This was a match made in hell, or maybe it was limbo.
One of the players was taken out in the first few hands, doubling up the guy two seats behind me, but I got Q♣ Q♦ on hand 9, pushing off another player with a 500 chip bet after the 6♣ 4♥ 6♠ flop and picking up a profit of 375 to put me in second.
Six hands later I get Q♠ Q♣. UTG min-raises to 120 and I make the same move I did with queens pre-flop before with a re-raise to 300. Everyone gets out of the way and UTG goes all-in. He’s got me covered but I call and he flips over Q♦ Q♥. The flop’s a rainbow, there’s no chance of a flush, and we make a big 45 chips each from the blinds.
I have to fold a couple of suited ace hands, including a Mutant Jack A♣ J♣ when the flops don’t look good, and fifteen minutes in I’m down to seventh place with only 1,170 chips.
The blinds go through me, and have increased to 60/120 by the twenty-minute mark. I’m down to 8.5BB, there are still eight players, and I decide to play a marginal A♦ 6♦, after throwing away A6o the previous hand and eight hands earlier. I raise to 300 from UTG+1 and get a call from the big blind. The flop couldn’t be much better: K♥ 6♣ 6♥. The big blind checks and I go all-in, getting a call. He’s got 6♠ A♠, so we chop the small blind’s money and get 30 each.
The blinds are closing in on the next hand. I have 9♣ A♦ and raise to 300. The cutoff (the smallest stack) and big blind call. The flop is K♥ T♠ T♣ and I try to bluff it with another all-in and the small stack calls. He’s got K♣ Q♦. My nine pairs with 9♥ on the turn but the J♣ river card gives him a straight and me nothing but 60 chips which disappear in the big blind on the next hand.
I won three showdowns in of 35 hands, had queens twice and three of a kind on the flop, but two of my three wins were essentially negated by draws. No ticket for this game. back to the bottom.