Today's poker lesson is....

...don't misplay your hand as badly as I did at the final table of the World Poker Blogger Tour Hammer Out Cancer tournament on FullTilt last night.

I had done pretty well up to the hand in question. I was short stacked for a good part of the time, but bounced back a few times and for a good stretch was in the top five in chips. But by the time I got to this point, I was the second shortest stack out of five. A double-up would have put me in good position to make a run at first. Here's what happened, from memory since I don't have the hand history.

Blinds were 500/1000 with ante 25; my stack was about T11,500. I was in the small blind and got KJo. I thought, why couldn't I get these cards in early position so I could push with them, getting some first-in vig. Well, it was folded around to me, so I had my chance to be first in. FrankL in the BB had about T26,000 so he had me well covered.

Mistake 1: I just made a standard raise of 3XBB. I was hoping that the BB would see that as a bet looking for a call, meaning I had a strong hand, so he would fold. Instead, he called. If I had pushed there, he might not have liked the idea of putting almost half his chips at risk, and folded then and there. Still, I thought if the flop hit me solidly, I would be in good shape.

Flop came Q-x-Q.

Mistake 2: I bet, hoping to represent the Q and get the BB to fold. Instead, he raised to set me all in. By then, I felt committed, so I pushed. Of course, he turned over a Q. I didn't improve and was out. I should have checked to see if he would bet, and folded if he did. FrankL went on to win the tourney; congrats!

I was mostly pleased with my play up to that hand. I put pressure on the smaller stacks when I had the chips to do so, and I got decent reads on a few players. I did get lucky on a couple of hands, including one where I pushed with 22 against SirFWALGman, who showed AK. I flopped a 2 and doubled up. I even got a compliment from Sir Waffles later, who said I played a mean late game and that he was impressed. But I definitely misplayed that KJ hand and it cost me a chance to stick around longer.

Nevertheless, finishing fifth out of 61 in that tourney gave me a very satisfied feeling with my overall play. The competition was pretty tough, as it always is against poker bloggers. It was my first game for real money on FullTilt, and coming out with a profit made my evening.

Last but in no way least, the tournament, which was organized by Easycure, raised over $1,000 for the American Cancer Society, since $15 of each entry fee was donated to that cause. I am happier about that than about anything else.

The bonus: I am now on the WPBT Player of the Year list, since this tournament was an official WPBT event. I guess I will have to play in a few more WPBT games to see if I can stay on the POY list.

In other news, I took second place in a one-table SNG on PokerStars recently, which may not seem like much but I'll take every high placement that I can. That game featured a comeback from a short stack, mostly by stealing blinds from one of the weaker tables I have played against, plus a few suckouts that helped me stay alive. I got two Hammer-related hands that
aided my cause:

Table '23090223 1' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: sweathog_68 (6055 in chips)
Seat 4: mikedm139 (2610 in chips)
Seat 5: MACA277 (1515 in chips)
Seat 8: surferbumb (2675 in chips)
Seat 9: yestbay1 (645 in chips)
yestbay1: posts small blind 100
sweathog_68: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to yestbay1 [7h Ks]
mikedm139: folds
MACA277: folds
surferbumb: folds
yestbay1: raises 445 to 645 and is all-in
sweathog_68: calls 445
*** FLOP *** [2s 2h 6c]
*** TURN *** [2s 2h 6c] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [2s 2h 6c 2c] [7c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
yestbay1: shows [7h Ks] (a full house, Deuces full of Sevens)
sweathog_68: shows [Th Jc] (three of a kind, Deuces)
yestbay1 collected 1290 from pot

and just a few hands later...


Table '23090223 1' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: sweathog_68 (5610 in chips)
Seat 4: mikedm139 (2610 in chips)
Seat 5: MACA277 (1215 in chips)
Seat 8: surferbumb (2675 in chips)
Seat 9: yestbay1 (1390 in chips)
yestbay1: posts small blind 100
sweathog_68: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to yestbay1 [2d 7c]
mikedm139: folds
MACA277: folds
surferbumb: folds
yestbay1: calls 100
sweathog_68: checks
*** FLOP *** [5s 7h Qd]
yestbay1: bets 400
sweathog_68: raises 800 to 1200
yestbay1: calls 790 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [5s 7h Qd] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [5s 7h Qd 2h] [7s]
sweathog_68 said, "lol"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
yestbay1: shows [2d 7c] (a full house, Sevens full of Deuces)
sweathog_68: shows [Qs 6s] (two pair, Queens and Sevens)
yestbay1 collected 2780 from pot
yestbay1 said, "wow"
.......
sweathog_68 said, "that's the last time I go up against a 2 7"

At this point I had moved up to second in chips, and I started picking on the shorter stacks as much as I could. I played it fairly well from there on, but the cards didn't fall my way heads-up.

I'm glad to get a couple of decent tournament showings. Maybe I *am* learning about this game, and remembering some of what I learn so I can use it as I go along.