Best Online Tournament Win

Last night I had my best ever online win. I was running very good in Omaha cash games, which I have been playing mostly, but decided to enter a dreaded rebuy turbo tournament while playing the cash game. This type of tournament does not favor my type of play. First of all, I hate rebuying because unless you finish very high you often don't even get your rebuys back. Secondly, I like to play a patient game and it is pretty wild in rebuys. I saw one player rebuy 3 times in a half hour, then do a double add-on. I just refuse to play that way. The other thing I don't like is the turbo. Blinds and antes just go up too fast to wait for premium hands. That said, I bought in once...got lucky on a pocket queens all-in against two players, tripling up early. I was as high as 6th early on but saw my stack slip down quickly (139 total players). They were paying 27 spots and I was hovering around 30th with 40 players left, but knew that many players would gamble and get knocked out, so I just hunkered down determined to get into the money (paid 3X buy-in). Once I got "in the money" I loosened up a little, went all-in several times and won every coin flip except one...but had them covered extremely well. By the time I hit the final table I had bounced back and forth to the payout schedule many times, calculating that if I could just outlast one or two players I would move up in payout.

On the final table I was the 2nd or 3rd shortest stack, with the big stack around 15x my stack. With several all-ins with pocket pairs I climbed up finally ending up heads up with a 2 to one advantage. The final hand I had pocket 4's (my least favorite pocket pair), but great heads up. He had AQ and the flop came x/q/4 and he was drawing almost dead. After the turn he was. My win? 100 times my buy-in. Awesome! I am making progress on the Chris Ferguson $10,000 challenge (taking online bankroll from $0 freeroll to $10,000). Will let you know when I get there.

Terrible Play, mine especially

Sometimes I am just amazed at the level of bad play that I see in tournaments. Last night was a great example. I saw people needlessly going all in with K/8 offsuit ( I knocked her out with KJ), another player failing to call a mini-raise early with pocket 9's (the raiser had 8's, and the flop was 9/8/x. He would have gotten all the chips.

My bad play was reraising an early position raiser (he had demonstrated poor judgement and was raising light usually). I had just won a couple of pots and had about 4000 from a very short stack earlier. The blinds were 100/200, and when he min-raised, I reraised on the button to 1200 with AQ suited. The big blind, an excellent player, who was also dealing, reraised me all-in. My problem was not taking time to see how "pot committed" I really was. Had I thought longer about what she would need to reraise, and realizing that I would still have 3000 left, I would have folded. As it turned out, I am not sure who was dumber, me for calling her reraise (she had AK suited), or her for not flat calling and seeing what the flop brought (none of her suit, and the king came on the turn). Dumb and dumber. I have seen this with her before though, she takes a bad beat poorly and donks off her chips quickly, so maybe I am giving her play too much credit. I just know that in a similar situation with AK I am not putting in the third raise.

More information on my poker buddy who passed away. They think he died 5 days before his body was found. Another reason not to be a loner.

RIP Mike

Over the past 3 years it has been a sad thing to watch some poker players fade away and die. I am thinking of Jim, Old Jim, Dick, Mr. Wilson, Ray Ray and others who I have forgotten. Early this week I was driving home from the coffee shop and noticed a couple of policemen and others in front of Mike Taylor's house. I was concerned because I did not see Mike, but did not stop. The next day I found out that he had passed away. Mike was fairly regular at our American Legion Friday night game and was an avid online player. He was the one who introduced me to Spade Club, telling me of his regular monthly checks. We had talked many times about doing a day trip to Spirit Mountain together, but had never done so. He retired from roofing and siding work a couple of years ago and was pretty much a loner. He loved his dog, even removing the front seat of his car to accomodate it. I will miss talking poker with him.

Felting

I really love the phrase coined by Phil Laack, "I got felted". It really summarizes what happens to you when you lose all your money at the poker table; you get taken down to the felt. Playing Omaha today that happened to me twice. The first time I flopped a full house with my pocket 6's on a AA6 flop. O.K., no lectures on underfulls, but the action was bet, raise to me so I knew no one had quad aces, and with only the case 6 out, did not think that I was facing a made full house, so I reraised all in. They both called me with their A/5, and of course a 5 came on the turn. Granted, I was walking a mine field as any of their kickers were live, but jeesh. They both hit.

Second felting took place when I got a great flop for my pocket 10's with a 10/8/5 . I bet pot and got one caller. He was playing an A/3 of clubs and I really didn't understand the call with only a low draw. However the turn brought another low card (2) and a second club, so he had the nut low and flush draw. I bet pot again with him calling. The river.....a lousy 4 giving him a wheel and a hogger. Sick. He had to go runner runner to get there. You can argue for his outs, but on the flop he was drawing to half the pot at best. On the turn he locked the low, so I can understand the call, but he really doesn't have a ton of outs for high since I have one ten, 3 8's, 3 5's, and 3 2's to fill up or make quads.

On a more positive note, I did recover my lost felting by tripling up later, so it was a break even day for me.

Bad Behavior at the Table

I would first of all like to compliment the management of the the Moose for dealing strongly with inappropriate behavior at the table. Last week I suffered with one player's rudeness and nasty comments for 3 days in a row. I have to take part of the blame for it's continuing because I did not complain the first two days. His discussions were with other players and did not directly affect me, but the third day it got personal. I was happy when he was spoken to in no uncertain terms. The bottom line for me is that I enjoy a lot of the banter at the table, but when it gets too personal and abusive then it really destroys my enjoyment of the game. I have decided that when it gets like that I will ask the floor to bring me a tray and to either pick up my chips or the abusive player's. I will either leave the game, or let them kick him out.

Big Day

Saturday was a big day for me. I was stuck about $300, then made a huge comeback to cash out for $850. Won some huge pots with flush and two pair. That is about the biggest swing I have ever had in poker. I find it very difficult to come back when you are down that far. I just crept back and kept on going. I did manage to give a chunk back yesterday, but have made up for that today by chopping the morning tournament, and winning $100 in an hour in the cash game.

Eerie flop

Last night I was playing in the Moose 2/20 game when something very strange happened. My friend Lynne had given me a card protector with QQ on the top (thanks again Lynne, (an I'm sorry for the bet when I made my straight flush gift). I had it in my pocket and was not using it when I remembered that I had it. So, I removed it from its pouch, and put it on my cards before looking at my next hand. Lo and behold, the cards were QQ!!! This was interesting, and since I hate QQ because I have found it impossible to win with it, decided maybe, just maybe, this was a "sign". So, I made a small raise with it....something I just seldom do with queens. With 4 callers, the flop came 7/Q/Q!!!! With a quad flop I was just dumbstruck, and I checked when everyone checked to the raiser. I then checked the turn, and it was bet into me on the river, which I raised and he folded. Wow.

I wish I could report that the rest of the evening went well, but it did not. My biggest problem seemed to be Frosty. He was chasing everything and getting lucky on the river. He snapped my flopped two pair with a straight, Paul's hands twice with a/2 offsuit, and two low hearts. He is willing to put any amount of money in the pot with seemingly any two cards. He called a three bet (mine) with 5/6 offsuit, and my turned flush was beaten by his full house. Last hand of the night for me.