Only just under 60 players started the tournament and the structure was fairly good (20k chips, 25/50 and 1 hours blind levels). The casino looked very nice if a little small and the tournament manager (?) looked a lot like Tony-KGB. A few minutes after two the tournament kicks off and my table seems fairly good. A bunch of people I can't recognize in various ages groups and everyone plays fairly tame except for some youngish guy who apperently had won a EPT or something last year. That guy was two seats to my left and spoiled a lot of my fun.
To start the tournament I get a lot of hands and I open a lot, I call some raises and I win a few decent sized pots and lose only small ones. Some hands are more notable then others but the biggest one early went like this: I open A2cc in mid pos, EPT guy 3bets button and a young guy who plays a lot like someone who plays very weird calls. I assume that the 3bet guy is fairly wide and that the young guy probably has something like a highish pair or a good Ace that he doesn't want to 4bet 400bb deep oop. Overall I feel that his range might be a little wider too, but I don't really know and I decide to call my A2 since a nut flush draw could do some good things this deep and overall I feel that I can play it somewhat well for various reasons. Flop comes J22 with two spades. Young guy checks, I check fairly fast and EPT guy checks back. Turn is a 3 that puts out another flush draw. It's checked from the blinds and I lead fairly big and EPT guy calls. River is an off suit 6 and I lead fairly big again and EPT guy snapcalls and mucks, and we're off to a good start. I think it might've give me more value to lead 3 streets but I'm not sure, I think he might've maybe herocalled me with A-high in which case I got the max and I'm not sure if he pays off 3 barrels with just a lone J with a bad kicked.
At this point Micke Norinder sits down. Much of the rest of the story will center around him, and not because he's big enough to have his own gravity field (he doesn't, just to be clear). Anyway, Micke is a big boy and we have a little bit of history which include heartly but seldom very nice nagging and a lot of love. It all started years back when the loading screen of Unibet had a picture of Micke's face and I logged on, hungover, a sunday morning and tilted away a couple of BI's playing 10/20 Heads Up. That was back in the day when I was a talanted upstart with a cocky attitude instead of the humble wonder of humbleness and good manners I am today. Anyway, I sent an e-mail to the site and asked then if they could please remove the ugly ass picture, at least on days when people might be hung over, because it was tilting as hell.
Apperently someone forwarded the message to Micke.
Since then we've had a run in or two. It always ends up with bad hands getting payed off a ton by either party and a bunch of disrespectfull comments, but in a loving way that most often ends with a hug.
Oh, and we don't fold against each other really.
Next hand of note I get KK UTG. Micke calls in late pos and the flop comes something like 652 rainbow. I cbet really fast and he snapcalls. Turn is a 9 that brings up a flushdraw and I bet realy fast again and he snapcalls. River is a J that I think compleated the flush draw and I decide to bomb it and he snapcalls again and insta mucks when I throw up my kings and he said he had Ace high. A few hands later a guy to the right of Micke that probably was in his 30s and seemed fairly tight opens and Micke 3bets, I looked down at AA in the small blinds and considering how we're effectivly 150bb deep or so I make a large raise since I kind of want a good stack to pot ratio if I'm going to play in a bloated pot oop that deep vs someone who doesn't really like to fold. Flop comes KJx with a flushdraw and I bet 3k into 5.5k or something like that with about 15k effective behind (I cover). Micke folds and says ”No king and I'm going in” so I assume he had queens. I kind of liked my sizing since it sets up a pot sized ship on almost any turn (I guess I can check/fold a Q that fills the flush draw if I get a bad feeling and maybe check/decided a king) but it could be argued that smaller or bigger is better depending on a bunch of stuff. If the board was a little less drawy I think smaller would've been the way to go, but taking down a 55bb pot on the flop can never be that bad. I also think that 3k is a fairly good bluff size vs most people since it gets rid of TT and various gutshots much better then 1.5 or 2.
At the first break I'm at 30k chips and the blinds will be 100/200.
Nothing much happens and I'm slowly chiping up to just over 40k before the dinner break and the only somewhat intressting/fun hand was when I raised a limp from a shortstack with 77, he calls and I cbet and get ship on on J65ss, I call after a while and I'm up against A5ss. Turn is a 5 and I say grats and the river is a 7 and everyone laughs a bit and we shake hand. He was a older gentleman who probably had not played a lot of live poker but he was really nice so I felt a little bad busting him, oh well, more chips for me.
The dinner was really good since I ate with a bunch of Unibet players at some steakhouse and I arrive a little late after the dinner break. Dan Glimne told me about some cool hand he owned some young guy with by just limping behind and then call a raise with AJ and then proceed to get the pre flop raiser to stack of with AT on a Ace King high board and win a fairly huge pot. Say what you want, but the old man still has it. He Hellmuthed the crap out of that guy.
After dinner things got really intressting really fast. With blinds at 200/400 with a 25 ante stack started tog et a little smaller and with about 100bb's I was chip leader at the table. Micke opens in late pos, I 3bet KK from the blinds and he calls. We're about 50bb effective. Flop is T97 with two hearts. I cbet about half pot or a little bit more like last time to set up a pot sized shove on the turn and he calls. Turn is a 3 of hearts and I check my hand and see that unfortunatly I do not have the King of hearts. I feel that he'd probably would've raised any kind of decent flush draw on the flop and probably even 4bet Akhh pre so except for something like 54hh I don't think he has a flush. He could have slowplayed the straight and maybe two pair or a set but I find that somewhat unlikely considering the general awfullness of a lot of potential turns. So I put his flop calling range at something like random T's, possibly some pair + gutters that he for god knows what reason did not want to shove and random floats. Micke tends to have a lot of random crap. When you use the expression ”he probably has a hand” it normally means that he has something decent, but in Micke's case it's more like ”yea I saw that he got dealt two cards and that means he's in the pot so he probably has two random cards”. Anyway, I decide that since I'm probably never really beat and I don't want to see another heart or eight/jack/six it's time to shove. I'm allin. Micke says he calls and wonders if I have the flush, I go like ”no” and he throws up 33 for a turned set. There goes half my stack...
Half an hour later I've won a few small pots. Micke raises in mid pos, some girl in the small blind calls and I call 76hh in the big blind. Flop is AJJ rainbow. Girl checks, I check, Micke cbets 1.5k into something like 3k, girl calls and I raise to 4.6k. Micke starts to tank and asks the dealer for a count. Tournament manager (the guy who looks like Teddy-KGB) says the dealer should not count because apperently I have not bet those chips yet. Micke then says ”oh well, can you count them then?” and since I figured that the rule was stupid and that my stack has about the right size for my bluff to look credible I count it out. Micke tanks for a bit more and folds and then the girls starts thinking and folds after a minute or two. Someone calls for me to show it and I throw up my 76hh and the table starts to laugh. Micke says he folded AK and the girl says she folded some other Ace. I feel that my bluff is pretty good because it doesn't have to work more then like 50% of the time and Micke is somewhat restricted by the girl behind since she might very well have a Jack. I think both have more Aces then jacks in the ranges and with two jacks out on the board there is even less likely that anyone has one. I don't like the hand I choose to use since I have no backdoors, but I think it'd be a cool move to do with any kind of gutshot or other kind of outs. Then I lose a few pots and I get TT UTG, I raise, Micke calls on the button and the girl calls big blind. Flop comes 642 with two hearts and I cbet, Micke raise me fairly big and the girl folds. With 60bb or something like that and an overpair on a drawy board with antes you can make an argument for folding against that raise vs most people but probably not against him so I ship and he snapcalls and has 62 of diamonds. Board runs out like crap and he holds and I'm out.
That was the short adventure of my Swedish Championship this year and now I'll hang out with my girl, maybe play a little bit of live cash games and work out a little bit before I play Unibet Open next week.
