Are you Russian?

I’ve got some more recent poker play to write about but, first, I’m going to finish up my last post about the tournament…

My apparent rush had begun with a suck out holding A-J against pockets 8’s followed by pocket Q’s in the BB. It continued on the very next hand in my SB. There were several limpers when I woke up with J-J. This could be a damaging hand out of position against several limpers but I was feeling the rush. I raised and thought myself quite fortunate to only get one caller who was short-stacked. He ended up drawing to a chop with a dominated hand (I forget exactly what is was). But it was still a bit profitable for both of us thanks to the limpers.

In the next hand, there was an early limper in front of another short-stacked player who moved all-in for just over 900. This player, who had recently moved to our table, was confident and crafty. Being new to our group, I had not yet picked up any reads on him. But I had already been thinking about wanting to bust him. There was just something about him. It folded to me on the button and I, once again, woke up with J-J. This was the opportunity I had hoped for. I would raise to isolate and, hopefully, knock him out. I didn’t think he had a bad hand. I just had a strong hand in position that I felt I had to play and hoped I was the best. At any rate, I did not hesitate except to evaluate how much of a raise I should make. I decided to make it 1K more. The blinds and limper quickly folded.

The cards were revealed and he showed A-A. I wasn’t surprised. I did what I had to do. Now we would just watch the cards come out and move on. But remember…I was on a rush. A jack landed on the river and, still, I wasn’t surprised. My opponent walked over to offer his hand and said, “Nice hand.” Hmmm…a little insincere, I think. Still, a sporting gesture. Now I was close to 10K in chips. Unfortunately, the rush would ebb. But with a healthy stack, I was able to drag a few more pots during the level and found my high water mark near 12K.

After the second break, level 9 brought steeper blinds that would only become more imposing. I had been moved to a new table filled with much more aggressive and skilled players, many of whom had far more chips than I. As was the case earlier in the tourney, I found myself with unplayable hands and no spot to even consider entering a pot. With the exception of two smallish wins that only kept me afloat, I wasn’t going anywhere. An oddity at this table was the two positions on my right seemed to be musical chairs. On three consecutive rounds, a player busted when I was UTG so I ended up posting a single-BB (no SB posted). By the third time, it was just funny.

I finally found a good hand on the button after another player had come in for a raise. The blinds were 400-800/50 (That’s right, Paul) and I was sitting with 5200. The raiser had made it 2400 to go. I had 9-9 and had to consider my options. This was certainly a spot to get my chips all-in (I was definitely not folding) but had to think about what my re-raise would mean to the raiser. For only 2800 more, he would not fold unless he was on a bluff…I had no reason think he was. I wanted to try a stop-n-go but he was first to act. So I opted to push. I started liking my chances when he went into the tank. Was he actually on a bluff? Or did he have a small pair? Or maybe even something like Q-J that he could lay down? After counting his chips to evaluate his potential, he called and showed K-J. It turned out I had caught him with a mediocre hand that he almost got away from. The flop didn’t hit him but the turn and river did, giving him two pair.

I was done, left to wonder if a stop-n-go would have worked. That play would have been dependent on him checking after missing the flop, allowing me to move in. He was the kind of player that would make to continuation bet to put the decision on me. So I don’t think it would have ended any differently.

769 players had started the tourney. I went out in about 85th place. However, that was nowhere near the bubble as they were only paying the top 35. The payout was quite top-heavy.

I was happy with my play and the way things had gone. It was my first real tournament in a long time but I didn’t show any rust. It was somewhere around 11:30pm when I got knocked out so I would not get into any cash action. Time to call it a night. I planned to take a shot at the 10-20NLH games on my next trip to Commerce. This time, it wasn’t just an idle thought. I would make it happen…and I did.

SEEYa