Too Eager

Not much poker yesterday, just a couple of (very) brief excursions into tournaments.

First off was The Ferguson with $2.7K in guarantees. I took a couple of early hits with a suited connector and a gapper, then managed to double up with [5c 5h]. A [js ac] made top pair on the flop but lost to tripped-up pocket 8s, putting me back on the street after 15 minutes.

A Rush tournament with nearly $11K in guarantee money was very good to me early on. I entered (1,500 starting stack) half an hour into the tournament while the blinds were still only 40/80. My third hand, [td ac], the cutoff bet 240, I called from the small blind, and the big blind went all in for 1,500. The cutoff called and so did I. Cutoff’s hand was [4h 4s]; big blind had [9s ad]. Things looked grim on the flop—[9d as ah]— but [ts] on the turn meant I was at least chopping the pot. It was [jd].  I was a little short of the full call from the previous hand’s big blind, so the other ace holder got 160 from the pot but I nabbed 4,260 which put me up in the top 40 or so right off the bat.

Sixteen hands later—which in Rush Poker means four minutes—I drew [ts th]. I didn’t push things, just putting out a 300 bet at the 50/100 level. The small blind had a similarly-sized stack and went all-in for 3,590. I had it covered by only 375 but called. He was holding [qs ad] so I had a slight edge until the flop showed [tc jh 6h], which gave me a much better edge. He got an [as] on the turn for a bit of  excitement but the river was [js], giving me a full house.

My undoing came less than two minutes (eight hands) later with another pocket pair. There was a limp (still at 50/100), then a bet and a call of 400 ahead of me. I was in the small blind with [jd jh] and called; with another 7K behind I had everyone covered. The big blind folded and the limper called.

The flop was [4c th 2c]. I bet 600, the limper folded, the original raiser went all-in for 6,200 and got a call of 2K from the other caller. This is where—in the interests of preserving my high ranking on the tournament leader board—I probably should have folded. But I called. The original raiser had [kd kc] but the small-stack caller had [ts tc] for a set. I had two cards hoping for redemption from the turn or river. A [kh] showed up on the turn and I was screwed. The [6s] ruined the small stack’s thin chance of quads and the kings took in a pot of 16K. I had 851, which didn’t last long in Rush.