Hella Hold'em

Well, I didn't get to play in the blogger tourney tonight, due to work, but that probably ended up being a good thing. As you know from my previous post about Jackass, I sat down to play one of those big MTT cheapo tourneys. Ends up, I did OK.

Top 27 places paid. As we got down to 40 players or so, I was sitting pretty in the single-digits - 8th or so in chips. Then came the big blow to my stack: my A8 top pair ran smack into A9. I could've won the hand, I think, too; after all the cards were face up on the board, I was first to act. I'd been pushing all the way. My instinct was to push my opponent all in (which was almost all of my stack). Something in me got all conservative though, and I pushed for 3500, about 1/3 our stacks. My opponent thought almost his entire clock time before calling, fearing being outkicked. I think if I'd have put him all in, he'd have folded. He said after the hand that it was a really tough call. But my money got scared all of a sudden, and you know scared money never wins.

Now, I was in danger of not making the money. Blinds were eating away at what was left of my stack. Right around then, Glyphic showed up! He may have been there for my fall from grace; at any rate, I caught a couple high pocket pairs and doubled up or so - enough to make the money cutoff.

Next thing you know, I'm catching QQ and JJ and KK, and they're holding up. Along with that, I caught a few lucky flops and lucky rivers, and found myself making the comeback of all times. If I got paid every time that Glyphic said, "damn, phlyer..." I'd be rich! No complaints. Hell yeah, on a roll!

I was afraid to look and see how much money each place got. Finally, after we were down to 15 people or so, I thought, "well, I'd better look." I saw that the final table looked like the place to be. 10-12th place made $18, and the 9th place finisher jumped to $30. 6x my buy-in... that's pretty sweet. I'll take it.

Then all of a sudden, I'm at the final table. Whoa. Cool background!



One guy went out, and then there were 8. It was at this time that I almost made a colossal screw up. Well, maybe not - well, yeah. It was a bad call. Even under the circumstances. I have 70k-ish in chips. I raise preflop on the button to 2xBB with ATo. SB folds, BB on the short stack goes all in for $17k or so. I thought about it a little, and said in the chat, Awww what the hell. I called. Turns out BB had AK and I was totally dominated. But, the board two-paired, and our ace kickers played, so it was a split pot. (Was that what the board did? It happened so fast, now I'm not seeming to remember it accurately). Sigh of relief. Lady luck bailed me out on that one.

The big pairs continued to visit me, and I continued to win with them. Down to 4 people.

I'm in the BB with A6o. It's folded around to the small blind, who minimum-raises. I re-raise, since he's been buying pots left and right. He pushes all in, which puts me all in. If he's got my ace beat, so be it, but I don't feel like he does. I call.

Me: A6o
Him: 83o

Yes!!

Flop comes and Ace, and an 8. I'm still happy. Turn comes a blank. Love my life. River: a three.

I said, "Superdknight, you'd better win this thing for taking me out with 8-3o!"

He apologized, saying he was thought I'd fold. Well, that's poker.

For the record:

Preflop: I was a 64% favorite.
On the flop: 80%
Turn: 89%



I finished fourth for a prize of $143.81. Not bad for a five dollar buy-in. And I'm totally happy about that - but man, it would have been nice to take it all! Or even another $40 for 3rd place. OK fine, I'm being greedy and selfish! I should be happy :)

AND I AM. SuperDKnight went on to win the whole $383 enchilada, so at least my chips went to a good cause. If I must be knocked out, I at least want that person to win.

I met some really cool people at that game tonight (and one jackass, see below). Big congrats and shoutouts to RiverIce (yeah doggy!), onionrings, the greatness, mod x157, pens3, Big Gee, packrfan, and everybody else I chatted with. It really was a good time.

And MANY huge thanks to Glyphic for sweating me the last couple hours! It seemed that long, anyway. I couldn't bring myself to show down any of the 3 hammers that passed through my pocket, but I played it in spirit.

Whew!!!! Holy crap. That was insanity. My ailing bankroll is back up to $248, and after this gift from the poker gods, I promise I will not screw up again! It's back to my old game - tight is right, flop it or drop it. I feel like the luckiest girl alive right now - woohoooo!