Anyway, on to the poker. I felt like I played well last night, results just didn't go my way. I stuck with my theory of just playing the $1 tournaments until I'm completely smashing them and have developed my game a little more.
So my first 45 man turbo, I make it to the final table 3rd in chips and reasonably well placed. Blinds are quite high by this point and no one is calling the shoves all-in from the shorter stacks. I may be 3rd but relative to the blinds I'm not in a comfortable spot. Someone shoves from early position and I have pocket 8's in the small blind. I know he's pushing with pockets or a decent ace but I'm willing to take the race to knock someone, substantially chip up and play for the win. He turns over ace king and all is going well until he rivers a straight. I'm now in a bad spot but get ace queen on the button, everyone folds to me so I push it all-in. I get called by the small blind who turns over jack 8 off. I flop ace queen and then he hits runner runner straight and I'm out in 9th (top 7 cash in these tournaments).
Two games later in a 90 man turbo, I make final table, playing well and get to heads up. The other player took out the 3rd place finisher so has the chip lead. I check out their ranking on OPR to see what I'm up against and not surprisingly they're not a good player. A few hands in he raises from the small blind, I have ace jack in the big blind so re-raise before I get re-raised. They have the chip lead so I decide to shove and he calls me with king ten suited. My hand holds and I take down a huge pot and now take a dominant chip lead. A few hands later, he doubles the blinds from the small blind and I call with queen 4 suited. The board comes queen ten rag, I check and he shoves so I call. He turns over king jack off which is not what I wanted to see ... blank on the turn, ace on the river to give him the straight and the chip lead back. He works his way up to a 3 or 4 to 1 chip lead and I shove from the small blind with king ten off and he calls with 3, 4 off. Flop comes 2, king, 5 and I know exactly what's coming ... 6 on the turn and I'm gone. Another frustrating heads-up battle ends in a second place finish to a lesser player.
There was only one other small cash (2 total) from 11 games last night. Normally that would be a bad night but I'm not disappointed with the way I played (except for the final table of the other game, played WAY too passively). For example, in a 90 man tournament with 30 left and me being a short-stack, someone raises from middle position, I have pocket kings and flat call knowing that at this point I need to build a large pot and hope someone else comes along. The big blind shoves all-in over the top, the original raiser eventually calls and of course so do I. Big blind turns over pocket 8's, initial raiser had 7's so I'm well ahead with kings. 8 on the turn and I'm out. Normally I would discourage callers with pocket kings as I only want to be up against one other player, but at this stage of the tournament, I needed a big pot and if my hand had held I would've been up in the top 10 stacks.
Some other unlucky but well played moments throughout the night but I won't bore you with those. Despite only cashing twice, I turned a small profit. State of Origin 2 tonight so I won't be playing but will likely be back at the tables on Thursday night.
Go the Maroons!!
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