to play against! (He ended up the bubble boy, by the way.)

This one poor guy, I really had his number. He was on my left and I noticed that he could fold a made hand (very rare), so when we were in a pot and I thought he wasn't that strong, I would float his cbet and take the pot away on the turn. One key hand against him at the final table: He was two to my right at this table and he open limped for 1600, I raised QJ in position to 3500. He was the only caller. We were about even in chips, neither of us very deep. A mistake at this point would've been pretty much the end. The flop came A T 6 rainbow and he led into me for 4000. When a player leads into the preflop raiser, I tend to look at that as a 'blocking' bet, it doesn't necessarily mean a strong hand, it's more to 'see where they're at'. To me, it felt like he probably held a Ten, maybe KT/QT/JT since he limp-called my raise or a smaller pocket pair. If he had an Ace, wouldn't he just check-call my (likely) cbet to get more out of me? I just did not believe he held an Ace and hey, I've got a gutshot, so I called his 'donk' bet, as they call it.

The turn was another Ace for: A T 6 A That 2nd Ace was perfect for me, as it's a blocker to any possible Ace in his hand, so my read was pretty much confirmed that he did not have one and when he bet out 7000, I had to go with my read and raise him. He snap folded saying, "Well, she made a believer out of me.." :)

Another key hand at the final table was against the chip leader. He wasn't that good, but he was running reallyyy good. I don't remember my stack size exactly, but I was semi-comfortable. He had heaps. With the blinds at 1k/2k, I open raised AQ to 5k in early position. He was the only caller. The flop came out 3 5 Q. I hit top pair and bet out 7k. (I actually had a hand this time, how bout that haha.) He responded with a raise to 14k. Normally, I would sigh and fold this hand quickly, thinking, he raised me, he must have the nuts! But this time, I paused to think about it instead of auto-folding. Yes, he has been hitting everything, but does he really have yet another set? I looked at him, looked at my chips, looked at the pot. I can't just call, it's fold or shove. We were down to six players. So, I looked at him and said, "You're running so good..", trying to get a reaction. He chuckled and smiled, but it was an uneasy smile...it was a nervous smile. I saw a hint of weakness in his face and instantly I said, "I'm all in." He folded. He folded! He was just trying to push me around! After that hand, I just knew I was getting a main event seat. I just knew it. I was too focused not to.

I'm not one to brag on myself or toot my horn, but I am pretty proud of how I played this tournament and it wasn't due to the deck hitting me in the face (because it most certainly didn't! lol), I just played my heart out, didn't give up, panic or make too many mistakes. I did make a couple of mistakes, one was really dumb that cost me half my stack at the final table, but I didn't give up and I recovered. The main thing I did differently was to really pay attention to the mistakes others were making, make a plan to exploit those mistakes and actually follow through with the plan. So many times I think, I should've done this or that after a hand, this time actually I did what I knew I needed to do and it worked liked a charm. :)

I am so excited to play my first main event and my biggest buyin tournament ever. I'm sure the players will be much tougher than the ones in the satellite, but I am not going to be intimidated (hopefully). As long as I feel like I played well, I'll be satisfied. I play Friday at noon...I'll let you know how it goes...:)