Good Poker Week-end

I had a good week-end of poker climaxing when I final tabled a 180 man SitNgo at Full Tilt. I ended up finishing in 5th place for a nice little profit. I can't remember any really spectacular hands and I don't really think I sucked out on anyone. I just played some tight poker in the early stages, my good hands held up until the end and I ended up making the final table. There were about 15 left and I was in the money when I lost half of my stack to a lesser hand. We both went all in before the flop and my Ace/King had him covered only to see him go runner/runner and garner a straight. That put me in poor position to advance but the Poker Gods were favoring me as in the next couple of hands I look down to see Ace/Ace and I parlay them into a nice little pot that puts me back in position to make it to the final table. Even then I did a lot of folding of some pretty good hands and let the more aggressive players have at it.

Good or bad strategy? Probably not such a great strategy if you are trying to win because by letting others make the moves you are letting at least one of them garner a lot of chips. Sure, some are taken out and you move up but when I got to the final table I was 7th out of 9 in chips and had little possibility of really taking it all down. I made some good plays and won a few hands but the blinds and the aggressive play of the big stacks slowly wore me down until I had to go all in with less than an ideal hand just to try to win enough to finish one spot higher.

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My No Limit Challenge at Poker.com is doing well. I have managed to double my bankroll in just a short time. That's not saying a lot because my bankroll was very, very small to begin with. However, I am optomistic that I can slowly build it up to a respectable amount. This is really a Jesus Ferguson type challenge as I started this challenge with just over $2. I can't really say that I am learning much as every time I have played there has been at least one guy that wins everything and one donkey that tilts and loses it all. I have been fortunate enough to double through the donkeys a couple of times.

I did lose one big hand to the guy that was winning everything when my K/10 lost to his A/10. One ten came on the flop and one on the turn so the only thing that could beat me was the Ace. I had to see if he had it because at the microstakes level, people call or bet with almost anything. I was pretty sure he had the ace because of his past plays but he didn't raise it preflop in late position so I was hoping he had a lesser kicker.

My final hand that doubled me up was pretty lucky on my part. I had K/Q suited in late position and I raised it pretty good. The BB went all in. I had him covered and he was doing that a lot with less than stellar hands and was on tilt a bit so I called only to see him turn over A/K. Oh Oh. I sucked out and the board gave me the straight. Broadway, Baby!!! and the chips slid over into my pile.

I didn't feel too bad about sucking out on him because he was playing such shit cards that there was no way I could respect his reraise all-in of my raise. I thanked the Poker Gods and left the table soon after that.