2008 European Ladies ChampionLiv Boeree guides us through her experience playing the 2008 Aruba Poker Classic.
Day 1 – first break:
End of level 1, I am down to 12,050, we started with 15,000. I won one hand and lost 2 big ones. The first hand I had 6-6 on the button. Guy in the cut off makes it 300 and I flat call. The flop comes 5-3-2 so I have a gut shot as well as over-pair. He bets out the pot and I try to think of what Annie [Duke] has taught me to do, she says flat call and then when they bet the turn you bet out. So I flat call and he puts a massive bet in on the turn when a king hits. So I pass on this hand.
Then again, with the same guy, almost an identical situation I have eights and again I have position on him. He raises, I flat call. Maybe I should have reraised. The flop comes 10-9-6. So again I have a gut shot, and there are 2 over-cards this time. He bets out the pot so I think, this time I am going to raise him on the flop. He bets 500, I make it 1700 and then he reraises it to 3500. So those pots took me down a little bit.
Day 1 – second break:
I’ve just moved tables, which I don’t really like. My last table was kind of soft, but my new table they are a lot more aggressive and I haven’t really had a chance to figure any of them out yet. There is a guy with a massive stack across from me and he is raising almost every hand. The guy on my right seems quite passive. I will have to sit and make notes. I even have a notebook with me, I thought why not – take notes.
Day 1 – third break:
So I got moved pretty quickly off my last table, which was good. I am liking my table now. I have a good handle on the players at the table.
I went down to about 10,000 which was a combination of me doing silly little things like calling and donking off chips in a 4 way pot, that sort of thing.
Then, I suddenly got a run. I got 10’s, someone had already raised in front of me, I reraised and stole that. The next time I got queens, made a bit of money on the flop there. Shortly after I got A-Q suited and I made the nut flush on the turn and got paid off quite a bit from that. Then I got A-10 suited and made the flush again against someone who made a straight so I got paid off there. He said I made the perfect size bet on the river. He told me if I had bet anymore he would have folded. I think the pot was about 7000 and I bet 3000 and he called.
I had a really nice hand just now, which got me up to 33,000. I had A-
and raised and a player at my table that I think is tricky calls. The flop comes out A-J-2 all diamonds. He checks, I bet out, he raises and I call. The turn is another ace. I check, he bets, I call. The river is the Q of diamonds. I make the nut flush, bet big and he pays me off. So that projected me up and I am really pleased.
That guy on my right is tricky; he is really hard to put on hands. I had a couple situations where I just didn’t know where I was at with him, so I am just going to try and avoid him. He seems to like to gun for me as well and probably now even more after that last pot. I am just going to try to avoid him. I have had situations where he has raised the pot, I have looked down at an ace and passed because I just know if he has got the lead…and reraising won’t help, he will call. Things like that I will have to be careful. I like my table and I hope they don’t break us again.
End of day 1:
So I was around 33,000 for a very long time and then literally the very last hand of the day there had been a maniac on the table. By the way I had moved tables like 6 times at this point.
Guy in late position flats, guy on my right [maniac] raises and I am in the big blind with pocket nines. I just think I am not going to bother reraising here; I might as well just see a flop. I flatted and the flop came Q-9-3 with two hearts. I check, initial limper checks, maniac bets and I raise him to like 8000. Initial limper folds and the maniac calls. The turn is a blank so I check, he bets out again like three quarters of the pot and I flat call. The river is a heart so I check it and fortunately he checks behind. He had Q-J so that was about a 15,000 pot.
Day 2 first break:
I started the day with about 42,000. I had a couple situations where I had A-K, I raised, missed the flop and my continuation bet didn’t work. Then I raised with 3-3, two callers, flop all high. I pissed myself down to 36,000 doing that.
Just now I had a hand…the two guys to my left are psychos! I had 
on the button. I raised, made it 1500 to go. The small blind, who is always reraising, all the time whenever I do anything, reraises me again. So I started getting pissed off, which I shouldn’t have done, I call him and the flop is like 7-8-3. I think to myself, I know he is going to lead into me so I am going to call on the flop and raise the turn and that should stray him away. He bets into me, I call and then on the turn he just shoves all in!
I am still at 25,000, I just need to calm down a bit. I felt like I was on top of the world when I started with 42,000 and now I’m like..argh!
We are soon to break and I can’t wait.
Day 2 third break:
It has been a complete rollercoaster. I got back up to 33,000 but then the very next hand it was small blind, big blind. I have Q-5 in the big blind, he limps small blind, I check. The flop comes Q-9-5 with three spades. I notice he checks his cards when the spades come out so I know he has a black card and it might be a spade. He checks it, so I bet the whole pot and he calls. The turn is a spade and he checks so I bet, he raises and I have to fold. He showed 10-5 with the 10 of spades. He called a full pot bet on the flop!
I had kings at one point and made some money on them. I was down to 18,000, up to 33,000 and now I am at 21,000.
I have about 20 big blinds. I am not in a dire situation, but I am getting close.
Last break of day 2:
I was down to 18,000, not getting anything and getting blinded down. I got jacks and I raise it to 3000. A guy reraises to 9000 so I shoved and he called with…aces! I was so short-stacked I was never folding those jacks, so nothing I could do. Then the flop comes K-K-J!
Since then I have just been stealing and got my mojo back. I am feeling much, much better. I was starting to get really bored, wasn’t getting any cards, I wasn’t hitting anything. Now it is so much better so I am all good! I have 47,200.
Day 3 – first break:
Last night I ended with 60,000 and that was when there were 98 players left.
Today I got quite low, and this guy had been repopping all the time and I looked down at fives in the small blind. He was stealing all the time from the button so I reraised him and he went all in. The thing is the pot was over 60,000 and it was only 30,000 for me to call. I thought I was getting odds to call so I did. He showed K-Q. The flop comes K-7-K so I thought oh great my fives are done and then the turn was a 5! That got me up over 120,000.
End of day 3:
I went up and down. I never got above 120,000 and I never got below 70,000. The bubble was really, really long. It was so painful. I had a couple of sick situations. I was up to 120,000 just before the bubble and then I got quite a cooler hand in the big blind where there was two limpers, the small blind completed and I had A-J. I was a little cautious and I checked it. The board comes J-10-4 with one club. I bet out about three quarters of the pot and just the small blind calls. The turn is another club, he checks again, I bet out three quarters of the pot and he calls. The river is the 9 of clubs and he now leads out like 25,000 which was about two thirds of the pot. He had been a really tricky player, but he hadn’t been doing anything silly. I thought about it, I have top pair, top kicker, but now there is a flush on the board and potential straight so I folded and he showed Ac-Qc. That was a really good lay down for me; I could have gone broke on that hand.
That left me quite short, from 120,000 down to about 90,000. Another hand shortly after got me down to about 60,000 and I was thinking, if I go out now, if I am the bubble person…but fortunately the bubble burst an hour later and I managed to survive.
Not a great deal happened, we started losing people rather quickly. People were playing loose so I tried to double up. I got myself back up to about 80,000.
In the final hand I was in the small blind and there was one limper. I had A-10 so I raised it up, big blind folds, the limper flat calls. The board comes 10-9-7 rainbow. I lead out and he raises. I wasn’t sure what he would be raising there with so I reshipped and he thinks about it for awhile and finally calls with 8-8. So he’s got an open ended straight draw. The turn was a jack and that’s me out.
That was literally a half hour before the day ended so I would have made it to day 4 but I am pleased. I came 49th out of 551 so I am pretty pleased with that. I got $5,500 for my efforts.
*Like a wheel, the Round Table is a circle of adventures and victories, beats and stories, and life as it unfolds with a cast of characters that may, or may not, have joined you in your home on a local TV program. There's so much more to poker than what you see on TV. Although I won't use canvas, I will paint the full picture for you as I follow the lives of some of your favorite (and some unknown) players. The Round Table is an ongoing series of life, viewed full circle.*