Monday, May 15, 2006

After just a small cash loss for a drunken cash session the only game ive played is the $950 6pac 161 entrants poker million tournament.

Never got going in the beginning (flop 2 pair lost to a nut flush on turn, flush lost to a full house on river) and only got above my starting stack when i called an all in 2k reraise from my 450 raise with AJ about 90 minutes in. The other guy only had A9 and i held to go to 3.5k (starting stack 3k). If i lost i was on about 500 but just too weak to fold an AJ at that stage.

I started getting a few hands after that , the nicest one being 44 utg calling and getting a board 964610. Didnt quite double on that pot but probably got another 2/3 onto my stack by just calling a bbs bets and only raising the river where he folded and stated he had the 9.

Another notable hand was aa in the sb (bb = 300) , decided to limp as i knew bb was a bit agressive so could well try and steal there, i hadnt limped before either. Sure enough his raise to 900 was a good start, flop AJ10. Check he bet 1500 , i went to 3000 and he folded. I had 3 ways of playing that, lead out and hope he thinks i have J or 10 and tries to represent the ace, or flat call his flop bet. Didnt like leading out and risking no action and didnt like the risk of a king or queen coming if i flat called and not knowing where i was.

My exit came when i gambled my whole stack on a draw. The 25k chippie had been raising 40% - 50% of hands in last 5-10 minutes and i took a flop for 900 on my bb with J10h. The flop was rainbow 982, the big chippie was on the button and we were only 5 handed at the time. I check raised his 1500 flop bet all in for my 9k stack knowing he could only call with a big pocket pair or trips , both of which at the time seemed unlikely. Even an A9 would struggle to call there and would only be 50% if he had A9 againt my J10 anyway. As it was my instinct was wrong and he held pocket kings. I still had a 30.1% draw which failed to hit but as always with these moves its so important to have outs if your instinct is wrong. The pot was to go 6th or 7th out of 38, pays to 18 , and with the blinds at the low level they were im sure i would have been about 80-90% to make the money with that stack. No regrets , on another day i hit the draw or he folds his missed flop and i go up to about 15/38 which would have been my highest position in the tournament up to that point. I had been floating between 20th and 25th for ages and was looking for a semi-gamble pot like that to try and guarantee making the cash and to get a more usable stack.

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