$500 Triple Shootout

Thursday 18th September

Poker stars on line championships
I was going to go out on this night but had a gut feeling to stay in and play the triple shoot out on stars.
As I have said before and if you know me you will know I love STT and I believe I have a better chance than most in the ones I play.
A triple shootout is 3 STT. The winner of the first STT go to a second STT and the winners from those games meet in the final.
I played this event in the WSOP this year and was unlucky to come second after having half chips in play 3 handed and then playing 90 min heads up.
This was a great strucred event with 5000 starting chips and with 30 minute blinds starting at only 10 20 it looked as thought his could take 6 hours to complete if we were lucky!
I started as the table aggressor since no one wanted to take on the role. I was up and down like a yo yo and had a few good key hands in this event.
HAND 1 UTG I limped with 66 the blinds at this point were 50 100. a player in middle position makes it 400 to play so I called. The flop was 6h 4d 6c I checked and he bet into me 400. I thought for a min and called. The turn was Tc and I again checked into him, he again bet but this time 900. I thought for a min and called. The river 2d not a good card for me in case he puts me on 5 3 but I think I will take my chances.
So what did I have…… forget that I have to think now what does he have and how should I play my hand. Ill tell you this, I could not lose the pot.
I was sure he was a weak player. I put him on TT or JJ something like that but would he try to value bet the river or just check it behind me to collect it?
Being sure he was weak I felt safe to check hoping for like a 1200 plus bet. I only had about 2500 left at this point and had put in 1700 in already. To my surprise he moved all in immediately so of course I called. He showed me QQ and I thanked him as I turned over quad sixes.
Now I was in good spirits and the table saw mw check 3 times with the nuts. This was good for later when I would want to see free cards in big hands.

Next up was a horrible situation. Sitting pretty with 8700 now I got involved in a hand against people who like to throw their chips away.
UTG again I was dealt QQ. I limped as I like to do this with QQ as an interesting fact is that QQ UTG is actually favoutire to lose. Bizarre to think I know but when you read about it, it does actually make sense. Any way they player next to me limps and then player raises to 300 I call and the player to my left moved all in for 3505.
I think it is clear he does not have AA or KK here so I can not pass. He turns over AhJh and the flop comes perfect 6h9h7h well perfect for him. lmao.
The turn and river do not help so I was left wounded and not on the 12K mark I would like to be on.
Next I played a hand I have mixed emotions on.
6454 in chips and I raised with AQ my pet hate hand. I min raised to 300 as blinds were now 75 150 jeff710 called me with 6930 in chips. The flop was 333 I checked and he bet 500. I thought I may be ahead and if not I had 7 cards to hit or more to represent a better hand if he had a small or medium pair. The turn was another 3 and I had to look again to check that I did now have the nuts. I checked again to show weakness and he checked behind me. The river was perfect K. With 1600 in the pot I did not know whether to bet 1000 to get paid or would it look obvious so I went for the over bet to look weak. I bet 2400 hoping to get a caller to split. He thought for ages and was writing LAME in the chat box amongst other things. He finally folded and I said I had to bet to win the pot. This got him fired up I hoped and we played on.
With nearly 4 hours play and 45,000 chips in play we were now 3 handed me with 6500, Jeff with 2700 and jimbomber with over 35,000.
Talking to a friend on msn I said if I can get heads up with this fella with between 10 and 15K I have a good chance as the blinds were low enough and I knew I was a far better player. I tried to eliminate jeff who doubled up through me but knowing there was nothing for second I stepped up a few gears into overdrive and started building my stack to a good level. Finally I got Jeff out and was heads up with 15K v 30K.
Heads up went on for nearly 90 minutes with my stack going down to less than 8K at 1 point. I did manage to swap 10% with Jimbomber amazingly he agreed to my powers of persuasion.
I got up to 20K in chips when he raised on the button to 1200. The blinds were 150 300 with 25 ante. I flat called out of position with 77 as I did not need to play big pots with him and with over 1 hr of heads up play I knew he had some kind of hand.
Flop was TsAd7c. Wow all I could hope for now was that he had an A so I bet out waiting for the re-raise. 600 to look weak. He only called. Turn was the 3c perfect I decided to check knowing he would have to bet here with any hand as I looked weak on flop and now checked a little obvious I did not have an A now. He bet 1200 so I re-raised to 3600 not wanting to scare him off and also allowing him to push all in on me. He called, the river was Qc. I now bet out 5700 trying to get paid when he re-raised me 10500 to 16200. WTF have I walked into here. TT if so he played it well. KJ I cant believe that AQ I was hoping or A bit clubs which I also cant believe otherwise he would have bet the hand different. I typed SO SICK into the chat and had to call off my last 8900 to win a 40K pot and he turned over T9c….What can you do except laugh…….That’s poker. After a my friend consoled and comforted me for a few min I switched off and could only hope that he went on to win to get my 10%. I wished him luck and switched off.