A Bluff, A Lost Race, A Final Table

That pretty much sums up the extent of my play last night at the riverchasers live game in Chalfont. Since the normal TD could not make it, Griff took over the game and used it as another field test for the modified structure to be rolled out in 2008.

Basically, starting stacks are doubled, and the blind increases are a little less severe, especially between levels 4 and 7. Currently, blinds increase from 5/10 to 10/20 to 20/40 to 30/60 over the course of the second 90 minutes of play. The new design would see them go from 5/10 to 10/20 to 15/30 to 25/50 over those same 90 minutes.

This is great for a conservative player like myself as I have time to be patient. But, oh boy, does it create even looser play during the first hour. I don't think I even got significantly involved in a hand until 5/10 when I found J♦9♦ in the SB. I completed the bet and BB checked his option and it was 6 to the flop of 865 with two diamonds. Now this is an absolutely HUGE draw for my hand, so my plan is to check-raise shove, hopefully with a bunch of dead money trapped in the center. Unfortunately, only one player bet out relatively smallish (45% of pot) before the action got back to me. Now there is 85 in the pot and I'm sitting on 150 so I shove. Only the flop bettor called for most of his stack with TPTK. I think I'm actually close to a 2:1 favorite as I have 18 outs twice. Turn gives me top pair and river doesn't hurt.

That was it for 45 minutes. Blinds go to 25/50. I get AKo UTG and raise all-in for 5x BB. SB calls with JJ and wins the race. Whatever. It was a night out, and even though I was completely card dead the whole night, I took 5th out of 20.