Not much poker yesterday, just a couple of (very) brief excursions into tournaments.<\/p>\n
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 5<\/span>\u2663<\/span><\/span> 5<\/span>\u2665<\/span><\/span><\/span>. A J<\/span>\u2660<\/span><\/span> A<\/span>\u2663<\/span><\/span><\/span> made top pair on the flop but lost to tripped-up pocket 8s, putting me back on the street after 15 minutes.<\/p>\n 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, T<\/span>\u2666<\/span><\/span> A<\/span>\u2663<\/span><\/span><\/span>, 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 4<\/span>\u2665<\/span><\/span> 4<\/span>\u2660<\/span><\/span><\/span>; big blind had 9<\/span>\u2660<\/span><\/span> A<\/span>\u2666<\/span><\/span><\/span>. Things looked grim on the flop\u20149<\/span>\u2666<\/span><\/span> A<\/span>\u2660<\/span><\/span> A<\/span>\u2665<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2014 but T<\/span>\u2660<\/span><\/span><\/span> on the turn meant I was at least chopping the pot. It was J<\/span>\u2666<\/span><\/span><\/span>. \u00a0I 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.<\/p>\n Sixteen hands later\u2014which in Rush Poker means four minutes\u2014I drew T<\/span>\u2660<\/span><\/span> T<\/span>\u2665<\/span><\/span><\/span>. 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 Q<\/span>\u2660<\/span><\/span> A<\/span>\u2666<\/span><\/span><\/span> so I had a slight edge until the flop showed T<\/span>\u2663<\/span><\/span> J<\/span>\u2665<\/span><\/span> 6<\/span>\u2665<\/span><\/span><\/span>, which gave me a much better edge. He got an A<\/span>\u2660<\/span><\/span><\/span> on the turn for a bit of \u00a0excitement but the river was J<\/span>\u2660<\/span><\/span><\/span>, giving me a full house.<\/p>\n 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 J<\/span>\u2666<\/span><\/span> J<\/span>\u2665<\/span><\/span><\/span> and called; with another 7K behind I had everyone covered. The big blind folded and the limper called.<\/p>\n The flop was 4<\/span>\u2663<\/span><\/span> T<\/span>\u2665<\/span><\/span> 2<\/span>\u2663<\/span><\/span><\/span>. 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\u2014in the interests of preserving my high ranking on the tournament leader board\u2014I probably should have folded. But I called. The original raiser had K<\/span>\u2666<\/span><\/span> K<\/span>\u2663<\/span><\/span><\/span> but the small-stack caller had T<\/span>\u2660<\/span><\/span> T<\/span>\u2663<\/span><\/span><\/span> for a set. I had two cards hoping for redemption from the turn or river. A K<\/span>\u2665<\/span><\/span><\/span> showed up on the turn and I was screwed. The 6<\/span>\u2660<\/span><\/span><\/span> 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading