A Night on the Felt

2077 of my best friends and I sat down and played in the .10+0 NLHE turbo last night on Poker Stars. This of it’s self is nothing extraordinary but it is fun to play in a large tourney that is in the money in around an hour. I chipped up to 1900 early with a few insignificant hands and went card dead for the next 45 minutes. The good thing was that we were close to the money when I doubled up to 2100. The next hand I get pocket queens and my stack is at 3000. Then AK is good vs. AQ after and ace high flop and I’m at 6000. Just before the break I raise it to 500 with pocket kings from late position with one caller. The flop is AKQ and I bet 600 only to get re-raised to 1200. I call but should have re-re-raised for more information. The turn is x and I check with plans of re-raising to his bet but he checks. Now I think I’m ahead as only pocket aces or JT beat me here. The river is an ugly ten and I’m in a quandary. I’m not pot committed but I’m not sure I can call a big bet. I have him out chipped 4300 to 2400 at this point and decide to bet 1200to see where he is at in the hand. He calls and shows QT. Thank you for the donation. Now that I’m well above average I started getting more aggressive and continue to increase my stack when this hand happened. UTG raises it to 1800 and I’m looking at AK suited in middle position and re-raise it to 6000. Late position goes all-in for about 8000 and UTG gun comes over the top all-in for 30,000. I don’t have a good read on this player as I’ve just been moved to the table the only two hands that scare me are AA and KK. I have about 16,000 left so it cost me 16,000 to win about 41,000 total. I call as I need chips to win this thing. UTG has pocket aces and late position has QJ. The flop is 678, the turn is a 9, the river is a T and UTG’s aces are cracked by the late guy. We split the remaining chips. At this point we are in the top 100 and I need o double up. I win a race with AQ over 7’s to get to 28,000 and then win another race with 8’s over AK to get up to 54,000. I’m feeling good until the final hand. The table chip leader has been aggressive at the table when we I get AT suited in clubs. Blinds are at 3000/6000 and I raise it to 18,000 and get called by the chip leader. The flop comes AT9 with two diamonds and I push. He calls with A9 and I’m jumping for joy. Runner-runner diamonds kill my buzz. His 9 of diamonds is gold. At least I turned .10 into .47.

Time for a 5+.50 sng. I caught good cards early and was sitting with about T2500 when I looked at 89 suited. My early goods cards gave me a strong table image and allowed me to win this hand with 9 high. The very next hand I get 54 suited and see the flop with three others. 55A comes down and I check call. A Queen on the turn and I check raise with one caller. The river is x and I put my opponent all-inn for about 300 more and he folds. I thought this was a bad fold at the time as he was pot committed but he actually came back and took 2nd place. I now have 5200 chips and just try to maintain this as the short stacks battle with each other. When we get down to 4 players, I have T6500 and continue to chip up. The remaining players were playing ultra tight waiting for the bubble to burst and I kept my foot on their neck. It was interesting how the 2nd place finisher got pocket aces 3 times, pocket queens twice and pocket ten’s 4 times after I knocked to 300. Are heads up battle didn’t last very long as he folded to any pressure unless he had a hand. You would think that at some point you have to make a stand but he wasn’t willing to do so.

With luck I’ll be playing tonight but the rest of the weekend is full. Maybe some late night sessions $10 NL but not much more then that.

If you go to The Poker Chronicles you will find a link to a poker survey. Fill out the survey and you will be directed to Noble Poker to open an account. They will put $5 in your account so you can start your own quest like me.