Had a fine time with a "mere" 16 players last night. Busted out in seventh place, and it was pretty much an implosion of my own making.
Early on I had fun crippling "crippe", a very aggressive player who has yet to discover that aggression works only with selection. It doesn't do to fire into someone who has close to the nuts, when all you have is squa-doosh.
So with a big healthy stack of 4K plus as we took our places at the final table, I was ready to protect my chips and hopefully pick up a blind here and there to get to the money.
Now when I tell you I lost nearly half of my stack with the starting cards K2os, you may say - Chris, you're an idiot. Well, I'd have to say you'd be right.
Mistake one was even getting involved with these cards to begin with. It's one thing to be on the button or cut off or even hijack seat and take a shot at a blind steal; but I was in the small blind and limped. BIG error.
With only the big blind and button checking and limping, I got frisky and led out with a pot sized bet when I paired my two on an ugly flop. I was guessing I had the best hand at the moment, and it turned out I was right, but my big mistake wasn't firing a bet (it's a minor mistake, I should have just check folded, out of position and against two calling station types) - no, I can live with trying to take down a pot; my big mistake was overbetting. A slightly more than half the pot bet would have done the same thing and I would have saved me some chips. The BB folded, the button called. Error.
Two hearts on the board, so I figured he was on a flush draw. Turn came a ragged club, putting two clubs on the board. Great, something else for him to draw to. My opponent, Dinero, is a fair player who has cashed some and generally exhibits solid tendencies; he's not one to chase too often. Still, I knew what he was doing. His stack was dwindling and he was throwing up the hail Mary. My third mistake here was firing a big ass second barrel - I gave him a little too much credit as a poker player, because he insta-called. I knew he was drawing, and that he had made a shit call. But it was my own doing, and I felt deflated even before the river hit.
Now came what was ultimately the biggest mistake of the hand. The river came a seven of clubs. I should have trusted my initial read, heart draw, and gone all in on the river. I do that, he leaves. Instead I meekly checked. He was happy to turn over a 79 of hearts. Yes he had spiked middle pair on the river, and it beat my lousy deuces. Trash hand, trashy play. Bad call on the turn, questionable call on the flop. It was still my fault.
I know these guys well enough to recognize almost exactly the situation I'm in, yet when push came to shove I didn't have the heart this time to fire that third barrel. Again- my more easily correctable mistakes were early on, getting involved with garbage and leading out into two donkish players. But the lesson learned is, that though my reads were right on, it didn't matter because I didn't man up an do what needed to be done once I was committed to the hand - which was clearly on the turn. He wants my chips, he's got to put his tournament life on the line right now. Next time, if I'm stupid enough to bluff out of position with garbage, I will at least be able to look back and say - I fucking followed through.
On a lighter note, with a stack a former shell of itself, I still felt okay about my chances. I was in the lower half of the middle of the pack, but everyone below me was on life support. If I could bust some of these dinky guys, I'd be right back in it.
Then I ran into doyouphilme, another middle level player in our group who has mostly been off my radar. With him in the BB and a dinky stack on the button, I raised pre-flop with QJ suited from the hijack. The dinky stack called (nearly a quarter of his stack, I don't like that) and Phil defended. Three players.
Flop came Q x 10 with two spades. Phil checked. I did something stupid. With less than 2K in my stack and nearly 1K in the pot, I went all in. Years of playing with free chips have screwed up my game a bit here - betting for value in a free roll basically means punishing the super donkeys by betting for MAXIMUM value. That is, you are aiming to double through the idiots. Well, Phil is no idiot.
Dinky stack folded (probably a mistake, but hey, he lasted longer than me as you'll see.) Phil insta-called. He had Q 10. I was toast. My stack was now on life support. I would exit at his hands shortly thereafter.
I said this was a lighter note, and it actually is. Phil seriously outplayed me here, and I have to say though it stung at the time it does my heart good to see such a good poker play in our league. I have to give him much more mad respect now, though to be honest I never really caught too much of a whiff of donk from his direction. As I said, he's been mostly off my radar.
Phil went on, with solid play and good reads, to take the whole thing down. He made Cali his bitch in heads up. Cali had a decent night, though he confided in me that he felt off - and used good aggression towards the bubble and the end to build his stack. But when he got heads up he was waiting for good cards only. Phil picked up on this and managed to steal Cali blind.
Then Cali finally got a hand, pocket queens, and managed to slow play himself into oblivion - giving Phil the right prices to call all the way down to hit his gut shot on the river.
Cest' le poker'. I do love it so.
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