Tourney Story (heads up)

So I had a very wild and bad opponent heads up with a 2:1 chip disadvantage (the actual count was 1213940:651060, or 1.86:1). I also had a plan. My opponent had been pushing in preflop for huge overbets rather frequently throughout the tourney and was very aggressive preflop besides this. She had also shown a propensity for making extremely loose calls when she was re-raised preflop (as evidenced by her calling my all in earlier with 9To, as well as some other calls in hands I wasn't in).

All this meant that I was going to just have to set a trap in order to let her put the money in bad. I had actually won about 100K by playing small ball so far in the match, and on the 32nd hand of heads up play my plan went into full effect. Part of this scheme was to limp from the SB a few times and fold to a raise in order to promote such behavior.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t16000 (2 handed)
Hero (t752060)
BB (BluffingDonk) (t1112940)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Qc, Qs.
Hero calls t8000, BB (BluffingDonk) raises to t50000, Hero raises to t752060, BB (BluffingDonk) calls t701260.

Flop: (t1503320) 8c, Ah, Td (2 players)

Turn: (t1503320) 9h (2 players)

River: (t1503320) 4d (2 players)

Final Pot: t1503320
Main Pot: t1503320 (t1503320), between Hero and BluffingDonk. > Pot won by Hero (t1503320).

Results below:
Hero has Qc Qs (one pair, queens).
BluffingDonk has 4h Kh (one pair, fours).
Outcome: Hero wins t1503320.


I actually said "wtf" into the chat box because it is such an indescribably bad call. I really just don't get it. Of course my opponent had been doing this kind of stuff successfully all tournament so maybe she thought it was a good idea. It is so bad though -- Even the weakest ranges I can think of for this type of move are like a 2:1 favorite against K4s.

Anyway this gave me a massive chip lead of about 4:1, so of course BluffingDonk did what any good short-stack player does -- move in preflop a bunch of times. Of the 11 remaining hands, she moved in for between 25 and 30BBs in an unraised pot 4 times. The obvious play here is to just wait for her to move in preflop and catch her with red-handed.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t16000 (2 handed)
Hero (t1410520)
BB (BluffingDonk) (t454480)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 3s, Ad.
Hero calls t8000, BB (BluffingDonk) raises to t453680, Hero calls t437680.

Flop: (t900160) 7h, 7c, 4d (2 players)

Turn: (t900160) As (2 players)

River: (t900160) 2h (2 players)

Final Pot: t900160
Main Pot: t900160 (t900160), between Hero and BluffingDonk. > Pot won by Hero (t900160).

Results below:
Hero has 3s Ad (two pair, aces and sevens).
BluffingDonk has 2s Kd (two pair, sevens and twos).
Outcome: Hero wins t900160.


And that was that. Thanks to Rik, Andy and my wife Laura for sweating me from the rail during the end of the tourney.

I'll probably keep about 1/2 of this money in my bankroll and take the other 1/2 out to save or something like that. I probably won't be moving up in my cash game play or anything crazy like that (not that I'll have much time to play anyway). I'll probably try to ply $50 SNGs for a while, as they seem very soft and I sort of miss playing them. I probably won't be playing many more tournaments, at least for a couple of weeks, due to being busy with school crap.