Bovada $1K NLHE Rebuy (T2,000)
Bovada’s thing is that their poker tables are anonymous. You can’t tell who you’re playing against unless you know the number assigned to another player for a particular cash session or tournament. Their hand histories are even more anonymous, because the session identifiers don’t carry over; players are only identified by seat and position. Perhaps because of that, Bovada shows you everyone’s hole cards, which makes for some interesting reading, particularly in cases where you bluffed someone off a hand (or vice versa). It wasn’t the biggest amount of money I’ve ever won by any means, but I think it was the biggest ROI I’ve ever posted.
Hand 1 A
If I have a poker superstition, it’s the ‘poison pot’ — winning the first hand of the tournament that dooms the winner to not finishing. I think I may be over it. We started the hand with everyone equal except for BTN, who did a rebuy. UTG1 called, I raised, and we were HU to the 6
Hand 4 9
This is one of the hands in my range that I play a lot harder than some people would, though in this case, I was well-justified. I opened to 60, getting a call from BTN and a re-raise to 280 from BB. I called, and BTN dropped out. The 7
Hand 11 T
This is where things really started to get crazy for me. UTG2 made a standard raise of 120, which I called. HJ went all-in for 2,080 with—let me say it ahead of the showdown—4
Hand 20 A
Another hand where crazy play on the part of the $2 rebut crowd runs into the meat grinder of my good hands. UTG1 limps, I raise to 180, and HJ shoves for 4,000 (after having rebought a few times already). UTG1 is all-in to call. I’m risking less than 25% of my stack in the call. I’m behind UTG1’s K
Hand 31 K
The craziness continued, although in this case (some of) the hands justified action. UTG min-raised with Q
Hand 33 T
My first losing hand! UTG limped, then UTG1 shoves 25BB with 9
Hand 38 K
Raise to 240, get two calls (6
Hand 43 Q
Lost chips here but only because of a bad runout. Got it in good. UTG2 limped J
There’s a break of about ten minutes here in the hand history from Bovada. Apparently, I picked up some chips in the interim.
Hand 62 J
There was one stack at the table over 20,000, a couple around 17,000, and everyone else was below 10,000. UTG1 put in 5,000 chips, leaving just 85 behind with K
Hand 73 A
Opened to 600, got called by HJ (7
Hand 74 8
Called a min-raise from UTG (Q
Hand 78 T
HJ opened to 550 and I called, along with BB. The flop was J
Hand 85 6
I wouldn’t normally do much with this low of an unsuited ace, but UTG1 and CO just limped in. The flop was 9
Hand 86 5
Limped in along with four others only to fold to a 15,000 all-in from BB (with 2
Hand 109 T
I’d gone through an entire level with checks and folds, and some of the other stacks were beginning to catch up. I was in seat 5. Seat 2 had almost as many chips as me and I think a stack at another table had passed me up. Five of the stacks at our table were below 13,000, though, so there wasn’t much danger around. UTG1 min-raised for about 10% of his stack with A
Hand 129 8
Action on the table had been fast over the past few hands, with seat 9 doubling up to over 67,000 and seat 8 doubling to 55,000, with seat 2 passing me up to 58,000. Fortunately, aside from antes and blinds, none of the damage had been at my expense. Everyone folded to SB (25,000 chips) who limped in with 9
Hand 134 A
Opened to 2,400 and everyone folded.
Hand 140 J
HJ limped in and I raised to 3,000. BB and HJ called. The flop was 5
Hand 142 7
I don’t normally trust anything as low as sevens on a nine-handed table, but this is one time I’m glad I was feeling a little frisky. I opened to 3,000 and got called by BB, hitting bottom set on a flop of J
Hand 143 A
I opened to 3,000 and SB (9
Hand 157 9
UTG2 opened all-in to 22,344 with 5
Hand 161 K
UTG limps, I raise to 4,000 and get called by CO, SB, and UTG. The flop is J
Hand 174 K
Got caught in the crossfire on this one. CO opened to 2/3 his stack with 11,680. I shoved all-in. SB goes all-in for 45,898 and CO pumps the rest in. It’s K
Hand 175 7
Nothing if not tenacious. I open to 4,800 and take the blinds and antes.
Hand 186 K
BTN limps in and I call. Flop is A
Hand 196 A
Most of the table is in the 45,000 to 65,00 chip zone, with one stack at 100,000. I open to 7,500 and everyone folds.
Hand 201 K
I open to 9,000 and again, everyone folds.
Hand 213 A
HJ min-raises with 4
Hand 216 K
I open to 12,000 and everyone folds. Hard to believe, because UTG3, with only 41,000 chips, had the other two kings.
Hand 228 A
I’m at a new table with three stacks bigger than mine by significant amounts and BB down to a single blind. UTG2—the second biggest at 238K—opens to 10,000 and I call. I hit two pair on the flop with 9
Hand 229 A
We’re down to six players at our table. Two with more than 200K, a stack of 170K, me, and 80K and 27K. The 170K stack in UTG2 opens to 15,000 and I call since I’m being hit with the deck at the moment. The flop is K
Hand 238 A
Always a dangerous hand at this point. So many things can go wrong. I opened to 15,000, getting calls from CO and BTN. The flop was 9
Hand 251 2
Seven-handed. UTG1 limps in and I follow along. The flop is 5
Hand 269 8
I’m in a close third place at the table, with both the bigger stacks on my immediate left. UTG and SB limp in. I make bottom pair on the flop, then an open straight draw on turn and call a 13.5K bet from SB with J
Hand 288 K
I open to 24,0000 and everyone folds.
Hand 291 8
I open to 24,000 and BB calls with 7
Hand 295 Q
First hand of the final table. I’m in seat 7. Seat 1 has 540K, seat 8 has 465, seat 3 has 360K, and seat 4 has 238K, so I’m in fifth place to start. UTG1 goes all-in with 69K and A
Hand 296 4
I’ve moved up to 4th place. UTG limps with 8
Hand 303 K
Chip leader UTG1 limped in with T
Hand 312 J
CO opens to 30,000 with J
Hand 319 K
It’s down to six of us. Chip leader has over 800K and I’m in second. I open to 36,000 and done.
Hand 320 Q
I open to 36,000 and BB calls with A
Hand 326 A
UTG has 8
Hand 327 A
Open to 36K and everyone folds.
Hand 335 J
Big stack UTG1 limps in with T
Hand 341 T
The big stack UTG1 has vacuumed up chis over the past ten hands, knocking out the short stack and blowing over 1.25 million, with me in a distant second. He limps in again, this time with T
Hand 346 A
Another player has bought the farm and there are just four of us left. The knockout didn’t go to the chip leader, so I’m in third place, though well ahead of fourth. The big stack limps in yet again. Q
Hand 347 K
Open to 48K and win.
Hand 348 8
Another open/win with 48K.
Hand 355 A
Again with the aces. Open to 48K and win. We lost the 4th player on the previous hand.
Hand 356 9
The big stack is on my right with over 1.5 million. Third place has 230K. SB limps in, there’s an ace and a nine on the flop. He has J
Hand 360 A
Our third hand of HU and I get aces again. BB has 1.75 million chips, though. I raise to 48K, he re-raises to 80K, and this looks like as good a time as any to shove. He calls with K
Not a bad result, despite the disappointing crack at the end. I feel like I could have had a good shot at first if the aces had held up.
VPIP for this tournament ~15%.
Five hours and fifty minutes. 360 hands. 2nd of 299 entries, with 295 rebuys and 197 addons. 5,725% ROI.
Good as this was, the next time I checked into my Bovada console, I had a ticket for their Lucky Draw Sweepstakes tournament, where 10% of the field gets freerolled into a Sunday $100K guarantee tournament. It was only good for one event, and I had a family get-together scheduled right before it, with dinner out a couple hours later, but I got home early, logged in with 10BB, picked up kings on my third hand and managed to stave off my hungry wife until only 8 of the 850-entry field was left to be eliminated. With my stack in the middle of the pack, we headed to dinner and I came back to a ticket for the $100K.