Early 2006 has been a bit of a struggle. My cash game went negative early, and my tournament success, well, wasn’t.
That is, until yesterday.
The Oaks is back with a limit tournament series. Unfortunately, it’s only once a month. Fortunately, I did well in its first incarnation. In fact, I almost made it to the pinnacle.
Sundays at the Oaks are solely no-limit tournaments now, playing for a spot in the World Series of Poker Main Event. But the Saturday limit tournaments, each one adds a $1500 entry into a WSOP limit event. Nice.
Still, only 52 people entered yesterday, a sad statement of the limit game. I ended the first 3 rounds with exactly my buy-in: $500 in chips. The sole add-on offered $1000 in chips, so I’d be a fool not to take advantage of it.
And then it happened. While still staying selective, I was getting just enough strong hands to play a little bit of power poker. Added to a little luck, it not only got me to the final table, it got me there with the chip lead. I had about $25,000 in chips when the bubble burst and the seats were drawn.
A bit of that luck came on one of two hands where I played A-Q offsuit strongly, and against the same player, someone who was known to be both strong and aggressive and who had been put at my table to my immediate right.
In both those cases, he raised, and I immediately re-raised. In the first case, the flop missed me, but brought a king, and he checked. I bet and he called. In fact, he just check-called me all the way down. I was trying to push him off, but he wasn’t budging. A jack came on the turn and a 10 on the river and I had the nuts and a hefty part of his stack. The second time, a very similar betting pattern ensued, except that he folded on my river bet.
He went all-in a bit later against someone else’s A-Q offsuit and busted out. Ouch.
The very first hand at the final table, I think I made a mistake. I was UTG and found pocket sexes. I think I should have raised for two reasons: one is that it’s not a bad hand at a brand new table where everyone is going to probably start by feeling each other out a bit, and two is that I had managed to establish a bit of an image as an aggressor and I could have used that to further cement that image, especially among those new to the table.
But I didn’t even limp. I folded. As soon as I did, I realized what a dunderhead move that was, and it was compounded by the flop, which contained a 3rd 6 to make my set. It also had an ace and was otherwise uncoordinated. (Now I know that results don’t make a bad decision good or vice versa, but I was kicking myself a bit more when I saw what had fallen.)
But I continued to get some reasonably strong hands, and I was aggressive with them, not being afraid to re-raise, especially when a raise came from a particularly short stack.
I wound up going heads-up against a player who I’d played against before, one of, I think, the many truly nice guys to play the game. He played the game rather aggressively at times and I’ve seen him rewarded because of it. We agreed to play it out, both understanding that getting heads-up is a rare thing and good practice.
I had a chip lead of about 50% more chips than he did, yet we went back-and-forth for more than a full round, thrusting and parrying. It must have been at least 30 hands. I got up big at one point and he’d scramble back, and vice versa.
Finally I had him all-in with middle-pair 9s (I had 9-10 unsuited) and a couple of overcards. He had missed but had one paint card in his hand. The river brought me two pair with tens and nines–but it also filled his inside straight. (He had been on a semi-bluff and I wasn’t going to be pushed.)
In fact, I almost always raised preflop once we got to heads-up play, having decided that I needed to out-aggressive the normal aggressor. My raises (and sometime re-raises, when he opened with a raise) got him to fold and allow me to bleed off his chips at times.
My waterloo, however, was two small pocket pairs. The first one I pushed preflop, but folded to aggression post-flop with lots of overcards. The second was when he was short stacked, but had picked up (and gone all-in) with pocket kings. That second hand left me with fewer than two small bets and the next hand I was out, having picked up a crappy suited hand and he snagged a bottom pair of fives on the flop.
While I would have liked to have gone to Vegas, I still value the experience, and it would be tough to have lost to a nicer and classier guy. WE played fiercely, but we both were smiling at the end. He definitely earned his win, and the fall of the cards is just poker. I will wish him well in the World Series and hope that I can again be in that position next month.