Merry Christmas! Nice Tournament Result
First off let me wish everyone a very safe and happy holiday season. This year has been especially hectic for me as I’ve been working both jobs, 15 hours a day every other day for close to a month. Throw that in with having my son and it was inevitable that I would get as sick as I did this week. My second job is in retail and I have never done anything like it before. The absolute chaos yesterday on Christmas Eve was unbelievable. I knew as the day approached it would be crazy busy but I never knew how bad it would be until I actually walked into the store. And it didn’t stop! Crazy is almost an understatement. I got home afterwards, poured myself a glass of wine and settled in for the night. I hadn’t wrapped anything yet but I knew I had time because this year my son was going to wake up Christmas morning at his mom’s house, a reversal of how we usually do it. With the recent deaths in our family my dad wanted the family to be together for dinner and my son’s mom had no problems with that.
So, I figured I’d waste some time and play some poker. Shocking, I know! But on the heels of a recent successful run in a tournament I played in the other night I wanted to keep going. I played on Full Tilt in the Daily Double tournament $10+2 buy-in. How it works is, you play in two tournaments at the same time. Daily Double A and Daily Double B and you pay the $12 for each one. There are bonuses given out for best double finish, if you make both final tables, and a running jackpot if you win both. I was going pretty well in both tournaments, amongst the top 1/3 of the field for the first couple of hours when in Daily Double B I lost with JJ vs. someone’s AK and out I went about 100 people before the money. Daily Double A was going along all right, I was in the money and it was steady as she goes until I got crippled, losing with AK to QQ, all in preflop. That left me with about 4 big blinds left and a pretty grim outlook. Couple hands later I moved in with K 10 of hearts and was called in two spots. A flop of Ac Qs 3d was not much help, thinking I would probably need a jack only to survive. With two callers I figured one of them would have an ace. One guy bet out, confirming my suspicions and the other person folded. He showed A 10 so I was in a lot of trouble. However, a beautiful looking jack peeled off on the turn and I more than tripled up (antes were in effect now).
Now the cards were starting to come in my favour. I doubled up again when I was dealt pocket aces against an AQ, stole a few pots here and there and next thing I knew we were down to 50 players and I was in the middle of the pack. If I thought I was on a heater before, I was scorching hot in the next few hands. One semi-shortstacked player raised and I called with 6 6. The flop was K Q 6 rainbow. I checked to him and he bet the pot. I smooth called. The turn was a deuce and he bet the pot again. He had now bet more than 2/3 his stack so I knew he was pot committed and I set him in for the rest. He insta-called of course and showed KJ, drawing dead. Very next hand I was dealt 6 6 again. There was a raise and then another raise all in by a pretty tight player so I folded. The original raiser called and the hands were QQ vs. JJ. The queens held up but I couldn’t help but notice that a 6 had hit the flop again. That would have been pretty sweet but I can’t call there. One of those “right play, wrong result” things but that’s OK. Two hands later I was dealt 6 6 again! This time I called the raise and wouldn’t you know it? I flopped another set and doubled through again! This was getting way too good to be true. The others were commenting on it too because I had mentioned that I would have flopped a 6 in the all in hand earlier. Now, 10 hands later I got dealt JJ and flopped ANOTHER set when the flop came Q J 3. Once again I doubled through as another person had AQ and moved in.
As play went on, I was now in 3rd heading into the final table. I felt really good about my chances here. First place was $2400 and that was my one and only goal now. The bad cards did start to catch up with me now and the blinds and antes started to whither away at me a little bit. Any time I made a raise in position I was being played back at and couldn’t call. There was one player who liked to min-raise in position. I started to raise back at him and he folded almost every time, either preflop or on my continuation bet. He did it again when it was folded to him on the button a little while later but this time I had AQ in the BB. I had about 20BB remaining and considered smooth calling but decided to move in. Unfortunately for me he had AK this time and it held up. I finished in 6th place, earning me $442 and bringing my account up to $1350. I immediately went to a cash game and started a decent roll there as well. I ended the day with my bankroll at just under $1500 at Full Tilt. PokerStars continues to hover between $300 and $400. I remember writing awhile back how I just couldn’t seem to get over the hump on Tilt while my Stars account was continuing to climb. Talk about a complete 180 degree turn! That’s all right though. I know through patience and focus that I’ll be able to get things going eventually on PokerStars but for now I’ll continue to grind it out as the journey continues!
Once again, Merry Christmas everyone and a very safe, prosperous New Year!
Justin
