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I had one of those weekends - good then bad then worse then back to good again.
Saturday started off well. I was playing on Classic Poker to get some points to qualify for an affiliate tournament. I found a juicy £0.50/£1 6 max limit table and managed to accumulate about £30. It was a similar story on a $1/$2 table a bit later on.
On Sunday, I was back on Classic to pick up the remainder of the points required and I had a disaster. It was the $1/$2 table with one uber-fish and one LAG who couldn't miss a flop if he tried. I had aces cracked by the uber-fish's 53o. I had top pair beaten by runner runner trips. I had pocket pair beaten by higher pocket pair. I never seemed to hit a set. Flush draws were not coming in. But because of the precense of the uber-fish I kept topping up. When I finally gave up I was down $80. An absolute disaster. The uber-LAG was up at least $50. Bastard.
To escape, I moved to PokerStars to play some 5 Card Draw. The $0.50/$1 tables were good as there was a new fish who did not seem to know what he was doing. I was up $15 before moving up to a $1/$2 table. This was where it all started to go wrong. The worst hand was when I dealt a Jack high flush UTG and raised it up. Only the BB called. He drew 3 and I stood pat. I bet, he raised, I reraised etc etc. He turned over quad aces. I was gutted. What are the odds of that? I calculated that the probability of having quads Aces after the draw when holding two Aces is .002775 i.e. 0.2775% approximately 1:359. So every 360 times you have a pair of aces and you draw 3, you will hit quads once. Bloody Hell. I also lost full house over full house a couple of times too. Not good.
So nine o'clock rolled round and it was time for some Sunday night tournie action with the Britbloggerment and the $1 British/Irish only. The BritBloggerment didn't go well. We were down to two tables, I completed in the small blind with Ks7s, Spid checked. Flop came down 6s 4s Kc giving me top pair and a flush draw. I bet T60, the size of the pot. Spid raises to 210. I push. Spid calls with 6c 4c, bottom two pair. I miss my umpteen outs. Three 7s, two Kings, nine spades plus two Jacks when the Jack of diamonds fell on the turn. Bugger. But I did have the best hand when the money went in, being a 53% favourite and Spid technically made a mistake calling so I shouldn't be too annoyed. What really got me was two hands later, when I have only T94 left, I push with AKo. BurnleyMik calls with QTo and flops trip Queens. Arghhhh.
That undeserved departure left me with only the $1 British/Irish to concentrate on. This had been going reasonably well and by the time I busted out of the Britbloggerment I was in the top 30 or so out of 94. The frustations of the day were getting to me so I tightened up while I calmed down, trying to get into a good frame of mind. As I've mentioned before, the standard of play in this tournie is appalling. One of the early chip leaders had acquired a huge stack but when he was moved to my table, it was plainly obvious that he had lucksacked his way to the top. He went from top to out in about 10 hands, betting rivers with top pair no kicker and mad bluffing. What a way to blow it.
By level IX, (300/600) my stack was down to 3660, only 6 big blinds, so it was really time to get a move on. At the end of level IX I was up to 5200 thanks to a steal and a walk. Level X (400/800) started and I doubled up with AJ all in vs JT taking me to over 10000 and feeling a little better. But opportunites and good cards were rare and by level XI (600/1200) I was down to 9000. By this point, there were only about 12 players left with the bubble at 9 and thanks to my tight image, I was able to steal a few blinds to keep my stack constant. The bubble lasted for what seemed an eternity, but it was nothing compared to what happened when the final table was formed.
One of the players was having a few connection problems, which does happen from time to time, I suppose, but it did sort itself out. Until we were down to 6 players that was. Then it was constant. Every hand he was given the full 15 seconds before his hand timed out. This got really, really frustating. I'll need to ask Stars why the software didn't just sit him out instead of waiting the 15 seconds. The situation dragged on. And dragged on. When we were down to five players, we were just stealing the disconnected players blinds. Eventually, the blinds ate up his stack and he was all-in. Unfortunately, he won that hand and we had to wait another orbit before he was finally out and normal play could resume.
So were down to four handed. I was in fourth place with around T19000 and the blinds were at 1500/3000. I was fairly happy with 4th place about $20 and it was getting late but I kept my cool and looked for situations. There weren't any! I was down to T9000 with the blinds at 2000/4000 when I had AJs in the small blind. No brainer, all-in. Big Bling called with A4o and I doubled up. Next hand, the guy that doubled me up is out and we're down to three and I've got 5 big blinds.
I fold a couple of hands, trying to reinforce my tight image, then steal a couple and get a walk to take me to T35000. Some more folds. Then I pick up AKo with a raise ahead of me. I reraise all-in and he folds. I'm now up to T45000, in second place. Another fold. Then one guy tries an all-in resteal with QJo. Unfortuntaley, his intended victim had AQ and the thief is out and we're heads up.
We swap blinds for the first few hands of heads up. He's got double my stack so I'm looking for opportunites to double up. It comes when I've got a pair of 4s and reraise him all in. He calls with A2 and I hold up. I'm ahead, but not by much. I let him take a few, waiting for my chance. A few hands later, he pushes with K2 and I call and win with AQ. Yessss, ship it.
My first "big" MTT win and a hard won $55 to help make up for the crap I had earlier in the day.
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