As a result of the massive winnings from my recent Freeroll success, I decided to play a little more online poker last night. Using as major portion of the $10 I had won, bringing my account balance up to (you guessed it) $10, I entered a $6, 90 player SNG (Sit N Go) No Limit Hold'em tournament. This one had a few special rules.
On top of all the normal rules, this was a Turbo - Double Stack - Knockout tournament. Turbo means the blinds raise 2x as fast as normal (a format I normally try to avoid), but the Double Stack part provides some balance to this by starting off with 2x the amount of starting chips.
The clincher for me was the Knockout format. What this means is that for every entrance fee of $6, $5 was put towards the pot for the final table, but $1 would go to a player every time you could eliminate someone. It's basically putting a $1 bounty on the head of everyone in the tournament. I have always loved this format, as for whatever reason, even when I don't do well, I tend to get more than my fair share of eliminations.
After a very, very slow start that saw me surrender 1/3 of my chips to blinds, I'm finally dealt a decent hand of J-9 while in the BB. Amazingly, only one player limps in from an early position, even the SB folds, so I get to check and finally see a flop. The flop is 7-8-10 with no obvious flush draw, and I couldn't be happier. I check, and my opponent, who has lots of chips, throws out a small bet.
I assume he's just trying to steal it here, bully me out of the pot, so I decide to just call and hope he makes another bet on the turn. The turn is an Ace, which I'm hoping my opponent loves. Either he has an Ace, or now he can at least represent one. I check again, and as I suspect, he bets again. This time a more significant bet that will cost me about 1/3 of what I have left.
At this point, with the Ace of clubs bringing a potential flush draw and also a gut-shot straight possibility, I decide it's time to make my move. I push all-in, and my opponent insta-calls. He flips over 6-10, for the lower, often referred to as the ignorant end, of the straight. This is why you shouldn't play garbage cards just because you have a lot of chips, a lesson he pointed out after this hand.
With no flush draw, he's just hoping for a Jack on the river to chop the pot, but another 7 means I double up, and from here the cards start looking much more attractive. A little while later, I'm now sitting in the top 5 with about 25 players remaining, and a miraculous hand occurs.
The previous hand I had been dealt KK and flopped quads, won the pot, obviously, but never showed my hand when I won the pot. This hand, I'm dealt AA on the Button. One player limps in, and I decide to continue to be aggressive and raise it up about 5x the BB. SB folds, but BB calls, as does the Limper. All 3 of us are in the top 10 in chips, and I had been doing a great job of picking off the short-stacks while avoiding the other big stacks, but that would be pretty hard here.
The flop is J-7-2 rainbow, the BB checks, and the limper immediately bets the size of the pot, which is quite substantial. I decide to finish this right now, and push all-in. I have both players covered, but would be a short-stack if I lose.
The BB calls without hesitation, much to my surprise, but the limper thinks using all the standard time available, then calls for more time to think. After another 40 seconds (that's a lot of time online) he calls as well. The BB shows AJ, the limper who spent so much time thinking shows QQ, and I flip over my AA. I'm in a dominant position, but as is often the case in online poker, things can change very quickly.
The turn is a Queen, and I jump out of my chair and yell at the computer. I've been on the receiving end of these beats way too often, and already my temperature has risen.
Luckily, I don't have to wait too long to see the most miraculous Ace on the river I've ever seen. My opponent hits a 2-outer on the turn, and then I catch a 1-outer to take down the massive pot and become the dominant chip leader. Unbelievable, even for online play, that one blew me away. I folded A-10 the very next hand, just because I wanted to take a breather.
At the end of the tournament, I lose the heads-up battle to a very good player, and have no regrets. he slow played A-9 to perfection, caught 2 pair on the flop when I hit middle pair, and just waited for me to make my move, and I was done.
Now, my online account that had $0.05 in it 4 days ago has over $100. I won $88 for finishing 2nd, and collected 9 bounties on my way to finishing 2nd.
2 comments:
Could be an interesting post to compare the different online sites. I use pokerstars most of the time, but I'm thinking of switching to another one for the money in the freerolls.
I like pokerstars because of the fact I can leave notes about players for when I play them again. Most of the time, the notes aren't that great, but they do help me on occasion (for example, I might make a note that a guy will only raise preflop with a high pair, but wants to play every hand. I will then milk that guy by reraising most of his hands).
It's the note feature that keeps me on pokerstars, but maybe I'll try a couple of the others too.
I know for certain that Full Tilt offers the same option, and I suspect most online poker sites offer something similar.
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