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Caribbean Poker Classic 2008; success in the 400$ +40$ buyin tournament

Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | Mark | Caribbean Poker Classic 2008

This article is a part of the Caribbean Poker Classic 2008 series. Follow the link to read more about how I got to go on the trip in the first place.

Tournament stats:
• Buyin: 400$ + 40$
• Starting players: 97
• Starting stack: 4000
• 1st 12800$
   2nd 6400$ 
   3rd 4900$
   4th 3750$
   5th 3000$
   6th 2250$
   7th 1900$
   8th 1500$
   9th 1130$

We both decided to play the 400$ tournament; me paying the full buyin and Artur paying the difference from the 300$ + 30$ tournament he had already registered for online. The tournament started at 9 pm so until then there was plenty of time to explore the ship and check out activities such as casino, fitness centre, surf machine and enormous free buffets (see the pictures below for samples of the good life aboard a cruise ship).

One of the pool areas

The Flowrider

Ahh that’s life

Artur the human spider

Kicking ass on the Casino Poker table

Freedom of the seas at night

As for the tournament I was placed at a table with players that appeared mainly tight/conservative with one or two more active players who raised about 2 times pr. round (too early to say whether they were tight/conservative players being dealt good hands, or more loose/aggressive players). I recognized one of my opponents from my previous tournament where I had him pegged as a solid player capable of playing his opponent as well as his hands. Needless to say I did not want to enter into too many pots with him without having the goods; especially because he had position on me.

On a more curious side note many players on the trip asked about my nick on Interpoker. I have a nick there, but have never played limits more than 0,25$/0,50$ since I mostly play tournaments and in fact not that many on Interpoker. Many of the players on the trip belonged to the 5$/10$ and 10$/20$ limits and I had the feeling they would not take me seriously if I disclosed my small stakes nick. My standard answer to their questions therefore was that I mostly played tournaments and usually not on the Cryptologic network, which is actually more or less the truth.

Moving on the action here’s a list of the hands I played during the first three hours of the tournament:
• Raised 3xBB in late position with A4 suited and got one caller behind. Flop was 10 5 4 none of my suit. I bet half the pot to signal strength but got another call. At this point I was pretty sure my opponent had something, so was happy to see the hand go check check to the river. He showed 10 3 for a great preflop call. This hand cost me a good portion of my starting stack.
• Raised again to 600 (3xBB) with AQ and 2700 chips left in my stack after my raise. The solid player who I mentioned before moved me all in and I folded coming to the conclusion that I didn’t want to put the tournament at risk in a situation where I might be 50/50 to win the hand at best.
• I was dealt JJ and moved all in on a raise in front of me. The initial raiser called with AK and I survived a Q10x flop to double up.
• I reraised a raise from the UTG position with AA hoping he would see my move as an attempt to steal the pot (I had reraised him earlier with AK and taken down the pot preflop) and move all in. He unfortunately folded.

My status after the first three hours of poker was a 9000 chip stack with 200/400 blinds and 50 antes. My friend Artur was not doing quite as well despite of his early chip lead on his table. He was down to about 2500 chips and needed to make a move soon. Coincidence would have it that my table was broken up after the break and I was moved to Artur’s table. In my next article you will hear about how I secured my place on the final table and how Artur got busted out in a sad yet amusing hand.

Artur and I on the same poker table

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Tags: Caribbean Poker Classic 2008

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