Close but no Cigar
After a long hiatus, I finally made a final table at Pokerstars yesterday. I got home from work early and decided to enter the $20+2 PL tourney. A total of 270 players started and first place paid a little under $1500.
The tourney started pretty slow for me, but I managed to hang around the average stack size. The one constant about this tourney is that most of my hands held up when we got it all in and I can't remember being sucked out on. When it got down to about 40 players, I was sitting in first place and started to feel good about making the final table.
Then my cards fell dead and blinds and antes started to eat away at my stack. I managed to steal some blinds from folks who were trying to make it to the next payout level. That helped get me to the final table but I was shortstacked. At this point, I decided to switch gears. I am a SNG specialist and thought I may be able to move up the prize structure. Actually managed to make it to 2nd, but then I had a brain fart.
I was in cutoff position and raised 3X the blinds. The BB plays back at me and goes all in. I had A5 of club and should have folded. However, I didn't trust my first instinct and thought that he could have been making that play with a wide variety of hands. He was a rather loose player and had just gone from chip leader to shortest stack. I felt he could have been tilting. Regardless, I called the bet and he turns over AK. The board helps neither of us and he takes down the pot. The very next hand, I get K10 and call the 2X raise. Board comes 10 high and all my money goes in. Unfortunately, I was playing against chip leader and he turns over QQ.
I am out in 6th place for a $243 payday. Time for a beer!
Bodog is still running their 20% bonus for March Madness. Click the link on the left to try it out!
The tourney started pretty slow for me, but I managed to hang around the average stack size. The one constant about this tourney is that most of my hands held up when we got it all in and I can't remember being sucked out on. When it got down to about 40 players, I was sitting in first place and started to feel good about making the final table.
Then my cards fell dead and blinds and antes started to eat away at my stack. I managed to steal some blinds from folks who were trying to make it to the next payout level. That helped get me to the final table but I was shortstacked. At this point, I decided to switch gears. I am a SNG specialist and thought I may be able to move up the prize structure. Actually managed to make it to 2nd, but then I had a brain fart.
I was in cutoff position and raised 3X the blinds. The BB plays back at me and goes all in. I had A5 of club and should have folded. However, I didn't trust my first instinct and thought that he could have been making that play with a wide variety of hands. He was a rather loose player and had just gone from chip leader to shortest stack. I felt he could have been tilting. Regardless, I called the bet and he turns over AK. The board helps neither of us and he takes down the pot. The very next hand, I get K10 and call the 2X raise. Board comes 10 high and all my money goes in. Unfortunately, I was playing against chip leader and he turns over QQ.
I am out in 6th place for a $243 payday. Time for a beer!
Bodog is still running their 20% bonus for March Madness. Click the link on the left to try it out!