This is my 10th career Royal Flush… all of them online and none of them in a B&M where I could win a ton of money from a jackpot. I run so gross! Click image to view the full size.
3/14/09 – Bremerton Lanes AM Poker Tournament
March 14, 2010Wow. I haven’t been this annoyed in a live tournament for a while. I made note of all the pots I played. I’ll let the hands do the talking:
blinds 25-50, UTG raises to 200, one player calls, I look down at QQ. I sometimes like to play QQ conservatively preflop, but I sensed a bit of weakness here and decided to make it 875 to go. The UTG raiser called and the other player folded and we saw a Q54, two spade flop HU. He checks to me. Its hard to make money on this kind of board given his hand range (AK, AQ, small pair). I could give a free card here and see if he can catch up a bit on the turn, but I decide to bet 625 and hope he has AQ or TT and gives me a little action. If he has a set, the money will get in eventually no matter what I do. He folds though and I thought about how I could have played this flop differently for quite a while… Oh well, +1125 on the first hand of the tournament is just fine.
blinds 25-50, several people limp, and the button makes it 250 to go. I have 77 in the small blind and decide to call since I expect most of the limpers to come with me making it worth it to try and flop a set. They all do call and the flop comes 954. Not too bad of a flop for me, but I’m out of position against several players including one I suspect has an overpair, so I just check. One of the limpers bets 200 and the preflop raiser makes it 600 to go. I fold.
blinds 50-100, I raise in EP with AK to 250. One person calls me, next guy goes all-in for 900 and the SB shoves for 1825. Folds back to me. Folding seems wise.. but if I call and lose, I’ll have 2500 left which is plenty of chips to play with at this level, so I decide to gamble and try to build a big stack. They show QQ and JJ and I spike a King on the flop to build my stack up to 7700.
blinds 75-150, one tight-passive player limps UTG, folds to me OTB with 9s7s and I make it 425 to go. Small blind calls and the limper folds and we see a K83 flop HU. He checks to me and I check out his stack size. He has about 1300 left. Since I missed the flop completely, I decide to make a feeler bet of 350 and if he calls or raises, my following decisions will be easy. He folds though and I’m up over 8000 in chips.
blinds 75-150, a solid player UTG makes it 500 to go. I look down at QQ. I get a stack count from my opponent and he’s got about 3000 left, so I decide calling is best here. Someone floats behind me and we got 3-way action to a J93 flop. UTG shoves the rest of his stack in and I go in the tank. He just bet 3275 into a pot that has about 1700 in it. Before the flop, he asked me if I had Kings jokingly and then when I just called he said “wooo.. you scared me there.” I think he’s a pretty solid player and my instincts were strongly saying to fold here. I counted down my stack and I’d have over 4000 left if I call and lose. I felt a lot of strength from him and that he had a pretty good idea of what I had, plus his comments before the flop kind of indicated strength too. That being said, it seems like an easy fold in retrospect, but I decided to call just in case my read was wrong and because my stack would still be in solid shape if I lost. He showed Kings and wins the pot. Some people might think this is bad luck or a cooler, but I honestly think I should have and could have folded the hand. This is simply poor play on my part.
blinds 75-150 and I open to 450 with AK. One loose, bad player calls me OTB and we see a JJ2 flop HU. I decide to check the flop and see what he does, expecting him to check a large percentage of the time. He does check and the turn card comes with an ugly T. I decide to check again since a lot of hands he could have might call me now and I’m technically still drawing and I think he’ll check if I still have him beat. River is a 5 and I have no reason to bet for value or try to bluff him off the best hand here. I check and hope my hand is good. It’s not… he has A5 and scoops the pot. I was mad at myself after this one.
blinds 100-200 and here comes the most obnoxious hand I’ve been a participant of in a while. Two loose, bad players limp in and I look down at TT OTB. I decide to make a hefty raise to 1100 and I’m pretty shocked when both blinds call as well as both of the limpers. I’m really hoping for a ten on the flop or a board with undercards and I get my wish when it comes 985. The SB only has 100 left and puts it in. The BB makes it 1500 to go and appears all in. One of the limpers (my opponent from the last hand) puts in his remaining 2000, but looks weak. Back to me… I could fold here, but I really don’t feel like I’m beat at all, so I call. Then I’m annoyed when I discover the BB still has chips left when he puts in another 500 to call. He has another 500 behind and the extra 1000 was hiding in his palm. Thanks, man. Don’t worry, your stack size doesn’t affect anyone else’s decisions, you idiot. The turn comes a brutal 7 and the SB puts in his last 500. I call and we flip over our hands: K7 in the SB, QJ in the BB, and…. 96 from the limper. Are you kidding me? Calls a 5.5xBB raise preflop, puts in 2000 on the flop and spikes his fucking hand? Jesus. I do have an open-ended straight draw, but I come up short on the river and 96 scoops a 8500 pot and I get 1000 back. Now I’m pissed and down to 3100 chips when I should have a monster stack.
blinds raise to 200-400 and I fold my BB and SB and I’m down to 2500.
blinds 200-400 and folds to me OTB. I’d probably push with anything here, but A8 is like the nuts for me, so I shove and scoop the blinds.
blinds 200-400, two weaker players limp in and I look down at Ad5d with 3100. I push it all in since I need to pick up chips and expect to win the pot uncontested a large percentage of the time as long as no one behind me wakes up with a hand. Everyone behind me folds but the second limper surprisingly calls and shows me a gross-looking KJos. The way the tournament has gone so far, I’m 95% sure I’m going to lose the pot, but the flop comes favorable enough showing 843, keeping me in the lead, but the turn peels off a jack and I brick the river and get sent home.
I continue to run horribly in this tournament. I’m hoping that my luck can turn in the next couple weeks before I have to take a 3 month hiatus to finish my degree at The University Of Washington. I don’t want to take my break while I’m still in the red in a tournament I should be beating. Ugh.
3-08-2010 Bremerton Lanes AM Poker Tournament
March 8, 2010First off, I’d like to congratulate myself on my best showing in this tournament last week when I finished 2nd for $235. Today’s tournament was interesting to say the least. My stack was riding a rollercoaster throughout the duration.
Key Hands:
Blinds 25-50, 3 limpers in front of me. I limp OTB with As9s. Flop comes K43 with two spades. One of the blinds leads out for 150 and two people call. I pop it to 600 since no one has really shown strength. I get two folds, but the last caller stays with me. The turn is a blank and he check-calls 800. River is another blank and he checks to me again. I bet 800 and he calls and shows K9. Not really happy with my play on this hand. Not only did I dump off roughly 75% of my stack, but I didn’t read the situation very well. Throughout the hand, I put my opponent on a draw because of the way he was playing it. If that was the case, unless he caught a running pair, there’s no reason for me to bet the river, since Ace high is likely to be good. If he has a King and decided to call the turn, he’s never going to fold the river for the same amount as my turn bet. That’s just simple math and a bad play on my part. On the plus side, this player enters this tournament every day and this will be valuable information for the future. Unless he had some sort of dead read on me, his play here is super terrible. He was willing to play a huge pot for nearly all of his stack in the first level with top pair, weak kicker out of position. I stand by my flop play, but my turn and river play is pretty bad.
Blinds 50-100, a few people limp in, I have J3os in the BB and only 600 behind. Flop comes J54 and I just ship my remaining chips. I get a caller and figure I’m drawing to 3 outs but I’m ecstatic when he shows 99 and doubles me up.
Blinds 50-100, 1 limper, someone raises to 300, I have AQ and 1600 so I just ship it. The raiser calls me and shows KT and I hold and I’m roughly back to my starting stack.
After a few swings and misses my stack is down to somewhere around 2200. Blinds 100-200, two people limp in, the small blind calls and I look down at QQ in the BB. I could ship it here, but I’m willing to risk getting knocked out of the tournament for a little value, so I just pop it to 800. The first limper folds, but the button and SB both call. The flop comes beautifully with AQ9 and there’s no need to get coy since I figure someone has at least an Ace and I put my remaining 1200 in. I get called in both spots and my set holds vs AQ and JT and I triple up.
Blinds 100-200, a few limpers and I limp OTB with Ac9c. Flop comes J9x with a club. UTG bets 600, it folds to me, and I float the flop. The turn card is the Tc and he bets out 600 again. The bet size doesn’t scream strength and I strongly consider raising, but I think my current hand might have a shot of being good and I’d be sick if he re-raised all-in and I had to fold. The river is a 3h and he bets out 600 again, which is quite an annoying bet. Not only is he giving me great pot odds, but he’s shown relative weakness on the past two streets, which tempts me to raise once again. However, considering the last two bet sizes, I figure calling is best since my hand might actually be good. The way he played it, I feel like a 9 might actually be his most likely hand. He shows me QJ though (making a call likely if I did raise the turn) and scoops a third of my chips.
With the blinds at 200-400, it folds to the SB who completes and I check with 85. Board comes 974 and I take it down with a 700 bet. One person limps in the next hand, I call with A3os and the BB checks. Flop comes Axx and I check, BB checks and the limper bets 700. I go all-in figuring it’s unlikely for him to have an ace here. He folds and I’m back around 5000.
Blinds 300-600 and UTG doubles it to 1200 and it folds to me in SB with As7s. I check out his stack and he’s only got about 2000 left so I decide to take a flop with him. Flop comes 753 with one spade and I ship it and he folds.
Blinds 300-600 folds to me and I have about 10,600 now and make it 1500 to go with 8d7d. Folds to the SB who doubles it up to 3000. BB folds and this is a pretty wack situation for me. My hand is garbage and he’s made a raise that is begging for a call. On the other hand, I’m getting 3.4 to 1 to call and I have position and I’d still have around 7000 behind if the flop does me no justice… so I call. The board comes J87 and I’m ecstatic when he instantly ships it. He shows QQ and the turn comes a Jack and I’m out of the tournament. Ghey. 11th place, one off the final table.
Lastly, a sour note for those of you that have been following my poker posts. I recently cashed out all my money online and starting at the end of March, I won’t be playing poker at all for the next several months as I’ll be attending college to finish my degree at The University Of Washington and can’t afford to have any distractions. Sorry!
A Nightmare on Elm Street Trailer
February 25, 2010I can’t decide if this looks dope or not. I’m leaning towards yes.. but Freddy’s look is a little… weird.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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Bad Poker Streak
February 23, 2010Roughly a month after raving about how favorable the structure in the Bremerton Lanes daily tournament was to my playing style, I find myself in an unbelievable funk. First of all, I’ve cashed in the tournament 1 time in 11 tries. Ridiculous. At this point, a first place finish would barely have me in the green YTD. Secondly, I don’t think it’s ever taken me this many attempts to win any live tournament I’ve ever regularly played in. It’s starting to ware on me.
Yesterday was a disaster. I lost roughly 60% of my chips on the 3rd hand of the tournament and never really recovered. With the blinds at 25-50, I completed the small blind with 85d. The flop came T86, with one diamond and since it was only 4-way action, I decided to throw out a feeler bet of 125. I got called in two spots and decided I was done with the hand unless I improved on the turn. Fortunately the turn was a beautiful 8 and I lead out again for 250. The button raised me to 500, which is suspicious, but small enough that I’m not going to toss away a full house draw. River ended up blanking, I checked and the button bet 1200. Pretty easy fold… but for some reason I decided to call and he showed me a flopped straight with 97. As much complaining as I’ve done about my lack of success, it has been partly my fault and this call is a testament to that. In this situation the only hand I can expect to beat is a bluff. It’s very unlikely that my opponent would bet something for value that doesn’t have my three 8s, 5 kicker beat. My opponent here is generally over-aggressive and has a slightly crazy image in my mind, so that probably got him a call I wouldn’t have even considered against most other people.
After that hand, my stack dwelled in the range of 1000-1200 for several rounds. I finally lucked out a bit when I picked up AA and got someone to double me up on an 8-high flop with TT. After that, I lost an all-in with AQ vs AA and was right back to a micro-stack. After shoving 2-3 times without even looking at my cards or getting called, keeping myself afloat for a few orbits, I got looked up by KQ in a blind vs blind situation and my J9 didn’t spike.
Today started off well enough. I had about 7000 in chips by the 75-150 round and was playing very well. Then the downhill spiral started.
With the blinds at 75-150 still, three people limped in front of me and I looked down at QQ on the button. I raised it to 850 and was surprised when a tight female player called me from the small blind. The big blind and all the limpers folded and the flop came A65. The pot size is 2150 and I have about 6K… She checks to me… what do you do in this spot? When she called preflop, I narrowed her range down to about 5 hands: AK, AQ, AA, JJ, and TT. Since three of the hands I put her on have me beat, is betting a wise move? I think not. So I checked and she fired out 1000 on the turn and I folded. My current impression of this woman is that she plays pretty solid… but I haven’t exactly decided if she’s a nit or not. I did see her limp UTG with the blinds @ 50-100 and get it AI for $2K+ with 7s6s on a 65s3s flop… so she obviously has a little creativity and gamble in her game. The big question for me was… is she the kind of player to risk $1000 on the turn with Jacks or Tens assuming I didn’t care much for the Ace? If I thought the answer to that question was yes, I would have called the turn and put her to the test again on the river… but honestly I don’t know. As it was, I thought AK made up about 70% of her range, AQ about 10%, JJ/TT about 15% and AA about 5%. I’m ruling QQ out as a possibility since I have it myself (also making AQ less likely) and I don’t know many players that would smooth-call with KK preflop in that spot. Since I’m beat by what I estimate to be 85% of her range here, I think checking the flop and folding the turn is best…. but soooooooooooooo annoying!
The hand after that, I raised over a weak limper to 400 with Qc9c and saw a KQ9, two diamond flop HU. Perfect. He checks to me and I bet 750. He calls. Turn card is a Jack, basically killing my hand and my action. The river is an 8d and he shoves for like 1600 and I fold. At that point, there simply isn’t a single hand I can imagine him calling that flop with that doesn’t have me beat now. Regardless, I’m steaming and I walk away from the table for a good 7 minutes to calm down.
I think I had a few unsuccessful steal after that cause I was in the 2000-2500 chip range by the time the blinds were 200-400. I picked up a couple rounds of blinds to stay afloat and got a disgusting walk on my big blind when I was holding QQ. Finally, I got it in with 77 and got called in two spots which pretty much sealed my fate unless I spiked a set. The board came K high and they both checked all the way down and I had a brief glimmer of hope when the second caller flipped over AJ high, but then my other opponent showed QQ and I was showed the door for an early exit yet again.
My showing in this tournament over the past few months has been putrid… with one cash in eleven tries, I’m running at an ugly 11% In The Money rate, which is even worse than my MTT cash % in MUCH larger fields, let alone 3-4 tables. Something’s gotta give… and soon… cause my patience is waring thin.
To make matters worse, I had my first losing day in 2 weeks yesterday and just ran BRUTALLY bad during my hour of play after showing a profit all day long. So goes the swings…
Poker 101: 101 Poker Tournaments In A Single Day
February 16, 2010I’m not really sure what inspired me to do it, but one night, I was laying in bed and thought, I’m going to play 101 poker tournaments in a single day and blog about the experience. Why 101? Well, the real goal was 100 1-table online Sit & Go tournaments, but since I knew I was going to play a live event at Bremerton Lanes in the morning, 101 was the number… plus it’s like I’m taking you cats to school anyways, so it’s fitting. Ya dig?
My morning started off with a really uneventful showing in the Bremerton Lanes tournament. Maybe even my worst showing to date. I feel a little ashamed of my performance in that tournament so far. Considering how I raved about the structure and how it was much more tailored to my playing style and rewarding skill instead of luck, the fact that I’ve had one minor cash in eight appearances is below my standard. In a field that typically ranges between 30-40 people and usually pays the top 5, I really feel I should be cashing around 20-25% of the time, especially since I’m playing these people face-to-face… my advantage is that good and yet I have nothing to show for it. Thankfully, one big cash will have me at least even and possibly even showing a profit… but it needs to be soon. Today?
I can’t even really remember any hands from the tournament, but I do know I blew about half my stack early on a hand I felt embarrassed about… so yeah, not my best showing. Then I missed the board after calling a raise and lost a race as a small favorite to bust out. I’m not sure I even won a pot.
After that, I came home around 1 P.M. and began my mission to complete 100 online Sit & Go tournaments. In retrospect, I wish I would have done things a bit differently. I estimate that I have a bigger edge in the regular Sit & Goes, so I decided not to play turbo tournaments, even though I probably would’ve completed the task in half the time. Also, since I had to cash out a substantial portion of my bankroll last week I was playing with less money than I would prefer and went with a smaller buy in tournament and if I could maintain the same win rate, I wish I would’ve risked playing higher. I started off playing 12 tournaments at a time, but when I got short-handed, it became a hassle (since I only use one monitor), so I ended up playing 9 tournaments at a time the rest of the way. I took about a 45 minute break to get some food and completed my task around 2 A.M… well, sort of. For some ridiculous reason, Poker Stars stopped registering new No Limit Sit & Go tournaments after I was in my 95th tournament and majorly cock-blocked me. It’s pretty annoying to get that close and not really live up to my promise… but never-the-less, I pretty much did what I said I was going to do.
The results:
95 tournaments
39 cashes (41%)
19 1sts (20%)
12 2nds (12.6%)
8 3rds (8.4%)
7 4ths
14 5ths
17 6ths
9 7ths
6 8ths
4 9ths
Some notes about the results:
-I finished in the top 2 in nearly 33% of the tournaments.
-I won 61.3% of my heads up battles.
-I finished 1st more often than any other finish.
-I cashed 85% of the time I made the top 4, so my bubble play was pretty solid.
-All of my 9th place finishes were the result of some sort of horrible beat or sick cooler (i.e. KK vs AA early, set under set, etc.)
-I increased my bankroll by 31%.
Some notes about my strategy:
-I see a lot of flops in the early rounds of the tournaments. This not only means I play a lot of hands, but I also play some bigger hands much more conservatively. For instance, I’ll limp in with JJ and TT, sometimes after people have already limped in front of me. I’m also prone to simply calling with hands like QQ and AK if someone has raised in front of me. The reason I do this is because so many people are willing to ship all their chips in the first two rounds with hands like 88, AK, AJ, etc. and I think it’s stupid to risk going broke early on in a coin flip. I also like to limp in with unsuited AK and AQ in early position for the same reason. Simply put, I like to see the board before I get heavily invested in a pot, unless my hand is AA or KK. My ability to play much better than my opponents after the flop is too big of an advantage to give them the option of re-raising or shoving all-in preflop against me. With big suited cards, I like to raise the pot since I don’t really mind multi-way action.
-I respect position. I play pretty conservatively when I’m out of position and get called on the flop even with a hand like AK on an A high board. This rule isn’t set in stone as some situations require a bet on 4th street, but generally speaking, I like to keep the pot kind of small when I only have one pair, no matter how good it is. While this strategy might prevent me from acquiring some needed chips, it also keeps me from going broke early in a tournament with one pair hands. I also check behind on the turn sometimes, in position, with the same type of hands… or even on the flop…. for the same reason… but also to add a layer of deception to my game and make me harder to read. Most of the time, I’ll have a very clear idea of what’s going on by the time the river action hits.
-I start raising more hands when the blinds hit the 25-50 level as people tend to tighten up around this stage of the tournament.
-When the blinds hit 50-100 and beyond, I find that simply raising the minimum is enough to get people to fold mediocre hands. I have never adopted this strategy before, but in playing nearly 100 tournaments yesterday, I found it to be a very effective tactic. Of course, stack size alters this strategy and the less chips you have, the more reasonable it is to simply shove all of them in for either maximum fold equity or profit, whichever you prefer for your hand.
-Raising on the button 100% of the time in heads up play is probably the right move. I find that when someone does this to me, I find it very difficult to play against… so I started doing it myself. The reason? You make the pot bigger when you have position on your opponent and force them to do all the guessing. Eventually, they are going to have to start making plays at the pot in mediocre situations… or check-raising you with bottom pair or a draw or a bluff, just to stay afloat. If you get your opponent jamming the pot out of position with weak hands, you have pretty much won the war… just wait for the right moment. Either that, or they just fold, fold, fold and you win, win win. I really haven’t found a good way to counter this strategy when it’s used against me, so I might as well use it myself.
That’s all! I’ll never do that again and playing Sit & Goes for a living is not in my future. That shit is mind-numbingly boring. Now it’s off to Bremerton Lanes to finally take this bitch down. LET’S GO!!!!
Good Online Poker Tournament Week
February 6, 2010Just started trying to build up an online bankroll again a couple weeks ago and I’ve had a pretty good start. This past week I had these finishes:
-4th of 85 in NL Hold Em Tournament for 8 Buy-In profit
-2nd of 180 in NL Hold Em Tournament for 32BI profit.
-457th of 6230 in NL Hold Em Tournament for 2BI profit. I think this is only worth noting because it’s the equivalent of cashing in a WSOP main event sized field.
-4th of 88 in NL Omaha Hi-Lo Split Tournament for 9BI profit.
-6th of 360 in Pot Limit Omaha Tournament for 14BI profit.
I consider that a pretty great week… four final tables in fields of at least 85 entrants, 3 top 5 finishes, and cashes in three different forms of poker. Your boy’s got skills.
2009 Movie Reviews Updated
February 6, 2010I updated my 2009 Movie Reviews with grades for all the movies I can remember seeing in 2009. I added brief thoughts for most of the movies and the movies with no added thoughts can be clicked on for full reviews.
Crucial Poker Hand Question
January 31, 2010Poker experts, what do you do here? Please leave a comment below with your thoughts.
Live deep stack tournament. Blinds are 300-600, I have $14,200 and open the pot to $1500 in mid/late position with As7s. It folds to the SB, who calls. BB folds. HU to T76, two spade flop. He checks to me, I bet $2500, and he shoves for $7400 more. My read on opponent is that he’s pretty nitty, but capable of shoving hands like AT, QQ, JJ here… maybe even a big spade draw.
If I call and win I’ll have $26,200, which would be a top 5 stack in the tournament with 35ish remaining.
If I fold, I’ll have $10,200 for an M of 11.33.
If I call and lose, I’ll have $2800 left and will have to shove the first decent hand I get dealt before the blinds go through me again.
I’m getting a little over 2 to 1 to call and based on my read, I think I’m a favorite over about 30-40% of his range here.
What do you do?
1/29 Bremerton Lanes Tournament
January 29, 2010Today, I started off on a roll. With starting stacks of 3500, I was up to 5000 and we were still in the first round.
Key Hand #1 – Blinds 25/50, one person limps and I raise to 225 with AK. One person behind me calls, the blinds fold, and the limper calls. 3-way action to a A64, two club flop. One check, I bet 375 and the person behind me calls, the first guy folds. Turn is a 4c. I could bet here to define my hand and really see where I’m at… I don’t have a club in my hand, so if it checks around and a fourth club hits the river, I’ll be pretty disgusted with myself. Of course, I could already be beat, and I didn’t sense a lot of strength from my opponent and I think he has an ace with a weaker kicker, and as long as that kicker isn’t a club, I’m in pretty good shape, so I decide to just check it. He bets 375. No need to raise here… I just call. River is an ugly Kc. I could bet to prevent a bluff, maybe even get him to fold a small/medium club. He’d probably pay it off in frustration if he turned a flush since I’m not going to bet enough to put a ton of pressure on him. We both check and I’m shocked when he turns over 66 for a full house. No idea what he was thinking, but I was very grateful to only lose 750 post-flop when I would’ve stacked off if he raised the flop. Instead of losing 75% of my chips, I lost the minimum and still had around 4000.
The next several blind levels were brutal to me. Not only was I not getting good hands, but my attempts to steal blinds and keep my stack in good shape proved futile. I had two people to my left that were loose and defended constantly. I never hit the board with my hands and any time I made a continuation bet, I got called or raised. After a while, it became clear that I was going to have to play hands with value… and those weren’t coming often, so my stack was dwindling.
Key Hand #2 – with the blinds at 200-400, I was in the big blind with KdQd and 1700 behind. It folds to the button who raises to 800. SB folds and I consider my options. I decide that calling is out of the question and ship it. He calls with AK and I spike a Queen to double up. I am now freerolling in the tournament.
Key Hand #3 – blinds are still 200-400… the tables just combined and a new player I’m unfamiliar with raises to 1000 with 3000 behind. It folds to me in LP and I have 77 and I have 4800 total. My opponent is an old man and I usually consider most old men a nit until proven otherwise…. which means, I’m probably never going to get him to fold if I shove and I’m probably only a slight favorite against the bottom of his range. I think folding here is wise, although it’s close… I still have 6 orbits left and I just think I can find a better spot. Doubling up is critical at this point, but I think I’m an underdog against his range. I fold.
Key Hand #4 – blinds are 400-800… we are short-handed, I have 5400 and it folds to me. I shove it with KT and get called by JJ. I spike a King and double up to 12000. Maybe luck is on my side today.
Key Hand #5 – blinds are 400-800, we are still short-handed… I have about 12000 still and open to 2400 with AQ. Someone shoves behind me for 3700 and I make the easy call. He shows AA and his hand holds. I’m down to 8300.
Key Hand #6 – I’ve been managing to keep my stack in good shape and I’m up to around 13000. blinds are now 500-1000 and I have 6d5d in the BB. It folds to the button who shoves for 4500. SB folds and it’s 3500 to me. I do some quick odds… it’s going to cost me 3500 more to try and win a 6500 pot. If I call and lose, I’ll still have around 9000, which is something I can work with. Getting 1.8 to 1 in a likely 40-60, I decide to try and knock him out. Unfortunately he shows TT and even though I flop a flush draw, his hand holds.
Key Hand #7 – I make it to the final table for the 3rd day in a row. Unfortunately, my stack is weak at 9500. I didn’t draw a good seat position, so I’m UTG+1, and the blinds are 500-1000. I fold my first hand, a J6, and then I pick up KT UTG the next hand. I’m aware of the time left in the round and the blinds are going to go up to 1000-2000 the next hand, so my relative stack size is much worse than it looks. If I fold, I’m going to have 3000 going through me the next two hands, assuming I lose both of them, and I’ll have 6500 on the button, which is a pretty easy amount to call from the big blind with 2000 invested already. I decide to shove it while I still have some fold equity from my opponents and it folds all the way to the big blind who calls with AK. No 3-outer for me, as his trip Kings, Ace kicker scoops the pot and he has me covered. FML! I can’t close this thing out!
5 tournaments, 3 final tables, 1 cash, -$125 overall
I’m playing in a deep stack tournament on Sunday and if I don’t cash in that, I’ll have to cut my tournament playing down next week.
The Bat Cave 