DOING MY HOMEWORK.

Sometimes I love poker...

While sitting at school today I was neglecting my task of doing my homework. What did I do with that time besides write a review of The Informant below? Played poker of course. I can honestly tell you the most amazing thing about winning the 196 man tournament was my position in the standings throughout the contest. I got almost no hands until there were about 50 people left, and then I used those to establish a nice stack. Then, back to being card dead. I pretty much position raised and folded my way to the final table.

At the final table I got a whole mix of hands that stole everyone's chips at the table. Twice at the final table I had Pocket Kings that won me the blinds when I raised up the bet pre flop (so frustrating). Thankfully, after one of those hands I got Pocket Queens the next hand and flopped Trip Queens. Plus, this complete dousche (IM_BOB) was raising every hand under the sun, and he put me all in before I could act on the flop. Easy enough right, doing my work for me.

This is how it looked with 3 of us left. Don't look at the crappy hand I was holding, look at the chip stacks I was facing off against. They sure had an uphill climb to try and nip at my heels.

It took a lot of hard work and waiting for the right moves to take out 2 of the last 5, and to get a lead like the one seen above. And once I have a lead like that, I rarely relinquish it.When I took out IM_BOB, I spent the rest of the time pushing around my last opponent heads up until I took him out with a high card King to win it all. King 3 baby!

Here is the tournament board.

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BIGGEST COME BACK EVER.

The other night was a particularly strange night of poker for yours truly.

Here is the set up for a small poker game of 6 players, winner takes all. Dan V., Kyle G., and myself are the only 3 players left at the table, and Kyle has a huge chip lead over Dan and I. Dan falls first when we both flop 10's, and my ace kicker sends him home.

Now it is me against Kyle heads up, and he is pushing his 2 to 1 chip advantage pretty hard. Instead of trying to enforce my will against him, I decide to sit and wait for a hand to cause some destruction. This hand comes from K-2 and a flop that looks like this:
I think I have Kyle trapped flopping 2 pair not even knowing that he himself flopped top 2 pair. I am in first position so I check to see if I can milk some chips off him, and he bets the pot. Same action takes place on the turn with me checking and him betting. The river card comes, and I am getting a feeling from watching Kyle my hand may not be the best. So again, I check. Kyle raises his bet this time betting 3,000. I only have 4,300 left and I am contemplating going all-in over the top of him, but at the last second I just call. Perfect move. I'm beat by his higher 2 pair. Always leave yourself an out when you can.

With 6 players each starting with 6k in chips and me only having 1,300 left gives Kyle 34,700 chips. A 35 to 1 chip advantage. At one point I was all-in for the only 500 chips I had left which as the story goes doubled me up.

I doubled up a few more times until I actually had a stack of chips in front of me around 12 k. This was the defining hand of our play. Kyle limps in with J-9 and I check my 10-8. The flop brings TREATS!
I got Kyle to put me all-in and double me up again to a lead I never surrendered by pushing my huge chip advantage back at him. Great win seeing winner takes all, and second gets nothing.

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HUGE WIN...

I recently took first place in the type of tournament I had been trying to win for months now. $5 buy in tournament with over 100 people, in this particular tournament 151 registered. That's how I try to make some big money. (still relatively small money compared to my ultimate goal) Small investment with lots of people, and out play them all to get paid. The hand above was the turning point for my tournament. Top 27 people in the tournament get paid and there was only 20 of us left. I got a small amount of good hands to play at this point, and I was short stacked to show it. I had been playing tight and folding, waiting to get a hand to play back at somebody. This was that hand. I have about 15k in chips, my competitor about 50k.

I raise pre-flop, he re-raises. I go all in, he calls.
My pocket KINGS vs. his pocket TENS. Before a community card is dealt I am a 4 to 1 favorite.
Flopping trip kings turns out bad for me as the flop brings high community cards. He has a straight draw to beat me, also runner-runner TENS. Now I am only a 3 to 1 favorite to win the hand.
Turn card is the NINE, and gives my opponent the straight. Now I am a 3 to 1 underdog to win, and need the board to pair.
BOOM! River card pairs that QUEEN giving me KINGS FULL.

That put me over 30k which took me to the final table. From there I let the big stacks attack everyone while I waited. Then I went to work, got lots more chips...and just finished it all. Heads up took 5 min. That Full House was the hand that made a strong finish possible. One lucky card deserves another....

CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED.

Online poker has tested the limits of my patience once again...in a $5 Sit and Go. That means we start with 9 players, top 3 get paid. I was second in chips with 4 people left. I have A-6, the chip leader has A-J. The flop comes A-6-4. He bets 2k, I call. Turn card is a 5. I go all in, and he calls. Now as it stands I am 14 to 1 favorite. This means he has 3 cards that can save him, one of 3 jacks. Can you guess the river card? A JACK.......so as it stands I got 4th place. Someone who didn't play the whole game, was just being folded and losing chips got third. I'm lucky I got a brand new, nice, and pretty laptop...otherwise MY FIST WOULD HAVE PENETRATED THE DEPTHS OF ITS MOTHERBOARD!! (count to 5, calm.) Why does this keep happening??!?!?