Tag Archives: trips

I’d Like to Thank the Academy

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Full Tilt 90-Player Turbo KO Sit & Go (3,000 chips)

D and I were talking after the last tournament about playing on Full Tilt and he mentioned that he’s been working on some of their Academy challenges, and that doing so sort of puts you out of your comfort zone, which could be good or bad, depending on how it goes. He wanted the little hat that apparently goes on your badge at the table, too. I went to the Full Tilt Academy and looked for a Challenge for myself, finding “Tournament Checklist” by Andy Bloch.

Basically, the Challenge is to:

  1. With a stack of 50 or more big blinds, call a raise and see a flop with no-gap or one-gap suited connectors smaller than 10 or a suited ace with a kicker of 8 or less. Do it twice.
  2. With a stack of 25 to 50 big blinds, fold the same set of cards to a raise twice.
  3. With a stack of 15 to 25 times the big blind, re-raise all-in (and win) with suited AX 8X or less, pocket pair 8X 8X or less, or KX JX, KX QX (suited or unsuited).
  4. With a stack of 15 big blinds or less, open raise all-in and win with the same set of cards.
  5. Cash in a normal tournament and a turbo tournament within 48 hours.

All of the tasks have to be completed in real money games of 45 or more players; they can’t be Rush, On-Demand, or Multi-Entry tournaments (which makes it a bit hard as Full Tilt keeps adding those options to every tournament).

Anyway, I made my first stab at the Challenge in a 90-player game last night.

My first chance came eight hands in. I had 2,910 chips—73BB—on the button with 5♦ A♦. But nobody raised! Just three limpers ahead of me. I suppose I could have raised to see if I could provoke a re-raise that I could call before the flop. 6♠ 8♦ A♠ and action folded all the way around to me. I bet 80 and got one call. Q♦ on the turn game me a flush draw so I bet 200 after it was checked to me and took the pot.

Picked up 9♥ 9♣ three hands later and raised to 190 (leaving an even 3,000 behind) after one player limped in for 50. Got calls from hijack, cutoff, and the limper in UTG+2. Flop of 4♦ 7♣ K♣. Limper checked and I bet 200. HJ called and the others folded. 1,235 in the pot and a Q♥ on the river. Limper was down to about 2,100; I had 2,800. I checked and he followed to see the K♥ on the river. I bet another 200 and he must have been hoping his pair was good with 7♥ 9♠. I can only with the case nine had shown up because I think he would have been all-in.

A♠ Q♠ cost me a couple hundred a few hands later but the very next hand I picked up the Mutant Jack: A♠ J♠ on the button. UTG limped for 80 and I called. Small blind raised to 320, BB and UTG called, then I re-raised to 640. Everyone called and there was 2,560 (32BB) in the pot preflop. 4♠ 9♠ 9♥ gave me a nut flush draw. Everyone checked to me and I went all-in for 3,075. I had SB covered; BB had 3,455; UTG was big stack at the table with 8,350.

I had 5,415 on the BB at 60/120 (45BB) a little later with the “computer hand” of 7♠ Q♥. Not exactly something I’d play nine-handed but there was only one caller with a little larger stack than me. The flop was K♥ 7♥ 6♦ and I bet 180 on my middle pair, getting a call. 3♠ on the turn, I checked and the other guy bet 120, which I called. My seven tripped up with 7♣ on the river and I bet 600, getting paid off by the J♦ K♠.

My premium 9♥ A♥ and K♥ Q♥ hands both cost me more than 1K each shortly thereafter, however, the first after I laid it down in the face of nothing connecting and a large post-flop bet, and the second on the turn after a third club appeared on the turn and my opponent went all-in. Those cut me down from over 6,600 to just under 4,300.

And that’s where I was when my second chance for completing an Academy task came, with A♦ 3♦ on the BB of 160. I had just over 25 big blinds. UTG raised to 560 and action folded all the way to me. I was supposed to fold to a raise here, per task 2 but I’d miscalculated the division and though I was below 25 blinds and was supposed to try to re-raise and win. I got the first part of it right, anyway. He had only 55 chips behind but 8♠ 8♥ in his hand. No diamonds on the board, just one TX short of Broadway.

37 minutes, 31 hands. No tasks completed. No KOs. 46th place.

Funding Third Place

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Puffmammy Tournament 21 (1,500 chips)

Another grisly night as my three-month POY lead slips further into history. I had one premium pair the entire night, AX AX that I was in great position to call a series of three-bets leading to an all-in by G, to my immediate left. I had him covered, I had the best cards possible, and he was groaning when he saw what his KX KX was up against. Needless to say, another KX showed on the flop and I was short-stacked. The other notable hand of the night I was holding K♦ J♦ and that paired a KX on the flop. Two other players (on a six-player table) had the other kings, one with a low kicker that gave him two pair on the flop, but 9X 9X  on the turn counterfeited the lower pair and the pot went to the hand holding AX KX.

Two rebuys and an add-on only got me as far as 10th place out of 12. Third prize for the night equalled my contributions to the pot. D took first place and extended his POY lead substantially with a number of points for this one event equal to twice the points I’ve picked up in the past five events.

The Nines

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Full Tilt Multi-Rush On Demand (1,500 chips)

I ended up entering this tournament twice. There were a total of 435 entries from 295 players. Looking at the payouts, it’s sort of sobering to see how the multi-entry format makes it possible to make it into the money but still be behind at the end. One ninth of the forty-five players who got payouts were anywhere from a couple cents to an entire buyin underwater.

My first entry came to a screeching halt fairly early with K♣ A♠. I’d fallen to just over 1,000 chips and got some good cards in UTG+3, raising to 125, but got a call from the small blind. The flop was uncoöperative with 3♠ T♠ 7♣ and I tried to push it with a 300 bet but got an all-in from the SB, who still had an inferior hand with their 8♣ 9♣ but was in good shape with a larger stack. I called (obviously, or I wouldn’t know their cards) and a 6♦ made their straight on the turn.

I had a little better luck with the second entry (I don’t make them simultaneously) but it was A♠ K♥ that did me in after a bit longer session. I was in the small blind, UTG+3 limped in, I raised to 600 and it was down to me and the UTG+3 when he called. 4♥ T♥ T♦ on the flop. I made the desperate move of going all-in and he called me—with more than 20K and 8♠ T♠ in his hand, who wouldn’t? I was out—twice!—first in 142nd place and then in 86th. 28 minutes total.

Full Tilt Multi-Rush On Demand (1,500 chips)

15 minutes. 140th place out of 264 entries.

Full Tilt Multi-Rush On Demand (1,500 chips)

7 minutes. 152nd place out of 223 entries. Not an improvement.

Full Tilt miniFTOPS Event #44 6-Max KO $350,000 Guarantee (5,000 chips)

Play started off slow for me in this game: at least, it felt slow compared to the Rush games. But I really do like the 6-Max format, and the fact that this had knockout bounties and a large purse made it very attractive to me, despite the rather ugly history of my previous miniFTOPS outing.

I’d only lost a hundred or so chips to blinds when I picked up my first win ten minutes into the game with K♠ J♦. There was 140 in the pot and a flop of K♣ 3♠ K♦ which three players checked around. Another 3♣ on the turn and I popped out 40 for a bet, getting one call from a player who’d already lost a couple thousand chips. The 9♣ meant nothing to my full house, so I matched the pot and got a call—I don’t know why—from the other player, holding A♣ 7♠.

The same guy got into it with me on the next hand. I had A♣ 2♣ and I was heads-up after raising to 90 pre-flop. The flop was J♣ 7♣ 7♠, and I bet 75 after a check from the other player. 3♠ on the turn and we both checked. I got a pair with the river A♥. He bet 105 and I just called. He could have had another 7X or an AX with a higher kicker—it wouldn’t have been hard—but no, just T♣ 2♥. It baffled me but I took the chips. He was moved to another table shortly thereafter.

Twenty minutes into the match we were playing five-handed and, I got Q♥ 8♥ in the UTG+1/hijack seat. Sort of an iffy hand—not high enough to make a killer pair, tent ends of a straight—but it’s in The Grid for six-handed play. Blinds were 15/30, UTG folded, and I raised to 75. Small blind called and the flop made the hand iffy no longer: [1h 2h 6h]. I bet 120 after SB checked, then he called. 8♦ on the turn and he led out with 180, which I re-raised to 360, getting a call. 4♠ on the river. He checked and I made a 300 chip bet hoping that seemed weak enough to lure him in. He called and showed 7♠ 7♥. I was up over 6,400.

My first bounty came with a player who’d lost all but 600 of his chips half-an-hour in, most in a 3-way battle with him having AX TX double-paired against a guy who was playing a suited queen and drew to a flush (not me). I was in the small blind with 9♦ 9♠. UTG and the small stack on the button limped in. I raised to 120, which was met by both the limpers. 3♦ 8♠ 6♦ was the flop and I figured I’d keep the gas on, fairly certain that the small stack was going all-in. UTG dropped out; the button raised all-in for 490. I called and he flipped over 7♣ 7♥, which wasn’t good news for him. J♣ and Q♠ on the turn and river. Pushed me up to just about 7K.

More pocket pairs: J♥ J♣ on the big blind. Button—big stack at the table—raised to 150 and I re-raised to 325. The flop was T♠ 6♣ 7♣. I bet out 400 and got a call. 8♦ on the turn improved my hand to a straight draw, which I checked just for fun, provoking an 800 bet. Who wouldn’t call that? The river 3♦ didn’t make any difference, but I was a little concerned he might have a 9X. I checked and he did, too, but his A♦ 6♦ wasn’t going anywhere and I was the big stack at the table for the next hand, with over 7,600 chips.

The Mutant Jack showed up to propel me over 10K about 45 minutes in. I was in the cutoff position with J♣ A♣ at 30/60. Two players to my left had more chips than I did (both had been brought in from other tables). UTG raised to 180, hijack called, I called, small blind called. 780 in the pot when the 4♦ Q♦ A♥ flop showed. UTG bet 780, so I was guessing he had an AX. I called (Did he have a KX? Was he already double-paired?). T♥ for the turn. He bet again: 420. I figured: “What the heck, it’s the Mutant Jack.” 7♣ river. A whole lot of potential double-paired kicker combos out there; he might not need to have anything better than the J♣. He bet another 600, I gulped and paid the price, but all he had was A♦ 2♥. I only had 10,017, so I didn’t stay above the line for more than a hand.

A♦ T♦ was my last hand before the first break, and I picked up about 500 chips with it, which got me back over the line by 50. I popped off a note to Tomer, who had just arrived in Austria for EPT Snowfest. At the break, the chip average was 6,900, there were 10,900 players (registration was still open), and I was in 1,188th place. Tomer wrote back that he was watching my table while he ate dinner. Yikes!

A quarter-hour after the break, I’d only won one hand—and that was just the blinds. I was down to about 9K when I picked up 7♥ Q♥ on the button. Everything I said about 8♥ Q♥ above goes double for this pair of cards, and it won’t even make the straight. But it is on The Grid for six players, so long as you don’t put too much faith in it. The blinds were 50/100 and hijack raised to 214. I called and the big blind came along. Both stacks were a good bit smaller than me. The flop was a semi-promising T♥ J♥ 4♦. BB checked, HJ bet 345, I called and BB folded. A K♣ showed on the turn and HJ bet another 645. I had a straight and flush draw but nothing else. I called. 7♠ on the river, a bet of 1,245 from HJ. I folded and consoled myself with having an 80% win rate at showdown, but I was down to 7,900 chips.

I continued a steady, slow bleed of chips after that, at one point folding five hands in a row after putting out blinds or bets. I was down to 6,000 before I managed to turn things around with J♣ J♦ that turned into trips on the flop. My real breakthrough came halfway through the second hour when I made the first of two big mistakes.

I was on the button with about 7,200 chips. Both the blinds (which were 80/160) had about 3,500. UTG and cutoff were both over 10K, and hijack had a few hundred more than I did. Both the big stacks stayed out of this hand, but HJ bet 324. With 9♦ 9♠ in my hand, I raised to 560. Short-stacked big blind went all-in for 3,561. HJ folded but I thought BB was pushing with a strong ace. Calling would cost me half my stack if I lost but I did it, feeling very stupid when he flipped over Q♠ Q♣. The 6♥ 5♠ 3♠ flop was bleak, but the turn and river were 9♣ 9♥ for some major suckage. Another bounty and I was up to 11K. I managed to get over 12K, but within 20 minutes I was back below the 8K mark.

Someone else’s nines didn’t fare so well against me just before second break. Blinds were 120/240/25 and I was on the button again, only with A♠ A♣. UTG—with only about 2,500 chips—raised to 555. I re-raised to 1,080, the blinds got out of the way, and UTG called. The flop was K♠ 5♥ 2♥, he checked, and I bet 480, fairly sure he was committed to going all-in. He did and I called. 9♠ 9♣, but no miracle for him on the turn and river, just 2♠ 4♠. That netted me 3K and put me back near 12K. I was falling further behind the leaders, though, with all of this up-and-down motion.

My last bounty came through no action of my own, shortly after the second break. I was big blind with A♣ 7♣, so I was playing, no matter what. Action folded all the way around to the small blind, who had only about 2,200. He went all-in and I called, with more than 9K behind. He flipped K♦ 3♠, the board ran out Q♣ 9♠ 9♥ A♦ 8♦, and I scooped his chips.

Another series of decent cards that didn’t connect followed that, and I’d slipped down to 9,200 twenty minutes after the second break. Blinds were 170/340/25, and I was on the big blind holding 4♣ 3♥, which I would normally just toss. Hijack min-raised to 680, everyone else folded, and I thought I’d get fancy and play my low cards to see if they’d connect. We were almost evenly matched, with me having about 400 more chips. The flop was 2♣ 2♠ 3♠! I had a pair! I bet 1,680 (the pot) and got a re-raise for 8,090. I could have stopped there and saved my 6,800 chips but I called and he rolled over 4♦ 4♠. If only my hand had been 2X 3X. K♥ J♣ on the turn and river. On my next and last hand I was one card away from a flush and a straight that would have ended in a split pot but my J♥ 8♣ was beat by a 5♠ J♦ that paired the first card on the flop.

140 minutes, 4 bounties, -38% ROI. Finished 6,311 out of 17,102 players.

It’s a busy week in the non-poker sphere but I’m watching Tomer’s progress at Snowfest today; tonight I’ll be trying to get my quest for the puffmammy POY back on track, and this weekend is one of our double-point quarterly events.

Return to Rush

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Full Tilt $10,000 Rush Guarantee (1,500 chips)

I thought this tournament went pretty well except for a couple of mistakes on my part, one of which ended up with me being very lucky and the other of which knocked me out short of the money.

It took about twenty-five hands—some of which were far better starters—but fifteen minutes into the game I doubled up with 9♥ Q♥. There were four to the flop on a min-raise of 80 and I was third to act. I made top pair with the Q♣ T♦ 4♣ flop and bet 100 after action checked to me. Only the big blind stayed in. He checked when the turn 4♠ made a pair on the board, then raised to 360 after my bet of 100. I called and the 7♣ came on the turn. He went all-in for 2,240 on a pot of 1,260. I only had 1,045 more but thought I had him with the queens. Mutant Jack: A♦ J♦. No good and I took the pot of 3,350, picking up another 660 on the next hand with T♠ J♠.

Three minutes and eleven hands later I have A♥ K♣ in the hijack. I raise one limper from 50 to 125. The cutoff re-raises to 410 and everyone ahead of me folds. I call. The flop is an unforgiving J♣ 5♠ 2♠; I check and so does the cutoff. An A♦ shows up for me on the turn and I check it, getting a check behind. 5♦ on the river. Aces over fives with king kicker for me. It’s possible he has a five but that 410 pre-flop was awfully strong for a five. I go all-in—I’ve got him covered by more than 1,700—and he calls: T♣ J♥. I’m up to 5,130.

Seven minutes, twenty hands: K♠ K♥. Blinds are still only 30/60. I raise to 180 from UTG+3. Hijack is the only caller. The flop is 7♦ J♥ 3♥ and I bet 200, getting a call. T♦ on the turn, 300 bet, 300 call. T♣ makes a pair on the board on the river but there’s no flush. I check and the cutoff goes all-in for 1,640. I’ve got it covered by 3,260 so I call and he reveals a busted flush draw that could have posed problems: 6♥ A♥. I’m just under 8K, which briefly puts me in the top 30 stacks.

Sixteen minutes go by—fifty hands, if you’re counting—and I’ve got J♥ J♣ in the cutoff at 50/100. I’ve been slowly losing chips without any real hands and I’m down to about 6,000. UTG+1 raises to 300, getting a call from the hijack. I raise to 600. Big blind raises all-in to 1,500. UTG+1 folds but hijack (with 8,600 to start) and I both call. We check the 5♥ 7♥ 2♠ flop, but when hijack checks the K♣ on the turn I raise 1,000 into the 4,850 pot. He goes all in for 7,176 and I fold. One of my smarter moves from the night. The big blind has 5X 5X, Hijack has K♦ J♦ and wins. Two hands later I manage to win almost the entire amount back with A♦ 5♦.

One of the hands I’m not particularly proud of had me on the button with 9♣ 9♦ at 80/160. There was a limp by UTG, and a raise to 480 from the hijack, then I re-raised to 800 with 4,100 behind. Everyone folded around to the hijack who went in for 9,127. I thought he had an AK or something of the sort but when I called he showed A♣ A♥. Not good. At least, not good until the Q♥ 3♥ 8♠ flop. I ended up with more than 10K in the last hand before the break. Not enough to propel me back into the top 30 by that time.

Aces were the end of me ten minutes after the break when my Q♣ Q♦ just weren’t as lucky as the nines were and I lost an all-in against A♥ A♠.

Full Tilt Flash

Lost my first buyin on hand number three with K♣ J♥ after double-pairing on the turn. A pair of queens in sprang out of the hole with trips. A top-paired queen with a low kicker (9♦ Q♦) lost out to Q♣ A♥ and cost me my second. The Mutant Jack (A♦ J♦) fell to a common K♠ A♥ for my third. A fourth was gone with A♠ 8♠ paired on the flop beat by T♥ 8♥ drawing a flush on the turn. I kept at it, though and managed to recover most of a buyin with a A♣ K♦, then one-and-a-half with K♣ K♥, and almost two with J♥ J♣. After 153 hands (thirty-six minutes) I was -7.39BB/100 hands, still down a little more than half a buyin. 265th place out of 431; 15 minutes.

Full Tilt Multi-Rush On Demand (1,500 chips)

Like a Sit-N-Go in that it needs a certain number of players to get started but then a number of other people can join for a specified amount of time and you can multi-enter. I joined a 36-player game and the number of players quickly ballooned to over 400. I won a couple of decent-sized pots a few minutes into the game but lost a couple large chunks with good AX hands, then had a Broadway draw on the flop with T♣ A♣ get beat by K♦ A♠ that made three of a kind on the river.

Full Tilt Flash

I thought I’d try to make back the half-buyin I lost above. Got J♠ J♥ on the first hand in the big blind. The button limped and I raised to 2.4BB, getting a call. The flop was 7♣ T♥ 4♣ and I tried to end it with a pot-sized raise (5.2BB). Button called. A 5♦ was out on the turn, not too worrisome. I checked and the button did, too. The A♥ on the river was a scare card but I tried to make it look like it wasn’t with a value bet of 4.2BB into a pot of 15.6BB. Button folded and I had a profit of 7BB.

On my eighth hand I picked up A♣ A♥ in hijack and raised to 2.8BB when action folded to me. Nobody played but on the very next hand I got A♣ A♦ on the button. UTG limped in and hijack raised to 4.2BB. I re-raised to 15.6BB in a classic steal move. I was delighted with the small blind going nearly all-in with a four-bet of 26.8BB and a five-bet to 38BB from UTG. HIjack folded but I went all-in for 48.4BB. The small blind called, which put him all-in (33BB); UTG had 8.6BB after the call. I was up against A♥ K♦ (small blind) and J♣ J♠ (UTG). The board was loaded for full houses and flushes—3♣ 3♠ T♠ T♦ Q♠—but nobody connected and my aces made a profit of 77.8BB, at which point I felt I’d quit while I was ahead. 538.75BB/100 hands.

Full Tilt Multi-Rush On Demand (1,500 chips)

Whittled down to 1,045 chips after six minutes. Picked up K♣ A♠ and raise to 125 at 25/50 from UTG+3 with the small blind calling Flop’s 3♠ T♠ 7♣. SB bets half the pot: 150. I raise to 300, he goes all-in for 3,680 and I call. He’s got an open-ended straight draw with 8♣ 9♣ and gets his 6♥ on the turn.

I make a second entry and go up instead of down at first. There’s a glitch with A♣ Q♣ but A♦ A♥ on the next hand fixes it. Then I lose 1K on Q♥ Q♠ and make it back two hands later on 9♠ T♠. Why can’t I just win? A♣ 8♣ knocks me down 1,100 and A♥ T♣ pumps me up 1,500. My last hand for the second entry is A♠ K♥, which is beaten by 8♠ T♠ making trips on the flop and a full house on the turn.

435 players. 28 minutes of play; 92 hands. Finishes in 142nd and 86th places.

Cake Poker Arsenal

A♦ J♠ is not a good hand against quad TX. 22 minutes, 29 hands, -52BB/100 hands.

The Brick

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Mostly red across the board for the past couple days as I find myself falling into the bad habit of thinking people are bluffing more often than they actually are.

Full Tilt Midnight Madness! (1,500 chips)

Downhill all the way for twenty minutes. Lots of aces in my hands (4 out of 36) but nothing connected. Biggest loss was with A♥ 8♥ and an eight-high open-ended straight draw on the flop. Didn’t make it, though, and I was out in 1,515th of 2,080.

Full Tilt $4,500 KO Guarantee (2,000 chips)

Started off very well here. Joined a few minutes into the game so my first hand was in the big blind (15/30) with a normally unplayable K♦ 7♣. There were only seven players at the table at the time. There were two limpers and I let it run. I hit middle pair with Q♦ 6♠ 7♥ and decided to play with it a bit so I bet 45. One of the limpers folded and the other raised to 150, which I called. Another 6♥ on the river and I decided I needed to try to end it so I bet 120 but I got a call from the other side. The river was 2♠. I checked to see what he had and he bet 540. A 6X beat but I figured it was worth a look so I plopped down a third of my stack to see 4♥ 5♥ with busted flush and open-ended straight draws. So that was a nice first hand.

Just a few hands later I picked up K♠ Q♣ in the cutoff. I limped in, as did the button and small blind, and there were four to the flop. 8♠ 2♥ Q♠ didn’t have a lot of possibilities (apart from a flush draw); when action got to me I bet 90 on my queens, getting calls from the button and big blind. I made two pair with K♦ on the turn, which was a good thing. My bet this time was 400 and I got an all-in call from the button that folded the big blind. I had it covered by 1K, and it was a bounty tournament, after all, so I called. The button had had me until the king showed up, with 8♣ Q♥; now the smaller of two pairs. Got a bounty and was up to 4,800 chips at the start of hand 5.

The last hand was a whopper. I had A♠ 3♠ in the big blind and was heads-up pre-flop with the biggest stack at the table, with about 9K vs. my 4,900. I got two pair on a 7♣ A♦ 3♣ flop. Not much more than you could ask for there, eh? The big stack bets 120, and I figure he’s got some sort of ace, but I’ve got AX KX beat. I raise him to 510 and he calls. Now things look a little diceier because the turn is K♣. I’ve still got most ace combinations beat, but there is a massive flush draw on the board. I check. Big stack bets out 1,140 after I check. This is the point where I should tell myself: “You still have 4,355 chips, you’ve only got 570 in the pot. Just stay in the tournament.” I call instead. Q♥ on the turn.

I check again and the big stack shoves in, essentially doubling the pot, since the pot is just a little larger than my stack. I call. Then he turns over 3♥ 3♦, a hand I wasn’t even thinking of and which had me walloped from the turn.

Gone in a little over half an hour. 1,725th place out of 1,770 players.

Full Tilt $10,000 Rush Guarantee (1,500 chips)

Off to a good start with a double-up via Q♦ J♦ giving me a higher straight on hand four. Then the Mutant Jack A♣ J♣ cut me in half when A♠ Q♥ and I both double-paired—him on the turn and me, uselessly, on the river. Two hands later I had Q♥ A♣ and ran into A♠ K♥, and lost another 1,500 chips.

Full Tilt Step 1 Turbo 18-Player (1,500 chips)

Overplayed a T♥ T♠ hand. Our table had six seated at the 120/240 level and hijack raised my small blind to 650. I re-raised to 1,060 and got a call. Then a K♥ hit on the flop and I checked, only to be met with a 720 bet. Raised all-in hoping he just had an ace. No such luck: K♣ 7♣ and he even double-paired on the river. My T♣ T♠ on the next hand didn’t do any better and I was out in 11th.

Full Tilt Midnight Madness! (1,500 chips)

Popped up on the first hand with 9♦ 9♥, then again with an almost identical 9♦ 9♣ an hour into the match. Pocket J♠ J♣ were the harbinger of doom for this game, though, with a Q♣ in the hole connecting with the Q♥ A♠ of another player. I managed to crawl up from 400 to 1,900 before pocket Q♠ Q♣ knocked me back down to less than 150 and the door. 917 of 2,800.

Full Tilt $10,000 Rush Guarantee (1,500 chips)

The first 20 hands were good, with my own Q♠ Q♣ filling a king-high straight and doubling me to 4,600. Hung around there for a little bit then stupidcalled someone with a flush and lost over 3,000 chips.

Full Tilt $18,000 Rush Guarantee Rebuy (1,500 chips)

Over on the fourth hand with T♦ T♣. There was a T♥ on the flop but K♠ on the river gave K♣ K♥ a better set. Still,

Full Tilt Step 1 Turbo 18-Player (1,500 chips)

My penchant for pulling defeat out of the jaws of victory strikes once again. I double up to 3,300 on hand five with K♥ K♣, putting me in the top position in the tournament. I stay there for about 20 minutes as eliminations become less frequent, then lose almost 1,000 in four consecutive hands just to see the flop with decent cards that just don’t pan out. I try to get fancy with 9♥ 7♣ in the 150/300 big blind when the button raises all-in to 675 and the small blind calls. I go along for the ride and the board gives me a gutshot straight draw: K♦ 6♣ 5♣. I shouldn’t call the 900 bet of the big blind and we both check our way through the turn (2♠) and river (5♦). Button had middle pair on the flop: A♣ 6♦. I’m out on the next hand with Q♠ T♣ and an open-ended straight draw on the flop. 10th place gets me another chance at Step 1.

Full Tilt $4,500 KO Guarantee (1,500 chips)

My eighth hand K♣ 8♣ makes top pair on the flop and another player and I go to the mats only to have him outkick me with K♠ 9♠.

Full Tilt Step 1 Turbo (1,500 chips)

Made it up to 6,600 by twenty minutes in and more or less glided into the Step 2 ticket.

Encore Club (5,000 chips)

Only eleven players in the game makes my table five-handed and play is slow and methodical, with only one rebuy, yet there’s a steady bleeding of chips in the direction of just a couple of the players. I manage to take a couple of pots but I’m down a bit when we consolidate to a ten-player table. After that action heats up and I’m eliminated 9th of 11.

Full Tilt $10,000 Rush Guarantee (1,500 chips)

Corkscrewed in after just seven minutes.

Full Tilt The Ferguson (1,500 chips)

Ditto.

Full Tilt Step 2 Turbo 18-Player (1,500 chips)

Had my last chips taken by a 5X 7X.

Full Tilt miniFTOPS Event #20 $125,000 Guarantee Rush (4,000 chips)

Could this have gone any worse? Sixth hand in I get A♥ K♥. The flop is 4♥ Q♠ A♦ and I’m head-up. I bet 150 after the flop and get raised to 320, which I call. 8♥ shows up on the turn, so I’ve got an ace pair with a high kicker and the nut flush draw. The other player bets 860 and I idiotically go all-in for 3,600. He calls, shows Q♣ A♣ for two pair, a 2♣ shows on the river and I’m down to 30 chips which are gone the next hand.

Full Tilt $18,000 Rush Guarantee Rebuy (1,500 chips)

Got off to an early start—although I joined the game half an hour in—with 8♦ 7♦ in the big blind. Three limpers. The flop’s good for both straight and flush possibilities: T♠ 2♦ 9♦ and I check to see what the mood is. Hijack—with more than 10K in his stack—bets 200 and I’m the only caller. The turn makes my flush with Q♦ and I bet 200, getting a raise to 900. I go all-in for 1,250 total and get a call. He shows 8♣ J♣ for a straight but he’s beat. I pick up another 1,600 just five hands down the road.

My stack hovers around 5K for twenty minutes or so until my A♦ Q♥ runs into a set of sixes and I’m down to 1,500. I double up then next hand beating 4X 4X by pairing the smaller part of my A♥ 5♥ but lose the whole thing with K♥ A♣ on the next hand to 5♠ 3♠ and a set of fives and T♠ T♣ splitting portions of my stack.

February Wrapped Up

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Full Tilt $12,000 Rush Guarantee Rebuy (1,500 chips)

The buy-in for this tournament was low, and I’m trying to get a strategy worked out for the Rush tournaments, so I entered this even though I tend to avoid the rebuy games. Three of the players at the table double-stacked themselves before the first hand began, but the size of the guarantee was good. My play wasn’t, though. Hand nine and I had K♥ T♥. UTG raises to 60 and I call and we’re heads-up. The flop gives me two pair: 2♥ K♦ 2♦. UTG bets 165, I pop him to 660 and he three-bets to 8K. I only have 720 left. He could have the other two kings, he could have a one of the other twos or he could have the two aces he shows when I call.

Full Tilt Midnight Madness! (1,500 chips)

This game doesn’t have either the lows or the highs of the previous Midnight Madness. Sure, I dip down below 1,000 chips a couple of times in the early levels, but nothing catches fire and by the time I pick up K♥ A♥ in the big blind at 150/300/25, I’ve dropped from 8,300 to 2,650 in twenty hands. The small blind shoves and puts me all-in to call, which I do. He’s got J♣ Q♥ and pairs the queen on the turn. 120 minutes and I go out in 645th place of 3,707.

Cake Irish Open 2011 Quarter-Final Freezeout (2,000 chips)

This month’s Irish Open Finals snuck up on me. I had intended to try to qualify in one of the weekly Semi-Finals earlier in the month so that I wouldn’t be playing the Semi the same day as the Final, since it looks like the ticket winners have to join after the match has begun. Anyway, this wasn’t a game that would qualify me for anything. I played for 50 minutes and briefly broke 3,000 chips, finishing 14th of 18.

Full Tilt $19,000 Rush Guarantee Rebuy (1,500 chips)

This could have gone well but I got overconfident with pocket T♠ T♣ after nearly quadrupling my stack over 20 minutes. I was in the small blind at 60/120 and UTG raised to 480. I called and was heads-up, relatively confident with a flop of 8♦ 7♦ 8♣.  I shouldn’t have been, though. I bet 1,000 and got a call. J♦ came on the turn, giving me a flush draw and a potential straight flush. I checked and UTG bet it all, putting me all in if I called. Of course I did. Unfortunately, he had T♣ 8♣ for a set of eights from the flop. He had one of the tens I needed (which would give him a full house but me a better full house). The river was 7♥, giving him an unnecessary improvement to a full house. I was out 377th of 557.

Cake Irish Open 2011 Quarter-Final Freezeout (2,000 chips)

Another game that goes nowhere but down. Out in 12th of 15 players.

Cake Irish Open 2011 Quarter-Final Freezeout (2,000 chips)

Is my heart in these? 11th place of 12 players.

Cake Irish Open 2011 Quarter-Final Freezeout (2,000 chips)

Something screws up on my computer at the last minute and I can’t get out of this match before it begins. Only six players sign up and there’s no semi-final ticket awarded, just cash distribution. Another pair of tens is my final hand.

Cake Irish Open 2011 Semi-Final (3,000 chips)

I tote up and enter the Semi directly. Things get off to a decent beginning and by the first break I’m up to 5,200, actually in the prize ticket zone. Not great but not under the starting stack. Another hour and I have slipped below that number, to 2,500 chips. Not where you want to be after two hours of play.

There are seven players at my table. There’s a stack of 14K to my right, three stacks between 9K and 11K, and a couple of about 5K. I’ve actually made it to the last two tables out of 45 players (Cake runs 10-player tables). There are eight tickets being awarded to the Final, which just started. Blinds are 150/300/30 and I raise to 600 with 3♣ 3♦. One of the 5K stacks goes all-in. I call and he’s got K♥ K♣. A 3♠ is the first card on the flop, the rest of the cards go 8♥ J♥ 3♥ 5♥. He’s got a king-high flush but I’ve got quad threes. My Expected Value graph goes crashing through the floor but I more than double my anemic stack. I’m still at barely above half the chip average.

My last hand in the match is a better starter but it isn’t nearly as lucky. I’m heads-up with another player after calling his 750 raise from the small blind in the same level as the above hand. I’ve got J♠ Q♥ on a board of K♥ 3♣ T♠ for a straight draw. I bet 900 after the flop and get a raise that puts me all-in. Or I can stay with the 4K I’ve got behind. I call. He’s got A♦ K♦. An 8♥ and 7♠ appear but no ace or nine. Just over two hours, 15th place out of 45 players.

Cake Daily $700 Guarantee Turbo (4,000 chips)

This is almost a classic good trend for a tournament. I probed for a chance to build my stack through the first half hour, losing blinds and one small showdown. I doubled up to 5,800 with a A♣ J♣ Mutant Jack, then won another 2,900 with J♠ Q♠ three hands later.

An hour into the match I had over 15K, after a pocket 8♣ 8♦ made a set on the flop then a back door full house that won me almost 7K. A dozen hands more and I was over 23K. At the ninety-minute mark I was over 32K. I almost went out going all-in with 28K in chips (with blinds at 3,000/6,000/300) and Q♣ A♠ against J♦ J♠ pre-flop; luckily the river card was Q♠.

I wasn’t so lucky a few minutes later when I put A♦ K♣ up against A♠ 6♠. I was in the big blind at 2,000/4,000/400, there was a raise from the cutoff to 10,600, and I re-raised to 17,200, which was called. The 2♣ 7♦ 6♦ flop hit the six and he went all-in, having me covered by 20K or so. I called and lost. 123 minutes, 16th place of 174 players, ROI 90%.

It all went south on Hand 133.

Cake $1,000 Guarantee Turbo 6-Max (3,000 chips)

I managed to build well in the first hour of this match but hit a rough patch and lost three big hands that whittled my stack from 14K to 5K. Then I had the bad luck to think that my A♠ T♦ was the strongest hand of the two players who went to a T♠ 8♦ K♣ flop only to find that it was actually the guy with the other two tens in his hand. 64th of 211 players.

Return to Profitability?

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Full Tilt $10,000 Rush Guarantee (1,500 chips)

I chugged along fine here for ten minutes, creeping up to 1,600 chips until my K♥ A♥ met a Q♣ Q♠ on a J♥ J♣ J♦ flop. I was down to 310 chips after that and only lasted another three hands. 392nd place out of 1,198.

Cake Poker No Limit Hold’em (1,500 chips)

This was a no-guarantee game with 42 players. I had a good hand about half an hour in when I got eights full of fives on the river with Q♠ 8♠ to beat a flopped straight. I lost a lot of chips along with another player at the hour mark when each of us were holding jacks (J♠ 8♠ for him, J♥ 9♦ for me) and the flop rolled out 3♣ J♦ 4♠. The spaded jack was first to act and went all-in for 1,605. The player between us called with another 760 behind and I re-raised to 3,210. A fourth player mucked but the second player to act called all-in, flipping over 4♦ 4♦.

I was down to 1,655 and was lucky enough to get Q♣ Q♥ on the  next hand so I threw it in pre-flop. I was in the big blind (125/250/20), two players ahead of me had gone in for 750 and the raiser went all-in to push the caller out. The queens were heads-up against 9♠ 9♥ but the flop went down 7♦ 4♣ J♠ T♦ 8♦ and the nines straightened out. If only one of them had been on the board instead of the 4! Out in 11th place with no money.

Cake Poker Roma Turbo 6-Max

Just had a little bit of money left in my Cake Poker account and put it into a ring game. Not only did my last hand of 7♦ 7♥ get double-counterfeited by the Q♠ 8♠ 9♦ 8♣ Q♣ board, but the other guy had A♣ A♥. – 135BB/100 hands.

Full Tilt Step 1 Turbo (1,500 chips)

Another classic example of me blowing the best position to bust out—or win a lesser prize, in this case. My first hand was a dreamy K♥ K♣. I went to the flop after a re-raise and call with one other player. I got K♠ A♦ 3♥ and made a doubled the pot with a bet of 555. He raised and I went all-in, getting a call. As I suspected, he had a very strong ace: Q♦ A♥ but a pair was the best he could muster against my set and I was over 3,000 chips.

Only four hands later I was dealt Q♠ Q♦. A pair of cracked aces had eliminated another player, so there were two of us with stacks around the 3K level. I made a min-raise (to 40), got a call, was re-raised to 120, four-bet to 280 and got a call from the other raiser and we were heads-up. Once again I got a set on the flop: 5♦ 8♦ Q♥. I put out a tiny 60 chip bet into the pot of 620 to see if I could get a read and he raised to 800. He might have a flush draw or an over pair or another queen. Maybe a straight draw of some kind. I went all-in and got a call. He had a set with pocket 9♥ 9♠. No 9♣ showed up so I was clear.

It was another set that cost me big. The table was down to five players. My stack was about 4,300, almost 1,500 ahead of anyone else. I was the big blind at 60/120 with a decent J♠ T♥. The cutoff raised to 360 and I was the only caller. The flop looked very nice: T♣ 2♥ T♠. I checked to see what he’d do and the bastard put out 780 to try to steal the thing from me! I put him all-in and he called. With A♣ T♦. A 6♠ 8♠ on the turn and river gave me four to a flush but that was how I lost 2,600 of my chips. I never managed to get back in to the top two slots for a Step 2 ticket.

Live by the kings, die by the kings. My last hand in the match was K♠ K♦. We were down to four players. Everyone playing was assured of at last a Step 1 ticket. I was the small blind at 100/200. UTG raised to 400. I put another 1,000 on top of that, leaving 780 behind, hoping to indicate some ambiguity and wanting to get more than the blinds and the raise. Big blind folded and I got a call. The flop was a worrisome J♠ 8♠ T♥ but I went all-in. I got a call (the player was the same one I’d lost my chips to earlier) and he showed 9♣ 8♣. I was ahead through the 6♥ on the turn but the Q♣ on the river did the deed. 4th place and a Step 1 ticket.

Full Tilt Zoom Rush 6-Max

I don’t think there’s anything of note in the 111 hands I played in this cash game session. I almost recovered from a couple of 15-20BB losses. -4.5BB/100 hands.

Full Tilt Step 1 18-Player (1,500 chips)

J♣ J♥ on the second hand here got me off to a good but unsustained start. I was over 2,000 almost immediately and the exact same hand ten minutes in put me past the 2,500 chip mark. I hovered around that point for about fifteen minutes, sank below 2,000 for twenty minutes, and very briefly managed to get up to 3,500 before slipping back down to starting stack territory (albeit at a somewhat higher blind level). 54 minutes, 78 hands, 11th place, no prize.

Full Tilt $10,000 Guarantee Early Antes (3,000 chips)

I’d been curious about the dynamics of these Early Ante tournaments. I didn’t find this one appreciably different from a standard tournament, the antes just aren’t large enough to make much of a difference when people are doing things like going all-in. At the early stages, the antes are slightly larger than the big blind but you’re talking less than 1% of the starting stack size with a 3K stack and blinds of 10/20/3. In the last level I played of this tournament (150/300/25) it’s no different than a regular tournament.

I took a big hit on the first hand of this game with a K♦ 7♦ in UTG position. I limped, UTG+1 limped, the cutoff raised to 100, both blinds called and we limpers went for the ride. The flop was T♣ 5♦ 8♠ and everyone checked. The turn was 9♥, giving me an up or down straight draw. The small blind made a pot-sized bet of 524 and I was the only caller. The river was a useless 5♠, we both checked, and he turned over a 9♦ 7♥. A king would have given me a better pair but my straight would have just been a draw.

I doubled up to 4,500 with A♠ A♣ twenty-five minutes in when K♥ K♠ had some bad timing. Forty minutes of languishing at the same level followed, with the inevitable minor ups and downs. Then with A♦ T♣ in my hand in the big blind at 50/100/10, five players limped in to a flop of A♣ T♠ J♠. Possible Broadway straight, a flush draw, top pair with an extra pair for me. I checked after the small blind, the hijack position bet 690 with 2.300 more behind. The button called, the small blind folded, and I re-raised to 2,000 to give them something to think about. Hijack went all-in for 3,020 with everyone but me folding. 7,420 in the pot, he had J♥ T♥, much to my relief and no jack appeared on the turn or river. I was over 9K and in the top 100 stacks.

A Q♦ A♥ cost me 1,500 and smaller amounts of less than half that on decent, ill-timed hands, but the blinds and antes ground away at my stack until I was down to about 3,200 at the two-hour mark. There were about 320 players left out of more than 1,100 but only 108 payouts. I got 9♦ K♦ in UTG+2 and called (150/300/25) after action folded to me. The button raised to 1,200 and the blinds folded. He’d been fairly active, so I raised him all-in (3,309) thinking he might be trying a steal. He called, though, apparently feeling good about his 8♦ T♠ (he did have another 11.5K). I was ahead all the way. The next hand played out almost exactly the same way, except for the part where he had a crummy hand. I was out in 315th place of 1,139.

Full Tilt Midnight Madness! (1,500 chips)

Typically, I don’t enter these more than once (and I’d never play multiple entries simultaneously) but my first entry into this evening’s MM! ended so heinously I had to go in again. I took a big hit on hand six with A♦ T♣. I was in the big blind, heads up for a pot of just 180 chips with J♦ 2♠ 9♦ on the flop. I bet 45, my opponent raised to 120, I called and the turn was Q♠. I put out 120 to test the waters—I had 1,200 behind—he raised to 420 (the “pot smoker raise”) and I called. 3♥ on the turn. I had nothing and folded when he went all-in. He flashed 4♥ A♠ after collecting his 1,260 profit. OK. I still had 900.

Three hands later. 8♦ J♦. Heads-up again to the flop. 5♦ T♥ 9♦. Up-and-down straight draw. Flush draw. Opponent checks to me, I raise 120 and get a call. T♦ on the turn. Made flush, up-and-down straight flush draw. Opponent bets 180. He could have a higher flush, pocket nines or fives or ten-nine/five combos for a full house, four tens, or any number of drawing hands. I go all-in. He calls with K♠ Q♦. Then the 4♦ shows on the river and his flush beats me.

Eight hands of humiliation wasn’t enough. I started another entry but ended up waiting nearly five minutes for the blinds to get to me to play. Cards are uncooperative and I’m down to 1,245 about thirty-five minutes into the game when I get T♦ T♥. Blinds are at 80/160, UTG limps in and as UTG+1, I raise to 480. The small blind raises to 1,280 and the two stacks between us get out. I have to go all-in to call. He flips over Q♥ A♠ but the board doesn’t cooperate with him, giving me a full house of fives over tens: 7♠ 5♥ 5♠ K♠ 5♣. Two hands later the same player gets it all back with interest. I have K♣ K♠ in the big blind. Hijack goes all-in for 200. The guy I tangled with before is in the cutoff and calls, the small blind folds, and I raise to 1,000. There’s a call from the cutoff. The K♦ 3♥ 2♦ flop gives me a set and I raise all-in. Cutoff goes all-in for less, leaving me 755 in the hole. 6♥ shows on the turn and 7♥ on the river. Cutoff has T♥ Q♥ for a backdoor flush and takes a pot of 4,390.

A K♠ 4♠ doubles me up with a flopped set of 4s a little later but spades fail me on the next had and I lose everything trying to triple up on a three-way all-in with A♠ 8♠ against T♣ T♥ and 7♥ 7♠. The flop misses everyone and the tens win.

My first entry went out in 2,314th place. The second was 1,500th.

Full Tilt $4,500 KO Guarantee (2,000 chips)

This was my “good” outing for the day. I entered rather late: nearly forty minutes in with blinds already at 60/120. My third hand, I was on the button with K♥ T♥. There were two limpers ahead of me. I called and the small blind was in. The flop didn’t look good for me with 4♠ 2♠ A♥ but everyone checked and I was the last to act, so I checked. The 8♥ on the turn improved my hand a bit and when the action folded around to me again I bet 320. I got one caller from a large stack to my immediate right. The 6♥ gave me the nut flush and when I bet 560 after a check the big stack folded.

I blew 300 entering a contest with 8♦ 6♣ when one of the short stacks at the table was about to get knocked out. Missed the flop entirely and when the bets and raises started flying I folded. Eventually, two players fell to pocket A♦ A♣ held by the guy on my immediate left. I picked up about 1,200 with a 600 chip post-flop bet my next turn in the big blind holding T♣ 5♦ on a 7♣ K♣ 2♣ board.

Clubs did well by me a little bit later, as well. I was in UTG+2 with 9♣ K♣ with blinds at 250/500/50. I called, as did UTG+3. The giant stack in the big blind checked. The flop was J♠ 7♣ K♠ and my 1,000 bet folded the other two players. The next hand I was dealt Q♦ A♣. I raised to 1,000 and the player to my left went all-in for 3,747 with only 2,200 in the pot. I had him covered by just over 1,000 and I called; he flipped A♠ K♣. The board gave him a king on the river but with J♦ 5♠ 6♥ T♣ K♠ that was actually the last card he wanted to see, because it made my Broadway straight. I took a bounty and nearly 5K in profit to put me over 9,750.

A T♥ 9♠ combo just a couple of hands later in the big blind went up against a couple of limpers. I had nothing on the 6♠ 5♣ Q♠ flop and both I and the other players checked it through. The T♠ on the turn was interesting, although it could have been a real pain as I found out. I checked again but the first player after me bet 1,199 with 8,122 behind. There was a call from the button and I raised to 3,000. The original raiser folded but the button went all-in to call. 8♣ J♠, so I wasn’t looking for another spade. The K♥ on the river was wonderfully safe for my pair of tens and I got another bounty.

I pushed as high as 20K but had some setbacks and was down to about 12K by the end of my first hour in the game. 8♥ 8♣ came to me on the button in the 800/1,600/200 level. There was an all-in raise of just under 10K, an all-in call for about 2,500, and a call from me with the blinds folding. The flop was a less-than-pleasing K♠ 5♣ 9♥ but an 8♦ on the turn made it all good, even with A♦ on the river. I took the 26K pot and two more bounties. Shortly after that—in the 1,000/2,000/250 level—the Mutant Jack appeared in its A♦ J♦ avatar. I raised to 4,000 as UTG+1. UTG+2 re-raised all-in to 11,280, about half my stack. Everyone else folded and I called. We were interleaved, he turned over K♦ Q♠. I got a A♣ on the flop and nothing else mattered except the bounty and the 27K pot, which put my total up to 43.5K.

Those were the last of the good days though. I played forty more hands in the match and lost money on all but two of them to antes (from 250 to 600 per hand), blinds (3,000/6,000 by my last hand), or contests (just eight hands). My next-to-last hand I started with less than 10K (after losing 5,600 on the big blind with 7♥ 4♦) and 9♠ A♦. Not usually a hand I push with, but I was down to less than two big blinds. UTG, sitting on far from the largest stack at the table with 60K, raised to 15K. Action folded to my paltry stack of 9,300 (with 2,500 already in for the small blind) and I went all-in. It was a race against 6♦ 6♥ but I caught my A♣ on the turn.

I was out on the next hand, though, calling an all-in from a 92K stack with a better ace kicker than my 9♦.

Five bounties and a small cash for an ROI of 271%. 95th out of 1,774 entries.

Playas In the Mist

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Aces Players Club Turbo (5,000 chips)

My memory is so very fickle. People all around me recount stories of hands they’ve played earlier in the day or a year ago and I can barely remember which two cards are under my protector. Every round of betting I have to check what I’ve got: “What ranks? What suits?” Sometimes people razz me with: “What? Did you forget what you have?” Truth be told, that’s not unlikely. Even if I know I have AA or AK, I might not remember what suites they are. Maybe I’m easier to read because I look at my cards so many times. Then again, if I don’t remember what they are, that might not be a very accurate read.

Either way, it makes putting together detailed accounts of my live tournament games rather difficult for me, particularly if I wait a day or two and if I play two or three similar events in close succession. No hand history file to fall back on, no record in Poker Tracker.

Anyway, this game was a night game. I know that sometime before the first table break, a player on the second table vomited (I was on table three) mostly into a garbage pail. The initial scuttlebutt was that he’d taken a particularly bad beat, later I heard that he’d either had a couple of drinks before playing or gotten some bad food. All I know is that there was a general consensus among the players who were headed to table two when tables were consolidated shortly afterward that they did not want to be sitting in or near that seat. One of the players at our table actually missed a big blind hand because he had stepped away from the stink.

I made it through the first break but not as long as the second.

Aces Players Club (5,000 chips)

Another second-hour bust-out. This one was notable because one of the players on the far end of the table was someone I’d seen in previous tournaments and who was acknowledged by others around me as pretty good. I’d sat next to him before and been my usual pleasant self, but his demeanor to me had always been kind of bluff. Not that I thought he was friendlier to anyone else.

I’d heard from someone else previously that he was good enough to have drawn the attention of someone who’d staked him to play in Vegas, so I asked him if he had been playing down there recently and just got shut down with what seemed like an annoyed response. A simple “no” would have sufficed.

We were involved in a couple of big hands. I pulled a suited ace of clubs and four-bet him on the flop when two more clubs showed up. He was sitting on a slightly larger stack than mine and really pushed hard on the non-club turn, and I folded, then he showed a king-high garbage and and made a comment about not letting flush draws shove him around.

A bit later, I got AA in late position. The big blind was something like 200 and there were five or six limping to the flop, including myself. The flop had another A on it, as well as a 7. Action came around to me and I bet something like 600, then Mr. Stoneface doubled that to 1,200. Everyone else ditched and I called. I don’t remember what the turn or river cards were but the bets escalated until I went all-in and he called, showing pocket sevens. People were flabbergasted that I’d slow-walked the aces through the pre-flop betting. Stoneface pronounced that he knew I had a good hand, he could see it in my eyes when I looked at him, and I said out loud that he was a good enough player to know that I was always playing with good hands, but I left unsaid the fact that he obviously didn’t know how good a hand I had. He was nearly felted at that point and had to re-buy shortly thereafter. But he was still in the tournament when I was busted in 13th place.

Just Can’t Get Enough

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Aces Players Club (5,000 chips)

I played quiet and slow during the first hour. I’d picked up a couple of big pots, then lost a bunch when I chased down the top pair on the flush from the big blind. Unfortunately, the flush was 345, and a couple of major over cards showed up on the turn and river. I’d called about 1,600 in raises but when the guy to my left raised 1,000 on the river I let him take it down even though there was several thousand on the table and a call would only have cost me another 20% or so of my stack. He flipped over A6 for ace-high just to rub it in for everyone who’d contributed.

The last hand before the first break, one of the guys across from me was itching to rebuy and I picked up a respectable T♣ J♣. Blinds were at 200/400 and there were several callers but the itchy guy raised to 1,200. A couple dropped out, seeing where this was going, but I matched the raise. The flop was a dreamy 8♣ 9♣ Q♠. He bet another 1,200 and I called. The turn was the Q♣, giving me the first straight flush I can ever remember getting in live play. I was pretty sure I’d won the hand by that point, so when he went all-in it was an easy call. He was pretty flabbergasted with his Q♥ 9♠. After he’d rebought and returned to the table after the break we were talking about the hand and one of the other players had to point out to him that I’d had him beat from the flop; he hadn’t realized I’d made a straight to beat his two pair which turned into a full house.

Sadly, my last hand was well before the final table. I picked up A♣ K♣, a couple of actors in the hand before me limped in for 600, then the player to my right went all in. The count was 6,900, leaving me with 100 behind. I called and we were heads-up. He turned over K♠ K♦. There was an ace in the window on the flop. There was an A♠ on the turn. I was crushing this dude’s kings! Then the river was a spade. A fourth spade on the board, to be exact, and that gave him a flush, which beat my set of aces. The 100 went in on the next hand for a pair of nines but a pocket pair of jacks scooped that up.

Chopped to the Felt

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Full Tilt Step 3 Turbo

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.