Teamcop 2009

This whole weekend turned into a bit of a disaster, mainly in terms of numbers. At the beginning it was billed as one of the largest poker festivals of the year . . . in the end it was a mediocre one at best. Now don't get me wrong, the dealing standard and professionalism was as expected, second to none . . . well it was TD'd by JP after all. The atmosphere, the buzz, the craic, well let's just say there was something lacking.

I guess it always had a huge act to follow following the Eglinton's version of the same event. The atmosphere being electric back in March, the room, high ceilings, only half filled didn't quite cut it. That said, the objective of poker is always to make a profit, regardless of how enjoyable or not enjoyable that money-making process may be.
 
We had a strong team, a very strong team - Rob, KP, Dara, Rory, Albert and me. I was card dead from the off and it never really improved from there. We were successful in that all 6 of us made it through to day 2, which in theory should have set us up nicely for a decent cash, had we not been mostly short stacked! Dara was the only one going back with a stack but in theory we had a good team, so a better player can play a short stack better, right?

Well right and wrong . . . I was first out, nursed my stack as long as I could and eventually open shipped 66 with about 7BBs into 99. Unlucky I guess that I ran into a bigger pair, but still felt I shouldn't have let myself get so low considering I was playing against very active players. Open shipping when you know you'll get called more often than not is usually not going to work when you let yourself get too low. Even if you get it in ahead you're always vulnerable to a degree, racing more than not, and well 66 looked too good so that said to me I was too low.

Next time I think I would be tweaking my strategy a bit, playing more my own game, and not playing too tight that I'm missing opportunities to accumulate chips early on. With hindsight I think that's where I went wrong. In a regular tourney I like playing a few pots early on, with small blinds you can get away with seeing a few flops, take a few chances. I let the team aspect cloud my judgement too much, and decided that taking less chances and playing tighter than normal would be +EV given the circumstances, with hindsight that was wrong. I can only take positives from it in that I think I will be better prepared for next time, well here's hoping.

The team came midfield in the end with Rob lasting longest going out in 13th. Luckily enough Rob's finish secured a couple of side bets making it a pretty much break even event, which is always better than a losing one I guess.