$43K
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Played a $30+3 tournament last night with 1439 other hopefuls. It was, to say the least, a spur of the moment decision. I had just gotten knocked out on the bubble in a $5 SNG and was looking at other games to play. I noticed the $30+3 with over 1400 signed up. I clicked on it and it had 1 minute remaining on the registration. I looked up at my wife and said, "honey, there's a tournament with a $43,000 prize pool that I can play, but it might take along time to finish." She said, "go for it", and I was on my way. It's moments like that when you feel like some things are just meant to be. That being said, I went into this tourney fully expecting to at least cash to get my $33 back. I just had a feeling.
When the prize pool was announced I was happy to see 1st place getting over $9k and 180 places being paid. Early on I hovered around the buy-in amount and, at one point about 30 minutes in, was exactly at 1000, the starting amount. It was as if the 3 or 4 hands I had played in never happened. A weird feeling. After building my stack to around 1800, I picked up K K in the big blind. Only the small blind called my raise and I felt really good about my chances when the flop came A K 7. I felt like I was in control and the SB was just along for the ride. When I bet a decent amount on the river and he took a while to call, I knew I was gonna win the pot. So imagine my surprise when he called and flipped over pocket rockets. He had done a great job slow playing me into thinking I was the best hand. I can't recall ever seeing a small blind with A A and a big blind with K K. That loss broke my spirit and my chipstack, leaving me with 340 in chips. I was the major short stack at that point.
After a few hazy hands in which I folded, I decided to get back into the game and try and double up. I've been playing the short stack well lately and have always felt good about my chances no matter what happens. In fact, I have actually come back from having 1 chip to win a tournament. And I'm not talking about the most expensive chip either. I'm talking about a 100 chip when the average stack was 4 - 5 thousand. Now that was cool.
So I readied my game and proceeded to fold, fold, fold hands like there was no tomorrow. I couldn't catch anything. But an amazing thing kept happening. Each time it was close to being my big blind, our table would break and we would be moved. And every time I would be moved to the button or directly to the right of it. I am sure it happened at least 5 times.
After some timely folds I finally caught a decent hand getting K Q suited with no raises before me in late position. I pushed all in and ended up getting called by the big stack in the big blind. He had A 6 off. I spiked a queen on the river and had doubled up to around $850. I then sat for another 20 minutes until I was in the big blind with most of my money already forced into the pot. I had J 6 and had to call when it was raised up. My chances were not good, but I was way,way priced into the pot. I was real happy when the flop brought a 6 and the turn brought a J. I took that pot and was up to $2400 after bad beating QQ and AQ. I then found myself all in again later on with K 10 when the turn brought me a 10 to beat AQ and 99.
At this point I was playing well and feeling like luck was on my side. Knowing you need some luck in order to win a tournament, I was feeling like this was my night. I decided to look and see how many people had been knocked out and was amazed when only 400 people were left. 1000 people had been knocked out and we were not even 2 hours in. I couldn't believe it. That's when I really felt like my chances were good to at least cash in the top 180.
Alas, my fingers were nearly frost bitten by the cards the remainder of the game. 230 people left, and on the short stack again, I found A K off in late position. I pushed hoping to take down the blinds, but had one caller, the big blind. He flipped over 10 10 and nothing came out to help me. I couldn't believe, after all that, I was out in 234th place. Though that's no where near close to 1st, it was close to the money, and better than 1200 other folks (I have to find some good in the situation).
I really, really enjoyed myself in this tournament and am looking forward to another one like it. It's difficult to imagine outlasting 1500 people, but it's exciting to know that such a sweet payday could come if the right things go my way.
I might play a live game tomorrow, but I'll have to see since I'm supposed to deal on Wednesday and play on Thursday. That's kind of pushing it for me and the wife might be ready to kick my ass. In fact, I think I just talked myself into not playing tomorrow. I need a break anyway.
posted by TripJax @ 2:08 AM,
2 Comments:
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