Just a few hands from last night and my comments… And, yes, I am still ticked about not making the final table!
Cracking Aces
Blinds 15/30 and it is raised to 90. I called in the BB with 
. The flop comes 
and I figure that I probably have the best hand. The raiser bets 180 and I raise to 500. He thinks for a minute and moves-in. Hey - no guts no glory - as I call and he turns over 
. Oops. The turn card is a 
which makes me look like a genious!
Anna wins
A few hands later – blinds 20/40 – and it is raised to 120. I have 
and reraise to 500 and get two callers. The flop is 
and I move in – mainly because I think that I might actually get a call here and I am pretty sure that I have the best hand. They both fold and an onlooker to the hand types in, “a,k?” – yes, I had the Anna Kournikova, who – as my future father-in-law so deftly pointed out last week – looks great, but hardly ever wins.
I’m up to 3900 in chips rather quickly being aggressive – oh, and sucking out earlier. I’m pretty relaxed, which helps I think… I wasn’t worried about busting out because then I could just go to bed, which I kind of wanted to do anyway! 
Semi-bluff gone good
With the blinds 25/50 I get dealt 
and open raise for 150 and get two callers. The flop comes 
and one of the callers places a pot-sized bet of 475. With the three spades out there I have a pretty good drawing hand and it’s going to be hard to someone to call a reraise, so I move in for 4300. He calls for 2000 (his stack was smaller than mine) and shows 
. Stronger than I expected! I’ve got to catch a king or a spade that is not a jack or ten. The turn of 
offers no assistance, but the river is a 
. Again – genious!!
A great read
I have just under 7500 in chips and the blinds are 40/80. I just call with 
as my stack is big enough that I can “splash around” a bit, try to find hands and accumulate chips – and it is working. The flop comes 
and another player bets 320 – I just call – the other two players in the pot fold. The turn is 
and this player immediately moves in. Hmmm… strange! the pot is right at a grand and he moved in all his chips at it. I’m trying to figure out what hands make sense here – maybe pocket nines? Or did he have something crazy like Jack-nine for the straight? I conclude – in the short 10–15 seconds that you are alloted to make your decision – that if he had a made hand he would not move in trying to push me out, he would have bet smaller, trying to take more of my chips. So, I call and he turns up 
and I take down a nice pot.
Getting priced in
With the blinds at 150/300 and me still hovering around at 8500 in chips I decided to raise after two players limped before me. I made it 1250 to go and got called by the player immediately to my left. Everyone else folded except for one of the original limpers, so there was just the three of us in the pot. Oh yeah, I had 
– not a great hand to raise with – in fact, I really wanted to take it down right there with my reraise before the flop.
So, the flop comes 
– which doesn’t help my hand, but probably also didn’t help the other players’ hands, so it’s not as bad as it looks. I bet out 2000 into the almost-5K pot. The player to my left moves in for 4300. Oops! The other player folds and it is back to me.
This is where poker is about making decisions. My decision to bet wasn’t that bad – I had to find out where I stood and there was a fair chance that I had the best hand. Now I have a completely new decision – whether to call 2300 to possibly win a pot that is over 14K! I’m being offered 6–to-1 to call here and my hand is certainly worth that. I typed in “I don’t see how I can fold” – and I didn’t. I wanted to, but I just don’t see how I can lay that hand down there. So, I called.
He turns over 
and I’m 21% to win by the river. So, I was right to call, as I am going to win here 21% of the time – 1 out of every 5 times – or 5–to-1. The turn comes 
and I am a genius!
Ace Queen and the Poker Police
I’ve you’ve played poker for any length of time you have a love-hate relationship with AQ. It’s a great hand, but can cause you a lot of trouble. So, with a little trepidation (and the blinds at 250/500) I raised to 2500 with 
and got one caller. The flop came 
and was checked to me. I bet out 2500 and was called. Quickly. Hmmm. I didn’t really like that!
The turn was 
– nothing too scary here. Checked again to me and I bet 5000. Quick call again. The river was 
and it was again checked. Normally if a player has a made hand – or at least what he thinks is the best hand – he will not check the river. Almost always the player will bet the river with the best hand. Still, this guy had been chasing me all along and had me a little worried, so I just checked. And he mucked. He had a Jack and (admitted in the chat that he) “didn’t think I had the Ace”. Uh – thank you for being the poker police and for your 10K in chips! I’m up to 30K now.
Power Poker
I had about 35K in chips now and, with the blinds at 500/1000, had a nice chip stack. There was one guy at our table who kept raising hands, so I decided to call him down with 
one hand – just to see if I could flop something and get some of his chips. He can’t have a raising hand every time!
The flop came 
and he bet out 3500 of his 16K stack and I immediately move-in. He types in “flush draw?” and now I really think that he might call with a worse hand here, thinking that I am on the draw. He thinks it over, and finally does call, turning up 
. He gets no help on the turn or river and I am up to almost 60K.
Blind play and Presto!
First, I raise from the small blind with 
after it was folded around to me. With the blinds 600/1200 I made it 3500 to go and scoobyrx420 in the big blind immediately makes it 11K. DOH! Oh yeah – scooby has a bigger stack than me – in fact, he is the chip leader and I am #2! I really do not want to get involved in a hand with him, especially if he has a bigger ace and an ace comes on the flop. So, I type in “no scooby snacks for you!!!” and fold. (Yeah – I know – it was getting late )
Next hand I get 
(known in the poker world as “Presto!”) and I limp in. The short stack at the table moves in for 6200. It’s folded around back to me. Including the blinds and antes there is about 9K in the pot and it is only another 5K to call and I figure that it is a race. I’m right as he turns up 
. The board comes with four hearts though and my fives are no longer good.
“This is a really bad call”
I’m dealt 
and raise to 4K. The same guy that I doubled up with my pocket 5s moves in – this time for 15K though! Now, I had 52K when I started this hand and if you had asked me if I had wanted to put a third of it in the middle with King-Jack I would have said no. But now for some reason my hand looks so good that I don’t want to throw it away. In reality the best that I could have here is a race against a pocket pair or big ace. The worst is a big pair or domination (Ace-King or Ace-Jack). I should throw this away here in a heartbeat.
But I don’t.
In fact, I type in, “This is a really bad call”. I don’t realize how bad until I hit that little button and the 
cards turn up for my opponent. Then I type “REALLY bad”. And then some explatives. And then hit my head with the keyboard. Ouch.
I look at my pitiful 36K stack (down from a high of 71K!) and type in “I suck. I am quitting poker” Sheesh — I am so mad at myself!
Part of my reason for calling is that I had looked at the leaderboard and figured that I would still be in 6th place if I lost. That’s a pretty bad reason to call there – chips in your stack are more valuable than where you are on the board. So, lesson learned!
The big bluff
With about 31K in chips I call a mini-raise (double the blinds) from the big blind with 
. What I am doing here? Well, I have the “odds” to call. But in reality I probably should throw this hand away. Hang on though – it gets worse.
The flop comes 
and I bet at it – throw 2500 in chips out there – after it is checked to me. What am I betting with? “Pure imagination” as Mike Sexton would say. The original raiser reraises me to 5000. How dare you reraise me?!? Fine, I will call.
The turn is 
and he checks and I think about it, then check. I really do not want to lose my entire stack here. If he bets on 4th street here I have to fold.
I’m still hoping for a Queen and some redeption in this hand, but the river comes 
. Ugh! I have no way of winning this hand, except that he checks. Again. He is showing no signs of strength and there is a nice 18K pot just sitting out there for the taking. I think for a minute, trying to decide what to do. I don’t want to move in, as I think that shows weakness here. So, I put out a nice little 7500 bet. If this works I will take down a nice pot – if not, I will still have a few chips left. He thinks and finally folds. Thank you! It was excruciating to sit there while he took his sweet time folding and I’m sure that if we had been live he would have put some sort of read on me and called! He said in the chat that he layed down AK. Whew – glad that worked and I am back up over 40K.
A huge double-up
Scoobyrx420 and I were destined to face off in this tournament. Out of 402 entrants we had started off at the same table together and throughout all the rebalancing of the tournament kept ending up at the same tables. Once again we decided to clash heads.
Scooby raised to 6K (blinds 1K/2K) and I called from the big blind with 
. We both checked the flop of 
and the turn brought a 
. If he had a pocket pair I thought he would have bet the flop – but he checked after me. So, thinking that the six didn’t help him, I led out on the turn for 7500. The river brought the 
and I bet 12K. At this point I had committed about half my chips to the pot. Scooby moved all-in. At this point it is all or nothing and I had to take into consideration Harrington’s Law, which states that your opponent is bluffing at least 10% of the time! If I fold here I barely have anything to work with, so I might as well call. I do and my ducks are good as he turns over 
. Awesome! I am a genius and am up to 80K in chips!
A quick race and a misplayed river
I got all-in against a 16K stack with 
against 
. Of course, the ace comes on the flop. Oh, and the 8 on the river – could have done without the added insult to injury!
The very next hand I get 
. I actually hate getting great cards like this all in a row because it just seems that they are not going to work out – plus, people start calling you down because they think that you are raising with mediocre hands. Anyway, it is raised and I just call – not wanting to put all my chips in with Anna again. Two other players call behind me.
The flop comes 
and goes check, check. Hmmm — ok, I will take a stab at it for 7K. I get one caller – none other than Scooby! We both check the turn of 
, which is probably a mistake on my part. He checked to me – I should have bet. The river comes 
and he bets 2350 – what a strange bet. This should have set off bells in my head. This is a value bet from someone with the best hand. Or it could be a “post-oak bluff”. Why not just call here and if my ace-high has it, I have it. Certainly if I raise I will only be called by a better hand.
But I throw caution to the wind and reraise to 10K and he immediately moves all in. I type in “that was dumb” and have to fold. This is probably the worst play that I make all tournament. Down to 40K.
Scooby – where are you?
I get blinded and anted down to 26K and realize that with the blinds at 1200/2400 and antes of 300, I am going to have to start making a move here to get some chips. We are down to 11 players, but I am not playing for 10th – I’m playing for top 3!
So, when it is folded to me in the small blind, my 
looks really pretty and I move all-in against Scooby in the big blind. I didn’t want him to be able to reraise me and wanted to show that I was committed to the hand. This actually isn’t a bad hand here and he probably has a worse hand on balance. However, he quickly calls with 
and I know that I am way behind in the hand. In fact, since his pocket pair is better than my kicker I am only 33% to win! A seven on the flop seals my fate and I am out – just short of the final table! UGH!
Thoughts
So, anyone that has gotten this far – you must be bored at work! Overall I was satisfied with my play, but I made a few critical mistakes that probably cost me a LOT of money. First place in this tournament was just under $2500 and third was over a grand! However, it was a good learning experience and I think that I’ll do better next time. I like going back and looking at the key hand and critical plays made during the game – it’s pretty interesting and it definitely helps me identify areas that need improvement!
Looking to make the final table on January 8th in the $200K guaranteed tournament. 11th in that tournament would be ok as it is about two grand – however, top 5 is over $10K and first is a cool $45K, so that will be what I am aiming for!
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