The Best Loser?

PartyPoker’s 2016 Grand Prix Poker Tour made me happy. Barring a big score, it was my perfect pokering scenario, I wrote a bit about here. In summary it was a $109 buy in tournament with multiple Day 1s (live and online) culminating in a big live Day 2. My bankroll typically extends to playing £/$20 buyins and having Baby Mack to work around means my free time is mainly restricted to evenings and parts of the weekend, so with the online aspect I could satellite into a Day 1 through a $22 satellite and play the Day 1 (a couple if required) from the comfort of my couch after Baby Mack’s bed time routine. Then I need only show up for one Sunday afternoon of poker, which I have mostly already secured a decent cash for, with the potential for a big win on the cards. Perfect.

Since then PartyPoker’s live events really started taking off, transforming into some kind of EPT replacement and long gone are my ideal mini/GPPT events as a result. A few months ago, a new local venture seemed set to fix that. 'Tartan Poker' looks to be the start of building some kind of Scottish poker base. I don’t play as much as I used to, so I’m not really sure if a Scottish poker community really exists much beyond the same old regulars playing at the local casinos on a regular basis, so I welcome the idea of someone wrangling us altogether to create something bigger and better. So far, it seems to revolve around my nearest casino, so you know not quite the nationwide community yet but you've got to start somewhere and it works for me. I missed the first £110 event due to one thing or the other but I was all over the second £55 event.

First up, the online satellites, Tartan Poker have partnered (affiliated?) up with RedKings for the online aspect. Never played on there before, their website seems a bit basic, and I wasn't too keen to rejoin MPN after my experience of the network via PKR (RIP) but the web browser based client looks good and runs smoothly, so I was pleasantly surprised. The satellites had a €11 buy in (unlimited re-entry I think) for a £55 seat. The standard of play was shocking. Well, I’ll be fair, looking back half of the players seemed decent/solid enough but my overall perception has probably been thrown off by the other half, who were absolutely woeful. I have literally no idea what these guys were thinking at times. Screenshot below shows an example, limp shove about 18bbs with T7, a sound play? How about limping in with K8suited, and then calling that 18bb limp 3bet shove for your tournament life? Well obviously, it’s suited isn’t it?

Alas, I never benefited significantly from the awful play, it all went to the player on my left, who was running like god. I just sat there, agog, witness to it all. Eventually, I got short and open shoved 10bbs with AT and the player to my left called with A6, and running hot as he was, he spiked a six. So I finished 5^th, two spots from a £55 seat ticket but I came away firmly in the belief I would win the next one against such a pool of players. I lost, yes, but was just unlucky. Confident that I am better than the others, and that I would prevail. On my second attempt a few days later, I did just that. Bring on Day 1!         

Turning up for the first Day 1 an hour late, I was directed to a table with just two other players, which seemed a little unbalanced, however, it turns out the tournament action was so full on that two hands later, we had seven players, all but one having re-entered following a big bust out. The chat at the table indicated some sick coolers but the play at the table suggested a kamikaze approach to the game was the real reason. An early example I was involved with went like this; blinds 100/200, effective (and pretty much average stack) 26,000. Old guy to my right limps most hands, and he limps here again, I make it 600 with KTsuited, button calls as does the old guy. Flop 23T rainbow, old guy checks, I cbet 1000, button folds, old guy shoves for 25,000. Umm... what? Nothing makes sense here, does it? I can't figure it out, if he's bluffing, it's a ridiculous risk, if he's betting for value, seems a weird way to get paid. I dunno, I'd like to call just to see what he has but it's nonsense, so I fold. Everyone is over 100 big blinds deep and yet there were another three all-ins within the next orbit. I sat back and enjoyed the show until I was lucky enough to be dealt aces under the gun, I raised to 600, couple of calls before the small blind shoved for preflop for 20,000. When we turned over our cards the small blind let out an agonized sigh, cursing his luck as he ran his AQ into my aces, as if the hand could not have played out any other way, as if there was no getting away from it, as if it was just some kind of sick cooler. He 3bet shoved 100 big blinds preflop with AQ and was shocked that he was in bad shape when called. Am I missing something? What is going on? 

Not too long later, the old guy limped with pocket queens, only to be raised by the small blind (3x or something pretty standard), so obviously he had no other option but to shove the rest of his 150bb stack in preflop. Unfortunately for him, the small blind had aces. Oh no! Yet another sick cooler! I'm further confused when I think back at the hand where I flopped top pair against the old guy and he check raised me all in. While it looks like he's a limping big pairs kinda man, he then shoves pre when raised, so it mostly rules out big limped pairs from that hand against me. So what the hell was he check raising with back then?  

Is it me? Am I the fish? I just don't understand what is going on any more. 

Not long after doubling up, I flopped middle set only to be check raised all in by a flush draw. The flush got there and I was pretty much back to my starting stack. A while later I got check raised again on the flop for all my chips and this time my overpair was bested by a straight and flush draw. It's never a good feeling to be eliminated but I didn't mind this so much, it was a reasonable play by my opponent this time around, the stack sizes dictated some of it in a way, just one of those things I guess, you've got to win your flips and races. I lost, yes, but was just unlucky, I left confident that I am better than the others.


I headed home, content. I enjoyed myself in the games, I was entertained, I played well, others played badly, I feel good about my game and can't wait to play the next ones. I've played three Tartan Poker tournaments so far, haven't come close to winning a penny and it appears as though the idiots are winning, and yet... I'm happy.

Have I migrated from frustrated micro grinder to casual care free rec? Is it a bad thing? Is it a good thing? It's frankly bizarre but it feels a lot less stressful than it was before, a self imposed weight has been lifted from my shoulders.  

Am I... the best loser?