VinceChan.net

I’m excited to participate in the PokerStars Blogger Tounament. Everything’s all set, and with any luck I may last the estimated 3-5 hours for this tournament. With a field of 1473 contestants, making the final table will be no easy task! Nevertheless, this is one of my goals for the tournament. Another goal is what I’m doing right now, this is my first LiveBlog post so if you’re reading it as we speak, you’re participating in history! The third goal I have going into this tournament is to have fun, chat with other bloggers and perhaps meet some celebrity bloggers and poker players?!?! It could be my brush with greatness!

Everything’s all set, computer’s ready. I’ve killed all the applications that might take bandwidth away. Just being over cautious. From time to time, I experience internet connection problems. Hopefully, today is my lucky day in more than one way! I’m sitting in the living room, playing on my laptop and the TV is tuned to a showing of the World Poker Tour: Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship. Will I be distracted? No, I will probably pay no attention to the TV, I just need some noise because I can’t stand playing poker alone. Weird eh?

To save space for my main page, I will be doing the liveblog in the extended portion of this post. Click on the link ‘Read The Full Post’ to start following the LiveBlog. Off we go!

You expect the following: I will not lie about what I am blogging. It definitely occured to me that I could use this as a potential way to confuse other contestants who may be reading this blog. I have no dellusion nor wish to participate in such deceit.

3:58pm: Waiting for the tournament to start! I’m sitting on table 50. Everybody starts with 2000 chips and the blinds at 10/20.

4:02pm: Everybody is playing quite tight at my table. I’m waiting to learn the table dynamics.

4:08pm: Straight called with pockets. Flop comes 2 2 4. A comes on the turn for a possible nut flush for my opponent. He bets strong at the river I decided the better and laid it down.

4:09pm: Raised 3x blind with big slick. Flops are not coming my way with 6 8 9. I folded at the turn when it comes 10 and 5 at the river.

4:12pm: Took down the biggest pot of the table thus far (2610) with pocket As. Slow playing, check raising and coming over the top. I was scared of a set happening. But wondering why Knoxville3 was straight calling me.

4:19pm: I retired the first player of the table. NJcrash had a semi bluff with 2nd pair and one to a flush. He went all in against my top pair and never improved. He was already damaged from a run in with his Q pair against a set of 3s earlier. Not a good play, but I was lucky. Pot was 960. I’m the chip leader of the table.

4:28pm: HammerG wins a big pot to take the chip lead at the table.

4:33pm: Called a 3x raised when I shouldn’t have with pocket 3s. Damage is 150 of my chips. Flop came up J J 9. Dangerous for me to go any further.

4:36pm: Lost a bunch of chips when the flop came up 4 5 3 and the turn made me a A top pair. The guy showed A 4 as his hole cards. He made a strong raise and I didn’t put him on an Ace rag. I gotta remember, some of these guys ain’t playing tight. Dropped my chip count to just below 2000.

4:44pm: Called a small raise with suited connectors in the SB. Flop comes Q, A something, and spier8sin bets in strong. I decided against a bluff as he has been solid. He shows A K.

4:46pm: I just flopped 2 pairs and checks it. A 9. Brinzotti who previously doubled up courtesy of me comes over the top of my raise to put me all in. There is a Q and 10 on the table but I figured him for only 1 pair. I called and was dismayed to see all the As represented. He had pocket As. My 2 pair could not turn into a boat fast enough to beat his set. Just like this, I go out in 1192nd place.

So there was no cinderella story. I only lost 2 showdown pots. Time to do a review to see if I could learn anything from this experienceA thought about doing this liveblog. It was actually tough for me to do 2 things at the same time. I am trying to remember the details but also aware of the clock being put on me. It was fun, but perhaps not the ideal way to play poker. I was feeling wounded after losing that first bout with Brinzotti. For him to raise strong with A4o and to bet strong on a middle pair on the flop was something I didn’t expect.

Hear are my session stats courtesy of PokerStars:

I was dealt 61 hands and saw flop:

• 6 out of 7 times while in big blind (85%)
• 2 out of 6 times while in small blind (33%)
• 6 out of 48 times in other positions (12%)
• a total of 14 out of 61 (22%)
• Pots won at showdown – 2 of 4 (50%)
• Pots won without showdown – 1

I realize now that I was calling on the blinds too often. I have to learn to let go out moderate cards from the blind even if the raise is small. What comes on the flop will make me think that a good poker hand is the best hand when it may already be close to dead against other hands. I only lost 2 pots at the showdown, but those 2 were the ones that took my chip lead away and then knocked me out. I’m getting myself in trouble and not detecting it earlier enough.