Woah

5:15: I'm sitting 1st out of 671, fifteen minutes into a Poker.com tournament. I started w/1k, and I currently have 8305 in chips. I can't miss. So I will either go completely card dead for the next hour and a quarter until my stack is the average, or this is finally the one.

5:22: 10,600 when my KJ off hit 2 pair on the flop. Better than the K9 two pair my caller to the river had. Blinds are still 25/50!

5:39: Bullets in the hole nets me another 2300. 3xBB preflop raise, Q-high flop, 2 diamonds, min-bet of 150, I raise to 1800, call. Turn's another 7, min-bet, I push all-in, fold. At this point my 12,325 chip stack is only good enough for 6th now. Make that 9th after I got done typing this.

5:44: After folding JJ preflop in the big blind because of lack of pot odds, I'm rewarded w/QQ in the small. Good enough to take out a short stack. 13,750

5:46: Two hands later I pick up AQs, make it 1250 to go, and pick up 2 BBs and a small. 14,250...good enough for 6th out of 261

5:54: Pick up 6 2 off in the big blind, and when the flop comes 7 2 9, all hearts, I bet the flop for 450...and my 3 opponents folded. 15k, now on the button, and in 11th out of 199.

5:58: Pair of Jacks called for the blind, and the flop comes 9-high. 1k bet, called. Board pairs 6s, 1600 bet, fold. 17,785

6:02: Finally lost a pot for about 5k. Guy to my right goes all-in, and I come over the top all-in w/my 10 10. He's got KK, and I get no help.

6:04: ...and again. I get 66, and the board comes 344. I bet, slow call. Turn 10. I put player all-in, he calls and rolls JJ. 7476 and back to 49th out of 117. Will I even make it to the break here in 24 minutes??

6:11: A little luck in the big blind, and I'm back to 9476. JKs, and I can check. Flop comes w/2 spades, and we check it down. Turn brings a 4-straight on the board, and the SB decides he wants to min-bet. I made probably a marginal call, but wanted to see the river. River rag, and its checked, and my K-high takes it.

6:16: A pair of queens serves me well again and holds up against A5h to take someone out. Then my 88 hits trips on the flop, we check to the river, where I min-bet and get 2 calls. 19,468, and back to 19th.

6:25: Thank you, open-ended draw and bets on every street for hitting on the river, to bump me up to 28,936. I need to improve on 17th a little, but that's plenty of chips to get busy with. I feel pretty comfortable with my abilities right now. Break in 5 minutes, and I'm headed through the blinds next hand here.

6:30: And thank YOU, checks all around and runner-runner hearts for kicking me an extra 7500 w/a four-on-the-board, jack in my hand flush. 32,686, in 13th out of 44, and its break time.

6:40: Two pair curse strikes again. I hit Ks and 3s w/my small blind on a board of 3 4 K, and bet 3/4 the pot. One caller. Turn is a 5, and I bet almost 8k. Opponent raises all-in, and I thought "Could he really have A 2 here?" And the answer is yes...yes he could. ~7k. But I just got done making back about 11 when my KJ looks pretty nice on a QQJ flop. 18,372 and 27th out of 34. Got work to do.

6:44: Decided to raise w/KQ off, got a caller, missed the flop, and folded to a 3k bet. 10k. More work to do.

6:48: Picked up K9c and decided to go with it. Board missed me completely, and I was drawing dead when an A hit the turn and paired up the same dude that had A 2 before. What'd he have this time? A2, but suited. After all that, 29th out of 1k matches my best finish at Poker.com. Pretty disappointing.

Next Day Update: Obviously this is thoroughly disappointing considering how it played out, but overall I'm VERY happy with the way I played. The blind structure in this tourney is insane (1k starting stack, bump every 7 minutes), and when it gets down to the top 50 it becomes half crapshoot, 45% testicular fortitude and 5% play. I spent a little time wondering where I went wrong, and you could say either 6:40 or 6:44, but at 6:40 that guy was drawing to 3 outs, never should've called my bet, and hit it, and at 6:44 I think my raise was a good play and I just got unlucky. So it really doesn't matter how well I played up until 6:40, with blinds at 1500/3000 and the average stack probably somewhere in the high-20s, the stack to blind ratio is ridiculous. I wondered if I should've locked it down when I hit 32k, but I don't think it probably would've changed a thing. Lets put it this way...I didn't lose any sleep over this loss like I did on Monday night.

Originally Posted 8/2/2006