Saturday, October 28, 2006

On the comeback trail...or so I thought

David and I decided to play in a tournament the next day. After looking up the daily schedule in Cardplayer we decided that we would play in the MGM's morning tournament. The MGM was right across the street so it was convenient enough, and the buy-in was reasonable. We registered and had a little time prior to the tournament so we each got seated in a cash game. I was able to double through a player for just under my buy-in when a player that had been playing very aggressive called my all-in with his 6-6. I was holding J-J at the time. I had originally limped hoping that he would raise because he had been doing this quite a bit, and once he obliged I was able to get all my chips in. Shortly after that the tournament was getting ready to start so I got seated for that.

We started with 1200 in chips and blinds at 25-25. Blinds were to go up every 20 minutes. The MGM stated they didn't allow rebuys, but instead during the first hour if you were knocked out you could get yourself on the "alternate" list. If spots opened up you would be able to accept a seat as an "alternate". Basically it's a rebuy opportunity for the first hour. With the blinds as high as they were in relation to the starting amount I was trying to be very selective. I did get 4-4 under the gun and tried to limp for 25, but when the player to my left made it 225 to go and got another caller I let the hand go and painfully watched the flop come 4-9-9, which I am sure would have been ahead at that time. After some blinds and increases I thought I had found my opportunity with A-K and the blinds at 50-100. My stack was 875, which was quickly becoming a very short stack so I moved in and promptly found myself with two callers. One held AA and the other A9, so unless the T-J-Q or a couple of Kings showed up I knew I was done. With my tournament done I got back in to a cash game and started getting some hands. I managed to work my way up to triple my buy-in so I moved up to the $2/$5 from the $1/$2 game. I was playing aggressive enough in hands that I got involved in so that my cards were hardly ever displayed. This continued for about 6 1/2 hours and I had worked my stack to a little over 12 times my buy-in. Boy, do I wish I had left right then! Things were going so well though I had no reason to think anything would go wrong. In the next ten minutes I managed to lose the whole stack! I was dealt AA in the first of the two hands, raised it, got a couple callers, and after a flop of J-5-2 I thought I was in good shape when a player bet in to me. I raised, setting the player to a decision for his chips, and he happily called holding 5-5. My Aces had been cracked and I lost about half my stack. Two hands later I was in the big blind and got dealt 4h-2h. The pot was unraised, and after an all heart flop (A-Q-J), that same player and I started betting and raising one another. I felt that a flopped flush would be good there, but my opponent had also flopped the flush, and since his flush was larger than mine (T-7) he was able to obtain the rest of my stack. I was betting on the low probability of two flushes being out since the odds of a person flopping a flush are a little over 100-1. It made for a lousy ending to what had been a pretty solid day of poker, but that's the risk of No-Limit play. It only takes one or two mistakes to make up for a really good session. It was time to take a break, and concentrate on re-building my stack the next day.

No comments:

Post a Comment