An Early Morning Tale

It was very, very early Thursday morning, around 1:00am. It was dark and quiet. I didn't have any pants on. The sound of my slowly increasing heartbeat echoing through my chest was the only thing keeping me awake. I wiped a small bead of sweat from my brow. Then it happened. I found myself at the final table of the $320 Wednesday 100K Gtd. It was at that point I realized my first ever 5 figure tournament cash was well within my grasp. Nine people remained. Third place and up was what it took to get there. By about 2:30am, I was eliminated in 3rd place, taking in 11.3K, a new personal best by nearly 4K. Oh hi. At that point, after 8 hours at work, almost 2 hours on the bike to and from work, a few chores, and then 8 hours of poker I was too tired to show any emotion. I got up from my desk about as quickly as an arthritic 80 year old, and plunked down on my bed. Somehow I woke up 4 hours later, before my alarm, and biked back to work.

This was a very encouraging result. Not because of the money, but because of the quality of players this tournament attracts and the way in which I played to get a 3rd place finish. With the higher buy-in, it attracts generally strong players with bigger bankrolls. The eventual winner, "rivermanl", is a highly respected online tournament player who has stood the test of time in the poker world. He was victorious for one reason, he was the most skilled and experienced player at the final table. Was that 2 reasons? Anyway, he is so difficult to play against, he is very aggressive and has a way of always putting your back against the wall and forcing tough decisions on you. I paid close to attention to his style, not only to help me play against him more effectively in the future, but also to learn. So congrats to him on another sick score (20K) and a very well played tournament.

I want to talk about one interesting hand mid-way through the tournament where I did something that I rarely do, put all my chips at risk on a pure bluff. For those who don't care, you can skip to the bottom :) A player in mid-position, who was fairly active, raised pre-flop. I was on the button with A7 suited. Now, this isn't a great starting hand to be calling raises with, but since he was an active player who I had position on (having position simply means you are last to act every round of betting) I decided to re-raise, and hopefully pick up the pot pre-flop. If he comes over the top of me, I have to fold. If he calls, at least I have position on him and can outplay him more easily. He flat calls. The flop comes K-K-3. Clearly I whiffed that flop, and have nothing. I'd say the chance my hand is stronger than his at this point is about 2%. He is first to act (since I'm on the button in position), and he checks to me. The tricky thing about his check is that he is probably checking that flop every time, no matter what he has. If he has a K, he might slow play it, if he has air (like I have) he'll likely check, or even a smaller pair, say TT is likely to check-call if I bet, and then re-evaluate on the turn. I decided to throw out a small feeler bet, about 1/3 of the pot which could easily rep a K in my hand, or another big pair since I took control of the pot by re-raising preflop and showing strength. He goes into his timebank for a while, then throws in a re-raise, a little under 3 times my bet. So now I go into my timebank and think about what he could possibly have. Clearly he has me beat, but the pot was growing and I figured it deserved some serious consideration. He could have a K, yes. Probably not AK as he probably would have come over the top of me pre-flop. KQ, KJ, KT, etc would be kind of weak to flat a re-raise with pre-flop and out of position and I didn't have him pegged as a weak player. It just didn't feel like he had a K, and was just trying to represent a K. I put him on a hand like AQ, or possibly a pair like TT. Both of which dominate me, but hands I don't think he can call with. I figured if I shoved all-in over his re-raise that he wouldn't be able to call me unless he had a K, which I didn't feel he had. So with a complete garbage hand and the courage to trust my instinct for my tournament life, I shoved all my chips in the middle. He went into his timebank....I'm waiting....waiting.....waiting....sweating....possibly even screaming "FOLD!".....and he eventually did. He types in the chatbox "nice hand, I folded JJ". I did not tell him what I had. That ended up being a pretty big pot for having absolutely nothing.

Well, next on the agenda is possibly some SCOOP events. Starts this Sunday, but I'll play it by ear. Was sure nice to kick that dirty MTT downswing I was on with a big showing in this event. Good timing with some big tournaments to come in May. A little extra confidence never hurts.

That is my story.

Josh