It's a Long Drive

Well I made my deep run the other day and I’ve played no poker since. The only competitive thing I’ve done is watch the Bears run over the Saints. But I did log on for a while and watch some tourneys and noticed one thing. That many of the guaranteed tourneys had smaller fields. I figure this is based off of the inability of players to move money and thus working within the constraints of their on-line bankroll. The 35K on Sunday had an overlay and I don’t remember seeing that before. Will this continue to be the trend? Only time will tell.

So I went deep and got sucked out on to knock me out of one of the daily doubles. This is not a revelation as many of us have been knocked in a similar way. But the way I moved into position was about the best I could do.

Within the first orbit I held 6500 chips as the ass-monkeys gave me chips early. The first hand saw me flop a straight while holding 108 and doubling up. Two hands later I flop trips and then came over the top of a weak player who folded to any aggression. Now with a big stack I chose to be the aggressor on random occasions and kept building my chip stack. About half an hour before the bubble I went card dead but the chip accumulation from early in the tourney left me with an above average stack and I started buy pots when the bubble got close. After moving deeper into the tourney I became a card rack and got paid. If I hit pocket queens then another player would get jacks. In the final stages of the tourney I hit AA twice, KK one time, QQ twice, and JJ-99 4 times. And they all won. I busted 3 players in a 2 hand stretch when QQ beat JJ and the I get KK vs. AJ and AJ. This put me in the top 3 with under 20 players left.

My last hand saw me with AJ suited in the SB. It was folded to me and I raise it to 20K (blinds and antes are around 10K at this time). The BB chip leader calls. My read on this player is that he is very solid and we been at the same table for the last hour and a half. I have shown nothing but the nuts for all of this time and have not lost a hand. I put him on AK, AQ, 1010, 99, 88 and maybe 77. Big pairs are out of the question because he has re-raised with these types of hands. He has also shown the ability to push with small pairs and even re-raise with AK or AQ. So the flop come 7J7 and there is 50k sitting in the pot. I’m first to act and I throw a pot size bet. I’m not committed to the hand and with 111K sitting back I’ll still be top ten if I have to fold. He insta pushes and I go into the tank. I’m chatting with waffles as he donked around with freeroll Razz and I ask his thoughts. I don’t have much time so I look at my read and put him on those original hands. He doesn’t have 77 and not very likely to have JJ. My gut says he has a pocket pair but smaller then the J and is trying to push me off AK or AQ. I call. He flips over pocket 10s and I’m counting the chips. I will be the massive chip leader and can play lucko style. Until the turn 8 and river 9 hits.

I looked at the screen with a blank stare for some uncounted amount of time. I reconstructed the car crash that happened before me and tried to make it go away. We’ve all felt that gut wrenching feeling when you’re a game is going and the stars are shining a little more brightly. And then the clouds come rushing in and obscure the twinkling lights and you sit in silence…alone and dejected.

Did I make the right decision here? I’ve always tried to avoid confrontations with the chip leader unless I knew I was way in front. This was a call for my tourney life and I could have gotten away from the hand. My read was spot on but is it a better call to fold to this aggression even if I think I’m ahead? I could have folded to the final table but should I be doing that. No.

Waffles and I talked about the hand for a while after and his thoughts were right down the middle. Either decision could be correct and that folding was a good option because I still had plenty of chips. I still like my call, based on my read. If I had just come to the table I may have folded but I knew what he had.

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L had practice on Sunday and so she got to pitch a little for the first time this year. She was throwing smoke and her ball was diving down like a ball falling off a table. The best part of it all is that I know she’ll be throwing hard as we move closer to the season and with greater command of her pitches. She is so gonna rock this summer.