A recovery

Back up to $90!!!

Played for a while in cash games yesterday, and won a few dollars. Nothing spectacular, just plodded along picking up odds and sods. I entered a free roll but didnt last long, busted out holding top 2 pair! Decided to enter a sit and go, $2 entry, 15 entrants WHICH I WON!!!

I started fairly badly though. Got involved in a large pot playing an open-ended straight draw. I ended up folding on the river having commited over half of my chips. Over-playing drawing hands is a big weakness of my game and something I need to think hard about. After starting with 1500 chips, I was down to about 680.

The table was tight, and I was able to pick up smallish pots by bluffing when seeing the flop for free whilst in the big blind. A few times I picked up small pots by chucking in smallish bets on innocuous looking flops. I managed to get up to around 1000 chips using this strategy. Sometime tight tables are difficult to play on, but the advantage of them is that players only tend to bet when they really do have a hand - bluffing is much easier. It is also much easier to fold on a tight table, as you are pretty sure that your opponent has something if he does bet/raise.

For the next 15/20 minutes I sat tight. Not much happened really. A few players exited the tournament, and I found myself bottom of the pile for quite a long time. Again, I continued to pick up smallish pots when I was allowed to see a free flop by semi-bluffing, and there was the odd occasion where I put in a bigger bet as a result of having a good hand.

Then came the first crucial moment. I was dealt with pocket queens in early position. As I was in early posiiton I did not know what to do. I did not have a very big stack and a raise could have prompted a re-raise to put me all in. Although QQ is very strong, i was in early position and simply did not have the chips to play with. Also, the table was tight, and I was concerend that if I was to go all in, everyone would have folded. I opted to call the big blind. Three of us saw the flop. I had top pair, and put in a medium-sized bet. one guy folded, and the chip-leader called. Could be trouble I thought. I put in another medium sized bet and he raised. I was all in and the queens held up. It was great to double up!

I carried on sitting tight and picked up the occasional pot. I knocked a couple of people out with flushes and straights and I eventually found my self heads up. We both had around 11,000 chips and he nudged ahead after winning a few medium-sized pots, pushing me down to about 8,000; then came crucial moment number 2. I looked down at rockets!! He raises and I re-raised. My raise was sensible. If I had put in a massive raise he may have folded. I wanted to create the impression that I was either trying to steal, or had a semi-good hand. Luckily, he re-raised - it was not huge. I then re-raised twice the size of the pot and he put me all-in! He must have had a fright when he looked at my AA with his own AJ off suit! The Aces held up, in fact, they made trips on the turn and he was down to around 3,000 and I was up to the dizzy heights of 18,000 or so!!

I was now playing very tight. I never called any of his raises pre-flop and even managed to pick up small pots post-flop with strong hands. The game was ended when I limped in on the BB with 85 suited. The flop brought me top pair and I called his bet. The turn was a five and I raised his bet putting him all-in. My two-pair won and I picked up the $15 dollar first prize!!!

I feel great about it. I played some really intelligent poker, when I doubled up to 3,000 I looked assured and when I started to pick up chips on the final table I never really looked like losing!! I am going to continue entering this free roll on Stan James I have seen. 10 places are played and it looks like there is a field of only around 150!! Worth a pop.

Cheerio.