I Cannot Resist The Lure Of A Big MTT

Any casual viewer of Sharkscope may come to the conclusion that I'm not a great internet poker player. Good call - I've even come to the same conclusion myself. I have figured out that spending most of my sessions surfing/on the phone/watching TV may not be helping and I've decided, rather than simply change this pattern of bad behaviour, to concentrate my cash game play to live games.

Despite this rare example of my strong resolve, I've never been able to resist the lure of the big pay-out from the enormous fields in the MTTs, mostly on PokerStars. As well as the WCOOP, which I've put a few dollars into over the last few years, I can often be seen playing the Sunday night 'Big One'. Since I started playing this tournament I've seen it grow from two or three hundred runners to the 5,000 it regularly attracts now. With bigger fields comes bigger variance though, and despite a few cashes, it now seems years since I made the final table. (Heck, it is years).

I've been a bit busy playing live poker recently and last Sunday was the first time I'd played online since the WCOOP main event. Having rushed my way through a day of horseracing, football and NFL betting I was quite a bit down on the day already. The phone had also been going mad as I'd been trying to compile prices for my sponsors BetUK.com on the upcoming EPT event in Dublin. This had involved ringing all the poker players I thought would be going to check on their plans. Stupid of me to expect them to know 10 days in advance where they'd be.

By 9.30pm I was ready to sleep for ten hours rather than to sit and concentrate on trying to win $176k. Another $215 wasn't going to make the day much worse though so I sat down and decided to play fast.

The first thing that struck me about the tournament was the number of players. 5,000 has been about the number for a few weeks now and I had wondered what effect George Bush and his Safe Port Act might have. It seems it means even more people want to play and an incredible 6,157 players would make it a long night. Or would it?

Just when I'd finally started to get the hang of the structure it was all change. Instead of the usual 2,500 chips we had 10,000 and starting blinds would be 40-80 for 15 minutes. This might look like a longer competition with a nice slow structure but in two hours time we'd be putting in 800-1600 blinds and a running ante. It was clear that things were going to move even faster than usual.

I've long ago worked out that this is not a competition where you can take a backward step and I wouldn't be doing a lot of raising to fold. I was ready to gamble.

After an early success with quad 8s and another pot where I made a large check-raise with K-9 on a K-J-3 flop which got called by K-8 (we split) I didn't get a chance to play a big pot until the 100-200 level. I reraised the cut-off's 600 to a total of 2,600 and when he pushed for 5,400 more I wasn't going to pass 8-8. He was a bit surprised at the call and when his A-K failed to hit he told me so in the chat box. I told him that it's only a game and that I'm a gambler. It didn't seem to placate him.

From that high point of 25k (I was in the top 10% for a while) things went a bit wrong and I eventually got my chips into a big pot when I made a reraise with A-Q. The guy called with 10-10 and I was out in 3049th place.

Luckily PokerStars always lay on an extra chance or two to do your money, so I soon joined the Sunday '2nd Chance'. This is a $215 NLH freezeout that is a bit more like the Sunday Tournament that I remember. You get 2,500 on a 15-minute clock starting at 10-20. The field is around 1,000, the first prize is $43k and after starting at 11.15pm even the winner can be in bed by 6am. I got there a bit earlier than that after finishing 273rd. My exit hand was a classic. I rsaised with A-Q and bet the A-A-6 flop quite weakly. After I got one caller I bet weakly again when the 10 came on the turn. I was surprised having moved in on the end that the river 3 gave him a house of threes.

Luckily, it's only once a week.

Neil Channing

17 October 2006

Neil Channing is sponsored to play LIVE poker tournaments by www.BetUK.com

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