Full Tilt Satellite

Last night, I played in a satellite into Event #1 of the FTOPS. It was a $69+6 SNG which gave away 3 seats in this 9 man satellite. Entrance into Event #1 is $200+15. The event is tonight (Wednesday) at 9 PM EST. Guaranteed prize pool of $750,000.

One of the guys (Kramer) wanted to do this satellite with all the guys from our Wednesday night game. He got 6 respondents. We decided we would log into Full Tilt at around 10-10:30 and all jump in the same satellite. Everyone would have a 5% stake in the others for the event should any of us win a spot in the satellite. Come game time everyone is there but Jerry. We all decide to jump in the next satellite rather than wait b/c it is already filling up and no one could get in touch with Jerry. Now, we have 5 in the same satellite along with 4 strangers.

Coming into this, I had a different mindset rather than a normal SNG. With the top 3 getting a buy-in and nothing more, my mindset was just to survive. Don't get into any wars early. Just hope for a big hand and ride with it. Respect the plays of the guys in our Wednesday poker game a little more than the strangers. Sit back and see how the unknowns in the game plays and react accordingly. I've only been playing with the guys from the Wednesday night game for about a year, but here is what I know about them.

Kramer - Ability to switch gears. Loose aggressive to tight aggressive, vice versa.
Ludey - Tight aggressive, very solid. Won't beat himself. Only way to beat him is monster over monster, suck out, or hope he gets blinded out.
Jay - One of the best post-flop players in Wednesday group.
Everett - May be the best overall player in the group. Bankroll shows it.
Myself - Clueless at times, sucks out a lot.

We take our seats and I like my position. I'm to the immediate left of Everett and 2 unknowns to my left. Here is the structure of the tourney. Each players gets 1500 chips, 6 minute blinds, top 3 scores a seat. I would guess 6 online minutes is equivlent to about 15 live minutes, maybe 20.

Everyone is tight the first few hands as expected. Later on in the 1st level, some of us just calls the blinds to test the waters. However, the guy to my immediate left, who we will call BigDonkey, seems to always be in the pot. He was betting or raising/over-raising post or pre flop almost every pot he was in and taking it down. I look up his SNG stats and see he only has 20-something games on his record. My thinking is if he's new to Full Tilt, he may be too loose and it may be hard to get him to fold or off a hand, even with an aggressive bluff. If I get a big hand against him, slow play it. No one has yet to be involved in a big pot though. My time comes. I'm in middle position, blinds 20-40. Look down and see 9-9, and raise the typical 120. Fold-Fold-Fold. Guy in the cutoff re-raises to 360 total. Everyone folds back to me. Not what I wanted, getting involved with a big pot early on. Looking back, I probably should have folded, but I call the 240 more out of position. Flop come A-10-X. Not a good flop for me. I'm ready to give up the hand. In a deep stack game, I may put out a feeler bet to represent an Ace. However, 1/3 of my chips are already gone, but I have enough to play and hope for something better later. I check, he hesitates and checks. Turn, I check, he checks again. Now I'm thinking, why is he checking it down. He either fears the Ace, so he has a hand like JJ, QQ, KK, or has A-K or pocket Aces to slow play. A Queen comes on the river, so now 3 over cards on the board. I check again, and he bets 400. Of course I'm not calling. I'm now down to about 950 chips and am the short stack at the table. The good news is the blinds are still low.

Here is another hand I had to think long and hard about later on. Blinds 30-60. I'm in the small blind. BigDonkey to my left is the big blind and the chip leader. Fold around to Everett, who is on the button. He just calls. I have 6-6. Should I push here. Risk my 900 chips for 120, but the big stack has about 2000-2200 chips to my left, which is not a huge stack considering no one has busted out yet. He's reraised pre-flop a few times against people who have just called the blinds. Do I want the embarassment of risking to be the 1st one out? I decide against it and just call the 30. As I feared, BigDonkey raises. Everrett folds, I think for a second and fold. Maybe if the blinds were bigger I would have shoved.

Around to the 3rd-4th level, it's not looking good for our crew. No one has yet to bust out. The 5 of us are the lowest chip stacks, but not much of a variance in chips for the 3rd-7th stacks. Myself and Kramer are by far the short stacks with about 800-900 chips. Here comes our first battle of the night. Ludey is under the gun and does the standard 3X raise. He hasn't played many pots either. Fold to BigDonkey. He calls. Flop comes J-X-X. I think Ludey checked and BigDonkey bets the pot. Ludey re-raises to all-in. BigDonkey calls. Ludey of course has A-A. Played it beautifully. BigDonkey has Q-J for top pair. Gotta love calling All-Ins with Q-J. However, turn is a Q, river is useless. Ludey is our first casualty. Tough beat for him.

After another round of blinds or so, BigDonkey raises pre-flop. Kramer shoves all-in. Jay in late position thinks long and hard and types he has a good hand. He eventually lays it down. BigDonkey calls Kramer's all-in. Jay said he folded J-J. Have to wonder if Jay would have shoved if it was an unknown and not Kramer that shoved all-in? Kramer has A-K and BigDonkey has 9-9. The board is all rags. BigDonkey knocks out Kramer and has a comfortable chip lead. Litterally, a few hands later, BigDonkey is up against the player I laid down my pocket 9's earlier. I'll call him Canuck b/c he was from Canada. Canuck is 2nd in chips at the time. BigDonkey has at least twice as many chips as Canuck who has about 2200. Everyone else left has less than their original 1500. They get it all in pre-flop. Canuck has A-A, and BigDonkey has Q-Q. BigDonkey gets the suckout and has the monster stack. He could coast for a Top 3 finish now.

Later on, Blinds 60-120 - Everett pissed me off on this hand. Everett small blind, me big blind. Fold around to Everett, he shoves all-in in the small blind. I'm holding A-4. What the hell Everett? I guess there is no gentlemens agreement amongst our crew in this game. Of course I fold, and he shows A-4 for the exact same hand. Very next hand, or maybe another revolution, blinds still the same. I'm in the small blind. Fold around to Everett on the button. He just calls. Well, we were in this scenario earlier. Only this time, I have 2-3. I think about folding, but it's only 60 of my 800. This time BigDonkey checks and I breathe a sigh of relief. Flop comes 5-3-3. Yippee! I'm doing cartwheels in my living room, doing the moonwalk, or whatever. I calmly press 'Check'. Big Donkey bets out 120. Everett folds. Should I just call to milk him some more. I slowly hesitate and wait for the timer warning and shove all-in. BigDonkey calls with A-K. Double Up! Back in the game. Only a dent into BigDonkeys stack though. I don't like he has position on me, but hopefully he'll be smart and just coast to finish in the Top 3, which he could do with his chip stack.

After the double-up, I only have about 1700, but amazingly I'm now 2nd in chips. Everyone else is about even in the 1000-1200 range. Everrett may be the short stack with about 800-900 now. Another big moment comes up with me in the small blind again. One of the unknowns in late position shoves All-In preflop. This is the 2nd time in the past few hands he has done this. He's rarely played in pots. I have 10-10. I think for a little bit. If I call and lose I'm not out, but severly crippled. I have 1700 vs his 1100 and change. 1700 chips is not going to get me into the Top 3, so I decided to man-up and call. He shows 2-2. I'm loving it! Unfortunately, the flop comes J-7-2. I'm now pissed off, cursing up a storm. The turn comes a 9. The miracle 8 comes on the river to give me the straight. I'm jumping for joy, doing a handstand, or whatever. Actually, the action was so fast since it's online, it took me a second to realize I had a straight.

We are now down to 5. Another round or so. BigDonkey has not played a pot and maybe realizes he can coast now. Same situation like earlier comes up again. Everett small blind, I'm big blind. Everett shoves all-in preflop trying to gather my blind. However, I have A-9 and a healthy chip stack and am not laying it down. Everett shows J-9. Board doesn't help him, and we are now down to 4. My goal now is to kind of coast and not to play a pot with Jay hoping he can squeeze into the Top 3 also. Jay is 3rd in chips right now with around 2000. I have about 4800, BigDonkey has about 6500. Short stack has a little over 1000. Blinds getting kind of up there, Jay shoves all-in, BigDonkey calls. Jay has A-K, BigDonkey has J-J. King on the flop. Jay doubles up. Now I'm hoping Jay is thinking like I think, lets just work together to get the short stack out of here. Right when I was thinking it, the short stack is all-in with BigDonkey. BigDonkey has Q-Q, and short stack has A-Q. As many suck outs BigDonkey has had this game, I was rooting for him. There is no Ace on the board and we have our Top 3. Me, Jay, and BigDonkey. 2 out of 3 seats not bad and everyone has a piece of each other.

FTOPS Event #1 starts tonight at 9:00. Looking at the numbers, I just realized there may be 3500-4000 people in this. I would expect it to take 10-12 hours to finish up. Hopefully, me and Jay can represent and use our sick day tomorrow. I'll try to do a blog on playing in it also.