Final Round

Oooohhh - final round, how ominous. Is it because I got knocked out and this was the last round I played... or did I make Day Two and this was the last round of the evening? Or... well, no, those are pretty much the only two options.

So I'm still pretty well on tilt when we start the round and early on I've got 5's on the button, so I call a preflop raise. QQ8. So, I bet... and get a caller - ugh. I checked the turn, he bet, I folded. I lost.

I had A4 suited in a late position and raised with it... but I got three bet and had to fold it. More losing.

K6 off in the small blind that I limp with for a K 2 3 rainbow flop. Hey now, this looks promising. I bet, 1 guy folded, seat 4 called (He calls everything... but just calls. Everything). Turn is an Ace, I check, he bets, I fold. Still losing.

J9 off on the button and I limp. J9 off. I'm now playing J9 off, that's how bad I'm on tilt. Flop comes AK9. Well, I paired my 9, but this is why I don't play J9 in the first place - having second and third pair is no good for me. We all checked the flop and the turn came a 5. I thought about betting, but someone else beat me to it so I folded. River was a Jack. Ugh. More tilting and losing...

Ok, so basically I built up a nice stack at the end of round 4 with a wild bluff that could have cost me my tournament life and now I'm just giving away the chips I got left and right - I still haven't won a pot this round. And every bet this round is at least a thousand... even the limps are 400.

Ok, 5's again. Bad hand, I should fold it. So I limp. And then fold to a preflop raise - just gave away that 400. More losing. ON TILT.

It's about this time that I start thinking to myself - gee, you had Jacks a couple times early, and tens a couple times, and Big Slick a handful of times, but not a single instance of Aces, Kings, or Queens in 9 hours of poker.

And just as I'm thinking that, I get QJ off. I actually snickered a little because I quipped in my first post that it would be hard to quit playing QJ like it's a good hand after games with friends... so naturally I raised with it. Flop came 9 10 K. Hmmm... I flopped a straight. That's awesome! But then he folded when I bet. Dammit.

It's about this time that I'm thinking to myself - you've had a couple decent hands, you're going to have to make them start paying off for you - I can't solely play good hands and only win preflop antes with them, it's not going to work.

So I get AK off under the gun... no one calls my raise, I win antes and blinds. Don't get me wrong, it's great to drag two pots in a row, but blinds and antes aren't going to get the job done. Mercifully, it does quell my tilting a bit.

A short while later I'm in the small blind and get QJ off... which I naturally have to play and I call a raise. Flop comes QJ3... two pair, hot damn! I check it, he checks it. Turn is a 5, I bet, he folds. Ugh... need to maximize when I actually hit... maximize. I tried! I checked the flop!!!

Pocket 8's. Hmmm... a middling hand worth playing but not getting excited about... hmmm... I raise! Seat 4 calls and checks dark (The only thing seat 4 loves more than limping and calling is checking dark), flop comes K 10 2. Well, check I guess. Turn is a 4. Checks. River is an Ace, we checked it down, he had 10's. Back to losing.

A couple hands later I'm on the button and seat 3 raises to 900 - shocking. But I have aces. There they are!!! Look again. Yep, still aces. Yay, aces.

Now, my mind is racing - I want to maximize the payout (In my mind I've already won, I have aces) and aces are best played against as few people as possible. So do I raise or call? If I raise, I also raise awareness of my good hand threatening my ability to maximize the payoff. If I call, I could price in the blinds and let them call with good odds and hit a two pair with rags... any which way, my aces are playing multiple people.

I went with a raise because it was seat 3 and I knew that he would call a raise - whatever happens with the blinds will happen. As it happens, big blind, seat 8, the ultra conservative one, called my raise to 1,800 as did seat 3. Flop comes Q 3 2. Checks to me, I bet out 3,000 and seat 8 calls... seat 3 folds. Well now things are interesting - he's a super tight player, there's over 12,000 in the pot, he's got another 17,000 left, and I've got aces. Turn comes a 3 - pairs the board. He checks. Maximize. Got to maximize. Can't let him draw for free. Maximize. But can't let him draw for free. Hmmmm... I shoved. He agonized for a while and then... called. So, you know, there's about 50,000 in the pot now - his tournament life and essentially mine too... I have maybe 10K - 15K left if I lose, over 60K if I win. Big hand. And he had...

Kings. He had kings. I had Aces. Aces over kings. River was a 9, my aces held up, I knocked out seat 8 and I'm up over 60,000 in chips.

It's on.

10's on the button - call a raise. Flop comes K 9 8 and 3 players check to me. I bet because I'm invincible. They all fold because I'm invincible. More winning.

And then...

AQ off, late position... raise to 1,400. New seat 9, the table chip leader, calls. Seat 1, still nodding off, raises to 5,200. Whoa. AQ is a good hand. I mean, it's not Aces.. or Kings... or Queens... or AK... or even Jacks, but it's a really good hand, right? But I've got to call another 3,800 to see a flop and I've got a monster stack behind me still to act. Ugh. Ok, why did he bet that? He has a pocket pair, he's chasing out Aces or making sure he goes heads up and there's either an Ace on the flop or not. The guy behind me? Another pocket pair? AK? AJ? He's new, I don't know. I just won all those chips and now I have to play AQ off for 5,200 against a guy that's probably ahead of me and with a guy behind me that could reraise again before I even see a flop. Ugh. All of a sudden I hate AQ off. Reraise? Oh man, now I'm out 10,000 that I just won with AQ off and I haven't even seen a flop yet. And then it happened... I folded. AQ. Screw it. I lost the 1,400, stayed above 60,000 in chips, and played it safe. AQ off is a pretty good hand, but it's not even a top 10 hand and I got away from what turned into a scary situation for 1,400 - day one is about survival. I did the right thing.

Guy behind me called, flop came A 3 10. NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! I hit my ace. Or, I would have. Oh no. How could this happen?! Total Greg Rydz moment right now - playing the hand that could have been. Seat one leads out 7,000... seat 9 calls. Oh man, I could have called 7,000. Turn was a 4, seat one checks... seat nine bets 12,500 - seat one folds.

So let's play out the Greg Rydz hand for a minute, I am - say I called the raise to 5,200 and seat 9 stayed in. Now there's about 16,000 in the pot. Flop comes, another 21,000 in for 37,000. Turn, seat 9 bets 12,500 and I call - the pot is up to 62,000 and I've got top pair, second kicker. That could have happened. That could have been me. What did seat 9 have? This is going to drive me crazy...

Shortly thereafter, I had KJ suited in a late position and called a raise, but I missed the flop... I elected not to chase.

And... that's it. I fumed a bit about the AQ for the last 30 - 40 minutes, but I really didn't play another hand - I got super conservative. I finished the night, and Day One, with 62,950 in chips - over double what I started with and one of the chip leaders at the table.

And I chatted it up with seat 9 the second half of the round... he was from Chicago, Wicker Park, and he said he had pocket tens on that hand and hit a set... so if he was telling the truth, and he had no reason to lie at the end of the night, had I played the Greg Rydz hand... well... it could have been a completely different ending to the evening with my aces against his three tens. I guess I didn't need to stew about it for 40 minutes after all...

Day off tomorrow, Day Two on Wednesday.