That was about the time I busted out of my friend Amir's event, after playing 238 hands of pretty tough Pokerwit poker. The final table was incredible and there were some really, REALLY tough decisions that had to be made. It was a real grind!
In the beginning, I was the luck sack extraordinaire. I was dealt quality hand after quality hand for the first 20 minutes straight. That was mostly only good for the blinds however, as these are pretty solid NLHE players. But right at about half an hour into the game,
I was quite happy to have almost doubled my starting stack.
I'm not sure if it's me or a fact of poker, but I love the deeper stacked, slower format games and with the way Amir had this game set up to play,
I felt like I had a much better chance at doing something with my stack. Like maybe I don't know, PLAY POKER!
As players slowly busted out, I was stuck in a rut at around that same double starting stack. I seemed to stay alive through catching a hand an orbit, but continued to simply collect the blinds. I tried alternating my call, min-raise and pot raise pre-flop action, but just couldn't get a pot going with a monster hand. For the first time in about forever, I saved those HH's to see what I could've done to make a pot. THAT should be pretty damn funny! Me evaluating HH's!
Anywho....
I kept grinding and grinding away and while I wasn't making a ton of ground, I was keeping my head above water. Then the move to final table came.
My original goal all along, was just to make the final table with Amir. I'm not sure why I was thinking that way at first, but once I made it, I started to believe that I could actually win!
I'll wait for the snickering to stop and give you a chance to wipe that coffee off the monitor now..............
I'd made it down to the top six, but was still the shorty at the table. While I'm concentrating on holding on and continuing to play good poker, (for me!) the remaining five with me are all talking about the 50K and where they stand. Hell! Amir was also down to final table in the $22 1R/1A and a couple of them where deep into the $250K on Stars as well!
Sounds stupid I know, but I suddenly felt I was in WAY over my head. Technically by their NLHE performance and budget, I guess I was. But it hit me that this was THIS game and not any of those others. I made my mind up to dig in hard and do my best. With a few cards going my way, who's to say I couldn't make a showing of myself? Certainly not me at that point! I had some serious confidence at the time. And YES, it felt really weird!
Four handed and 203 hands into the game, I made a decision that Amir had to be on a flush draw. I had bet pre and he simply flatted. He made the bet on the flop and it was my turn to call him. When the board paired on the turn and wasn't a third spade, I also called down his turn bet thinking I may be able to get this pot on a blank river. The river brought the second over, but no spade. His check was suspicious I guess, but I made a 1/2 pot raise to see where I stood. I also figured that with the way it had played out, if he did hit the Queen on the end, it may just look like a value bet for something like A-3.
Amir's fold brought me the pot and with it, I took the chip lead. It's a bit of a reverse 'Bammer' but none the less, 9's and 3's worked for me that time.
Of course then.... it started!
Three handed,
I went nearly seven in a row! With just one lonely hammer being thrown in there for good measure.
I also had one hand where I was on a Royal Flush draw and couldn't get away from it, until of course the river missed all 10,000 of my outs. The play was aggressive and I took a shot at the win, only to have to fold Ace high in the end. The stack took a pretty substantial hit on that one.
Now as the three handed shorty and in the BB, I was allowed to see a flop courtesy of a limp from only the button. He had done this a couple of times before, but with pretty substantial pocket pairs. We saw a flop that gave me top pair, but they were still only 6's. I expected a bet with overs to that board but strangely, we went to the turn for free. The turn was a second six to make my set, it also gave me an open ended straight draw. Only one problem, a three flush was also on the board.
I made my move with a check raise and when I did, "oops, didn't check the stack size" was quickly typed in the chat box. I knew right then, I had him on a draw.
Well....
He got there and as for me, IGHN.
:(
Still, I'm happy with the way I played online for a change. It actually felt a little closer to a live game than it usually does for me. I felt like I made some good reads, good moves and most importantly, for once it seemed as though my timing was almost as good as my live game to be honest. It's improvement and isn't that what I'm supposed to be striving for after all?
YAY me !!
Amir and I have been discussing a bit of a grudge match and this time, I'm going to be bringing my own back up! Look for a little fun game coming soon, where I show Amir that my Bloggers can beat his Pokerwit Pro's. I've played with most of you long enough now to know, we CAN DO THIS! I'll get the details up sometime after the BBT5 is done and gone. Watch for them here.
My sincerest thanks for dropping by....
1 comment:
Nice job on the cash, Bammer!
*SMOOOOOOOCH
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