May $50 Tournament

So every month I play in a 50 dollar buy-in tournament with around 30 people. This months tournament came around Saturday night at 7pm. I was hoping to do well, because I felt I had been playing well, but have just not had the results to match. This would not be easy, because there are a lot of very good players in this game, most of the best players I know in Orlando would be playing. The month before I had played very well but managed to bust out on the money bubble when my pocket queens got run down by pocket 10's. This made me even more pumped up about playing well this time around.

This all sounded good in theory, but an hour into the tournament I had already lost 3 thousand of my 10 thousand starting stack when the bad luck would get worse. I picked up K10 suited in diamonds and called a small raise from the big blind. Me and 2 other players (both I felt I could outplay after the flop) took a flop of 8,9,9 with 2 diamonds. This was a good flop for me until the player from the small blind bet 500 into a 300 dollar pot. I certainly was not getting the pot odds I needed to call here, but I felt like if I hit a 3rd diamond, I could double through him. I made the call and was very surprised to see the player behind me call as well. The more the merrier since I am on a draw. The turn brought the beautiful 4 of diamonds and the small blind checked to me. I bet out about 2/3 of the pot and the guy behind me finally folded, but the small blind called. I had figured him for an 8 or 9 all hand and damned if an 8 did not hit the river, giving him a full house with an 8 or a 9. I was 95% sure I was beat when he bet out a thousand into a 6 thousand dollar pot. I made the call because I was getting 6 to 1 and I think he would have played pocket aces or kings like this. He turned over an 8 and scooped the pot. At this point I was fairly annoyed by my bad luck and also the call on the river when I knew I was beat. I pride myself on being a player who can make tough laydowns and I should have done it there and saved that thousand.

At this point only a couple players had busted out and I was among the shortest stacks in the room. I decided that my table was playing too tight and I would take advantage of that. I started raising liberally with mostly good hands, though one of my first raises was with 85 suited. The guy across from me showed pocket jacks and laid them down. I guess my luck wasn't so terrible after all. Soon enough I was up over 20 grand and had some chips to play with. The game would continue to be a grind, not getting great hands and losing with a lot of good ones, but then the biggest hand of the tournament came for me. I had like 22 thousand and the blinds were 800/1600 when I picked up A10 on the button. It was folded around to me and I had to decide what to do. If I put in a standard raise I would be putting a lot of chips at risk, so I decided to go all in, hoping to take it down right then. The table chip leader behind me is a pretty loose player, and when he started thinking, I thought I may have been in trouble. After a few minutes he decided to make the call for nearly 2/3 of his chips. To my surprise he turned over KQ offsuit. I didn't know whether to cheer or cry. My tourament was down to a 60-40 coin flip. An ace came on the turn and doubled me through to 2nd in chips right before the final table.

At the final table I started with 39,500 in chips, good for 2nd in chip count. The bad news was the leader had over 90,000 and was a very good player. We took turns raising the smaller stacks out of the blinds and soon enough the players were dwindling. Not everything was all rainbows and happy time, as I lost a lot of chip when I lost with AK and AQ to weaker aces and then lost with pocket queens to pocket aces. Still, my stack remained solid and I never dipped blow 2nd. We were back to the money bubble with 5 players left, and damned if the guy who knocked me out last month didn't become the bubble boy this time. Karma for that bad beat he gave me last time i suppose, be he did play very well. The big stack and i were the final 2 players just as we had come to the table in first and second. He still had a commanding chip lead though. I have played him heads up numerous times and knew this would not be easy. I had made up some ground, despite the blinds being an astronomical 5,000/10,000 at this point, when the final hand came. I had 95 offsuit and limped in and the flop came 9,4,2 rainbow. I decided to check thinking he would bet at the pot like had been doing a lot and then I could reraise him all in. He checked behind me and the ugly king of diamonds came on the turn. I bet out 2/3 of the pot and he immediately went all in. I knew right away I had check the hand away and given him a free chance to hit his king. I called because I had too much invested to fold. He had a king and it held on to win him the tournament. He played outstanding all night long and very much deserved to win. I feel like I played pretty well too, and was glad my results final showed that as well. I pocketed $260 for 2nd place and went home in a 3 way tie for the overall point lead in the group. This is also important because the top 10 players will freeroll at the end of the year for 1,500 dollars or so.

I left 7 hours later and 260 dollars richer and headed home happy that my night had gone better than last time. This was a much needed win for the bankroll and the psyche.