Thursday, January 26, 2006

I love the smell of victory before bed

OK, I'm still a little high. I won the Avanade poker tournament last night (just a $10 buy in, but I won $55).
I got up early by picking my battles and doing pretty well. I ended up behind the pack when the two tables combined because I got tangled up with AJ against QQ (and a Q had hit on the flop). At least I didn't go broke there.
The best hand of the night, by far, was the move I was forced to put on a co-worker. (who I will be playing in a live tournament this weeked... so I hope he was taking notes)
I was in Early-Mid position, and was dealt T6o. I've got 1905 in chips and I needed to get some more if I was going to make any waves at the final table... Blinds are at 50/100, So I made an attempt to steal the blinds. Raise to 300. Fold around to bigslickwilly (we'll just call him BSW for now) in the BB he calls. Another player had been stealing his blinds regularly and I think he was fed up with it.
So flop comes 5h Jc 4s... Hmmmm, probably missed him. If he's got the J he'll bet. Sure enough BSW bets 370 into a 650 pot. Perfect sized bet. Let's try and represent the over pair and see what happens (this is NOT a recommended play... I was out of my mind to try this). I raise to 900.
At this point the chat window starts going a little crazy. Tshak writes : SNAP. (still not certain what he meant, but I think it was a admiration for the big raise )
Then BSW writes "your AK no good" and CALLS my 530 raise. SHIT.
Turn comes up 3d. And here's the rub... BSW blinks. This is something that I have problems with myself. I'll make a move and then not follow through... but I'm more likely to blink on the river. In addition, it's human phsycology to check to the raiser. So I check and take the free card. (I thought he was trying to induce me to bet more in here... I AM down to 705)
River comes up the Ad. Tshaks comment was : "It is now" - refereing to the AK comment earlier. And get this... BSW Checks AGAIN. I'm SURE he's got that J now. I shove all my chips into the middle. looooong thought. I've already typed "good call" into the chat window and am ready to conceed defeat. When he lays it down. It was one of the most interesting bluffs I've been involved in. I went on to ride the bluffer image to get all the action I wanted... but only WHEN I wanted it. Ended up knocking out the other heads up player when she hit a pair of K on the flop and I was holding AA.

Overall... I had a GREAT time and am looking forward to next Saturday's tournament. It'll be interesting to try and control my emotions and manipulate the tables of people I don't know. Wish me luck, cause the poker gods can be bitches!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

My Photo
Name:
Location: Thornton, Colorado, United States

I'm a geek, plain and simple. I used to fence, I play poker when I can, and am learning to play lacrosse. I also work WAY too much.

Powered by Blogger