Got Lucky last night
Took down a 22 person tournament in Houma. Have to get lucky to win these things. I played badly in a number of spots, mangling pocket Aces once, making a bad call three handed with A5 running into the hand I thought my opponent had preflop AK and of course hitting my 5. I got short and ended up with AA in the blind and Frank woke up to an AK and got a very timely double up.
Started out on a very strong table,11 handed. I was not happy to see Gene D there or Davey, Ruttley, and a couple others. Gene D, organizes and runs these things, and it's a huge disadvantage. He spends so much time after the game has started figuring out the money that he's away from the table too much. We don't get enough chips that you can afford to miss that many hands, I feel like when he's fully ready to play he's coming back to a shortish stack and forced to make moves. We all owe him and Dinger a thankyou for the tournament. In fact, I forgot to ask Dinger how much his baby sitter was going to cost him for the last two hours as I feel I should contribute. So Robert, email me.
Anyway, a big early and again lucky hand for me early, was when Gene returned to the table and was early to act. He fired out a raise of 500, blinds were 1oo, 200 and I think a 25 ante--(I might be mistaken on the numbers or the level). Folded around to me. I look down at J10. I know Gene's got a legitimate hand raising from early position. Problem is, I got a feeling a loose player to my left is going to call. Almost 3 to 1 on my money. I decide, I'll call and bail if I don't smash the flop. Other player does call.
Flop comes out JJx. Yeah, I smashed it. Gene moves all in. I deliberate for a long time hoping to induce the player after me to get involved for a biggish pot if he's got a marginal hand. I call... he folds. I win the hand over Gene.
I went up and down the rest of the night playing primarily big hands but got away with some steals with absolute nothing 32 etc during dry runs of cards because of what I'd shown. I adjusted my strategy a little bit, from playing there in the past. There are some guys that will pay off big raises early on. So when I had big hands, I popped the pots a lot bigger than I normally do, hoping to get the good players out and getting some weaker hands in.
Gene's cousin is a solid player. Early on I got KK, it was a limpfest with a couple of loose guys, to me in the SB. I way overbet for 700 (I think 25-5o were the blinds). All folded. I showed the cowboys. Same thing happened next hand I look at AK suited. I figure I'll make the same bet and hope a hand like A10, AJ, or A9 thinks I must be making a move. Gene's cousin comes over the top with AJ and hits his J.
Some more of my bad hands. Final table, maybe 7 or 8 handed I got A9 suited in the big blind. Rick leads out one off the button. I think my hand may be in the lead here but just call. Flop comes 753. He continuation bets. I still think my hand is good here. Then I ponder the chip stacks. I don't know what kind of hand he can lay down. I ask him if he can beat a pair. He says a pair of what. My gut says he's unpaired too. I say a pair of nines, and he makes the doubting face like what the f are you thinking about with a pair of 9s, but doesn't look entirely scared. I throw out A7? A6? And then I get away from the hand. If he had two overs A10 or higher he might be compelled to call chip stack wise and have me crushed. If he had A6 he might be compelled to call and draw out on me.
I decide worse case scenarios I'm crushed, best case I have to sweat it out without even a pair. Maybe I can pick a better spot. He later told me he had A6. Probably should have went with my read that I was ahead. Later three handed, I got K5 in the BB. Three to flop, King high. Bingo. Check, I bet out. My opponent goes over the top all in. I stew. I lay down my hand and he shows me second pair. Couldn't really believe I laid down top pair three handed... but I thought I could find a better spot ultimately. Still, I ignored my gut that told me he was making some sort of move. He had second pair and didn't buy I had the king.
I got KK maybe three times and AA twice. Told you I was getting lucky. Though, on most of them I just got blinds or limpers. Once I mangled the AA and rivered the nut flush. I had a pretty solid read on this particular opponent... so maybe I wasn't as clumsy as I felt at the time. I felt liked he nail the flop, so I checked it down until I value bet the river. Davey asked me what I was doing there and he's probably right I should have maybe bet a little earlier. Also, on the river I think I could have got him all in and taken his bounty had I shoved. He didn't show but I really think he might have flopped two pair. Course, him "nailing the flop" might have been hitting top pair.
Because I had a good read on this guy and I was on his left, we played a lot of pots. Several times when he missed I bet into him with air so he was getting frustrated. I hit a monster later on and shove for all my chips and he makes what everybody thinks was a bad call, but it was just about that time that he had to make a stand. Unluckily for him that was when I had a hand.
I thought several players performed better than I did last night. I just got the right cards at the right time and the right amount of luck in key places. You can't focus on results as a metric of play, so just like when I'm losing and playing well, I have to focus that I played well, but also I can't be too proud of making a number of mistakes when I win.
Thanks again, Robert, let me know about that babysitting money, and thanks GeneD for a good evening of fun.
Started out on a very strong table,11 handed. I was not happy to see Gene D there or Davey, Ruttley, and a couple others. Gene D, organizes and runs these things, and it's a huge disadvantage. He spends so much time after the game has started figuring out the money that he's away from the table too much. We don't get enough chips that you can afford to miss that many hands, I feel like when he's fully ready to play he's coming back to a shortish stack and forced to make moves. We all owe him and Dinger a thankyou for the tournament. In fact, I forgot to ask Dinger how much his baby sitter was going to cost him for the last two hours as I feel I should contribute. So Robert, email me.
Anyway, a big early and again lucky hand for me early, was when Gene returned to the table and was early to act. He fired out a raise of 500, blinds were 1oo, 200 and I think a 25 ante--(I might be mistaken on the numbers or the level). Folded around to me. I look down at J10. I know Gene's got a legitimate hand raising from early position. Problem is, I got a feeling a loose player to my left is going to call. Almost 3 to 1 on my money. I decide, I'll call and bail if I don't smash the flop. Other player does call.
Flop comes out JJx. Yeah, I smashed it. Gene moves all in. I deliberate for a long time hoping to induce the player after me to get involved for a biggish pot if he's got a marginal hand. I call... he folds. I win the hand over Gene.
I went up and down the rest of the night playing primarily big hands but got away with some steals with absolute nothing 32 etc during dry runs of cards because of what I'd shown. I adjusted my strategy a little bit, from playing there in the past. There are some guys that will pay off big raises early on. So when I had big hands, I popped the pots a lot bigger than I normally do, hoping to get the good players out and getting some weaker hands in.
Gene's cousin is a solid player. Early on I got KK, it was a limpfest with a couple of loose guys, to me in the SB. I way overbet for 700 (I think 25-5o were the blinds). All folded. I showed the cowboys. Same thing happened next hand I look at AK suited. I figure I'll make the same bet and hope a hand like A10, AJ, or A9 thinks I must be making a move. Gene's cousin comes over the top with AJ and hits his J.
Some more of my bad hands. Final table, maybe 7 or 8 handed I got A9 suited in the big blind. Rick leads out one off the button. I think my hand may be in the lead here but just call. Flop comes 753. He continuation bets. I still think my hand is good here. Then I ponder the chip stacks. I don't know what kind of hand he can lay down. I ask him if he can beat a pair. He says a pair of what. My gut says he's unpaired too. I say a pair of nines, and he makes the doubting face like what the f are you thinking about with a pair of 9s, but doesn't look entirely scared. I throw out A7? A6? And then I get away from the hand. If he had two overs A10 or higher he might be compelled to call chip stack wise and have me crushed. If he had A6 he might be compelled to call and draw out on me.
I decide worse case scenarios I'm crushed, best case I have to sweat it out without even a pair. Maybe I can pick a better spot. He later told me he had A6. Probably should have went with my read that I was ahead. Later three handed, I got K5 in the BB. Three to flop, King high. Bingo. Check, I bet out. My opponent goes over the top all in. I stew. I lay down my hand and he shows me second pair. Couldn't really believe I laid down top pair three handed... but I thought I could find a better spot ultimately. Still, I ignored my gut that told me he was making some sort of move. He had second pair and didn't buy I had the king.
I got KK maybe three times and AA twice. Told you I was getting lucky. Though, on most of them I just got blinds or limpers. Once I mangled the AA and rivered the nut flush. I had a pretty solid read on this particular opponent... so maybe I wasn't as clumsy as I felt at the time. I felt liked he nail the flop, so I checked it down until I value bet the river. Davey asked me what I was doing there and he's probably right I should have maybe bet a little earlier. Also, on the river I think I could have got him all in and taken his bounty had I shoved. He didn't show but I really think he might have flopped two pair. Course, him "nailing the flop" might have been hitting top pair.
Because I had a good read on this guy and I was on his left, we played a lot of pots. Several times when he missed I bet into him with air so he was getting frustrated. I hit a monster later on and shove for all my chips and he makes what everybody thinks was a bad call, but it was just about that time that he had to make a stand. Unluckily for him that was when I had a hand.
I thought several players performed better than I did last night. I just got the right cards at the right time and the right amount of luck in key places. You can't focus on results as a metric of play, so just like when I'm losing and playing well, I have to focus that I played well, but also I can't be too proud of making a number of mistakes when I win.
Thanks again, Robert, let me know about that babysitting money, and thanks GeneD for a good evening of fun.
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