So after doing really well at the poker table the past few days, I just capped it all off with my first big win of the year. I've been playing mostly 6 person ring games recently, or in other words playing at a 6 person table where the blinds never go up and you play with straight cash. After increasing my bankroll by about 25% in two days I decided to playing in a few tournies.
The first tournament was a $5 buy in no limit game with a field of about 250 and a pretty good prize pool (first place was about $500). The first hand I was dealt 8-9 of diamonds. I was the dealer, and so the last to act. A few people called the big blind of 30 (we started with 1500 in chips) and I figured I might as well see a cheap flop, seeing as I had the best position at the table and a hand that could hit the flop pretty hard. So of course the big blind then raises is to 90 and one other guy calls. I normally would fold here, 9-8 suited or unsuited isn't a great hand, but I had position on everyone (I would be the last to act for each round of betting) and so I figured that was a good enough reason to get involved. So the flop comes 8-9-3, with two of the cards being hearts. The big blind bets $250. I figure has one of two hands. A-9, or A-x of hearts. With everyone else quickly folding I see myself as a big favorite (about 4-1) and figure it'd be nice to double up on the first hand, so I re-raise to $700. He pushes all-in and at this point I'm sure he has a hand like A-K or A-Q of hearts. I called and he had just that, A-K of hearts... and of course the turn comes a heart, leaving me with a few outs (any of the remaining 8s or 9s would make me a full house) but of course the river comes another heart and I'm bounced after the first hand.
Looking back at it now, I'm not so sure how much I like my play. I was a big favorite after the flop, but with the hands I put him on, he did have a good amount of outs. If this was mid-tourny or later, I'd definitely play it like I did. Because it was the start though, I'm thinking that I should have only called his bet on the flop and seen what came next. I like to play small pots at the start of a tourny, not put my entire stack at risk. If this was a cash game I'd play it the same every time, but because of the circumstances I don't like how I played it. But I was out and there was nothing I could do about it.
After this happened I went back to a 6 person ring game and quickly made my $5 back when a Kamikazee sat down at the table. He came out shooting and I knew right off the bat he was agressive, but then some people started calling him down and he truely had shit most of the time. I wanted to get involved in some hands with this guy before everyone else took his money. It didn't look good though as he went broke twice before I played a hand with him, but each time he re-loaded his chips. Then I finally got into a hand with him. I had J-9 in the big blind. He put in a big raise and everyone else folded. Against a lot of other players I'd debate folding this, but against him I knew I could crush him if the right flop came down. K-K-9 hit and I smiled. Whenever he bet out to start, he always followed it up with a pot sized bet, so I checked it to him and he did just that. I of course, re-raised him and then he called me. I was a little scared that he could have trip kings, but I put him on something more like A-x or even something like Q-x J-x. He loved face cards. The turn was a garbage card and again I checked it to him, and then he checked too. At this point I knew he didn't have a King. The river was more garbage and I decided to take a chance and overbet the pot, moving all-in. Of course, he called me and to my pleasure he had 9-8. We both had two pair, but I had the better kicker. Now before I go on, I just want to let everyone know I'd never play this hand like that in normal circumstances. I don't mind bringing the J-9 in after a raise pre-flop with only 6 players at the table, and I would have definetly played it with the flop that came down, but if anyone played back at me I'd slow right down. Against someone like this though, I like them try to kill themself. When he slowed down I still figured he had a half-decent hand, or else he wouldn't have called my re-raise, so by going all-in I wasn't too scared. Normally in this case I wouldn't push. The only hand that would have called me pushing all-in would be a hand that beats me... but this guy was nuts. He left the table after that hand, sadly.
That was okay though because another tourny I wanted to take part in was just about to start. It was a $2 buy-in tourny, 125 people entered and first place was $67.50. What I didn't realize until it was too late was that it was a limit tourny, not no-limit. I don't mind limit, but it doesn't play the same as no-limit and I hadn't played in some time. I figured I'd just play a tight game though. One mistake I hear a lot about is no-limit players playing too many hands in limit, because it's always pretty cheap to play. Everything was going pretty well. I doubled my chips after about 20 minutes of play and was gaining confidence quickly. Then I didn't add another chip to my stack for about an hour. I'd lose, then win, then lose, then win. All small pots, and I stayed around the same stack for well into the game. My once dominate stack, although just as big, was now one of the short stacks. The blinds were eating away at me and I was pretty worried. There were about 40 people left at this point, with the top 20 getting paid.
One thing though, is I don't play tournements to make the money, I play to win them. I didn't want to keep this up and home I could climb to 20th. I needed to make a move and soon. I got pocket 7s as the dealer and with everyone else folding I raised. The big blind re-raised and I re-raised him, which pretty much put me in. To my called and showed me pocket Aces. I got lucky and caught a 7 on the turn though, and after doubling up I went on a bit of a run to get me into about 5th place as far as chip stacks go. I was confident I could win this now as we were down to about 25-30 people.
I kept getting more and more chips, and felt more and more confident about my chances. I really liked how I was playing. My timing was on and I was reading people really well. I couldn't have been happier. By the time we were down to five people, I had over half the chips in play.
Then I hit a wall as two more people were in the process of getting knocked out, bringing us down to 3 people, I lost over 40 000 chips (of my about 120 000). It didn't kill me, but I went from being the dominate force at the table to pretty much being tied with the three guys who were left. I was still playing good though, and I love playing a small table.
In the end, I won. I would tell you more about the hands that went down, but there were no really big hands. It was just slowly but surely chipping away at the others. The last hand I had A-5 of hearts and re-raised and I called. The flop came K-J-10 and he bet, putting him almost all-in. My hand was weak, but he was pretty much all-in so I re-raised and he showed me A-2 and I went to win with a pair of 5s that I hit on the turn.
Apart from when my 77s sucked out on the AAs, I played a great game and that move I made with the 7s was my turning point, and something I had to do. Even if I lost there I wouldn't be upset with my play. I was too low on chips to sit around waiting anymore. I never sucked out apart from that hand, and it was also the only one where I was all-in. And in the end I got over $65 on a $2 investment. Not too shabby, I must say. I really hope I can keep playing the way I am right now, I don't really think I've ever been on top of my game like this before.
