Whale !

What a night last night! I had been wanting to play in PokerStars 100k guaranteed tournament, and decided that last night was going to be the night. The $150+12 buy-in is pretty steep; other than SNGs, I've never bought into at MTT for more than $50+5, so I was going out on a limb.

While I play NLHE MTTs, I like to keep a cash game table running on the side to try and prevent me from being too loose when playing the MTT. Patience is not my greatest poker virtue, so it's much better to play 40 hands/hr when playing 3 tables, than it is to play 40 hands/hr at 1 table, especially a NLHE MTT. I decided to play 1 200PLO8 6max cash table at UB while the tournament was going on.

While I donked out of the tourney in the first 1/2 hour (semi-bluff on the turn ran into AA who was unwilling to fold to a scary board) I was fortunate to have the worst possible PLO8 player ever sitting to my left at the PLO8 table. IT WAS AWESOME! He played EVERY hand PF and more importantly, he played them passively. If there was a raise or a re-raise, it didn't matter, he'd call. Even better, he was hitting cards left right and center to break my opponents.

I have to admit, it took me about 20 minutes to stop bluffing the river at him cause he would not fold a marginal hand. I lost about $100 doing that, though it was $100 I had already won off him, so I was still floating around $200.

I was also blessed with a table with 3 opponents whom I play against often who are tight/trappy. This was perfect for me. Here's why:

• Any pot I was going to play, which was as many as humanly possible, I would raise. Whale to my left would auto call. Then, most of the time the 3 t/t players would fold, but if they didn't, I would play the flop uber tight. Since they are so trappy, they would always check the flop to me hoping to get in a c/r. Since the Whale was passive, I knew he wasn't betting the flop without the goods, so I could check every flop I didn't like and bet every flop that hit me hard.
• If the t/t's didn't call, then it was value bet or check the whale. I won with so much trash, it was incredible.

The best hand was one I folded PF. I raise (7), Whale calls (7), one of the t/t's re-raises (22) (can anyone say AAxx), LAG to t/t's left in the SB calls (21), I muck, and whale calls(15). Pot is $70+. Flop comes QJ2, Whale checks, t/t checks, LAG bets pot for his stack, Whale calls, t/t moves all in for $150+, whale calls. $600+ pot, t/t has the AA, LAG has str8 draw, Whale has QJ. Turn is a 5, river is a Q, Whale WINS! Next hand, LAG tilts off another $100 to the Whale, and starts berating him. I'm just praying he's going to shut up soon(DON'T SCARE THE FISH!!!!), and one of the t/t's tells LAG to be more polite. Eventually the LAG leaves, and I breather a sign of relief.

It's the best hand of the night, because it gave the Whale so many chips that I could begin siphoning them off. He had bought in for $200 and was at his peak sitting with more that $850 in front of him. Slowly but surely, I began taking his chips away. I went from $200 to $650, while his stack dropped from $850 to $280. He called it a night at 11:45, and 1 of my opponents bolted immediately. I played a few more minutes, but all I was winning were the blinds, since everyone was folding to my raises now, so I left too.

Overall, with a couple of other games I played, I was up $450 on the night despite spending $162 on the tourney. That was worth it. I'll play the $150+12 again, but not soon. I think I need to work on my NLHE tourney game a little more at lower level to find and practice my strategy.