The Comeback

Frustrated by my play, I decided to see if I had what it takes to play well. I determined to raise or fold, trust my reads, and go with it.

Tough group of players. To my left is the guy with the drunk girlfriend who loves to bluff, then Randy, then Gary B, then Cowboy hat wearing Jason, then Todd, then the other Gary and then me. As a general rule, other then other Gary these guys all have large chip stacks. Jason, Todd, and boyfriend all raise liberally more often than not.

First hand I had poor cards, Todd raised. Raised again after the flop, everyone folded, he showed his Cowboys. Next hand, nothing. Then in the small blind I picked up Fishhooks. Several limpers. Normally, here I just limp. This time I properly raised. 1 caller, Jason. Flop was all 9 & below. I raised, he folded. Normally I won't show here but this time I wanted to set my table image so I showed them.

Couple hands later picked up Big Slick, raised it, Jason called again, I bet top/top on the flop. They folded, I showed. I was developing the perfect image. Getting cards and playing them strongly.

A few hands later had A/J suited. Raised, couple callers. Hit nothing on the flop, raised it anyway. Callers. But they were "weak" callers...the type that hem and haw and basically could play with their hands face up because I know they are chasing and chasing long shots. Some people can hem & haw and I don't know what they are mean...but with some of these players, they do not think on deep enough levels to make me think they are sucking me in. Then again, Em's bluff the other day was not a typical play for her, either... Anyway, missed the turn, bet it anyway, they folded.

By now I was up about 7 or 8 hundred. As a side effect, Bob announced a bounty...50 bonus points to anyone who took me out. It would come into play.

I was in the big blind again and had 4/5 Hearts, a hand I don't mind seeing a cheap flop on. I had been resisting playing these types of cards in limping situations, so I was playing better for sure. This time the flop came 4/4/6. I had flopped trips. I led out four times the blinds, 200 chips. Folded to Jason. He said, "I get bonus points for taking you out, right?" I nodded. "All right, I'm all in."

Wow. To make that sort of re-raise is either very, very confident or just stone cold awesome. What could he have to make that raise? I went into the tank for a long time. If he had a 4/6 I was pretty much drawing dead. If he had 4/anything higher than a 5 I was in deep, deep trouble. I pretty much discounted the pocket 6's because he had not raised pre-flop which, when he has them, he likes to make stiff re-raises because he doesn't like to see flops with weak pairs. Finally I put him on four possible hands; 4/something that had me beat, 2 overs, a 6/something, or a draw of some sort. Then again, if he was on anything like a draw I had a redraw to the boat.

Mathematically inclined players will assign percentage likelihoods to each hand possibility and then decide whether to call or not. I just went with the idea that I had a better hand and plenty of outs if not.

He was on a draw. He had an open ended straight draw, he did not hit it, and I added a little over 3000 to my stack.

At this point many players better than I advocate playing big stack poker...raising more hands, pushing people around, putting pressure on them. I thought about doing that...but it simply isn't my style. I elected instead to maintain my current strategy.

Not too long after that I played a hand quite weakly. In the small blind I picked up pocket 3s. Everyone limped to me. I should have raised pre-flop. I weakly completed the bet. I checked the flop. So did everyone else. I should have bet the turn. I checked. And someone rivered an 8. Any time up until then I could have taken down the pot. By weak play I cost myself.

I got switched to another table not too much later and suddenly was card dead. When you go from playing 20 - 30% of your hands at an aggressive table to playing only when in the big blind at a passive table...you know the cards have deserted you. But I remained patient. I won a couple times in the big blind when flops hit me.

Then I started getting cards again. I was raising to 4 times the blinds to limit callers. With blinds at 3/600 I picked up A/K diamonds. I raised to 2400. Beaver fan to my left came over the top all in for about 3700 more. Bluff Girl called. I called. This was going to be a huge pot.

And I flopped the nuts. 3 diamonds. Bluff Girl checked...and I made a HUGE strategic error. I actually thought she would call me so I went all in. She folded. I think had I checked she might have bet on the turn or river.

But it did leave her just 2400. And I had over 20K. Picked up A/Q next hand, raised again. Bills Fan called. I raised the flop. He called. I checked the turn...he raised. Something about it did not feel right so I called. River did not help me. He raised 4800. It felt like a semi-bluff. Even the smallest pair would beat me, as would A/K. But it did not feel right, and I don't know why. But I called. And he had King High. That call got me HUGE credit for reads...and the next hand from the button I raised an A/3 clubs. He called again. And we had almost an exact replay...except I rivered a 3. He flipped up the A/K this time...and I showed the 3s. Now they feared me.

Final table.

Not too long after that I put out bluff girl, put out Don...I was rolling. And I was making the correct calls and lay downs. We got down to final 3; Saul, Don's wife, and me. Saul was clear chip lead, I was a bit behind, and she was short stack.

For whatever reason, Saul is in my head. I become more passive against him...partially because he has rivered me so many times. I am cursed against him. Or feel cursed. I am not.

I was raising, he was calling, and then...I would check it down. This let him suck out on me a couple times. But I took down a couple pots of my own. And Chris took a couple pots from him.

On one hand he raised to 1200, I re raised to 2400. I ended up out kicking him on that hand. It was a nice pot. Then pocket 9s took down another nice one.

Somehow we had missed a blind level, so now they were 500/1000.

And I made a mistake.

I picked up 10/J. 3 handed, I like that hand. I raised to 4000. He called. Flop had an over and with 2 clubs. I raised. He called. I decided I was beat. Turn was another club and gave me a gut shot straight draw. I checked, he raised.

Now remember, I said I thought I was beat after the flop. So I did what any intelligent player would do...I did not count outs, I did not consider pot odds, I did not come up with any rationale reason to call...and did so anyway. Those chips should never have gone into that pot.

And the river was a 4th club. He checked for a club. I was pretty sure my Jack was a club...though I had not taken that into account at any point in the hand. He raised...I checked...and had the Jack High flush. I showed, he mucked, and I had the chip lead.

In the big blind I picked up 6/9. Flop came 6/7/8. I will bet bottom pair/open ended straight draw. I raised. He came over the top all in. I had bottom pair. I had an open ender. I figured he had the 7 or 8. I thought he was ahead but I had the better draw. But I would only be getting 2 - 1 on my money and need about 3 - 1 to call on an open ender.

That was poor figuring on my part. Let's count the outs; 4 tens, 4 fives...oh, and 2 sixes and 3 nines. I actually had FIFTEEN outs, not 8. I was actually a favorite to win that hand! So my call was incorrect by my math...but correct by the accurate math, even had my read been accurate.

As it turns out, my read was off. He had 5/6. I was actually ahead. Turn was a harmless (it seemed) queen. And the river paired the 8. We both had 2 6's, 2 8's, and my nine beat his 6...but not the queen. She meant it was a split pot.

I took a few hands, Chris took a few hands. He was being blinded lower, so was she, and my raising was now putting pressure on them...but I was getting raise-worthy cards.

A couple hands later I picked off a 6000 chip stone cold bluff he made on the river. He was down to about 8000. I picked up the Colts (4/4) and put him all in. He called. He rivered a Queen. I picked up pocket 9s. I put Chris all in. She rivered a Queen.

Both were real low, less than 5K each, I had over 50K. Finally I put Chris out.

Saul went all in. I figured I was no worse than 52-48 and called. He won the hand. And it happened again when I had a good hand, he had a better...he was coming back. Bob and I chatted about how reminiscent it was of the time Amanda won the first 11 or 12 hands head to head.

We got it all in again, this time I had a weak J/3. Still, with 2 players, I figure I am no worse than a 55-45 dog or so, aka 1.5-1...I was slightly wrong, checking in at 63-36 or about 2 - 1. But I flopped a J/3. And the river was a 3, giving me a boat and the win.

Looking back, it was overall, despite a few mistakes, a great night for me. I almost exclusively played strong poker. I only played good cards and I played them strongly. I did not bleed off a bunch of chips limping in. In fact, there are a few hands that may have cost me. For example, in late position I folded K/9 because I read Bluff boyfriend to be about to raise...which he obliged and did. K-9 is, like its namesake, a dog hand. Ironically, the flop was k/9/k and the case ace was held by Gar to my right. I could have broken him that hand. But it was still a good fold because it would have been a terrible pre-flop call. So the no-limp policy was good. And I did not meekly fold just because people raised if I had reason to believe I was okay or had a good chance to suck out. Nor did I call when it was hopeless. Here is a fine example:

I raised pre-flop to 2400. 2 callers. Flop, someone went all in for 5200. Got a caller. I had A/K suited...but the flop did not connect with it at all. Based on things they had said, I put both Bills Fan and Terry on individual pairs which, by definition were lower than my Anna Kournikova. So I needed to call 5200 to win about 17 = 18K. I was getting a little less than 3-1 on my money. I had 6 outs if neither of them had an Ace or King, 2 cards to come. So at BEST I was about 24% to hit or about 4 - 1 and I was only getting 3-1 so long-term the correct play is a fold. Of course, my pride was in the way. I wanted, really, really wanted to call. I tried to talk myself into calling. But I decided at least one of them had to have one or more of my outs counterfeited so I was less than that and folded...properly. My read was right...they both had just a pair. And one had an Ace, the other a King. Sure, I only would have risked 5200...but it would have given 5200 to someone I did not want to have it...namely, not me. It was a tough fold but a correct one.

So I have revitalized my belief that I can play good poker on occasion, taking down a tournament that had I believe 22 people overall and doing it playing correctly and with decent reads. Now I can go back to my normal suctitude.