APAT National Championships - Cardiff

I entered the APAT National Championships in Cardiff last weekend. I actually qualified for the Manchester leg, but as I couldn't make that one, APAT agreed to transfer my fee over.

This turned out to be one of the most frustrating tournaments I've ever played in. I was so card-dead, it was beyond belief. In the 10 hours or so I was there, I never received aces, kings, queens or jacks once. In fact, I'm not sure how I managed to go as deep as I did.

There were a total of 194 entrants with the top 23 getting paid (although I think places 21st-23rd only got their entry fee back). Somehow I ended up in 36th.

I started off okay. After about 3 levels, I had built my stack up from 10k to about 15k. I had just played solid, saw a few cheap flops, and took a few stabs at pots and taking them down. However, after a while I realised I was bleeding chips. I was trying to see too many cheap flops behind limpers with very marginal hands. I therefore decided to tighten up.

As it turned out, I had no choice but to tighten up. I wasn't getting dealt anything worthwhile. Eventually my stack had wittled down to 5300 (I think blinds were about 200/400). I managed to boost my stack a bit when I pushed from the big blind with AK after a few players had limped in, but I got no callers. One fairly loose player folded and showed AJ. Damn! I was surprised he folded that. I managed to steal the blinds the next 2 hands by pushing A9 and A8 respectively and all of a sudden I was back up to about 12k.

This was pretty much my tactic afterwards. I tried to steal blinds by pushing in late position with anything worth pushing with (mostly ragged aces). I did eventually manage to double up, but in rather fortunate circumstances. A player had raised in early position. I pushed with 55. He called with 88, but I managed to flop a 5. I was now able to open up a bit more. I managed to get my stack up to around 39k, again by seeing cheap flops and taking stabs at them.

I did make a couple of mistakes near the end, which if played correctly, may have seen me make the money. On the first occasion, with blinds at 1000/2000, the table big stack raised from mid-position. He had about 90k. I had probably between 25-30k (IIRC). I was on the button with 55. I had considered calling and seeing a flop in position, but I folded not wanting to invest about 20% of my stack on a weak pair. What I should have done in retrospect is try to resteal by pushing. He had been raising quite a lot lately and so his range was quite wide. I probably would have taken the pot down there and then. I had the perfect stack size for restealing. I actually should have spent more time thinking how to play the hand. Lesson learnt.

The 2nd mistake was when the guy to my immediate right pushed his last 5k. He had just lost most of his stack the hand before when his aces got beat. I had played with this guy (Suraj) most of the day (and also at the last regional tournament in London) and knew he'd be pushing light. I looked down at AT. Now, this was a bit of deja-vu for me. In London, Suraj did exact the same thing when he was short. I had AT then and also pushed as I was short, but the big blind woke up with AQ and knocked us both out. I still had that memory when I saw the hand, so this time I just called hoping that if anyone wanted to play, they would just call and I'd make my decision from there. Unfortunately, the guy on my right raised and I folded. In retrospect I should have also pushed. To rub salt into my wounds, the board came down xxKJQ and I would have made a straight.

I day of misery was ended when I pushed from UTG+1 with QJ. Blinds were 2000/4000 and I only had about 27k left. I was about to get hit by the blinds and figured this hand was decent enough. Besides, no one had been calling my raises until now. I got called by 66 and KK and it was 'gg' to me.

I'm aiming to play more APAT events this year. If I can get 36th with no cards, just think what I can do once I start getting aces ;-)