32Red Poker Blog

As a small stakes (50nl/100nl) online player I have never played any tournament with a buy-in bigger than 50 euro. So playing the Belgian Open Championships was a fantastic challenge to me and a great opportunity to gain some experience playing the real deal. After all, competing in big tournaments is what almost any poker player dreams of doing. So hopefully, obtaining a seat through a freeroll satellite on 32Red Poker for the Belgian Open Championships is the beginning of a long poker career.

I intended making no fancy moves during the first two hours so I could get comfortable at the table while analyzing the other players. The only player I recognized was Daan Ruiter, a Dutch Poker Pro. I did not get many playable hands so staying out of trouble wasn’t a problem. Until the first break I played about 4 pots including one 2100 pot which I won, where I called a raise of the active button from the big blind with QQ. I figured a re-raise would scare him away since he would open a wide range of hands and I had not raised a single pot until then. So I just called the 100 raise. The flop came T36x with two clubs. Because he often made an continuation bet I checked planning to make an check-raise. He made a c-bet of 100 and then called my 280 re-raise. The turn was a nine which did not complete the flush but made an straight draw possible for probably only JQ of clubs. But since I held two queens that chance wasn’t that big. I made a bet of 700 to charge the draws and get a call from lower pocket pairs (JJ and maybe 88) and 1 pair hands like TJ+. The river did not complete the flush but made an straight possible with the king of hearts. I figured there was not much value in betting the river because most hands I could beat would fold if I bet. Maybe the missed flush draws would try to bluff at the pot so I checked. The villain checked behind me and showed AT of clubs for 1 pair and a busted flush draw.

So far so good. But just before the break I lost a big pot where I overplayed my pocket tens. An aggressive player, who was very active during the first two hours, raised to 300 on the cutoff and I made the call from the big blind. The flop came A45 with two hearts, and when the button made his c-bet of 500 I made an impulsive move, I made it 1500 to him. Of course he came back over the top and my pockets tens did not look that beautiful any more. At the time I felt like puking because of my wrongly timed move. It did not represent any hand a tight player as myself would call with from the big blind that could at least beat top pair. This move cost me big piece of my stack, leaving me with about 3.5k. Right after this hand I got dealt AKo on the button when a short stack of 1k raised from middle position. I re-raised him all-in and added his chips to my stack when he turned over AQs and the board ran out.

After the break I was moved to a new table where I continued to pick up bad or mediocre hands. Maybe it was because I was playing too scared, but it really starting to look like an cold run of cards to me. For sure I did not receive many premium hands. All you can do when this happens is to stay patient and make some moves for the blinds occasionally. So I carefully looked from some good spots. The only noticeable hand on this table was the TT I re-raised preflop from the button and folded on an 3-way flop of KsQh8s. But even with the slow structure of the tournament my stack was getting smaller to about 2.5k.

Pushing time
The last two levels of the day they moved me to another table. On this new table 3 other Dutch fellows were seated, including Dutch Champion of 2007 Peter ‘de Dal’ Dalhuijzen, who is well known in Holland because his aggressive style and table talk. After some more folding I was getting really short stacked with an M of only 4,5 (blinds 100/200) so I needed to pick a spot to get it all in. After 2 successful steal attempts I received 66 on the button and I raised it all-in against the AKs of the MP raiser. No help for him on the flop and I was back in the game with a stack of 4,5k.

About one round later I made an mistake that probably cost me some value I really needed. Peter Dalhuijzen, who was of course very active, raised from early position to 550 when I found KK on the Cutoff. All day I was waiting for the premium hands to show up, so I got a little bit too enthusiastic and made an big re-raise to 1.5k . Of course with his wide range of hands he would mostly fold. So I figured to have lost one or two extra bets in this pot.

The next couple of rounds I was finally getting some good hands so I was getting more active and managed to pick up some small pots. In a blind battle I raised A5s to 700 to get a call from the tight big blind. On the Axx flop he re-raised my 900 c-bet for almost half my stack and given his tight image I could not beat many hands. After my fold he proudly showed one ace, ‘probably’ with a better kicker. After this hand my stack shrunk back to 2.5k.

Exit!
In the last blind level of the day (150-300) I could not find any good spots to make some moves. Either because of the active big stacks who were raising before me or because of the junk hands I was still dealt. So approaching the end of the day I really wanted to take a chance to double up. When a middle stack raised to 850 for the third time in 5 hands I found pocket sixes and moved in for my last 2.5k. ‘De Dal’ sitting on the button thought about his hand for a while before calling and the initial raiser folded. When he called I knew I really needed to catch some lucky cards. He turned over pocket eights and no help came for me on the flop. Ten minutes before the end of the day it was exit for me.

Hence, I had an unfortunate early bust out. I think my lack of live-game experience may have kept me from playing my A-game, mostly reflected by my passive preflop playing style during the tournament. However, it was a great experience to participate in this tournament, and I’m looking forward to enter it again next year.

Frank Weijers