A Chip and A Chair!

We have all heard that saying before. Some of you may have even heard the comeback story of "Treetop" Jack Strauss winning the 1982 WSOP with one single $500 chip. Last night was the first time I can say I lived the saying in a MTT format.

I played in a couple different MTTs last night, one of them was the M00K where I was trying to improve my 3rd place standing on the BBT Leaderboard but that was not meant to be. (Rant coming please read on!) The other was the pocketfives.com 10 seat added FTOPs Main Event qualifier. There were 492 runners for this $26 MTT and the top 32 got a seat. Not a bad deal with almost $5K in added money.

I would have to rate my play for this Tourney as B- , I made some questionable pushes (Gambles) early on and I just wasn't in the best mind set to play. Lets take a look at a few Key hands. The first hour not much of note, I was able to chip up nicely with out ever risking many chips. I had some big hands that hit the flop hard so I was well in the top 100 at the first break.

My first big hand came at hand number #98 towards the end of hour number one. The hand played out like this. Now before the hand started I had almost $5k and Mr. Tard had about $4.7k we are both well above the average stack size of $3.5K and are 2 of the bigger stacks at our table. I am in the BB (80/160) with AdQd and MP Tard had been stealin and pushin me around all night. On more than one occasion I had seen him push Ax and small pocket pairs, so when he re-raised to 480 I didn't give him any credit whatsoever, and promptly Re-pop him to 1.6K. Without any hesitation he goes All In, so now there is $6.8K in the pot and it only cost me $3k, I put him on a 77-JJ and rationalize that I am taking a coinflip but definitely getting more than 2 to 1 on money, so I call and CHIT! He flips up QQ, nothing like getting you money in as 3:1 dog, Oh well NI HAND SIR, but wait .....




nothing like your opponent drawing dead after flop and boooyahhh I am numero uno in the tourney with less than 1/2 field remaining

This would be my high water mark for a long long time. From this point I tried to play big stack poker but was met with All In re-raises and or flops that didn't connect. I think I fluctuated to as low $3K at one point to back up to $7K when this hand reared it ugly head. I am in SB With Ah8d blinds are 600/300 75 ante, it is folded to me and I decide to push and make the BB come up with a monster since I had him covered. Well I guess 88 was goot enough to call all of your chips off with.

Just like that I am dead, I have a whopping 710 chips with about 65 people left and only 32 people getting the seats. GG me looks like I donked my way out this tourney, but wait the next hand I get Kd2h and call my last 635 chips to an all in push from UTG. Cards are flipped and I am only 26% to win vs his pocket 10s and somehow I survive with a miraculous suckout to make trip Kings.

Now I have 2861 chips but I am still setting dead last. I waited 5 more hands and found As7h, by now the blinds had gone up to 800/400/100. I got some protection from the cutoff wow pushed allin. Cards are flipped and once again I am 26% to win facing yet another pair of 10s. This time I only made a pair of Aces on the flop.

Now I have a whopping 7,122 chip but this is still about $5K less than the average stack. Two hand later I am in the BB with A3 and I make an all in Reraise to a weak steal attempt by the Button who folded immediately. Booyah I am now at a new high water mark for the tourney at over $10K, 2 hands later my pocket AA pickup the blinds again and now I am at the average chip mark. Maybe just maybe I can squeak back into this thing, but it wouldn't be easy because on hand 194 I am dealt the death hand. Yes many a times has the old dreaded AK been my nemesis, why is this such an attractive hand, why and why do I always seem to get it in the BB when someone else pushes? And why does it loose when the guy who pushed with AQ and catch a Biatch on the flop, why......................................... NI Hand Sir

Oh well I am the cellar dweller again with a mere $3.6k in chip and 25% of those are going in the SB on the very next hand which the powerful 92 off. Somehow I found the resolve to fold for 4 more hands and decided to make my stand in MP with the mighty J7 off and instantly met with a push from the cutoff. Needless to say I am ecstatic when he flips 44 and am slack jawed when I flopped the nut straight. The odds have to 200 to 1 to do this.

7,864 chips and about 10 to go before the bubble breaks. I am still in push monkey mode, but I wait, I fold the next 7 hands including both my blinds to a series of All Ins, but on the button I find 66 push and pickup the now huge blinds of 1000/500/100. Over the next 12 hands I pushed and stole 4 blinds and got myself up to $12K.

From hands 207 to 240 I played hide and push. I would hide from the big stacks and pushed when they folded. Amazingly enough I was able to take 7 of 33 pots uncontested and was now sitting above the average stack with $18.5K. We were at 4 tables and about 4 or 5 away from the bubble and the bigstacks just started an all in fest that lasted until the bubble broke. I didn't play a hand and fold QQ, AK, AQ to all in pushes from the monster stacks. There were 4 or 5 micro stacks on 3 different tables that would be all in on the next blinds. Surprisingly the all survived including one of the most blatant forms of collusion I have ever witnessed when the SB folded to the BB who was allin when it would only cost them $300 to call. $ or 5 hands later I the SB is all in and 3 people call as do I with KK, granted this was an extremely risky move since it left me with just $1.5K in chips but I was determined to do my part in this all out gang up on the SB.

and thank god I did because the SB would have won with his J8.

So there you go my chip and the chair story.

I almost did it in the Mook after my AQ was busted by the eventual winner's lame azz UTG steal attempt with K7 off.

Brutal just brutal this left me with about 200 chips which I parlayed up to $3k but was just went down to this flush over flush.

Oh well, dont forget about these upcoming BBT events

Tournament: Riverchasers Online Tour #10

When: Thursday, May 17th, 21:00pm ET

Game: NLHEBuyin: $10+1

Password: riverchasers

Tournament: Blogger Big Game

When: Sunday, May 20th, 21:30pm ET

Game: NLHEBuyin: $69+6 or token

password: donkey