And I did.
In fact, I spent a good portion of the second hour in the top ten. Only the final table would pay, with first receiving $255. Not too shabby for only 10 bucks.
Basically I played pretty tight for the first hour before loosening up a bit in the second. I found my reads to be pretty good. A couple of times I was re-raised pre flop with some not so strong hands like A J or K J and laid them down. In one case I was terribly behind when one person called and another re-raised. The caller had Kings while the raiser had Jacks. No ace would have hit so I would have been crippled.
I also began to notice a hole in my game, or at least what I perceive to be a hole. There are some hands that I should be calling a raise with that I am not. Or at least that is my thinking. I will need to do some research to find out what others would do.
When the final table started, I was sitting in 4th place with 11000 chips. I was in a good spot and was figuring out how to win this thing. The problem was the chip leader had over 40k. The short stacks would have to play push poker. I just needed to catch a couple good hands. At least I had some experience playing with 3 of the other players so I knew what to expect from them.
The huge stack was bullying the table too. I wasn't getting any cards either so I didn't have to worry too much about her. In fact, I wasn't getting any hands to play. If I had something decent, I was folding to another raise. Man, it sucked. For a while, it seemed the only pot I would drag would if it folded around to me in the BB. But then the short stacks started dropping out. Then one player apparently just gave up.
Before I knew it, it was me, the huge chip leader, and the disconnected. The chip leader was gracious enough to allow us to blind the other player out. Thanks Villainess. When it was heads up, I was outchipped by about 4-1. To say I had my work cut out for me is an understatement. With blinds at 600-1200 and about 30k in chips, I had some room to work with and be patient. If I caught a monster, I would play it hard.
Funny though, I was chipping up not with monsters, but with tiny pairs. I would see a flop for the cost of one more bet and flop bottom pair. Somehow, they kept holding up. I worked my way up to over 50k. I kept doing it until I did get my monster. A K off. Flopped a K and slowplayed the flop. I pushed on the turn and suddenly I was the big leader. Except for going quickly for the death blow, I held on to those chips. Then with 8 9 suited in the BB, I got lucky and flopped two pair to end it.
It is a good feeling to win tournaments. But this one meant something. As I said before, I wasn't too happy with the way I had been playing these. I really wanted to take one of these down. It wasn't as much as the money as it was having a great showing in front of my peers. To win this was big. Hopefully I can keep it going.
Thanks to everyone who stayed around to watch. Sorry for the crap image I put up. Maybe I should work on those paint shop skills.
12 comments:
Well done!
Nice work steve-o. Welcome to the winners club. :)
Congrats!
"A couple of times I was re-raised pre flop with some not so strong hands like A J or K J and laid them down."
I probably should start doing that, huh? I got bumped early when my AQ ran into QQ and I didn't improve.
I will be in your fair city this weekend for some fantasy baseball drafting, and, of course, LOTS of New Glarus Spotted Cow. MMMMMM...Cow with Spots...(insert Homer Simpson drool noises here).
Thanks Pauly, Blood.
P, I am jealous. Gave up drinking for Lent and could really use a Spotted Cow. I would also suggest try the Cherry beer they have out if it is available.
Man, I don't know if I could give up drinking for Lent! Good luck.
Thanks for the tip on the Cherry beer. I'll give it a shot.
Hey StB, awesome showing last night. You forgot to mention, you lived up to your name and basically stole the blinds (or attempted to) almost every time the action got around to you and no one was in yet, almost regardless of position. I'd love to know how many flops you saw yesterday. You were a betting machine man.
Great work, it was fun chatting it up along the way. I went out in 18th but have been playing better and better in these recently.
Actually Hoyazo, I wasn't stealing that much. I did make some moves, but usually had a hand. I got away with a couple though :)
What I didn't like was you had a bigger stack and came over the top a couple of times. That slowed me a down a bit.
I will admit to re-stealing on those two occasions, but that's just because I thought you were stealing as it was. If you really had hands in most cases (like the AJ, KQ hands you mentioned above), then you could have reraised me in those instances and I would have had to quickfold. Oh well, maybe I'll see you tonight at the west coast wwdn.
Nice job, StB! Glad you picked up the win. See you next week.
Nice job, StB. Now all you have to beat are the old folk locals at the church.
Nice goin' stb. I used to find myself playing "for fun" in the blogger events, too. WAY more aggressive than my usual game.
Maybe you'll have to stop drinking entirely if it's this +EV for you. :)
Thanks Sam and Joe.
Joe, I will not give up drinking entirely. That would be sacreligous. Afterall, there are 3 families at the brewery that depend on me. One lean month is bad enough for them.
Hell, I do even want to mention the boys at the distillery that count on me as well.
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