Give and Take

Some of my poker adventures of recent note:

I played in an APL tourney last week for the first time in a while; finished fifth. Mostly played tight while everyone else donked it up. On my last hand, I had Q7o in the BB, blinds were 2,000/4,000 and I had 8,000 left after posting my blind. UTG calls, the other players fold, I check. Flop comes Q - A - x. Although I didn't like the A, I knew I had to push with my pair of queens. Of course the villain had an Ace, and I didn't improve. C'est la poker.

World Blogger Championship of Online Poker (WBCOOP) on PokerStars - I was one of the 1,337 entrants in this tourney, and I had a good time playing. I got a lot of good starting hands early, but they didn't always get me many chips. I had AK several times, including one of the weirdest hands I have ever played:

Blinds are 50/100. I have 8,275 of my original 10,000 chips. UTG, I pick up Ah Ks and raise it to 400. Next 3 players fold. NeillyAA, with 6,275 chips, calls me, everyone else folds.

Flop: Kd 9d Qh. With TPTK, I bet 700, NeillyAA raises 950. Could he have JT for the made straight? Not out of the question, but I don't want to throw away top pair on that unlikely possibility. He could have two pair or a set, so I could easily have been behind at this point. So what do I do? I call. Perhaps not the smartest play I could have made if I had thought it through. In hindsight, I probably should have bet the pot instead of 700, because of the straight and flush draws on that flop. But that might not have prevented the raise anyway.

Turn: Kc. I bet 1300 on my trips, NeillyAA shoves with his last 4225 chips. I have him covered, and I just don't feel like I am beat here although there were lots of ways I could have been, such as if he had 99 or QQ or the aforementioned JT. So, not giving him credit for his possible winning hands, I call.

He turns up 6s 4s. I haven't seen a bluff more stone cold than that. The river is the 2h and I take the pot of 12,700.

Considering that I wasn't showing any signs of giving up my hand, I can't figure out why he would think that he could bluff me out on the turn. The next best explanation I can come up with is that he wanted to get out of the game and go do something else.

I went on to finish 383rd in the tourney. Not even close to my 26th place finish last year, and nowhere near the prizes, but I enjoyed playing, and railbirding some of my fellow bloggers who were in. Surflexus and BadBlood both made it deep and won 160 GB iPods, which is quite an upgrade from the 4 GB one that I won last year. Congrats to them both!

I also entered the Monkey Tourney last night. Out of 11 runners, I finished all the way up in 7th place. I did OK most of the way, managing to build up my stack and make a few decent plays. The fateful hand went something like this:

Seven players, blinds 75/150. I have 2235 before I post the SB. I wake up with Ah Kh. It's folded to me, and I raise to 450. Surflexus, with 3037, calls in the BB.

Flop: 2c Qh Th. I have the royal flush draw, which looks mighty pretty, but nothing else yet. Worth a bet, though, eh? I put out 550; surf raises to 1100. Even if he has paired one of the board cards, any A, K, J or heart could be an out for me, so I call.

Turn: Ad. Now I have top pair, top kicker, plus my draws. I only have 685 left, so I push, and surf instacalls. He shows Ks Js for the turned straight. Turns out the Aces weren't outs for me after all. A Jack would split the pot, a heart would win it for me.

River: Qc. None of my outs comes through, and I bust. A bit of a stunner, but I've had much worse beats laid on me. I'm not sure how I could have played it any differently; I was probably doomed from the start of the hand, unless I raise even more preflop and surf folds then.

I'm considering having a friend help me add some money at FullTilt, so I can play in some of the blogger games there. Except for the Monkey Tourney, all of the blogger tourneys seem to be on FT, and I don't get to hang out with everyone since I don't have enough on FT for the buy-ins. Plus the Battle of the Bloggers Tournament 2 is starting up over there, which should make the various tourneys that count towards it even more fun. See AlCan'tHang's blog for more info on the BBT2.